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The Good Deed That Ruins You | Khutbah
In this khutbah, Dr. Omar Suleiman shares the profound insights of Ibn Al Qayyim (ra) on the risk of a worshipper being lost in their pride, while a sinner finds their way back to Allah.
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Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. We begin by praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for him. And we bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam 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. And we ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahuma ameen. Dear brothers and sisters, Al-Imam al-Shirazi, rahimahullah, has this profound story with his father. And you can see the way that these scholars were raised with both ilm and adab. They were raised with both knowledge and manners, and they took so much more than the textual inheritance that came to them. He says that one night my father and I were awake and we were praying qiyam al-layl. How beautiful when a father and son stand up and pray qiyam together. Everything you'd want in terms of a righteous household. A parent and a child standing up and praying at night. And he said that I was a young man and I looked around and I recognized that we were amongst the few that were up and praying. Meaning what? The people in the neighborhood, the people around, were all sleeping. So I said to my father, lam yakun min haa ula'i man yusalli raq'ateen? None of these people wanted to even wake up and pray two raqas? Right? As if to say, you know, look at us and look at them. Alhamdulillah, we're awake and we're praying and look at all of these people. None of them are up to pray two raqas at night. And he said, my father said to me, yaa abu naiyyah, law nimta lakana khayran lak. Oh my son, if you would have slept, it would have been better than you waking up. I would have preferred that you stayed sleeping and not fall into wuqoo'ika fil khalq, not fall into this disrespect and this disregard of the creation of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, than for you to wake up and to develop this pride.
It's a powerful narration, a powerful story. It would have been better for you to stay asleep and not pray than to wake up with pride in the way that you look at those that are around you. The last khutbah that I gave was about refusing advice from Allah. It was about refusing advice out of pride. It was the opposite side of that, the sinner that is open with their sinning or committing a sin and someone points out to them the obvious in regards to their sin, akhadathu al-izzah bil-ithm. And pride stops them from disregarding that sin, not because they question whether or not the sin is sinful or the sin is actually a sin or not, but because they don't like the person giving it to them or they don't like the way that the advice was given to them and so their pride doesn't allow them to forsake that sin, so they insist upon that sin, akhadathu al-izzah bil-ithm. But what about the worshiper or the religious person who takes pride in their religiosity and loses themselves in that pride? So subhanAllah, when you're talking about open sin becoming prominent, obviously the greatest risk of that is the normalization of that sin. And then if the sin is normalized, then the propagators of evil become emboldened in their propagation of evil and then the ignorant at some point get lost in between. They don't even know anymore what the standard of sin is. But just as we have to protect ourselves from becoming desensitized to those sins, we have to protect ourselves from discarding the sinners. And subhanAllah, when you look back in the early books, it's always interesting to me how innocent the examples that are given are. You know back then, what was open sinning? What was open sinning? In those societies, especially the societies of the tabi'een and the generation that followed and the generation that followed, open sin was not a thing, right? The idea of open lewdness was not a thing.
What they saw as open sinning was a person who doesn't come to the masjid or a person who doesn't frequent the halaqat of dhikr, the circles of knowledge, the circles of the remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and was seen to be more prominent in the marketplace. And maybe their tongue used to slip a bit more. That was their idea of the open sinner versus the person who's in the masjid, mashaAllah, the person who is regular with ilm, regular with da'wah, regular with worship. And so now that exposure, people exposing themselves and people becoming exposed, becomes so much more frequent, then we have to have this hyper sense of protection for ourselves, for our own hearts, and I'm gonna stop you from cutting me off from now by thinking that, well, I'm not the perfect worshipper myself because we don't really have these molds anymore. There isn't the religious person and the non-religious person, right? You could develop pride because of one deed that you have and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, whoever has one Adam's worth of kibbutz in their hearts, one Adam's worth of pride in their hearts will not enter into Jannah. So it might be just the idea that you pray Jum'ah and someone else doesn't pray Jum'ah, that you've developed this disease of kibbutz in one regard and an Adam's worth of that pride is enough to ruin a person. You comparing yourself in the relative sense, your good deeds to someone's sins, your concealed sin versus someone's open sin. It doesn't have to be this perfect mold of the student of knowledge, masha'Allah, the person who comes to the halaqas, comes to the masjid, and the person who's going wild on social media. There are a lot of layers in between those two things. It also affects every age. The older person could be looking at some of the gatherings and think of this person that does this and this person that does that. So it doesn't fit a particular mold when it comes to this condemnation that we can have in our hearts and this disease in our hearts
