Sincerity in Deeds for Allah

Sincerity in Deeds for Allah

Ustadh AbdelRahman Murphy

Opening

Khutbat al-Hajah (Opening Khutbah)

و بعد

A Mother's Question That Shook Hearts

Last Thursday my mom, my mother she called me and as is her weekly tradition before I give a khutbah she was going to tell me what I should give a khutbah about. So my mom, she has this weekly thing where she calls and tells me, "Abdurrahman, I heard a lecture or I read a hadith or I read an ayah and I want you to talk about this when you talk to people."

And at that moment, I heard her on the phone and I heard this silence so I thought that the phone disconnected so I said, you know, mom are you there? And then she said, yes I'm here but I heard her and her voice, she was crying so I thought to myself, what did you hear that caused your heart to tremble? What did I hear, what did you hear that caused you to start shedding tears?

And she said, "Abdurrahman, I heard this lecture about a hadith that I've heard time and time again but at the end of the lecture," she said, "the teacher, the sheikh, he asked a question of the audience that she said, wallahi it shook me to my core."

The Hadith of the Three Men in the Cave

The hadith that she was referencing is a hadith that's very famous in our tradition where the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) in his effort to educate his companions and to educate us he taught us about an event that happened before us. And he said, and this is narrated in the books of hadith like Sahih Bukhari and Muslim and Tirmidhi and Nasa'i and others, Riyad as-Salihin, he said that there was a time where there were three men, three people who were on a journey and due to the inclement weather, the rain they had to take shelter and so they went into a cave.

They went and they found this cave in the mountains when they were walking on their journey and the weather was so bad, the rain was so bad that they ran into the cave but because of the weather and because of the shape of the cave and the entrance the weather and the wind and the rain had caused a giant rock, a boulder to fall and to exactly fall on the mouth of the cave meaning that now that they were in this cave and the boulder was there they had no exit, there was no way to get out.

And so the first thing they did was they told each other, the hadith says:

(Sahih Bukhari & Muslim)

That call upon Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) on or through using a deed that you did, something that you did that you only did for Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He)'s sake.

And this is a very interesting response to trial and difficulty. You know you're stuck in a cave, you have no idea how you're gonna get out, you tried to push the boulder, all three of you tried but your muscle couldn't help and so they then turn to one another and the first thing they say is ask Allah for help.

So each of them in a moment of desperation raises their hands to Allah in the cave and each of them share a moment from their history where they did a deed that they did only for the sake of Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He).

The First Man's Story

The first one he says, "Ya Allah," and they each recount the story, he says, "Ya Allah, you know that I am a shepherd, you know that I have a flock and you know that as part of my responsibilities or as part of my benefit from this job I take milk from these animals. And Ya Allah you know that every time I take milk Ya Allah I go back and even though I have my own family and my own children I first go to the home of my parents and I make sure that they drink before I even give my family the milk to drink I make sure that my parents have been nurtured and nourished before I even nurture and nourish myself or my own family, my own children."

He said, "Ya Allah, you remember that one time where I went back to my parents home and it was late and I found them sleeping Ya Allah and Ya Allah you remember that one time that I sat there and I did not want to disturb their sleep because they were my parents and out of love and respect for them I

wanted them to rest, they looked so tired and I sat there all night with the milk in my hands waiting because perhaps maybe they might wake up in the middle of the night hungry asking where was the milk today and I sat there to the point where my own children began to say dad, baba, dad, abu can we have some milk now, we've been waiting for so long and I sat there until the morning."

After recounting this story the first man said, "Ya Allah, in kunta ta'lam that I did this if you know Ya Allah that I did this for your sake alone then Allah please move the rock that we can see from it now when you move it a little bit of the sky."

At that moment when the man said Ya Allah if I did this for your sake alone please move the rock, when he said that the rock shifted slightly.

The Second Man's Story

The second man begins his story he says, "Ya Allah, you know that there was a woman that I was deeply in love with that I was extremely attracted to and we had feelings for one another and Ya Allah you know that I had the opportunity to have extramarital affairs with her and that one time I beckoned or I called for her and we met up to engage in extramarital activity and I was at the moment, I was at that moment right when we were about to engage with one another she reminded me to fear Allah and I remembered in my heart Oh Allah I remembered my consciousness and fear of you and I stopped."

He says, "Oh Allah if I did this for your sake Ya Allah if I did this only for you Ya Allah then please move the boulder move the rock so that we can see from it a bit of the sky."

So the man said if I was doing this for your sake if I avoided the temptation Ya Allah for your sake then please move the boulder and Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) then shifted the boulder slightly.

The Third Man's Story

The third man then after seeing this happen now twice called out to Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) and said, "Ya Allah, I employed someone to do some work for me. I employed a person to do some work for me and after they did this work for me Ya Allah I owed them a certain payment, a certain grain, a certain amount of grain and in that I asked them to take their grain but for some reason they refused Ya Allah so they left and I took their grain and I then invested it multiple times so over the years I took the grain I invested it and from that grain I was able to yield to purchase cows and sheep and much more than the grain itself was worth."

