Trust In The Covenant

Opening Khutbah

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.

أَمَّا بَعْد، فَإِنَّ أَصْدَقَ الْحَدِيثِ كِتَابُ اللَّهِ، وَأَحْسَنَ الْهَدْيِ هَدْيُ مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، وَشَرَّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا، وَكُلَّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ، وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ، وَكُلَّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّارِ.

Trust and Covenants

Brothers and sisters, the title of our khutbah today is Trust and Covenants, and it is drawn from a verse in Surah Al-Mu'minoon, where Allah begins the surah by informing us of those who have succeeded:

Successful indeed are the believers. So Allah describes those who have succeeded, and their first description is that they are believers. Then Allah gives certain descriptions and characteristics of these believers, until He reaches the verse that we want today:

Those who guard their trusts and their covenants. When you entrust them with something, they will never betray that trust. When there is a covenant between you and them — or between them and anyone else, or any entity — they do not betray that covenant in any way.

Likewise, in Surah An-Nisa, Allah says:

Allah commands you that you return the amanat — the things you are entrusted with — to their rightful owners.

The Hour and the Loss of Trust

In Sahih Al-Bukhari, narrated by Abu Hurayrah, a man came to the Prophet and said: "Mata as-sa'ah?" — When is the Hour? Meaning, when is the Day of Judgment? And the Prophet responded to him:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 59)

If the trust is lost — meaning no one keeps their trust anymore; you entrust them with something and they betray you; you give them something of value and they take it and you cannot trust people anymore — because, as we know, the Hour will only come upon the worst of creation. So what is the sign that the Hour is drawing near? That people are starting to not be trustworthy.

So the man asked: "Kayfa idha'atuha?" — How will it be lost? He said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 59)

When the affair is given to someone who is not the right person — someone unworthy, someone not fit for that position — then await the Hour. And just based on this hadith, half of us are already awaiting the Hour, because we have seen this. When is the last time you saw the right person in the right position, or the right leader in the right place? When this starts to happen, you know that the Hour is drawing near.

The Signs of a Hypocrite

There is a famous hadith that we all know and memorize. The Prophet is telling us the signs and indicators of one who is a hypocrite. We know that the hypocrite is in the worst and the lowest level of the Hellfire:

The hypocrites will be in the lowest rank of the Hellfire — meaning the worst part of the Hellfire. So they are in the worst position, which means we never want to resemble them or be like them in any way, shape, or form. The famous hadith, as we know, the Prophet said: there are three signs of a hypocrite — when he speaks he lies, when he promises he breaks that promise, and when he is entrusted with something he betrays that trust.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 33; Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 211)

It could be that you give him something of value or wealth and he will betray it and take it, or you give him a secret — the scholars even said that if you give him a secret, he will convey it and tell your secret to others. If there is a right that he is supposed to fulfill, he will betray that as well.

An important clarification here: a lot of times, let's say if you promise someone and then you have an accident or you fall ill, they always quote half of this hadith to say, "What's the sign of a hypocrite? You promised me and you didn't show up." The scholars said that is not what it means. The scholars said the hypocrite — while he is promising you, "Next Wednesday we're going to do this" — while he is saying that to you, he knows very well that next Wednesday he will be in Dallas. That is the difference. Not someone who honestly promised you something, and then due to circumstances outside of their control, they could not fulfill that promise. That is not what it means. But the point is that when we see qualities in people that we do not want to have, we want to put in the effort to make sure those qualities are not in us.

This also includes not just secrets, valuables, and wealth, but rights as well. It includes our relationship with our employer — that is a type of covenant and a type of trust. It includes those who have employees, or if you are a manager with subordinates, or a teacher with your students — all of these are trusts and covenants.

Leadership and the Betrayal of Trust

And especially when it comes to leaders — we have seen leaders and how they behave when it comes to what we entrust them with: with our wealth and with our lives. You see leaders stealing wealth as if it belongs to them. You see them disregarding the lives of the population — they disregard the lives of people. Whereas the Prophet cared deeply about the lives of his companions.

