Khutbahs
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Missed Opportunities | Khutbah
Changing circumstances in life offer us new opportunities to gain Jannah, but also sometimes cause us to realize we’ve missed out on existing ones. In this khutbah, Dr. Omar Suleiman talks about how we can identify those opportunities and take advantage of them before it’s too late.
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Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. And my nephew claims that he is a prophet of Allah, and he claims that he receives revelation from the Lord of the heavens and the earth. And listen to how he describes it. He says, وَلَا وَاللَّهِ مَا عَلَى الْأَرْضِ كُلَّهَا أَحَدٌ عَلَى هَذَا الدِّينِ غَيْرِهَا أُولَٰئِ الثَّلَٰثَ There is not a single person, I swear by Allah, upon this religion other than these three people. No one on earth except for these three people. Now Afif could have done something with that. He could have went up to the Prophet ﷺ and investigated the matter. But he did what most people would have done, which is wait it out. Wait to see what's going to become of this affair. He didn't necessarily oppose it. In fact, he didn't express any hostility to the Prophet ﷺ. He wasn't someone that had any skin in the game when it came to the idols of Mecca. But he waited it out. And I want you to imagine as you see the sites of the Ka'bah today, what is it like when only three people are standing in front of the Ka'bah, worshipping Allah ﷻ properly. And later on he would become Muslim towards Fath Makkah, towards the conquest of Makkah. So towards the very end of the span of the Prophet ﷺ's life. And indeed he's blessed because he's a companion. But he would frequently be heard saying, يَا لَيْتَنِي كُنتُ الرَّابِعَ I wish I would have been the fourth. I wish I would have been the fourth. I wish I would have been the fourth. I could have been the fourth. I could have went there. I could have asked him something. I could have found out about this religion. I could have went and prayed next to the Prophet ﷺ and Ali ibn Abi Talib r.a and Khadijah r.a behind us. I could have been the fourth. Now I want you to contrast this reaction to a much more famous story. Waraqa ibn Naufal r.a. Waraqa is on the complete opposite end of the spectrum.
Waraqa has prepared his entire life for this opportunity. He's gone all over the world, studied a scripture that's completely unfamiliar to him, learned languages. I mean done levels of investigation that only a handful of people even come close to doing in Makkah. And he has the Prophet ﷺ and Khadijah r.a right in front of him. And the Prophet ﷺ describing this experience. And as Waraqa hears this experience, Waraqa is already, as some of the scholars of Sirah would have mentioned, already in his 90s. He's extremely elderly. He only has a few days left to live. And this opportunity that he hoped he would have encountered early on in his life shows up. And his first reaction, I want you to pay attention to the ordering of his words. يَا لَيْتَنِي فِيهَا جَدْعًا I wish I was young. لَيْتَنِي أَكُونُ حَيًّا إِذْ يُخْرِجُكَ قَوْمُكَ I wish I would be alive when your people run you out. SubhanAllah, before he even mentioned to the Prophet ﷺ, you'll be run out. He already is expressing regrets. I wish I was young. SubhanAllah, he worked his entire life for this moment. And the moment shows up when he only has a few breaths left in life. And he's saying, I could have been young and I could have been with you when your people run you out. Now the Prophet ﷺ's reaction is, wait, they're going to run me out. His first reaction is, I wish I was young. لَيْتَنِي كُنْتُ جَدْعًا I could have been with you when that all happens because he waited for that opportunity. And of course, as Aisha r.a. narrates that Waraqa lived only a few days after that. رَضِيَ اللَّهُ تَعَالَى عَنْهُمْ Now the Prophet ﷺ said that, I saw Waraqa with a level or two in Jannah all by himself. So the output is there. The reward is there.