"The man then came back the laborer then came back and demanded his payment and the third man said Ya Allah I could have just given him the grain that I owed him but because I used his payment and invested it and yielded more I told him that you see all of this all of these animals and these livestock he said yes he said all of that belongs to you it came from the grain that you were owed the man actually became shocked and told me are you lying? are you joking with me? are you making fun of me? and the man said no the third man said no it all belongs to you he took that and he left."

So the third man then at that moment called and said the same dua as the first two, "Ya Allah if you know that I did this for your sake alone Ya Allah then please move the boulder" and the boulder then shifted completely out of the way.

The Core Message: Al-Ikhlas (Sincerity)

The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) told us this incredible hadith with so many different virtues in it but today we're going to talk about a few and this is the core of our relationship with Allah. All three of these stories all three of these events have a couple things in common. The first and foremost is that they all highlight what is known in our religion as al-ikhlas, as sincerity.

Ibn al-Qayyim defined al-ikhlas as when a person does something for the sake of Allah they do some sort of act of obedience to Allah and they have no one else in their mind and in their heart besides Allah and this is difficult this is tough because sometimes you could be doing it to please somebody else whether it's your parents or your kids or your spouse or your friends or your community and that could impact your intention in your heart but Ibn al-Qayyim said no if a person has ikhlas that means that the only one that they're thinking about when they're doing the deed is Allah they're not thinking about if they're gonna get in trouble with anybody or if they're gonna please or impress anybody they're only thinking about Allah.

The Question That Shook My Mother

So my mother, going back to the phone call now, at the end of that when she told me the story she still had tears in her eyes and she said to me, "Abdurrahman the sheikh asked a question that shook me when he finished narrating the hadith." I said, "Mom what was the question?" She said, "Abdurrahman he said to us if you were the fourth person in the cave and the boulder had only moved a little bit do you have a deed that was so sincere that was done for the sake of Allah that you would have been able to raise your hands and been a part of the group that moved the boulder or if you had called upon Allah perhaps would the boulder not have moved at all."

And this was the question that she said that caused her to start crying. Have I done anything so sincere and so full of only la ilaha illallah that it would literally be able to move mountains?

And the sheikh then concluded and said, "Brothers and sisters sincerity is such a strong power that the believer has that it can take an obstacle that seems impossible that seems immovable and when sincerity is added to the action Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) can make the impossible possible he can move the immovable he can change the unchangeable condition whatever we perceive a difficulty to be if we do something for Allah's sake alone then Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) can facilitate that."

And that's why the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

(Sahih Bukhari & Muslim)

He said protect yourself from the fire even if it's only with half a date. What is half a date worth in financial monetary assessment? What is half a date worth when you give charity? Half a date please when you sign up for the sustainer's program try to commit more than half a date inshallah right - because it's not worth that much it's only worth like maybe 30 cents.

But subhanallah the hadith here the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) says never underestimate any deed if it's done for the sake of Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) and this goes for you and for us meaning we should never underestimate our deeds. We should never say oh I'm only a simple Muslim I only pray and I only... No, you pray subhanallah you worship Allah and we should also never underestimate the deeds of other people.

The Power of One Sincere Deed

And this is a disease that flows through the community is that we see someone and we say oh yeah they might do this little thing but they have all these other deficiencies that they have oh they might do this on the week and they might come to juma once a week but they're not really a good Muslim. Don't ever underestimate anyone's deeds whether it's your own or someone else's because subhanallah the power of sincerity in that deed may as well change their entire course of life.

Imam Ghazali he narrates a hadith in one of his writings where he says that there was a man who was to collect some debts and I've told this story before but think about this for a moment. He had done no good in his life ever. The hadith says that he was very deficient in his relationship with Allah but he used to give loans to people all the time, free loans, no interest, free loans.

One day he told his debt collector to go and tell everybody that your loans have been forgiven. I have forgiven all of your loans. No one is going to pay me back. All of your loans have been forgiven. The man then dies and we learn from the hadith that he will be resurrected on the day of judgment like all of us and Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) will have a conversation with him and will say, "What is it that you did in your life?" and the man will say, "I didn't do much ya Allah I didn't do much but one thing that I did ya Allah is that I had a lot of people who owed me money and one day I woke up with this sincere feeling in my heart that I wanted to forgive all of them their debt because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said that forgiving debt is one of the most beautiful and illuminating deeds that a person can do is forgiving someone's debt." Even though he said that the person does not have to do that they don't have to forgive it but it's good.

So he said, "Ya Allah I woke up one day and I wanted to forgive everyone their debt and I did so." Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) turned to the angels (Glorified and Exalted be He) and he says to the angels, "This man forgave those people who owed him who transgressed him who owed him money." Then Allah says, "But no one is better at forgiving someone who transgresses than me and so let it be known that although this man did no other good in his life I'm talking about no prayer no fasting nothing else possibly no sadaqa he said let it be known that I have forgiven this man all of his sins because of that one deed of sincerity."