The Checklist for a Sound Heart, Lessons from Surah Al Mutaffifin

Opening: Khutbah al-Hajah

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ، نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ، وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا، مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ، وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ، وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ، وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ، وَصَفِيُّهُ مِنْ خَلْقِهِ وَخَلِيلُهُ، بَلَّغَ الرِّسَالَةَ وَأَدَّى الْأَمَانَةَ وَنَصَحَ الْأُمَّةَ، تَرَكَهُمْ عَلَى الْمَحَجَّةِ الْبَيْضَاءِ، لَيْلُهَا كَنَهَارِهَا لَا يَزِيغُ عَنْهَا إِلَّا هَالِكٌ، صَلَاةُ رَبِّي وَسَلَامُهُ عَلَيْهِ.

Ibad Allah, Allah says in His noble book — after seeking refuge in Allah from the accursed Shaytan:

All praise is due to Allah. We seek His guidance and His forgiveness and we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of ourselves and the whispering of our desires. Whom Allah guides, no one can misguide, and whom He allows to be misled, no one can guide. And I bear witness that there is nothing worthy of worship except Allah alone having no partners, and that Muhammad ﷺ is his slave and his messenger.

Allah says: Oh you who believe, fear Allah as He deserves to be feared and do not die except in a state of Islam. And Allah says: Oh mankind, fear your Lord who created you from a single soul and produced from that soul its mate, and made from their combination many men and women — so fear your Lord whom you ask each other by, and by the ties of kinship. Verily Allah is ever watchful over you. And Allah says: Oh you who believe, fear Allah and say that which is correct — He will correct for you your deeds and forgive you your sins, and whoever obeys Allah and His messenger then they are indeed victorious.

To proceed:

The Meccan Qur'an and Surah Al-Mutaffifin

Allah — when you study the Meccan Qur'an you'll find that the concepts of the chapters of the Qur'an that were revealed before the Hijrah revolve around calling people to the worship of God alone, establishing that there is a hereafter, there is a Day of Judgment, that there is the establishment of the messengership of Muhammad ﷺ and the finality of that message. And yet among these chapters that many of us are very familiar with — especially in that 30th juz — you'll find interestingly enough a chapter that deals with a particular element of character, a specific element of character.

When Allah says:

Woe be to those who cheat the scales — woe be to them. And here Allah is talking about those who, when they sell:

They receive all of their payment — when they buy from people they get their weight in full — but when they sell to people they play with the scale, they play with the measurements so that they can sell them less while still receiving payment in full.

Two Different Sets of Scales

This idea is one that is manifested not just in buying and selling, but also any time when you have two different sets of scales — when you have two different scales of justice, when you have two different scales for outrage, when you have two different scales for what you view to be a human being and who is deserving of your support and your defense, when you have two different scales for what you believe to be acceptable — who has the right to speak, who has the right to share and who doesn't.

And I believe all of us are quite familiar with this because we have been experiencing it our whole lives and witnessing it our whole lives. We see it play out on the most dangerous of territories — when we see that the children of Gaza are not given the same outrage that the children of Ukraine receive. We see it even in sporting events when we see the Western world not broadcast the opening ceremony of Qatar — which was highlighting the culture of the Muslims, that which is beautiful of our culture — but broadcast the opening ceremonies of Paris, the Olympics that were highly criticized.

Allah, when speaking of these scales and those who play around with the measurements and the weights and standards, says:

Do those people not think that they are going to be resurrected for a great day — when all of mankind stands in front of the Lord of the worlds? On that day the scales will be perfect. On that day there will be no oppression. On that day the scales will be the scales of truth.

The Stain Upon the Heart — Ran

Now, when you experience the bitterness of oppression — how does a person have resilience? How does a person absorb everything that we continue to absorb?

Allah says, as we continue in Surah Al-Mutaffifin:

When Allah is describing the personality and the traits of those people who play with the scales, Allah calls them the mutaffifin at the beginning of the surah, but then He calls them the fujjar:

He calls them the fujjar — the transgressors. And Allah says: Rather, there is a stain that has been placed over their heart — there is a paint over their heart.

And the Prophet ﷺ tells us:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 209)

The Prophet ﷺ says that trials are presented to a person's heart like straws — one after the other. So when a person's heart is presented with a trial — it could be any test in a person's life — you've got two choices: this is what you know Allah loves, and this is what you know is forbidden. But when a person absorbs that which is wrong, then that stain comes onto their heart. And that person who rejects that trial — a white spot is placed on their heart.

