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Let Your Water Flow To Your Neighbor | Khutbah
In this video, Dr. Omar Suleiman explores the stories from the Prophet ﷺ about the simple act and high reward of sharing clean water.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Dear brothers and sisters, as we look to the situation that is around us right now, and we see the breakdown of our norms, our infrastructure, that we're so used to, and obviously there's a lot of frustration to be had about government breakdown, about the corruption and fraud that exists within some of the private companies, and just this entire web of corruption that leads to people suffering in the way that it does. And then there is, of course, looking at the inspiring stories of people coming together. And as we are reduced to these very basic means of ours, getting back to certain basics in how we interact with one another. And so if you think back, many of you lived in the days where it was not uncommon to go to your neighbor's house to ask for something, to ask for something as simple as sugar and salt. And obviously we've moved away from that in our lifestyles today, because now you can Amazon Prime things. Now you can order something from your grocery store and let it be delivered to your door. Now everyone is independent, or so we thought, because of the means that we now have at our disposal. And then what did we see happen this week? Neighborhood groups form. People say, I'm going to a grocery store, can I get you something? People checking up on one another, neighborhood groups coming together. And it was really beautiful and inspiring to see. And that is how we're meant to be as people. And we also see this scene of devastation, where while some are recovering and getting back to normal, to some semblance of normalcy right now, we got our power back, you know, less than 48 hours ago. Most of us have water in this area, at least. We can get complacent once again.
And at the same time, you have people that do not have access to water or power for days now, almost going on an entire week with no access to water or power right around the corner. Some of them from refugee camps, and they never thought that they would see this type of devastation again in their lives, especially not in the United States of America, the richest country in the world. And here they are swarming trucks, looking for water bottles, putting snow in their bathrooms, hoping that it will melt so that they can use the water, wrapping themselves up in freezing temperatures. Some of them have not seen these types of temperatures, even in the places that they fled. And we have an opportunity, obviously, to come together and to think more deeply about some of the basic ahadith that perhaps we might neglect, because it seems distant from us. And I wanted to speak specifically about water, about clean water. And some of the things that we learned from the Prophet ﷺ about the blessing of sharing clean water. And I know that this often comes up when you're building a well in a distant place. But I want you to think about the simplicity of providing water to your neighbor, handing a water bottle to someone when they need it, the way that they do right now. And what you find with water is that the Prophet ﷺ has mentioned something about it in regards to every single one of our societal interactions, but the reward is unlimited. And let me go through one by one. When it comes to the public space, the Prophet ﷺ prohibited the privatization, actually, of water in his society. The water was built in wells, and people were to provide water to as many people as they could. People had a right, a collective right, a public right, to water. You go to a person that is in your house, the prohibition on preventing a guest of yours from water.
Your guest can make requests of you sometimes that might be unreasonable. And obviously, man kaana yukrimu layfahu, one of the signs of the goodness of taqwa on a person, is that you honor your guest, but you're not allowed to prohibit your guest from water. They ask for water, you give them water. When it comes to your neighbors, the Prophet ﷺ told al-Zubair radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, and this is perhaps very applicable to us right now, when you irrigate your garden, then make sure that you let the water flow, so that it can support your neighbors as well. And the first ayat, the first story that is revealed in the Qur'an about a people, was a people who used to hoard in their garden. inna balawnaahum kama balawna ashaabal jannati idh aqsamu layasrimunnaha musbihin. Allah tells us about the people of the garden, who inherited a garden from their father, who was a generous man. And the children did not inherit the generosity, unfortunately, they turned the generosity into greed. And they said, let's go out and let's take everything that we reap from the gardens early on, so that the people can't come and get anything from it later on today. And what happened as a result of that, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala took away the whole garden from them, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala destroyed the garden. They did not realize that it was the generosity of their father, that put blessing in the garden that allowed it to grow and grow and grow and grow. So the first story of a people in the Qur'an is a people who used to hoard. And we see now the importance of us thinking beyond ourselves, thinking beyond our neighborhoods. If you were driving, you know, subhanAllah, a few days ago, it was a stunning sight, lights on the other side, complete darkness on this side. And you see the disparity, especially when you go to the low income areas, not to hoard and especially not to hoard water.
And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam tells us about it in a much greater way. And this is what I want you to think about. And subhanAllah, we often minimize how beautiful the reward of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is for a small action, because we can't perceive how blessed and meaningful that action is. When it comes to al-ma' when it comes to water as a form of sadaqah. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam would mention the rewards of doing certain actions. But when he talked about water, he only talked about Jannah. There's absolutely no limitation. He talked about paradise. And I want to give you two stories that are as far apart from each other, or so it seems as possible. Uthman radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, who responded to the call of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam when he said, whoever purchases the well of Rumah has Jannah, has paradise guaranteed. There was a well in paradise, there was a well in Medina, that was so important to the lives of the people. And the owner of that well, who was not Muslim, was taking advantage of the situation with the new Muslim migrants to Medina, and raising the price. So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said, whoever purchases that well has Jannah. Uthman radiAllahu anhu said, I've got it. Even though he himself had made the migration was an invulnerable situation, he worked out a plan to purchase the entire well, and to make it free for everyone, to be able to provide water for everyone. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said, lahul jannah. What's the connection between Uthman radiAllahu anhu in this situation, and another story of that woman who lived a life of sin, but she entered Jannah with what? Putting water in her shoe for a thirsty dog. She enters paradise by that action.
