Merciful Hearts

Merciful Hearts

My dear brothers and sisters, there are so many good deeds in Ramadan that we do. So many opportunities for us to grow our relationship with Allah and with the people around us. And there is no doubt that the main focus of Ramadan, of fasting, is your heart. It is not about your body, it's about your soul, it's about your spirituality. It's about your connection with Allah. It's about how much that you have turned this heart that's exposed to so many distractions during the year — so many things that, as the Prophet ﷺ put it, like a poisoning of your soul and your heart on a daily basis. To the extent he said:

"You are burned from inside." Then when you start praying, when you start doing the good deeds, you purify yourself.

And one of the things that I would like to point out today is that among the people of Jannah, there is a person whom Allah has given a merciful, kind heart. It is this heart that was the reason for this person to be among the inheritors of Jannah. It's not only the amount of fasting and prayers which is important, but also something so unique about this person.

The Three People of Jannah

The Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2865)

The people of Paradise are three kinds:

First: A person of authority — a ruler, or a manager, or a CEO — and that person is generous, that person is wise, and that person is مُقْسِطٌ — fair and just. If those three qualities are in a leader, that person is among the people of Jannah.

Second: وَرَجُلٌ رَقِيقُ الْقَلْبِ لِكُلِّ ذِي قُرْبَى وَمُسْلِمٍ — someone whose heart is so soft, full of mercy towards relatives and towards any Muslim. It doesn't matter if they are close to him or not, related to him or not. They always have that soft spot for them. And that's a quality that is so beautiful. When Allah blesses you with that, you feel what other people are going through. To have that empathy, to have that connection with others — that you suffer for other people's suffering, or you feel the suffering of others. You relate to it. You don't just sit and flip the channel. Your heart moves by that. When you know that there are people who need your help and you can help, you don't just walk by and give them the cold shoulder. That's not the quality of Ahlul Jannah.

Third: وَعَفِيفٌ مُتَعَفِّفٌ ذُو عِيَالٍ — a person who is poor, has a big family, yet he will not ask people for money. He will not beg or ask people for money.

Hearts Like the White Pigeon

Also, Muslim reported another hadith that the Prophet ﷺ said there are people who will enter Jannah — not because they fasted a lot or they prayed a lot:

(Reported by Abu Dawud, Hadith 4673, and referenced in Musnad Ahmad)

Their hearts are like the white pigeon — you see the white pigeon, how clear and white it is. He said their hearts are so clear from the inside. There is no darkness in them. They don't have envy and hate and harshness in them. They always want good for others. They love to see people happy. This quality makes the person always good to others.

Abu Bakr and the Four Deeds in One Day

You remember when the Prophet ﷺ said: "Who among you today is fasting?" Abu Bakr said, "Me." Then he said, "Who among you has followed a funeral — someone died and you followed the janazah?" Abu Bakr said, "Me." Then he said, "Who among you today has visited a sick person?" Abu Bakr said, "Me." Then the Prophet ﷺ finally said, "And who has given charity today, donated something today?" He said, "Me." Then the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1028)

These deeds will not all be done in one day by someone unless that person is among the people of Jannah. Look — out of four things, three of them are about others. It's about being kind to others, doing something good to others.

Making Others Happy

Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Anytime you make someone happy, that happiness inside that person's heart — Allah will reward you for it with a reward that will come as a form of relief to you when you need it the most, when you are in trouble.

And also Ibn Mubarak (may Allah have mercy on him) — once a man complained to him about a certain type of disease in his knees and his legs. He said, "I have visited every doctor." There was like a bleeding coming from his legs, and he had found no solution with all the medicine known at that time. Ibn Mubarak said:

"Go to a land where there is no water — people need water — and help to dig a well. And maybe by bringing that water to people to drink from it, maybe Allah will stop that fluid that is coming out of your knees and the lower part of your thigh." He said, "I did," and Allah cured him within a matter of months.

And that goes with what the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Reported by al-Bayhaqi in Shu'ab al-Iman, and by al-Tabarani; also referenced in Silsilah al-Ahadith al-Sahihah, Hadith 1/ 560)

"Heal your sick through charity."

The Story of the She-Camel and the Sinkhole

Yes, there is a story reported in the books of hadith about a man — he came out and he saw one of his she-camels filled with milk:

So much milk in that camel — it was his best camel. He said, "This is the best camel I have," and Allah says you will not reach righteousness unless you give from what you love the most. So he gave it to his neighbor who was poor. Then he went out to the desert and he fell into a sinkhole. He was there for three days, and nobody rescued him — he couldn't get out. He said, "In the first two or three days, I kept receiving this beautiful amount of cold, sweet water. I didn't know where it was coming from, but I would see this water every day. It was not salty at all. I kept drinking it and that's how I survived for three days." On the fourth day, however, the water stopped. He was eventually rescued on that fourth day.

When he went back to his family, he found that the she-camel had been returned to his barn. His children, thinking he was lost — because at that time if you were lost in the desert, there was no way you were coming back — had gone to the poor neighbor and said, "You have two choices: we give you another camel and we take our she-camel back, because there is more benefit in it — or we take it and you get nothing." So they took the she-camel back. He asked, "When did you do that?" And he found out they had done it on the very day the water stopped coming to him in his sinkhole.

Yes — good deeds and sadaqa and being merciful to others is something that is so dear and so beneficial to you.