Until the Prophet ﷺ said the hearts of people become like two hearts — completely different. One of them is like an overturned vessel — in Sahih Muslim — when you have a cup and you flip it over, no light can come into that cup anymore. And so it becomes like an overturned vessel, not recognizing right or wrong except what it absorbs of its own hawa — except what it likes. And then another heart becomes white, smooth like a rock — it is not afflicted by trials, as long as the heavens and the earth stay, that person is not afflicted by trials anymore.

Two Types of People

But the point here is that there are people — and I want you to understand — there are two types of people. There are those who recognize the truth in that they recognize what is wrong, those people are pharaonic — they still reject it though. Allah says about Pharaoh and his people:

They recognized the signs of Musa, they still rejected it — as they were certain of it — out of oppression and arrogance.

But then there are those who truly simply see their way as the right way, no matter how wrong it is. Allah says:

So is he who is on clear evidence from his Lord like him whose evil deeds have been made attractive and they follow their own desires? These people follow their own desires.

Or Allah says:

As for the person whose actions have been beautified for them — their evil actions have been beautified — there are people who have sin-colored glasses; they just see everything that they do, no matter how wrong it is, they see it as right. And that is from Allah's khidhlan — that is from Allah misguiding them, not protecting them.

And so we ask Allah to guide us always. But when we see everything that we continue to see play out — whether it's on the world stage or whether it's locally here — one of the feelings that I believe a person is inspired to have is gratitude: that I am NOT like them. I am not somebody who distinguishes — I find them all to be worthy of protection. I am not someone who defends the killing of anybody who is supposed to be protected — no matter the race, no matter their ethnicity, no matter their religion, no matter their creed. And when these systems continue to fail, I seek comfort in that I am following a book that is eternal in its truth.

Allah says:

This Qur'an guides to that which is best. So we ask Allah to make us of those who follow this Qur'an, that we be guided to that which is most upright and that which is best.

I say what you have heard and ask forgiveness of Allah for me and you, so ask forgiveness of Him. He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.

Second Khutbah: Resilience Upon the Path of Truth

Alhamdulillah, wa salatu wa salamu ala rasulillah.

One of the elements that a person has to have is they have to have resilience. You have to recognize that if you speak truth then not everybody is going to like you. The prophets were not loved by their people once they called them to Allah — they were mocked, they were ridiculed. Allah says:

Allah says: We made for every prophet enemies.

When the Prophet ﷺ came to Waraqah ibn Nawfal the first day he had received his revelation — the first person that he met after his wife Khadijah brought him — he said: "I hope that I am with you when they kick you out." And the Prophet ﷺ said: "Are they going to expel me?" — that had never happened before. They lived in a tribal system; you were born into your tribe, you were never exiled from your tribe. And so he said: "Yes — nobody comes with the message that you came with except that they made enemies."

And so a person recognizing that this is something that comes with the territory — whenever you are working for truth, know that whenever you are calling for truth there are going to be people whose feathers you are ruffling and whose toes you are stepping on, and they are going to react like someone who is being stepped on their toes. And so Allah says — and I conclude with this — Allah says in Surah Ali Imran:

Every soul shall taste death — and your reward will only be fulfilled on the Day of Judgment. What is the reward that I'm seeking? Whoever is shifted — just to be shifted a little bit — from the hellfire to Jannah, that person has won. And this world that we are so attached to is simply a delusion of enjoyment.

If I enter Jannah at 20 years old — no matter what crime was committed against me — or 30 years old, or 15 years old, or 7 years old, or 60 years old, no matter what difficulty I go through, Allah says: whoever is shifted even just a little bit from the hellfire to Jannah — that person has won. And this world that we are so attached to is simply a delusion of enjoyment.

And then Allah says — and this is the expectation:

You will be tested in your wealth and in yourselves, and you will hear from those who were given the Book from before you — you're going to hear a lot of hate, you're going to hear a lot of harm, you're going to hear that which grieves you, that which harms you. When we see the news being manipulated — that harms us, it grieves us. When we see the truth being distorted — that grieves us, that harms us. When we hear the message and the beauty of Islam being manipulated and distorted — that hurts us as well.

And so Allah says: you will see that and you will experience that — and then He says: if you endure, if you persevere, if you have sabr, and if you have taqwa — the fear of God — that is a resolve to aspire to.

So we ask Allah to grant us sabr, we ask Allah to grant us taqwa, we ask Allah to accept our actions.

Closing Du'a

O Allah, accept their martyrs, have mercy on their dead, and free their prisoners. O Allah — O You who drive the clouds, O You who revealed the Book, O You who defeated the confederates — O Allah, defeat Your enemies, the enemies of this religion. O Allah, show them Your wondrous power over them. O Allah, they cannot escape You. O Allah, send Your blessings upon our master Muhammad.

And rise for your prayer, may Allah have mercy on you.