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A Night Even Better than Laylatul Qadr | Khutbah
The Prophet ﷺ mentioned a night better than Laylatul Qadr, and it invokes the willingness to sacrifice more than just sleep for the sake of Allah. With the backdrop of the genocide in Gaza and the end of Ramadan, this Hadith could not be more relevant and relatable.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. We begin by praising Allah SWT and bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for Him, and we bear witness that Muhammad SAW is His final messenger. We ask Allah to send His peace and blessings upon him, the prophets and messengers that came before him, his family and companions that served alongside him, and those that follow in his blessed path until the Day of Judgment. We ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahuma Ameen. Dear brothers and sisters, over the last couple of months, we have had people from this community that have made a painful decision along with their families to literally go to Gaza, not knowing whether they would be returning to their families or not. And subhanAllah, if you were to ask me a year ago if I would be privy to these types of conversations at the level that I've had to be privy to these types of conversations, I wouldn't have known how to respond. Doctors, upon doctors, medical volunteers, people who, many of whom grew up in comfort, have lived extremely comfortable lives, decided to go place themselves in the middle of a genocide in hospitals that are being targeted to help our brothers and sisters in Gaza. And almost none of them are actually Palestinian. Muslims, people of conscience, who sit with their families and say, I'm going to leave all of this behind and go put myself there because this is where I'm needed right now. And I can't tell you how proud I am of each and every single one of them and of their families. SubhanAllah, witnessing this in front of my eyes, in Eid, many of you would not have known, some of the kids are even here now, mashaAllah, that their fathers were actually in Gaza at
the time of Eid, because they left quietly to go on these medical volunteer missions and come back and some of them returned today. May Allah subhanAllah bless them all and may Allah protect our brothers and sisters who have gone there. And may Allah subhanAllah protect our brothers and sisters who are the original Murabitun, who have stayed there, who have insisted on holding it down and refused to be terrorized and psychologically brutalized and removed from their land. Allahuma Ameen. Why do I begin with this type of an introduction? We've been talking about how Gaza has given life to many ahadith and many stories from the seerah that otherwise we were not familiar with. And we're coming out of Ramadan and I couldn't think of a better time to talk about this narration from the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and a body of narrations that speak to this, because otherwise these things seem so distant from us. And the title of the khutbah is, A Night Even Better Than Laylatul Qadr. Some people messaged me and said, Sheikh, is this clickbait? I said, no, it's not clickbait, it's an actual hadith. And I'll say that there are multiple narrations, all of whom are traced to the companions of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, about acts of worship that continue after Ramadan in which you can realize the reward. And I'll talk about those another time. But a night better than Laylatul Qadr. Something actually better than Laylatul Qadr. And it's an authentic hadith that's narrated by al-Hakim and al-Bayhaqi and others have considered it to be authentic. Imam al-Nasa'i, Abdullah ibn Umar radiyallahu ta'ala narrates that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said to the companions, هلأ نبئكم بليلة أفضل من ليلة القدر? Shall I not tell you about a night that is greater than Laylatul Qadr? That is even greater than the night of power? So obviously the sahaba, knowing the value of the greatest night of the year, Laylatul
Qadr خير من ألف شهر, better than an entire lifetime of good deeds. What is it, O Messenger of Allah? The Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said, حارس حرس في أرض خوف لعله أن لا يرجع إلى أهله. A guard who stands guard in a land of fear, not knowing if he's going to return back to his family or not. Speaking about المرابطون, الرباط, and Palestine of course is أرض الرباط, and رباط is holding down the fort. And I want you to try to put yourself in the mindset of a person, because obviously this is a circumstance that most of us will probably never live. But to derive the spirit from it is that important when you see the reward of it. Because this is a religion where circumstance and outcome are not nearly as relevant as intention. مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ رِجَالٌ صَدَقُوا مَا عَاهَدُوا اللَّهَ عَلَيْهِ. So you need to spiritually prepare yourself for circumstances even if you never physically get put in that circumstance. And that is a testimony to your truthfulness with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. What would it be like for me to be in that situation? Would I be willing? What would I tell myself? Would the reward be worth it if a time came? Because if you were to talk to some of the brothers, and I'm just giving one example of this hadith that came to life. If you were to speak to some of these brothers and sisters before October of last year, they would have never thought they'd be stepping into a genocide today. And they've had to make certain calculations in their mind and their families have had to make certain calculations. Even though we have a false sense of security when we go and we take our families and drop them off at the airport, certain that they will return to us even when they go anywhere else. Allah knows best where our place of death is. But you've got to know when you're stepping into a circumstance like that, you might not come back. So it's not about the actual circumstance.
