Our RIZQ is written Khutbah by Sheikh

Our RIZQ is Written

Khutbah by Sheikh Abu Usamah

Opening

السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

(بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ - bismillahir-rahmanir-rahim)

Khutbah Al-Hajah (Opening Sermon)

Alhamdulillah, we praise Him, ask for His help, and ask for His forgiveness. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whom Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whom He misguides, none can guide him.

And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger. Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.

As for the rest, the best speech is the speech of Allah and the best guidance is the guidance of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.

The worst of affairs are the newly invented matters, and every innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire.

Introduction: The Fitna of Money

The Nabi of Islam told us in an authentic hadith, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam:

"Indeed, every ummah has a fitna, and the fitna of my ummah is wealth."

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2336)

The fitna of the Muslims is money. It's fitna for many ways. For the most part, everybody who's sitting in this audience, we are those type of people who we're worried about where our money is going to come and how much money we're going to have and how do we manage our money.

Accountability for Our Wealth

But there are other things that come into the equation that make it a problem. The Prophet told the people, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam:

"The feet of the slave will not move on the Day of Judgment until he is asked about four things."

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2417)

And one of the things we're going to be asked about is our money. Where did it come from? And how did you spend it? Fitna of money. Some of us have stolen money. Some of us continue to steal money.

And some of us plan on stealing money. Some of our existence is based upon, as it relates to money, everything is haram. Everything from the person's wealth is haram.

Stealing money has become so much an integral part of people's existence that there are those from amongst us who forgot you stole money. You've misappropriated someone's hard-earned cash. And you're going to be responsible for it.

So today the khutbah is first and foremost to myself. More than anybody here. I have to play over and play back.

Whose money did I take? Because wallahi, the day is going to come where that money is going to be a problem. So we might as well solve the problem now by making tawbah, by trying to get people their money back, and trying to discontinue from being those people who steal money. I'm talking to myself.

Seeking Halal Provision

The fitna of this ummah is money. So there are those people who steal money constantly. But in our religion, we've been told, go after money in a beautiful way.

Go about the dunya in a nice way, a way with honor, and a way that has been legislated. The Prophet told the people, sallallahu alayhi wasalam: If you people would just rely on Allah the way you should rely on Him, verily He's going to provide for you the same way He provides for the bird. In the morning he goes out hungry, and then by the end of the day he comes back and his stomach is full.

He's not on the level of Bani Adam. Allah has honored Bani Adam. Gave him an aql, his jannah for him, and so forth and so on.

The bird doesn't have that kind of ikram. But if you rely on Allah the way that bird relied on Allah, you're going to be provided for. You don't have to steal. You don't have to cheat. You don't have to lie. You don't have to be a mug.

Keep your money halal. Even those kuffar of Quraysh had some sense of ghairah when it came to their religion of kuffar and shirk, and taking care of the Kaaba. When they wanted to fix the Kaaba up, they said everybody give your good money.

Don't give money from drugs, from alcohol, from prostitution, from an nahib, from riba, stealing. The kuffar of Quraysh came and brought forth the cleanest money that they had, which goes to show this is something that human beings have. It's in their fitrah.

Dirty money is a problem.

Our Rizq is Written in the Heavens

So Allah told Bani Adam in the Quran, He swore by many things, but He only swore by Himself in two ayat of the Quran. And one of those ayat is about this issue right here.

"And in the heaven is your provision and whatever you are promised."

Verily in the heavens is your rizq. You are not going to die before you get every single penny that was written for you. And not a single penny is going to miss you.

When a person's mother is impregnated نَفَخَ اللَّهُ فِيهِ الرُّوحَ - the angel comes and blows into that child, that seed, the spirit of life. And it's written down how much money you're going to make. So this thing about being afraid, Allah promised that in the Quran.

You're going to have a fitna in this money:

"And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth."

Allah promised that. We're going to make you afraid, and we're going to try you with something of being hungry.

