Arsalan Majeed - 8-30-24

We begin by praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We seek His help and assistance in all of our actions. We seek His forgiveness for our shortcomings and sins. And we seek refuge and protection in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala from negative consequences of our sins and any sinful inclinations within ourselves. Whoever Allah guides to the truth, no one can misguide. And whoever Allah leaves astray, the one who chooses the path of misguidance for himself, no one can guide back to the truth.

I bear witness and testify that nothing is worthy of worship except Allah alone, the one without any partners or equals. And I bear witness and testify that Muhammad ﷺ is his most perfect worshipper and final prophet and messenger sent to all humanity and jinn till the day of judgment. No prophet and messenger will come after him ﷺ. Oh Allah, send your blessings and peace upon Muhammad and the family and followers of Muhammad till the day of judgment.

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, He says in the Qur'an, Dear brothers and sisters:

Oh believers, be mindful of Allah as He deserves and make sure that you do not die except in a state of submission to Him. And Allah says:

Oh people, be conscious of your Lord who created all of you from one soul, meaning Adam ﷺ. And from this soul, He created His mate and spouse, Hawwa ﷺ. And from the two, He spread the rest of humanity on this earth, countless men and women. Be mindful and conscious of Allah, the one in whose name you demand your rights from one another and make requests from one another.

Be aware of cutting off your ties of kinship with your relatives. Surely Allah is always watching your actions. And Allah says:

Oh believers, be mindful of Allah in your lives. When you speak, speak truthfully, justly, and with good intentions and purpose. If you do so, He will rectify any deficiencies in your actions and bless your actions for you and forgive your sins for you. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger in this life will achieve a great achievement, the achievement of paradise in the hereafter.

Surely the most truthful of speech is the Book of Allah and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad. Peace and blessings be upon him. The worst of affairs attributed to the religion are religious innovations that have no evidence or precedence in the Qur'an and Sunnah.

Every such religious innovation is a type of misguidance and every misguidance it leads to the hellfire which we seek refuge in Allah from. As to what follows, dear brothers and sisters, every day when we pray, we make a du'a to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We make a supplication to Allah asking Him for guidance.

Ameen. Our scholars they say that the rest of the Qur'an, it is a response to this guidance. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for guidance and Allah says, you want guidance? Read the rest of the Qur'an.

And in the surah, right after surah al-Fatiha, surah al-Baqarah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala He describes three types of people who respond to guidance. The first type of people are those who are al-muttaqun, those people who protect themselves from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's displeasure and from negative consequences of their actions in the hereafter. Allah describes them in five verses.

And the next one are the category of al-kafirun, those who outright reject the message. Allah describes them in two verses. And the last category and group of people are al-munafiqun, the hypocrites, those who outwardly display themselves as obedient to Allah, but inwardly they have other motives and they are not believers.

Allah describes them in 13 verses. A total of 20 verses, Allah describes three types of people and their response to guidance. In today's khutbah, we will go over the first category of people, those who are al-muttaqun.

The Six Qualities of Al-Muttaqun

Allah describes them as having six qualities or six characteristics. And as we go through this khutbah, dear brother and sister, ask yourself, am I someone who embodies these qualities? Am I adorning and beautifying myself with the qualities that Allah has mentioned in the beginning of surah al-Baqarah regarding the people who will be successful on the day of judgment? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, He says:

This is a book, there is no doubt in it. There is no doubt that this is revelation from Allah and there is no doubt that whatever it has inside of it, it is truth from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

And it is a guidance that benefits the muttaqun, those people who protect themselves. What do they protect themselves from? They protect themselves from the hellfire. They protect themselves from the displeasure of Allah by carrying out His commandments and doing their best to obey Him and staying away from His disobedience to the best of their ability.

Allah says they have six qualities. The first quality is:

1. Belief in the Unseen (Al-Ghayb)

They believe in the unseen. They believe in those things which cannot be known simply by intellect and cannot be known by the senses, rather they are known by the medium of revelation.

Allah tells us what the ghayb is in the Qur'an. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam tells us what the ghayb is, the unseen is in the sunnah, in the narrations and his way of life. It is mentioned in the hadith of Jibreel, the famous angel that came to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and he asked the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 1)

Tell me what iman is. Tell me what it means to have faith. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam went on to mention six pillars of iman, six articles or tenets of faith. To believe in Allah, to believe in the angels, to believe in revealed scriptures, to believe in sent messengers, to believe in a life after death, and to believe in decree. Certain things have been decided for you, the good of it and the bad of it.