It's about the spiritual preparation, the intention, understanding where that comes from. I want you to imagine walking out to a place where you are anticipating the enemy attacking. Put yourself back in Khandaq. Put yourself back in Uhud. Put yourself back in Badr, the night before. You have to go out there and you have to stand there. And from your direction, it is anticipated that at any moment in the night, something can happen. Think about Ali sleeping in the bed of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam when the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had already migrated and there was an assassination attempt that was anticipated for the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that night. And Ali Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam sleeps alone in that house, in that bed, knowing that that night, there are certainly going to be men with spears over him and he still does it. Not only that, he gets some of the best sleep of his life because of his certainty in Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. What type of a spiritual engineering is necessary to be able to be in that type of a situation? And what type of a calculation do you have to make? And when you make that calculation, what type of contentment do you realize that you did not even know was possible for yourself? Because one of the conversations that I was able to have with the brothers who came back, he said, SubhanAllah, this elevated my spirituality in a way that no Ramadan, no Laylatul Qadr, no Hajj, no Umrah ever has. This elevated my spirituality. This brought me to a place that I didn't know in my relationship with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. Because think about that. Even being that person, you know that you are voluntarily stepping into a place where that might be it. Now, what does this have to do with us? And how do we bring this back to a reality? And why would the Prophet ﷺ even relate it to Laylatul Qadr?
Why would he relate it to this concept of Qiyamul Layl, this concept of standing up in prayer at night? The ulema speak to multiple reasons and they find the implication in multiple narrations. So it's fresh to you as someone who just came out of the last 10 nights of Ramadan. There's the sacrifice of comfort for a greater reward. There is the realization of something greater than your material life. There is something more worth it than sleep. There's the contradicting of a natural desire of your body to rest so that your soul can find itself alive. You're doing certain things that contradict your physical nature for a higher spiritual goal. Sacrificing for the sake of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta-A'la and the Prophet ﷺ put these two things together in multiple narrations. And so the next group of people I want you to think about are implied in this hadith from the Prophet ﷺ as well. The famous hadith of the Messenger ﷺ from Ibn Abbas ﷺ, عَيْنَانِ لَا تَمَسُّهُمَا الْنَّارُ Two eyes that will not be touched by the fire. Two eyes that will not be touched by the fire. And he said ﷺ, عَيْنٌ بَكَتْ مِنْ خَشْيَةِ اللَّهِ An eye that shed tears in awe of its Lord. An eye that shed tears in awe of its Lord. And how many of those eyes were shedding tears in those last ten nights. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta-A'la protect us from dry eyes and hard hearts. Allahumma ameen. How many of those eyes were shedding tears in these last ten nights. And he said ﷺ, وَعَيْنٌ بَاتَتْ تَحْرُسُ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ And an eye that spent the night watching for the sake of Allah. The same word is used, حَارِس, حَرَصَ. And I want you to think about this dear brothers and sisters. What's something that we can implement? May Allah reward our volunteers and our security,
who while we were all in here in these last ten nights. They're making certain calculations. They're out there watching the masjid, seeing if something is wrong. They're out there sacrificing the night of spirituality here. Because they have a reward out there and a responsibility that's out there. That's a certain type of mindset and the Prophet ﷺ is able to include the reward of both of those things in the same sentence. One eye is looking down and shedding tears. Another eye is wide open. But they're both open and closed, dry and wet for the sake of Allah. And subhanAllah, the ulema say, look at the beauty of this. And a watchful eye doesn't blink. So it gets dry. Whereas an eye in prayer gets wet, right? But both of them are في سبيل الله. Both of them are in the cause of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And that's where the beauty of this comes from. And so that person that's on the outside of the masjid might be realizing the same reward, if not a greater reward, for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. How do we bring this back to our own reality, dear brothers and sisters? There are multiple narrations where the Prophet ﷺ talked about how to bring the lessons of these practices, these circumstances into your life. So when he mentions, for example, عليه الصلاة والسلام, salah to salah, prayer to prayer, رباط is a form of holding it down. You're just fighting a different type of enemy. When you stay in the masjid from prayer to prayer, that's a form of رباط. But the Prophet ﷺ doesn't want you to become distant from these lofty stations in the religion because the circumstances seem so distant from you. There's a mindset. There's a heart that's involved. There's a spiritual preparation that's involved. There is a willingness to sacrifice for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that's involved.