You're going to be afraid because you're going to lose your life. You're going to lose your money. You're going to lose your property.

That's going to happen. But to what point does the Muslim find himself having anxiety where the quality of his life is really terrible because he doesn't know where his money is coming from? It's a fitna. If you just had the proper tawakkul on Allah, Allah would take care of you.

So from our audience, our masjid, there's the one who's been unemployed for a minute now. So he needs money. Since COVID came, COVID knocked a lot of people off of their economical square.

You know how much money I owe these people for council taxes. I don't know where they're going to get that money from. I tell you right here, let them see me. I don't know where you're going to get that money from. But one thing I know is I'm not going to try to die and check out without trying to give these people their money back. And I also know if a person owes someone money and he has ikhlas and he wants to pay him back, Allah is dominant and he's responsible for you.

The Burden of Debt

There are people in this audience, money is choking them. Al-khanum. Why? Because of the debts that he has.

The bailiffs are soon to knock on his door, are soon to kick his door down. And people are nervous. Rightly so.

Your money. And that's why the Nabi صلى الله عليه وسلم used to try to tell the community, don't be a person who goes around borrowing money. Because when you borrow money, they make you, turn you into a liar.

You tell the people, I'll pay you. I'll meet you at the masjid. You know you're lying.

I'm going to pay you on this day. You know you're lying. So there's a lot of money.

This issue is a big fitna. I'm here to say to you today, give the people their money back. Yawm al-Qiyamah is a big mushkila.

There are some people from amongst us who owe people money. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم told the people:

"Procrastination in paying debts by a wealthy person is oppression."

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 2287)

The one who borrows money from someone and he has money to pay him back and he doesn't pay him back, and he's procrastinating, is oppression.

And dhulm, dhulumat Yawm al-Qiyamah. How in the world are you going to go and make umrah in two weeks, three weeks, a month? You're going to make hajj this year with your mother and your wife.

And you owe that man money. No, you shouldn't go to umrah and hajj. You should come to that man and say, I want to go to umrah and hajj with your money. You give me permission? If he says yes, fabihi wa ni'ma. If he says no, give that man his money back. Your situation is like the lady that doesn't have a mahram.

Even if she has the ability to go, it's not wajib upon her. She doesn't have the mahram. You owe Muslims money.

Give the man his money back.

Lessons from the Stories of the Quran

So throughout the book of Allah, throughout the book of Allah, we've been given these stories about people who don't have money to show us, to teach us. Ya akhi, Allah is al-Razaq, Dhul-Quwwat al-Mateen.

Just go about getting the money the right way, and don't play games. Right here in this masjid, right here.

Someone comes to me and says, here, 50 pounds, put it in the bucket for the masjid.

I put it in my pocket and I go out. Man, that thing is burning a hole in my pocket. And I go and use that money, and I'm going to burn a hole in my son's stomach, my wife's stomach.

Who does that? Stealing from the masjid. Stealing from the Muslims. Lying to the people.

And some people do it tadayyunan. They say, al-harb khida, al-harb khida.

So they want to take money from the non-Muslims to make the non-Muslims weak by taking the doll and lying.

"Indeed, every ummah has a fitna, and the fitna of my ummah is wealth."

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2336)

Money is a fitna of this community.

The Story of Maryam (May Allah be pleased with her)

So we look in the Quran at Maryam. We gave you a khutbah about Maryam a few weeks ago. One of the perfect

"And do not kill your children out of fear of poverty. We provide for them and for you."

Don't kill your children out of fear of poverty. Allah said, We provide for you and them.

So right now the Muslim lady is pregnant. And I don't have a job. So I'm going to abort that baby.

I'm going to kill that baby. That baby's rizq is out of Allah. Especially if that nikah is a nikah that's halal.

As for the sifah (نَسْأَلُ اللَّهَ الْعَافِيَةَ وَالسَّلَامَةَ - Nas'al Allāh al-ʿāfiyata was-salāmah) - Don't kill people. And that's the nature of the sins. One sin leads to another sin leads to another sin.