Did you ever once hear from the Prophet that he did not care whether his companions would be killed in battle because they are going to Jannah anyway? Never. In Makkah, why were the believers not allowed to fight back? Because they were a minority and they would all be killed — because Islam valued their lives. At Uhud, the Prophet did not even want to go out and meet the enemy in the battlefield; he wanted to meet them in Medina, as he later did in Al-Khandaq. He even saw in a dream that many of his companions would be killed, and he cared.

Now we get leadership that makes decisions killing thousands and thousands of men, women, and children, and they do not care. We hear speeches: "We will present another million shuhada for the cause." Why a million shuhada? Who gave you the right to decide that a million people should die? Who gave you that right? This is the worst form of disregard for people's lives. Where was this ever in the Seerah? Where was this ever in Islam? Where do you ever learn that land is more valuable than lives?

This is something that has been ingrained in our minds in recent years, and it has stuck — and even some of you may not like me saying this — but the soul of one believer is greater than land. Bring evidence if you disagree, because we have evidence. The Prophet said:

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 2619; graded Sahih)

The destruction of the Ka'bah is easier in the sight of Allah than the killing of one Muslim. One. The Ka'bah. This is the reality of the trust — people in charge must care about people's lives, they must care about the wealth. This is a trust.

The Scarcity of Trustworthiness

But the Prophet said it is going to be scarce — and that is why we are not seeing it much. He said it will become so scarce that you will hear people say: "In the village of so-and-so, in the tribe of so-and-so, there is one honest person — a trustworthy one." Just like that, so rare will it be.

And the Prophet, as narrated by Ahmad, said:

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 12567; also narrated in Sahih Ibn Hibban)

There is no iman for the one who does not have amanah. And we see it is scarce. You go to the Muslim lands and you see how government workers behave in the offices, how police officers take رَشَاوِي — bribes. Muslims in the West are not far from that either.

I don't want this khutbah to be a beat-down, but we have many problems. One of my friends is an imam, and he runs a workshop on sexual abuse. He said: "Wallahi, when I finish the workshop, the line stretches to the wall — people waiting to tell me about their sexual abuse stories, and it is relatives." Being abused by an uncle, by a stepfather — طَيِّب، وَيْنَ الْأَمَانَةُ؟ — Where is the trust? It is so common now to hear about stepfathers — this girl looks at you as her own father, and this is how you look at her? What happened to the trust?

So there are many problems. This khutbah is not meant to be a beat-down, but we all need to review ourselves and our lives.

The Story of Ibn 'Aqeel and the Necklace

I wanted to share the story of Ibn 'Aqeel — he was a Hanbali faqih. This story is about the reward of trustworthiness. He was on Hajj and he found a pouch containing a very expensive necklace. In Hajj, how are you going to find the owner with thousands of people? But he spent his days and nights asking around, asking around, until someone told him: "There was an old man yesterday asking about a necklace he had lost." And he kept searching until he found the old man and gave it back to him, and he even refused to accept any reward.

After Hajj was over, he said: "I was not in any hurry to return to Baghdad — I was single, not going back for a job or anything — so I decided to take my time and make my way slowly." He went to Damascus first, and it was a cold night, so he slept in a masjid. When Fajr came, they saw that he was a person of knowledge and asked him to lead the prayer. They liked his recitation and asked him to stay and lead them in Ramadan. The imam of the masjid had passed away, so they asked him to stay on. They also said: "We have a young daughter — why not get married and stay?" So he married this woman. He said: "Then Allah blessed me with a son from her."

After some time, his wife fell ill and came to her deathbed. She gave him the same pouch he had returned to the old man. When he saw it, he was startled and said: "How do you have this?" She said: "This used to belong to my father — the imam of the masjid whom you replaced." And she told him the full story of how he had returned the necklace. She said: "SubhanAllah, ever since my father returned from Hajj, he used to always make du'a: 'O Allah, grant me a young man just like the one who found the necklace, so I can marry him to my daughter.'"

The Story of Abdullah ibn Mubarak and the Pen

There is also the example of the great scholar Abdullah ibn Mubarak, who borrowed a pen from someone in Sham. He says: "I did not remember it until I was in Marw in Persia." And he went back — not on an airplane, but on riding animals, weeks and weeks of travel — until he got back and returned the pen.