that could lead us to start to look down upon people in some regard. There are many layers of that. And so I wanted to just read with a few minutes that I have insha'Allah ta'ala this portion from Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim rahimahu Allah ta'ala on the spiritual disease. He says, starting off, وَكُلُّ مَا عَصِيَةٍ عَيَّرْتَ بِهَا أَخَاكَ فَهِيَ إِلَيْكَ Any sin that you taunt your brother for, know that it will come back to you. And he mentions that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam was narrated to have said, مَنْ عَيَّرَ أَخَاهُ بِذَنْبٍ لَمْ يَمُتْ حَتَّى يَعْمَلَهُ That whoever taunts his brother with a sin will not die until Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tests them with committing that exact same sin. So beware of taunting your brother or sister. And he went on to say, قال الامام أحمد في تفسير هذا الحديث من ذنب قد تاب منه An important clarification that Imam Ahmad rahimahu Allah said, this means a sin that that person repented from, especially you're talking about the repenter who's forsaken a sin. You may be taunting them for a sin that Allah has forgiven them for, or may forgive them later for when they repent to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, or through His mercy forgives them anyway. But Allah does not forgive you for your mockery of that person in that regard. وَأَيضًا فَفِي التَّعْيِيرِ And also when we're talking about this idea of taunting someone who sins, he talks about this insult, right? This idea of putting someone down, الشماتة, to insult someone when they're in the state of that sin, even if you're not taunting them directly with that sin. And he says, as it was also narrated from the Prophet ﷺ, لا تُظْهِرِ الشَّمَاتَةَ لِأَخِيكَ فَيَرْحَمَهُ اللَّهُ وَيَبْتَلِيكَ Do not show that disgrace, that insult towards your brother because it may be that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will have mercy upon them, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will test you instead. And he continues to say,
أَنَّ تَعْيِيرَكَ لِأَخِيكَ بِذَنْبِهِ أَعْظَمُ إِثْمًا مِنْ ذَنْبِهِ وَأَشَدُّ مِنْ مَعْصِيَتِهِ Your mocking of your brother or your taunting of your brother or sister when they're in that sin is worse than the sin that they're committing in the first place. Meaning the sin of your mockery, the sin of your backbiting, we're not even talking about slander by the way, things that have gone untrue, but the sin of putting someone down and making fun of someone and taunting someone and mocking them for a sin that they're committing is greater than their sin. The sin of your استهزاء, the sin of your mockery is far worse. And he goes on to say because the ulema spoke about our spiritual beings, not just the outputs. He says, وَلَعَلَّ كَسْرَتَهُ بِذَنْبِهِ وَمَا أَحْدَثَ لَهُ مِنَ الْذِلَّةِ وَالْخُضُوعِ وَالْإِزْرَاءِ عَلَى نَفْسِهِ وَالتَّخَلُّصِ مِن مَرَضِ الدَّعْوَةِ وَالْكِبْرِ وَالْعُجْبِ وَوُقُوفِهِ بَيْنَ يَدَيِ اللَّهِ نَاكِسَ الرَّأْسِ خَاشِعَ الطَّرْفِ مُنْكَسِرَ الْقَلْبِ أَنْفَعُ لَه وَمَا أَقْرَبَ هَذَا الْمُدِلُ مِنْ مَقْتِ اللَّهِ He said it may be that that person's brokenness and what has come to them of humiliation that caused them to relinquish any feeling of pride that affects the people of worship. They feel low and in their lowness that led them to bow their heads in regret to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Broken hearted, flowing tears that is far better and more beneficial than your proud worship that you repeat habitually and you bring up with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, you boast about it with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and His creation as if you are owed some sort of position and some sort of rank. فَمَا أَقْرَبَ هَذَا الْعَاصِي مِنْ رَحْمَةِ اللَّهِ وَمَا أَقْرَبَ هَذَا الْمُدِلُ مِنْ مَقْتِ اللَّهِ
So how close is this sinner to the mercy of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and how close is this worshiper, this arrogant worshiper to the anger and the punishment of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. SubhanAllah, beautiful words and he says, فَذَنْبٌ تَذِلُّ بِهِ لَدَيْهِ أَحَبُّ إِلَيْهِ مِنْ طَاعَةٍ تُدِلُّ بِهَا عَلَيْهِ The meaning of which is that a sin that humbles you and brings you closer to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is far better than a good deed that takes you away from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and yields arrogance or causes you to humiliate someone else. وَإِنَّكَ أَنْتَ بِيْتَ نَائِمًا وَتُصْبِحَ نَادِمًا خَيْرٌ مِنْ أَنْتَ بِيْتَ قَائِمًا وَتُصْبِحَ مُعْجَبًا And for you to go to sleep at night and to not wake up and pray a single rak'ah but wake up with regret in the morning is far more beloved to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala than for you to wake up and pray at night and then when the morning comes you're filled with pride. And he says something so beautiful here. He says, وَآنِنُ الْمُذْنِبِينَ أَحَبُّ إِلَىٰهِ مِنْ زَجْرِ الْمُسَبِّحِينَ الْمُدِلِّينَ The groaning of the sinner, the tears, the weeping, the groaning of the sinner is far more precious to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala than the humming of the arrogant worshippers. The groaning and the moaning and the tears and the wailing, that emotional outpouring of regret is so much more beloved to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala than the worshipper who hums in congregation with a sense of arrogance and a sense of pride and doesn't come back to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. وَلَعَلَّ اللَّهَ أَسْقَاهُ بِهَٰذَا الذَّنْبِ دَوَاءًۭ اِسْتَخْرَجَ بِهِ دَاءًۭ قَاتِلًۭا هُوَ فِيكَ وَلَا تَشْعُرُ And it might be that through this thing that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has tested this person with, it was a medicine, that sin was a medicine by which Allah removed a disease from that person that's still present within you and you just don't know.