And there is a realization, a spiritual realization that either precedes that or comes after it, but it certainly perfects itself after a person goes through one of these circumstances. And that is that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, who is the source of my energy, therefore I'll give up my sleep for Him. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the true source of sustenance. He's the true source of security. He's the true source of dignity. That I will find that nothing that I do in these noble endeavors is in fact in loss. All of it is in gain because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the one who has put me in these circumstances to test me with my intentions. Now why does this become increasingly relevant today? And I'll end with this, dear brothers and sisters. We can praise as we should praise our brothers and sisters, men, women, and children who are holding it down in Gaza today. You look at them subhanAllah under the bomb saying, so if we stay here, we will stay here. That is al-ribat. And there is no doubt that that is the greatest realization of a hadith like this. But we can also bring it to our daily lives and we can say, listen, there might come a time where you're going to be asked out of nowhere or you're going to be put in a situation where it's going to be your dean, your principals versus your job. How quick is that calculation going to happen? The same one that you were standing for at night is worth it for you during the day. There are going to be moments where maybe even your safety is compromised, where you are threatened, where you have people come after you because of your principals. Right now, there is nothing more dangerous in the vocation of activism than to be pro-Palestinian, right? And that means that every single element of you, every single element of you is suddenly being targeted. SubhanAllah.
Where is this coming from? But I want you to understand that the true realizations that are to come out of Ramadan and the true reward that is to be anticipated is from you realizing the priorities of your existence and then proportionally allocating your energy towards that and having that conviction in your head and that conviction in your heart that Allah is the source of my sustenance, Allah is the source of my security, Allah is the source of my dignity. And if I'm put in a situation where I have to make that call, I'm not going to hesitate because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will protect me and Allah will provide for me. وَالْآخِرَةُ خَيْرٌ وَأَبْقَىٰ And the hereafter is better and everlasting. So while we praise our brothers and sisters and we see suddenly subhanAllah some of these local manifestations that are coming out and I ask Allah to reward each and every single one of you that took that mission and that went out there, subhanAllah some of these brothers went twice already as if it's not enough. And I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to reward the brothers and sisters that watch the masjid and I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to reward those that sacrifice that calm feeling of spirituality for that deeper realization of it. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reward them all and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bring out something in us as well to where if we are put in certain situations we never hesitate to sacrifice for the sake of Allah. And so the answer to this question, is there a night better than Laylatul Qadr? For that person, yes. There's a night that's better than Laylatul Qadr. And the last thing that I'll end with dear brothers and sisters here is for you and I, the night that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala looks towards you and sees your sincerity, the night that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala looks towards you and sees you repenting, the night that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala looks towards you and sees a change in you could be the greatest night in your life even if it's not a night in Ramadan, even if it's an average night for everybody else around you. It's the day and the night that you turn your heart towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in a certain way and you say, Ya Allah, nothing is worth losing your pleasure. Ya Allah, everything is worth risking to gain your pleasure. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us of the courageous and the wise, the sincere and the steadfast. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us the reward of Ramadan, the reward of Laylatul Qadr and forgive us for our shortcomings. Allahumma ameen. Aqoolu qawli hadha wa astaghfirullahi wa alaikum wa risa'il muslimeen, faistaghfiru inna huwa al-ghafoor al-raheem. Alhamdulillah, wassalatu wassalamu ala rasoolillahi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. Dear brothers and sisters, I want to reiterate that this Monday inshaAllah ta'ala is a national strike for Gaza. I ask you to participate in any way that you can, dear brothers and sisters. At the bare minimum, no spending. Let's actually show the power in our numbers inshaAllah ta'ala. Let's show the power of our conviction and our principles. So please do inshaAllah ta'ala participate. Look for the information online. It's not hard to find strike for Gaza. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to do in our capacity what is pleasing to Him and what actually benefits our brothers and sisters that are struggling right now in Gaza. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow our voices to amplify their voices and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala count us in their ranks on the day of judgment.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala count us in their ranks on the day of judgment. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala count us in their ranks on the day of judgment.
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