Our rizq is with Allah. Nobody sitting here is going to miss one penny. Wallahi.

You're not going to miss one penny. What are you stressing for? So does that mean that you young people shouldn't try to get educated? Does that mean I shouldn't go to work? No. I do the best that I can as Allah told Maryam.

Go to the tree and shake the tree. After having a baby, after having a baby and you're a woman, shake the tree. Your rizq is going to come down.

That's a dalil. That's a point. The weak lady who had a baby.

It's just your job to get up and work. Don't be a bum. The hand that is above is better than the hand that's below.

Just taking money from kuffar. If I have to, I'll do it. Inshallah. I'll do it if I have to. But just to do it, because that's the culture. No. That's a fitna.

Don't sell your izan, your honor. That's our religion. Allah mentioned in the Quran about Maryam:

"Every time Zakariya entered upon her in the prayer chamber, he found with her provision. He said, 'Ο Maryam, from where is this coming to you?' She said, 'It is from Allah. Indeed, Allah provides for whom He wills without account.'"

Every time Zakariya went to check on Maryam, she has no husband, she had fruit that only grow in the summertime.

She had in the wintertime. She had fruit that grow in the wintertime only. She had in the summertime.

Ya Maryam, where did you get this? She said, it comes from Allah. Allah yarzuku min yasha without any hisab. Does that mean that you sit and you just wait for fruit right now and the woman, I want batik right now.

I'm gonna sit down and just wait for some watermelon. That doesn't mean that. That means that that's a lady who had a baby.

Most men are stronger than women. Naturally, but her rizq is from Allah.

Lessons from the Stories in the Sunnah

Now I want to share with you, brothers, a person from the Quran, or from the authentic sunnah, the Nabi صلى الله عليه وسلم . Because there are many people that the Prophet told us these stories to let you know.

Ya Akhi Abu Amr, don't be afraid. Don't be worried. You don't have money? You don't have money? Don't kill yourself.

Don't become desperate and do something crazy. We have a hadith of these people. The lady needed so much money.

She was so poor. She went to ask her cousin, can I get help? He said, no, unless you do it with me, do the haram. She said, no way I'm not doing that. But she was pushed by poverty where she finally said, okay, let's do it. She didn't want to do that. There are Muslim women right now in the Muslim world and parts of Africa in camps where they have to do that to survive.

I'm not here to judge them. That's a fitna. But Allah didn't put us in that situation.

But some people find that. And why do those stories come? Why do those stories come? And there are many, there are many. Allah mentioned in the Quran:

"There was certainly in their stories a lesson for those of understanding. Never was it a narration invented, but a confirmation of what was before it and a detailed explanation of all things and guidance and mercy for a people who believe."

These stories are not, they're from the best stories. They're not some kalam that the nabi just made up. These stories, they tell us and they support what went before the Quran that we need to know. And then it is guidance and rahmah for people who have iman.

And you know what's really, really disturbing? I'll tell you what's disturbing. Some of these stories of Maryam and the rizq, Maryam having a baby without a father, a man being in the belly of a whale, al-Isra, al-Mi'raj, some Muslims, some Muslims with an alamat al-istifhan, some Muslims have a problem accepting these stories.

When? There are kuffar who believe these stories in their book.

And as a Muslim you can't get it. But then that same person will come and believe in something that is unbelievable. He'll come, Muslim! And he'll say, you know, I was born gay.

I was born as a lesbian. I was born as a homosexual. I'm gonna say, really? Well in our religion, in our religion that we use to guide ourselves, we say that's not possible.

The Natural Disposition (Fitrah)

The Prophet says, sallallahu alayhi wasallam:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1385)

"Every child is born upon the natural disposition (fitrah), and it is his parents who make him a Jew or a Christian or a Magian."

Every child is born with a natural disposition. A man is a man and a woman is a woman. I accept, you chose to be like that.

I got that. Don't tell me you were born like that. Muslim come talking that madness.