The Punishment for Betraying Trust

And just as there is great reward for keeping the trust, there is also great punishment for betraying it. There was a story that happened in our times of someone who was entrusted with 100,000 by one of his friends. They did not write anything down — no written record of the loan — and when the friend came back for his money, the man said: "Do you have any piece of paper or anything written to prove that I have this money?" The man said: "No." He said: "Then leave."

He says: "Wallahi, the same day I kicked him out and stole his 100,000, I lost 500,000 — in property, in stocks, in whatever he had — he lost 500,000 in the same day." His wife told him: "That is because you betrayed the man. That is because you were unjust to him." But he says: "Even then, I would not give him his 100,000 back."

Time passed, and then his children were involved in a car crash, and he lost all three of them at once. His wife again told him: "That is what you get for betraying the man."

A Constant Quality in the Believer

Being honest and trustworthy is a constant quality in the believer. It is not that I am only honest when I am dealing with a Muslim, but it is acceptable to be dishonest with a non-Muslim, or with the government, or on tests and exams at school — "It is only dunya, it is just a cheat." No — it is a constant quality in you. You are honest and trustworthy whether you are dealing with a Muslim or a non-Muslim, a government or an individual.

And in Surah Al-Mu'minoon, we said that they also guard their covenants:

In the Qudsi hadith, Allah mentions three types of people He says He will be their opponent on the Day of Judgment. When you oppose someone, either you win or they win — if your opponent is Allah, what is the outcome? Clearly, you will lose. The first of them:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 2227)

The scholars explained this is someone who, using the name of Allah, was trusted and was given something because of the name of Allah — and then he betrayed. And the Prophet said: four traits — if you have all of them together, you are a hypocrite:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 34; Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 212)

And whenever he has a covenant, he betrays it.

أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ الْعَظِيمَ لِي وَلَكُمْ جَمِيعًا مِنَ الذُّنُوبِ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ، فَيَا فَوْزَ الْمُسْتَغْفِرِينَ. Ask Allah for His forgiveness — indeed, those who ask for His forgiveness shall prosper.

Second Khutbah: How to Become Trustworthy

الحمد لله رب العالمين، والصلاة والسلام على رسوله الأمين، وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين.

So how can I become someone who is always trustworthy — who guards their trusts and covenants, whether at work, whether at home with the family — basically, becoming a person who is more concerned with making sure you give everyone around you their rights, before you ask for yours.

Think about it this way. Imagine two couples. In the first couple, the moment the husband wakes up, he thinks: "Is she giving me my rights? No — she still hasn't given me this one, and this one, and this one." And the woman wakes up thinking: "He hasn't given me this one, and this one, and this one, and this one" — and her list is longer, of course.

Now consider the other couple. He wakes up and says: "Am I giving her all her rights? I am falling short in this area." And she wakes up and says: "Am I giving him all his rights?" Which couple do you think will last longer? Which couple do you think will do better?

Because one of the scholars said: on the Day of Judgment, Allah will not ask you whether you got all your rights first — He will ask you whether you gave others their rights from you. صَحٌّ وَلَا لَا؟ Allah will not ask you if you secured all your rights in this dunya — He will ask you if you gave everyone else their rights. So that should be the number one question in your mind.

But today, everything is about rights. Even our books — the rights of women, the rights of the husband, the rights of the children. Our khutab — the rights of women, the rights of the man. It is all about you getting your rights. So we have been put in a condition where we are always making sure nobody tramples our rights, and if anyone dares, out comes the phone and we make a big ruckus and fuss, because our rights are the most important thing.

More important than that: make sure other people get their rights from you, because that is what Allah will ask you about. And if you make sure every morning that your wife has all her rights from you, she will reciprocate — even without you telling her. She will reciprocate and start to make sure you have all your rights from her as well.

Closing Du'a

With that, we ask Allah to make us of those who recognize the truth as a clear truth and follow the best of it, and to make us of those who recognize falsehood as a clear falsehood and abstain from it.

وَقُومُوا إِلَى صَلَاتِكُمْ رَحِمَكُمُ اللَّهُ.