But that opportunity that he prepared himself with. How many times when you read the books of Sira do you hear about these elderly people that passed away that had great children, great descendants. But Waraqa's investigation paid off. Allah knows why he chose him for that time. Allah knows why a man who is that sincere and dedicated did not get to be 30 years old or 40 years old when the Risalah came to Muhammad ﷺ. Allah's Qadr is perfect. But there is something there. Now if you take the example of Waraqa who prepared for the opportunity, who investigated the opportunity before the opportunity even came to Afif al-Kindi who simply encountered the opportunity and then waited out to see what the investment was going to bear. You have a couple of mindsets. None of this is random. Most people take the Afif way. رضي الله تعالى عنه Most people wait things out. If you think in terms of dunyawi investments, worldly investments, most people strike at an opportune time when they're able to do something. Waraqa was not someone who simply came across the Prophet ﷺ. He waited for the moment. He was studying. He was investigating. And as soon as the opportunity was in front of him, he renewed his commitment to live up to that opportunity with every fiber of his being. رضي الله تعالى عنه So sometimes when we talk about missed opportunities, it's because of the time that you live in. And Allah ﷻ knows why He put you in this time and why He didn't put you in the time of the Prophet ﷺ and the companions. Sometimes it's not knowing the blessing of what's in front of you. And that's why the scholars mention al-'ilm, that knowledge is one of the greatest ways. Proper investigation of knowledge is one of the greatest ways
to make sure that an opportunity does not escape you. If you read about the virtues of something constantly, if you're reading about the virtues of qiyam al-layl, how are you going to miss qiyam al-layl? You're reading about the virtues of coming to the masjid, how are you going to miss coming to the masjid? You're reading about the virtues of voluntary fasting, how are you going to miss out on voluntary fasting? And the list goes on and on. And of course so many more things that are outside of the realm of what we typically deem as ibadah, of worship, that there are opportunities upon opportunities upon opportunities. But if you're not studying those virtues, you might miss it. And there's a famous narration from Abdullah ibn Umar رضي الله عنهما He used to follow the footsteps of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and he heard Abu Huraira رضي الله عنه in the masjid say that whoever witnesses the janazah and then follows the janazah حتى تدفن until the person is buried, Allah سبحانه وتعالى will write down for that person two qirat, two mountains. In one narration, the size of Uhud, in one narration, أصغرهما مثل أهد the smaller of the two mountains. It's also an authentic hadith. It's like Uhud. So if you attend the janazah, you get one mountain, like Uhud, of good deeds. If you go through to the janazah and you witness the burial as well, then you get two. أصغرهما مثل أهد And Allah knows best if the smaller one would be the one where there is less exertion, which is attending the janazah in the masjid. How many more people attend the janazah in the masjid than actually follow it to the graveyard? That discrepancy is always huge unless it's someone that was very well-known to the community. Even then, there is a discrepancy, right? Why? Because I've got to get back to work. I've got to get back to what I was doing. I've got to get back to my meetings for the day. Very few people can take out that time and say, let me go. Now Ibn Umar رضي الله عنهما he hadn't heard about the reward of going to the graveyard itself. And so when he heard Abu Hurayra say that, he said, you heard that from the Prophet ﷺ? He said, yes.
And he sent someone, he said, go ask Aisha رضي الله عنها if she heard that from the Prophet ﷺ as well. He wants to really make sure that he's not hearing two different things here. And he's sitting in the masjid and he's got these rocks in his hand. And he's nervous. He's picking up the dirt. He's waiting for the answer. Basically the equivalent of pacing. And the man comes back from Umm al-Mu'minin Aisha رضي الله عنها and confirms, indeed the Prophet ﷺ said that whoever prays the janazah and then follows it until that person is buried will have two mountains the size of Uhud or the smaller of them, the size of Uhud. And he throws the rocks that are in his hand. And he says, how many mountains have I missed out on? How many qawareet? How many mountains did I lose? Not knowing this. So sometimes you miss an opportunity because you don't know about something. And that is the beauty of what we have in this time. SubhanAllah, at no point in history can you look up the fada'il, the virtues of an action, like you can right now. Information is easily available to you. But at no point in the history of this ummah will you find less people acting upon these