He's gonna believe that. I was born... The Quran and the Sunnah make takdheeb of that. You were born a man with the fitrah, natural disposition to look up and to say لا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ - But your mother and your father made you a Jew or Christian or Magian.

Your environment corrupted you. Your mother and your father helped you possibly to become a homosexual or bisexual. It's your environment.

So they'll believe that and don't believe what Allah mentioned in the Quran or the Prophet in the Sunnah.

"There was certainly in their stories a lesson for those of understanding."

Reference: Quran 12:111

The Story of the Man from Bani Israel

I wanna bring to your attention and this is what we have to do because everybody who is sitting here, there are things that go on in our lives. Myself, especially myself, when I look at what went on in the Quran and the Sunnah, I should be getting stronger. I say that happened to him for a reason. I make qiyas.

They did this. If I do the same thing, I'll get the same reward, good or bad. And what was collected by Al-Imam Al-Bukhari.

Al-Bukhari. Abu Hurairah said that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said:

There was a man from Bani Israel. The man from Bani Israel came out to Bani Israel and said, I need some money.

I need to borrow 1,000 pounds. That's a lot of money. 1,000 Kuwaiti dinars. Today is a lot of money. Just to borrow 1,000 dinars from someone? I need 1,000 dinars. A lot of money.

One man said, I'll give it to you. I'll give it to you. He had money.

He said, but I need a witness to bear witness. He said:

"Allah is enough as a witness."

He said, you're right.

He said, well, give me someone who'll be responsible, guarantor. Something happen to you, I get my money. He said:

"Allah is enough as a guarantor."

The man said, you know what? You're right. Let me give you this money. And he gave him 1,000 pounds.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 2291)

I gotta stop here. Because this is not the part of the story that I want. But I have to stop here.

That was the religion of the people who went before us. The Jews and the Christians. Their religion is not our religion.

إِلَّا عَلَى الْقُرْآنِ وَالسُّنَّةِ قِيَاسُهُ دِينِي عَلَى كَلَامِي

Unless the Quran and the Sunnah - Listen to me very carefully. In our religion, if someone comes to you and say, let me borrow money, it is wajib upon you to write that down. Wajib.

The Command to Record Debts

The Prophet mentioned صلى الله عليه وسلم:

"Three people make dua to Allah, but Allah will never answer their dua."

One of them, he said, a man who gave someone money and he didn't write it down.

(Sunan al-Bayhaqi)

So if someone wants to borrow money from you, and they come and say, Sahih Bukhari, come on, don't write it down. That is for the Jews and the Christians. But in our religion, the longest ayat of the Quran, ayat to deign, the ayat of debt, commanding us, write it down.

That man said, okay. He gave him the money. They agreed, when he'll pay that money back.

The man got on a boat and went about his business and took the man's money. When the time came to pay his money back, he came back. He started looking for a boat to get back.

There were no boats. He wants to get back. There are no boats.

He knows a hadith, as we mentioned:

"Procrastination in paying debts by a wealthy person is oppression."

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 2287)

The one who has taken money and he has the money and he procrastinates, that's dhulm. You're a dhalim, ya akhi, walking around totally forgot about these people you owe them money.

Having a good time, watching the World Cup, laughing. What are you laughing about? You owe that man money. And some of the people who we owe money, we have complicated their lives and we don't give a damn.

You're talking about the believers, the one who loves for his brother what he loves for himself. You done jammed the man's life up. Give him his money back.

The Man's Reliance on Allah

So that man, he said, oh Allah, that man wanted a witness from me. And I said, Allah is enough. He wanted a guarantor. I said, Allah is enough. He got a piece of wood, made a hole in it, and put 1000 dinar in that wood and made dua to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds.

That was the level of iman of some people from Bani Israel. And those people are examples for us. And as a Muslim, wallahi, I love those people from Bani Israel.

They're my ikhwan and my akhawat. Those prophets and the messengers and then the people like this. Show you on the level that some of those people were upon.