That sin could have been a medicine for that person, that Allah removed a fatal spiritual disease and that spiritual disease is in you and it just has not been diagnosed yet. فَلِلَّهِ فِي أَهْلِ طَاعَتِهِ وَمَعْصِيَتِهِ أَسْرَارٌ لَا يَعْلَمُهَا إِلَّا هُوَ There are secrets that the worshipper and the open sinner, that the student of knowledge and the person who is openly ignorant and heedless, secrets that we all have that no one knows except Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. The only difference between their sin and yours is that their sin is open and your sin is concealed. But the ranks are only known to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. The good deeds of that person, that sinner, is only known to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. You know there's a powerful story of one of the Salihin and I'll end with this because it's so profound. When you talk about not knowing what the other person has and guarding the sites, you're in this masjid right now looking around, who's here? Oh, there's that person, not that person. You start looking and scrolling through people's social media feeds or there they go again. This is Subhanallah a very powerful story that one of the Salihin, one of the righteous scholars, and it's attributed to Abu Hanifa, but there's no change to Abu Hanifa in this. So one of the Salihin, one of the righteous scholars had a neighbor who was known for being an alcoholic. And when the neighbor passed away, the wife of that neighbor asked this person, the scholar, to come and pray janazah and the scholar abstained. Why? Because it's an alcoholic. Right? And we have some guidance and some legislation for this, by the way, the spirit of which is that when you want to discourage people from a major sin, sometimes the imam or someone of importance could withhold or respectfully abstain from the janazah just to discourage people, dissuade people from the sin that that person was known for, that major sin that the person committed,
while the janazah is still prayed and forgiveness is still sought. There's some basis for this, of course. But the moral of the story is that he abstains and then he sees a dream at night and he sees this man walking in Jannah and enjoying the fruits of Al-Jannah. And the man is saying, قولوا له, say to him, الحمد لله لم تجعل الجنة بيده. Say to that person, Alhamdulillah, Jannah is not in his hands. Tell that man that Alhamdulillah, Jannah is not in his hands, that the keys of Jannah are not in his hands. So he goes to the wife of this person, he asks her, you know, what is it about this man? What is it about your husband that passed away that I'm missing here? Sharing this dream. And she says, هو ما تعرف عنه. He is as you saw him, he was an alcoholic, he had this problem. He was indeed struggling with this sin. غير أنه كان في كل يوم جمعة يطعم أيتام الحي ويمسح على رؤوسهم ويبكي ويقول ادعوا لعمكم. The only thing is that on Fridays, every Friday he would go and he would feed the orphans of his neighborhood and he would accompany them and spend time with them and he would cry and he would say, make dua for your uncle. Make dua for your sinful uncle and it may be that Allah سبحانه وتعالى answered the dua of one of those orphans. We don't know the ranks of people and you have to actively protect your eyes and it all goes back to what? Focus on yourself, focus on your flaws. Hear everything in the capacity of what? How can I better myself? This is not a don't judge the sin. This is don't pass final judgment on the sinner. We don't lose the status of the sin in Islam. We know what a major sin is. We know what open fahisha is, open wickedness is and open lewdness is and it's condemnable and the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم indeed said that Allah will forgive all of the sins
except for the ones that are boasted about. But be careful when you let your eye wander and come across your brother or sister who you think is deficient in relation to you in one regard, and internally even have a conversation with yourself and think I'm better than that person. It takes one Adam's worth dear brothers and sisters, one Adam's worth. And in order to make sure that that one Adam's worth does not settle in the heart, it takes an entire intentionality every single day of focusing on your own sinfulness and your own station with Allah سبحانه وتعالى. May Allah سبحانه وتعالى forgive our brothers and sisters and forgive us for the sins that are open and the sins that are concealed, for the major and the minor sins. And may Allah سبحانه وتعالى allow us all to collectively be pleasing to Him. May Allah سبحانه وتعالى purify from us the sins that create a barrier between us and Him and protect us from the delusion that causes even our good deeds to become a barrier between us and Him. May Allah سبحانه وتعالى forgive us all. May Allah سبحانه وتعالى forgive us all.
May Allah سبحانه وتعالى forgive us all.
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