virtues. Even though they're available to us. And so it's investigating the virtues of something and then making sure that you don't miss out on them. Sometimes it's not knowing the opportunities that are present to you in a place where you live. SubhanAllah, one of the narrations that we mention in the stories of the sahaba of Abu Darda'a radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, is a narration from Alqama radiyallahu anhu. And I was just thinking about this incident as I was thinking about this khutbah. He went to Ash-Sham. He lived in Iraq, so he went to Syria. And he's pursuing knowledge in different parts of the world. And he says that, I went to Ash-Sham and I prayed two rak'ahs in the masjid and I said, اللهم يسر لي جليسا صالحا O Allah, facilitate for me a good companion. Let a good companion come in. So he said,
this man walks in and people go and they sit around him and he's clearly their sheikh, he's clearly their scholar. Alqama is a tabi'i, he's not a sahabi. He comes later on in the second generation. He says, this is clearly an important man. And he said, that person comes and he sits right next to me. And I said to him, who are you? He said, I'm Abu Darda'a radiyallahu ta'ala anhu. And Alqama said, subhanAllah, I asked Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, O Allah, grant me a righteous companion. And then Allah brought you right here, right next to me. One of the greatest companions of the Prophet ﷺ sitting right next to me in the masjid. And Abu Darda'a says, where are you from? He says, I'm from Kufa in Al-Iraq. And Abu Darda'a responds to him and he says, أليس فيكم صاحب السر الذي لا يعلمه غيره? Didn't you have amongst you in Kufa that secret keeper of the Prophet ﷺ who no one else knew those secrets except for him? Who was he talking about? Hudayth ibn Yaman. So Alqama said, yeah. And then he went on and he said, أليس فيكم الذي أجاره الله على لسان نبيه ﷺ؟ يعني من الشيطان. Don't you have that person that lived amongst you in Iraq that was protected from the shaitan on the tongue of the Prophet ﷺ? He's talking about Ammar ibn Yasir radiyallahu ta'ala anhu. He said, yeah. And then he said, أليس فيكم صاحب السواق؟ Don't you have that person amongst you who was the companion of the Siwak of the Prophet ﷺ and he used to carry around the Siwak of the Prophet ﷺ, the slippers of the Prophet ﷺ and accompany him and bring his wudu' to him. And that is Abdullah ibn Mas'ud radiyallahu ta'ala anhu. So Alqama says, yes. And then he starts to ask him all these questions about Ibn Mas'ud and things of that sort. Now Alqama is a great student, a great tabi' so he clearly took advantage of those opportunities. But I was thinking about this, subhanAllah, how many times do people not take advantage of the opportunities in their own location? And they say, if I got over there, right?
How many of you said if I moved to Dallas and then you don't attend the halaqas in Dallas? How many of you took advantage of the places that were already present to you, the scholarship that was there, the opportunities that were there? How many people say, if one day I get to go study overseas? If one day this presents itself to me, and sometimes that's not taking advantage of the place that is there in front of you. Sometimes, the scholars mention, it's not taking advantage of the times, and most of those times are the down times of the ummah. The down times of the ummah. When the Prophet ﷺ praised the work of Sha'ban, he said that that is a month يغفر الناس عنه that people become heedless in regards to because it's situated in this awkward place, right? Between a sacred month and between Ramadan. So while everyone is thinking about Ramadan, the salihun are already thinking about Sha'ban and how they can make the most of Sha'ban. You're in one of those lost times right now, by the way. You're in a sacred month, which is Dhul Hijjah, going into the month of Allah Muharram, but you're in this awkward space between Arafah and Ashura. And for some reason, most people think it's over after Arafah. You're in this time, the low times, the low seasons that still have high yields, where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has placed all these opportunities in front of you. But most people don't take advantage of down times. That's why the most blessed time of the day for du'a is when? Between Asr and Maghrib, because most people are exhausted at that time. أذكار المساء The evening remembrances of Mas'ud r.a. Most people are not thinking about أذكار at that time. Most people are thinking about unwinding at that time, right? Let me get home and collapse on the couch at that time. I don't want to think about anything else right now. But that's a time in which du'a is blessed. Today on the day of Friday, that's a time in which du'a is blessed. ساعة الإجابة The hour of acceptance. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to allow us to catch it. اللهم آمين And then finally, dear brothers and sisters, most of the time,
