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The Reward of Your “Invisible” Work | Khutbah by Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy
You’re always the one who shows up, the one who holds it together, the one who does the right thing when no one’s watching. Some days you wonder if anyone would even notice if you stopped.
Allah does. He sees every bit of it, even the parts no one ever thanked you for.
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
00:00After praising Allah, the Glorified and Exalted, and testifying to His unique Oneness and Perfection, and to Muhammad ﷺ being His servant and His Prophet and His Messenger,
00:12and after reminding myself and you of the taqwa of Allah, to be conscious and consistent in our adoration, in our submission, in our trust of Allah, our King, our Creator, our Sustainer,
00:25and after welcoming you all to the house of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic one more time, brothers and sisters, at the conclusion of Surah Yusuf, when the brothers come full circle,
00:38these same brothers who extended their hands to apprehend their younger brother Yusuf, and rip off his shirt, and toss him into the well, they're extending those same hands,
00:52maybe 30 or 40 years later, in desperation because people are suffering from a drought, people are starving, there is a famine taking place or about to,
01:02and in that moment only do they realize who they're standing in front of. They realize that the young boy that they wanted to kill or leave for dead in the bottom of the well,
01:14Allah had just raised him on top of the throne of Egypt, and so the Surah says that He says to them that they say to him,
01:27is that really you? Are you Yusuf? He says, I am Yusuf, and this is my brother, meaning the one you didn't treat as a brother all these years. He's really mine, not yours.
01:43Allah had conferred such a great favor on us. Allah has been so kind to us. whoever is just pious, committed to piety, and whoever is just patient,
02:00then Allah will never let the reward of the good-doers go to waste. You know, He is not saying that you will always get your reward here. That's not true, of course.
02:14You'll always get your du'a accepted here. You'll always have your expectations fulfilled here. No, but He is saying, I always knew that Allah would never let it go to waste, and this that I'm experiencing now is just part of the promise of Allah that He chose
02:28to share with me in this world. That's really important that we never understand that we are going to get everything we deserve in this world. Allah may sprinkle some of it here to bolster our
02:42faith in Him, but our faith needs to be unwavering. That He will, whether immediately or eventually, whether in this world or the next, He will never allow, as Yusuf said, the reward, the effort of
02:56the good-doer to go to waste. You know, SubhanAllah, about sprinkling some of the first installment of the reward to keep us going, there used to be a Saudi brother, beautiful brother in this community
03:08when I first moved here, who had taken part in some of the relief excursions in the Horn of Africa, along with the legendary philanthropist, Dr. Abdur Rahman Al-Sumait, who died in 2013. He was a Kuwaiti
03:21physician who spent the last 29 years of his life serving in Africa, the needy populations there. This brother of ours said the Shaykh every once in a while would say that Allah throws our way
03:35some reward to see with our eyes, to keep us going, because the amount of need, even if we've
03:42touched millions of lives, which he has, is just a dent in a mountain, right? He says one time we went to a village and we were actually speaking to them about the truth of Islam, and they said to us,
03:55listen Shaykh, we don't know much about religion and we honestly don't care much about religion. Can your God give us water? Because we haven't had rain for like months. If your God can give us water, we'll become Muslim, no problem, not that serious. He said, so he was stuck, so he went over
04:10to a tree and he prayed Salat al-Istiqa, the prayer that our Prophet ﷺ taught us for, invoking Allah for rain. Later on that day, the clouds formed for the first time in months
04:22and they got some rain, and the whole tribe becomes Muslim. Does that always happen automatically, that you make du'a? No, it doesn't, but Allah gives you some reward sometimes. He even mentioned
04:34another beautiful story here, that as they were distributing food, and there are long lines, they actually would have to weigh the children, because they were malnourished, to see if they
04:45were above a certain threshold. If they don't meet the baseline, the food will not help them. And so they don't have unlimited food, and so they would actually have to make a very hard decision
04:56of saving the food for those whose lives it can actually save. So one mother brings her child, and the child is well below the baseline, and they tell her, we're sorry lady, and they move her along, we have to get to the next person. He finished his shift and he went around the tent,
05:11just to get some rest, and he saw this woman sitting on the ground with her baby on the floor, just waiting for the baby to die. Logically, it doesn't make sense to feed the baby, but
05:21emotionally he couldn't handle it. So he chose to spend on this child a monthly stipend from whatever he had. He had given up the luxurious life a long time ago. And
05:3516 years later, he was approached by a young man, who said to him, you are Dr. Sumait, you don't know me, but I know you. 16 years ago, I was left on the ground to die, and you believed in me,
05:49and they said there was no point, but I survived. I want you just to know that I made it, I want you to know that I'm a hafiz of the Qur'an right now, and I just wanted to say,
06:01powerful story, incredible story. But what I want to tell you is that most stories don't end like that in this world, and that should never cause our faith to waver. That is the point. The point
06:13is, they are all success stories, so long as we're exerting our efforts the right way with Allah. You know, in Medina, the qibla had changed from Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa to Al-Masjid Al-Haram,
06:27and some of the enemies of Islam took the opportunity to use this as some psychological warfare against the Muslims. They say the people who died before the qibla changed, they all prayed
06:39to other than the Ka'ba, so their salah was all a waste. And this began to eat away at some of the Muslims. Now they're talking about this, like, yeah, how does that work exactly? Like, every single salah gone? Like, every sujud, it didn't count? It was wrong qibla?