Mercy: The Foundation of the Believer's Heart

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 5997; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2318)

The Prophet ﷺ said: "Those who have no mercy, there is no mercy for them."

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 4941; al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1924)

The Prophet ﷺ said: "Be merciful to the people of the earth, so the One in the heavens will be merciful to you."

He ﷺ also said, as reported by Ibn Abi al-Dunya:

"A loser and a distant person is he in whose heart Allah has placed no mercy towards other human beings."

سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ — that mercy in your heart is what led a woman who was a prostitute — who did something so evil, so bad, so wrong morally, and we all know that — yet with all of this, she had mercy in her heart. Towards what? A dog. She risked herself to go and get some water for it. Because of that mercy that she had in her heart towards that animal, Allah entered her into Jannah.

But look at what happens when that mercy is taken away. The Prophet ﷺ told us that he saw another woman in hellfire, suffering. Why? Because she had a cat and she had no mercy towards it. She locked the cat up, didn't feed it, didn't let it out to eat on its own, until it died. He said, "I saw this woman in hellfire, with the cat scratching her face and her chest in hellfire" — because that mercy had been taken out of her heart.

Those Whom Allah Will Not Look At

The Prophet ﷺ said: There are three people Allah will not talk to on the Day of Judgment, will not even look at, will not purify, and will not honor — and they will be punished with a severe punishment. Among them is someone who had no mercy in his heart. He had water — like a well or an oasis — and whenever someone would come to drink, he would say, "That's my water. That's my well. That's what I found. I came here first." And he would not let them drink, even though they were travelers in the desert.

Allah will say to that person on the Day of Judgment:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 2369; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1565)

"Today you will not take from Me any grace or mercy, just as you showed no mercy to the people for something you had nothing to do with. You didn't even make that water — I am the one who provided the water for people. And yet you held it back."

And you can make the analogy to so many things that you hold back, that you don't share, that you don't give — when you're not nice to others. That's something I hope that we work on. Let us make sure that we have that connection with people and that we work on the mercy in our hearts and fill them with mercy.

May Allah make us among those who have mercy in their hearts towards others.

I say what you have heard, and I ask forgiveness of Allah for me and for you.

Second Part of the Khutbah

Praise be to Allah, and peace be upon His Messenger Muhammad ﷺ. He was the greatest of people. He was so incredible when it came to connecting with others, having feelings about others, supporting others, being there for others when they needed help — even with words. It's amazing the kind heart that he had. And his companions were like that too. So the more you follow the Prophet's footsteps, the more you find yourself always there when a need is asked of you.

Uthman and His Servants

It was said about someone: "I was with Abdullah Ibn Umar, the greatest of companions — I was with him to serve him. But I actually found him serving us." Uthman, the Khalifa, would wake up in the night to pray, and he would start preparing the water, warming the water and the like. They told him, "Let the servants do that for you — it's a lot of work, bringing the wood from outside, building the fire, putting the pot on." They told Uthman, "Let the servants handle it." He said, "No. These servants work so hard during the day, and the night is their time to rest. I am not going to do that to them."

Umar Ibn Abdulaziz and His Servants

Umar Ibn Abdulaziz was sitting and it was very hot. He had two servants who were fanning him. They fell asleep. They woke up and found Umar Ibn Abdulaziz actually fanning them to cool them down. They got scared. He said, "No — you are like me, a human being. I saw you looking so tired and overheated, so I wanted to bring a cool breeze to you." These are hearts full of mercy, with no arrogance in them.

The Most Beloved Deeds to Allah

I will end with this. The Prophet ﷺ said — in a hadith narrated by Ibn Umar — that the most beloved people to Allah are those most beneficial to others. And the most beloved deeds to Allah are: to make someone happy, or to help a Muslim who is in trouble to get out of his trouble, or to pay their debt, or to provide food for them when they are hungry. And walking with my brother to accomplish his affair — to help him accomplish whatever he needs — is better than making i'tikaf in the masjid for a whole entire month.

(al-Mu'jam al-Awsat by al-Tabarani, Hadith 6026; also referenced in Silsilah al-Ahadith al-Sahihah, Hadith 906)

Start with Those Closest to You

My brothers and sisters, I hope and I ask Allah that He makes us among those who have merciful hearts — hearts full of mercy, full of conviction, and words of help, and lending hands, and being willing to do what is right and what is good, always.

And I will say this especially to the young people who are listening to me today: Let's start with your siblings. And to the older — I have found so many times that siblings are so mean to each other. Don't tell me you have a good heart just because you are nice to people who are far away from you. If you really have a good heart, start with your own brother, your own sister, with your own family members. They are the ones who deserve your love and mercy and support and kindness the most. Then it goes to relatives, then to the community, then to community members at large.

I don't know how people can take away that mercy from their hearts to the point that they are willing to hurt each other, harm each other. And you know what is so harmful — not only physically assaulting someone, but when you corrupt them too. Exposing them to drugs, to smoking, to bad habits — there is no mercy in that. To hook people on things so you can make a quick buck — there is no mercy. When you cheat and you sell things that are not right just because you want to make a quick profit — there is no heart, there is no mercy in the heart, there is no connection, there is no brotherhood.

So I hope this message will go far and bring us as a community together, like what the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6011; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2586)

Like one body — not in business, but one body in love and mercy towards one another. That's where we are one body.