we're not paying attention to the closing gates of Jannah that are in front of us, which are these opportunities that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given to us. And subhanAllah, there are two ways to look at this. Either the gates of Jannah are closing because of a circumstance that will not be present tomorrow because our circumstances are changing, or the means by which we have to pursue a particular gate of Jannah is not going to be there for us. So in the Prophet ﷺ talked about الصحة والفراغ health and free time being the two most neglected blessings of people. Either the circumstances changing or what you have to pursue is changing, the means by which you have to pursue that closing gate of Jannah. There's a particular circumstance or a set of circumstances that you have right now that give you an opportunity to pursue Jannah in very specific ways that will not be there tomorrow. Allah knows what they are. Allah knows what circumstances will change or what means will change, but every single one of us has something present right now because of the stage that they're at in life or because of what's available to them to pursue Jannah with, and it's not necessarily going to be that way tomorrow. And subhanAllah, you think about that with your parents, and there are multiple narrations about this. Of course the famous narration where the Prophet ﷺ sent that young man back from the battlefield to his mother. What's more exciting than dusting your feet and getting into the thick of it with the Prophet ﷺ? And the Prophet ﷺ, imagine, says, go back home to your mom. Right? Go back home to your mom. And that's where Jannah is at. It's at her feet. Again, it doesn't sound as exciting. It doesn't sound as glorious, but that's Rasulullah ﷺ telling a man in his time, go back to your mom. There's something that is special there. And subhanAllah, there is a narration,
there are several narrations, one of them from Al-Harith Al-Ukri radhiAllahu ta'ala anhum wa rahimahullah in the janazah of his mother. And as he was crying, the people asked him, why are you crying? He says, lima laa abki? Why should I not cry? waqad ughriqa AAanni baabun min abwaab al-jannah When one of my gates to Jannah just closed. Another narration from Zayd radhiAllahu ta'ala anhum. If one gate closes, then rush to the other gate. You have two parents. Some of us, subhanAllah, have lost one of those gates, others have lost two. Some of us still have both of them present. And again, at what point in human history has connectivity been easier? Has it been easier to connect to someone, to FaceTime, to pull someone up on a camera, to call? Those gates of Jannah are open to you if they're open to you. If one has closed, go to the other. If both have closed, then spend in their name and make dua for them. But there are opportunities that are available to you that will not necessarily be available tomorrow. SubhanAllah, and I'll end with this comment. And I never thought that I'd quote Warren Buffett in a khutbah. But there's a statement that he says, and I thought it was really profound because it fits this. He said, Beware the investment activity that produces applause. The great moves are usually greeted by yawns. He was talking about dunyawi investments, material investments. And you'll find this from Ibn al-Jawzi, rahimAllah, and other great scholars that they compare the way that people look for the investments of this world to the way that you look for the investments in the hereafter. Most people enter Jannah with very little fanfare. May Allah make us from the people of Jannah for ordinary actions that had extraordinary rewards that they took advantage of. It's the majority of Ahl al-Jannah, the majority of the people of Jannah. And so be introspective every day, not just of the sins that you committed, not just of the blessings that were available to you, but the opportunities that you have for that day. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to take advantage of each and every single one of them in a way that is pleasing to Him. اللهم آمين أقولك لهذا
واشتغل ذلك لسائد المسلمين فاستغفروا إنه الغفور الرحيم الحمد لله رب العالمين ولا عذوان إلا على الظالمين ونعاقبة المتقين اللهم صلي وسلم وبرك على عبدك ورسولك محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم وعلى آله وصحبه وسلم تسهما كثيرا اللهم اغفر المؤمنين والمؤمنات والمسلمين والمسلمات الأحياء منهم والأموات إنك سميع قريب واجيب الدعوات اللهم اغفر لنا وارحمنا واعفو عنا ولا تعذبنا ربنا ظلمنا أنفسنا وإن لم تغفر لنا وترحمنا لنكوننا من الخاسرين اللهم إنك عفو كريم وتحب العفو فاعفو عنا اللهم اغفر لوالدينا رب رحمهما كمن ربهما صغارا ربنا أهب لنا من أزواجنا وذرياتنا قرة أعين واجعلنا للمتقين إماما اللهم أعز الإسلام والمسلمين وأذل الشرك والكاذبين ودمر أعداء الدين اللهم أهلك الظالمين بالظالمين وأخرجنا وإخواننا من بينهم سالمين عباد الله نضهر أمر بالعدل والإحسان وإيتاء ذي القربى وينهى عن الفحشاء والمنكر والبغي يعبكم لعلكم تذكرون فاذكروا الله يذكركم واشكروه على النعماء يزد لكم ولذكر الله أكبر الله يعلم ما تصنعون وأقيم الصلاة
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