06:54And so Allah responded, and the fact that he responded tells you so much about who Allah is. You know, Allah said in Surah Al-Baqarah,
07:07And it is not befitting of Allah to allow your efforts to go to waste. He didn't say Allah will not let the prayers to Al-Aqsa go to waste. It's not what he said.
07:17He said, and it is Allah would never do it. Meaning, whether about the prayers to Al-Aqsa or anything else, Allah 'Azza wa Jall does not operate like this. He would never. It is
07:28unbefitting of his greatness, the greatness of his justice, the greatness of his generosity. He would never allow your faith to go to waste. In other words, all Muslims, you need to believe
07:38that it is impossible for Allah to ever neglect your efforts, to ever leave you unappreciated. You know, because it's really hard, like the fact that Allah addressed it, why it's really hard for
07:53you to work and not see results, for you to even excel and not get recognized, not feel appreciated. And so he tells you, I am Ash-Shakur. That's my name. That's who I am. I am the Most Appreciating.
08:05Part of what it means that Allah is the Most Appreciating is that no one but Allah will ever be able to appreciate you the way he does, right? Or else then he's not the most.
08:18It has to mean that everyone else is less appreciating than him. So you seek it from him. In the Qur'an, Allah says,
08:33And whatever it is that they do of goodness, he will never deny it. What makes you fall in love with Allah when you hear this ayah? It's the fact that when it comes
08:45to Allah's rights, he's lenient. He'll forgive and overlook and okay, let's start over and let's spare you, right? But when it comes to your rights, which are supposed to be less important,
08:57the Creator is more important than the creation. When it comes to the creation's rights, Allah says I'll never let any of it go to waste. Your rights, oh servants of mine,
09:07are non-negotiable in my eyes. Whatever it's going to be, I will never let it go to waste. You know, there is, I want you to notice the pattern now throughout the Qur'an. This is mentioned as many times in the Qur'an as we need it, basically.
09:21In Surah Ali 'Imran, Allah says about those who are making du'a to Allah to accept their faith and accept their humble deeds. Allah says, Their Lord responded to their request,
09:38That I will never allow to go to waste. Any action of any actor, the language here is very clear, SubhanAllah. Of you believers,
09:53Whether they be a male or they be a female, You are from each other. You're all the same to me. But then he says, this is what makes this ayah different from the ones before it.
10:05So those who migrated and were expelled from their homes, meaning they got up and walked out on their lives to be able to stay Muslim because they were persecuted where they were.
10:20Those that migrated and were expelled from their homes, and they were harmed for my sake. So not even just people that got up and went somewhere to please me,
10:32but people who got harmed, not something they did, something that was done to them. Right? Even those who were harmed, And those who fought and those who were killed. I will erase every last one of their sins.
10:50And I will admit them into gardens beneath which rivers flow. As a reward that can only come from Allah. And with Allah is the greatest of rewards.
11:05The stuff that doesn't even fit in this world. You know, the ayah says, I'll never let it all go to waste. Even if you be a male or a female. Meaning whether your husband migrated and you're tagging along with him, or you feel like I need to just go where my husband, it doesn't matter. Nothing matters.
11:19What matters, you did it for Allah. What it is, is it's getting paid in full. Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. You know, down to what? Last example, elsewhere in the Qur'an, Allah says, even your thirst, even your moments of exhaustion, your moments of fatigue,
11:36even your footsteps. He said about the battle of Tabuk. This battle didn't even happen. They marched out to the battle. It was a far march, 30 day walk. And it didn't happen and they came back. Yet Allah says,
11:50No thirst touched them. There was a delay, a few hours before they could reach water. There was inconvenience. Like you may be feeling a little bit of inconvenience right now, right?
12:03Some sweaty, some humidity, some stickiness on the drive here or in the Masjid. Nothing will touch them of dham, of thirst. Or any fatigue, any level of exhaustion. Nor any hunger.
12:18Food was readily available in the path of Allah. Then he says, Nor did they cover any ground.
12:28Even the steps, the territory you tread on, the mileage you advanced in, not the fight. You didn't cover any ground.
12:39To spite the disbelieving enemy or to incur any loss on them. Except that a good deed will be written for them, for all of that. Then he says what?
12:55Because Allah is not that type that allows the reward of the good doer to ever go to waste. Nowhere in that verse did Allah mention winning the battle. In fact, the battle didn't even happen.