And Uthman radiAllahu anhu is guaranteed paradise for his action. What is the connection between the two? The scholars mention this idea of the provision of water, embedded in a powerful hadith from Jabir ibn Abdullah radiAllahu anhu, where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said, man hafara ma'a, whoever provides water, whoever constructs a well, lam yashrab minhu, no thing will drink from it that has a liver that is a living being, min insin, wala jinnin, wala ta'irin, from human beings and jinn and even birds and wild beasts, illa ajarahu allahu yawm al qiyamah, except that Allah will reward them on the day of judgment, waman bana lillahi masjidaka mifhasi qatatin aw asghar, bana allahu lahu baytan fil jannah. And whoever builds a masjid for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the size of a bird's nest or smaller, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will build them a house in paradise. Just like there's proportionality with the house in paradise for the house of Allah that you build in this life, meaning it's not that this is only for a person that can purchase a whole masjid, that they get that reward, kamifhasi qatat, even if it's the size of a bird's nest, meaning even if that's your share in it, that's your jannah, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is saying the same when it comes to water, that you provide a little bit of water for people that need it and they drink from it, even non-human beings, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will certainly give you the reward. And that gives us a connection to that story beyond tawbah, by the way, beyond repentance. You see the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam mentioned that I saw a person strolling in paradise because they removed something harmful from the road. There's a connection to that hadith too. The lowest branch of faith
imaatatul adha'an al-tariq. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said the lowest branch of faith is that you remove something harmful from the road. So we have a connection to that story. We have a connection to this story as well, obviously of the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and gratitude, but the blessing of just making sure that people have access to clean water. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said the best charity on behalf of someone that passes away is flowing water, is a well that you do on their behalf. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam taught us that the most longed for reward is a sip of water from his hands sallallahu alayhi wasallam on the day of judgment in gardens under which rivers flow. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us that station. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us that rank. Allahumma ameen. Dear brothers and sisters, whatever you can do in these next few days to provide for people, again, carry water bottles with you if you have them. Pass them out. If someone's coming to do work on your house, ask them if they have water. If you see anyone, do you have water? Pass it out. And obviously, this does connect us to everyone around the world that does not have access to clean water that now we might have a connection to, in the sense that we felt a little bit of what that feels like. And inshaAllah ta'ala that'll be more meaningful when someone says, what about clean water in places like Yemen or places like Somalia? You'll immediately respond inshaAllah ta'ala because there's an experience now that you'll be able to recall. There is a brother and I'll end, subhanAllah, I have to share this. A brother who, just, it's so beautiful subhanAllah, the way that when you ask him, may Allah bless him, and he wants to remain anonymous. We asked him for some water bottles. And you know, if you go to the stores right now and they were holding their cases to only a certain limit. And we asked for water bottles to pass to the refugees. What did he do? Fills up everything he has, everything he has,
thousands of cases of water. Says take it all and deliver it to those people. The spirit that we have to have is that spirit of being flowing in our generosity. And especially when it comes to the bare basics that maybe we don't pay enough attention to. But those bare basics might be what get us into Jannah. And so whether it is filling a shoe with water or building an entire well of water, may Allah subhanAllah ta'ala allow us to be amongst those that share from what he has given to us, that are grateful at all times with our hearts, with our tongues, with our deeds. May Allah make it easy for our brothers and sisters around us and around the world that do not have access to clean water right now. May Allah subhanAllah ta'ala protect all of them. May Allah subhanAllah ta'ala allow us to be in service to them. Allahumma ameen. Allahumma khairi walidina rabbir rahamuhumma kama rabbuna sighara rabbana habal ala min azbadina wadhuriyatina qurrat a'ayun wa ja'alna lil muttaqina imama. Allahumma aslih ahwal ikhwanina almanqubeena fee kulli makan. Allahumma aslih ahwal ikhwanina almanqubeena fee kulli makan. Allahumma nsul ikhwanina almustad'afina fee kulli makan. Allahumma ahlik alzalimeena bil zalimeen wa akhrijna wa ikhwanina min bayneem salimeen. Ibadullah anna Allah ya'mur bil arzi wal ihsan wa ita'idil qurba wa yanha anil fahsha'i wal munkari wal baghi. Ya'idukum la'alakum tazakaroon
fadhkuru Allah yadhkurukum wa shukroohu wa ala ni'ma yazid lakum.
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