The Lord of all the worlds. And he threw the money in the water. You know, if you were to do that, that money, that water, that wood would just float there and come right back.

He threw it and it went away. Did he stop there? No. He doesn't know if that man got his money.

He don't know if that man got his money. The man who gave him the money would come out every other day looking for the ship with this man who I gave him as my money. He came out this day.

He didn't see the ship and he saw the wood. Some people can't believe this. And that's why Abu Bakr is a siddiq.

And that's why the companions radiyallahu anhum are the best of this ummah. Because what came out of the mouth of the nabi (صلى الله عليه وسلم - ṣallá-llāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam), they did not waste one second scratching their head saying how, when, cave, what they didn't. They just got with the program.

The Lesson of the Story

What's the point here? What's the point here? If you have people's money and you intend to give their money back, don't throw no money in no water.

Don't do that. Don't do that. But make dua to Allah.

Be sincere. Three people Allah is responsible for. The one who gets married, the young man who got married, he doesn't have a lot of money.

Allah is your daman. The second one, the mujahid, fi sabilillah. The mujahid, fi sabilillah.

The mujahid, fi sabilillah. I say that three times because this word, we got to run away from it in 2023, Gregorian calendar. I said that word three times because the Nabi used to speak three times and mention it three times for emphasis.

You go and you make jihad in this religion the right way, Allah will protect you. And the third person that Allah will be responsible for, responsible, the hifdh ilahi, is the one who owes money. You have money, be serious about paying that money back.

I say this and ask Allah's forgiveness for me and you, and we ask Allah Almighty to protect us and grant us success. All praise is due to Allah, the most gracious, the most blessed. I bear witness that there is no god but

Allah, and that there is no partner to Him.

I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger. Peace be upon him.

Second Khutbah: Practical Guidance

Brothers in Islam, and as I mentioned, the vast majority of us, we have financial challenges.

You are not by yourself in that. There are some people sitting here, they have 80, 90, 100,000 pounds saved up. They got that kind of cash, and some even more.

We say from here, may Allah put barakah in their money. But for the majority of us, we ain't got that kind of money. But you know what? Just like them, just like them, we have the Lord of all the worlds.

And if Allah is on your side, then you will know happiness regardless of what your situation is. And there are many ways and many things we can do to build our khair, many things we could do. But one of the things I want to mention is what Allah mentioned in the Quran.

Anyone who fears Allah, Allah will make a way out for you. And He'll give you rizq from where you didn't expect. And what's the taqwa? Having the tawheed of Allah.

And don't make any shirk with Allah. Not with the nabi, anyone. Don't swear by Allah, don't swear by other than Allah.

Don't be afraid of anybody but Allah. The way Allah has described Himself in the Quran and the nabi in the sunnah, we take that and embrace it without asking questions. That's taqwa.

Taqwa is praying five times a day, doing what we've been told to do and staying away from what we've been told to stay away. Taqwa is having ghairah for your wife and your daughter.

Telling them, put hijab on. It's all intertwined and interconnected. And when we fall short of the mark, as we all do, khutbah is for me before anybody else.

When we fall short of the mark, you gotta know, our Lord is al-Tawwab, al-Rahman, al-Raheem, al-Lateef, al-Haleem, al-Ghafoor. He forgives, wallahi.

Closing Dua

So may Allah azawajal put barakah in your efforts and divinely protect everybody and make it easy so that we could pay all of these duyun and that Allah ta'ala, al-Razzaq, the One who provides for every animal, insect, human being, jinn, all of the angels, everything in existence, may He subhanahu wa ta'ala give us the strength

and the wherewithal to be on the way of those awliya from the prophets and the messengers and also those awliya who came after them, like the companions.

رِضْوَانُ اللَّهِ عَلَيْهِمْ أَجْمَعِينَ

أَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ يَرْحَمْكُمُ اللَّهُ

"Establish the prayer, may Allah have mercy upon you."