13:08So I'm telling you, it's not even about you winning in this world. The progress you made in your walk, the hardship that you were subjected to because you decided to walk. All of that, I have something in store for you because of it.
13:22I am the most appreciating.
13:44Finally, brothers and sisters, to bring this principle of Allah never allowing nothing to ever go to waste with Allah. To bring it into our life, in our day to day. I want you to remember one thing in light of this principle.
14:00You can lose anything in life. In fact, if we're being honest, you will lose everything in life. Yes. You know, sometimes we lose some money. We lose a relationship. We lose some respect. We don't get the credit, whatever it's going to be.
14:15Sure. Pursue justice within reasonability. Sure, pursue justice in the dunya. But don't obsess over it. Why? Because how can you obsess over missing out on something in your life
14:27when you will lose your life one day? The whole thing is going to go. Except that which of your life was lived for Allah. That's where all our motivation should come from. That's where all of our reassurance gets anchored.
14:43You know, this is thrilling news for the everyday person. You know, it's thrilling news for that family member. And there's one in every family who's like the obscure, unknown peacemaker in every family. They're always trying to just bring people together again.
14:58Right? And they're usually not appreciated. They're usually the person that's trying to be balanced and reasonable. And so they're accused by both sides of taking sides. Right? Allah will never let it go to waste. Even if it didn't work, getting your family back together again.
15:14This is great news for that teacher whose name nobody knows. You guys know the great Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali, Rahimahu Allah, one of the most famous authors and scholars in Islamic history. He had a brother. Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali had a brother named Ahmad.
15:26Ahmad was the reason Al-Ghazali spent the last 10 years of his life changing course. In a completely different, you know, project. In fact, Ahmad Al-Ghazali, they would say about him, he would not teach in the big cities.
15:39He would go out to those in the wilderness that had no teachers and say, I'll do it. I'll be the teacher of the ones that didn't have any teachers. This is thrilling news for the dad that works so hard for a lifetime.
15:52Almost invisible. Right? No one knows how your back is feeling that morning when you're dragging yourself out of the house. No one knows how your knee is feeling. No one knows how unappreciated you felt that morning.
16:04No one knows how much you spent for a lifetime. No one actually knows that number. You probably don't even know it. Allah knows it. It is for that mother that dedicated herself for a lifetime to her children.
16:18No one actually knows how many hours she spent losing sleep, head on pillow, worrying about her kids. No one knows how many doctor's appointments she skipped. Her own doctor's appointments to prioritize others over herself.
16:33No one knows how hurt she was to hear murmurs or to hear people saying she's just a stay-at-home mom. Right? Allah knows it will not go to waste. The person who starts a pious project
16:48that doesn't outlive them the way they expect it to, at least. Allah has it. The donor who doesn't know how much they donated over a lifetime or doesn't even remember that they donated. It's in the hand of God. Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
17:03This is the type of thing you want to remember. Nothing is lost. When I share a lesson with one of the youth in the Musalla here or in the lobby somewhere or somewhere in my neighborhood, not lost with Allah, 'Azza wa Jal, Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
17:17You know the moments even in private when you honor or help people honor, observe Allah's sacred boundaries among your friends. Right? Let's change the subject and not talk about this person.
17:30Let's pause for a minute and make our prayer even though it's the NBA finals. Allah says in the Qur'an, forget vanity metrics and visibility and social media
17:44and all this fluff. He says those that just hold on to the Book and make sure they're establishing their prayers even when inconvenient, right? He said at the end of that ayah,
17:58we will never allow to go to waste the reward of the good doer. It's not going anywhere with Allah. It's waiting for you. And I'll close with the famous narration of Ibn Umar, Abdullah ibn Umar, radiyallahu anhuma,
18:12when he would want to give a slave his freedom, want to donate money to give someone their emancipation. He would look at who is the more righteous of the slaves that are available to him. And whoever seemed closer to Allah, more committed to the deen, he would free them first.
18:28So they would come to him and say, they're tricking you. They're pretending to be religious so that you would pay for their freedoms. And he would say to them,
18:42whoever wants to trick us into doing something for the sake of Allah, we don't mind being tricked. We've lost nothing. Nothing is ever lost with Allah. Brothers and sisters, take that home with you today.
18:59Zidna ilman, ya Rabbana.





































































































































































































































































