This is what it means to have belief in the unseen. Why is it the first quality Allah mentioned regarding them? Because belief in these things, it transforms and completely changes the paradigm of the person who believes in them.

When you believe that there is a Lord that you worship, you'll be dutiful in worshiping Him. When you believe there are angels who are recording your actions, you will be mindful of what you do. When you believe that there is a way of life that Allah wants us to follow through revealed scriptures and sent messengers, then you will attempt to follow that life.

When you believe that there are certain things Allah has decided for you in life, your decree, the qadr, for example, your parents, your skin color, the land you will be born in, the land you will die in, then this brings a sense of consolation. It brings a sense of peace in the heart and acceptance that Allah has decided certain things for me. When you believe in a life after death, when you believe in accountability, paradise and hellfire, then it changes the way you look at life.

And you use this life as a medium to prepare for that eternal life that is coming. This is the first quality Allah mentions regarding al-muttaqun.

2. Establishing Prayer

The second quality: Now faith is not something that is just in the heart. Allah does not simply want us to believe and that's it. There is a practical manifestation of faith. Faith has to be shown through actions and the first action Allah mentions is al-salah.

They are those who established a prayer in their life. It's five times a day, every single day. This is the practical physical manifestation of the faith that a person claims to have inside of his heart.

Notice Allah says, يُقِيمُونَ الصَّلَاةَ And He does not say, وَيُؤَدُّونَ الصَّلَاةَ For example, why? Because iqamat al-salah means to go beyond simply performing the prayer. It means to be habitual in performing the prayer. It means that you revolve your life's events around the prayer, and you do not revolve the prayer around your life's events.

3. Spending from Allah's Provisions

The third quality Allah mentions: And out of what we have provided for them, they spend. They spend in zakah, which is obligatory, when it becomes obligatory. They spend in sadaqah. They spend on their families. They spend in other avenues that would please Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

And there is a very beautiful point of benefit in this part of the ayah. وَمِمَّا رَزَقْنَاهُمْ From what we have given them, they provide. In other words, it is never our wealth to begin with. It is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's wealth. He has lent it for us for a certain period of time. So there's a subtle message over here. Dear listener, do not become attached to the wealth.

Because one day you will leave it, or it will leave you. It came from Allah, and it will go back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. وَآتُوهُم مِّن مَّالِ اللَّهِ الَّذِي آتَاكُمْ Give them from Allah's wealth which He gave you. It's Allah's wealth. He lent it to us for a certain period of time. So Muslim do not become attached to it.

Rather in your heart should be Allah and His messenger, and in your hand should be wealth. Yes, the wealth should be in the hand, so you can utilize it in a manner that is pleasing to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But in your heart should only be Allah and His messenger.

4. Believing in Current Revelation

The fourth quality Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions: And they believe in what has been sent down to you, revealed to you, O Muhammad. They believe in the entirety of the Qur'an. They believe also in the sunnah, because the sunnah is a type of wahi, a revelation just like the Qur'an, it is a wahi.

Some of our scholars have said: كَانَ جِبْرِيلُ عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ يَنْزِلُ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ بِالسُّنَّةِ كَمَا يَنْزِلُ عَلَيْهِ بِالْقُرْآنِ Jibreel alayhis-salam used to come down upon the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, and inspire and reveal to him the sunnah, the practice and the way of life, just like he would reveal to him the Qur'an. And the very same people who transmitted the Qur'an to us, the sahaba are the very same people who have transmitted the sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam to us. Rejecting one is tantamount to rejecting the other. So they both go hand in hand.

5. Believing in Previous Revelations

The fourth, fifth quality Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions: And they also believe in the scriptures that was sent down before you, and the prophets that were sent before you. Why? Because all of them came with one message. All of them are brothers and sisters, brothers in this one message. And that is the message of tawheed. That is the message of the oneness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

All of them they had the core message. Yes, their shara'i, their legislations differed from prophet to prophet sometimes, but the core message was one because the source was one, and that was Allah jalla wa ala.

6. Certainty in the Hereafter

And finally the last quality Allah mentions regarding the muttaqun, the people who are righteous and protect themselves from Allah's punishment: They have absolute certainty regarding the life after death. Now, وَبِالْآخِرَةِ هُمْ يُوقِنُونَ is actually from الَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْغَيْبِ They believe in the ghayb, they believe in the unseen. Why has Allah singled this quality out, out of the other five qualities or six qualities of al-ghayb, believing in the unseen? Because if there's one thing that changed the sahaba, that transformed them and made them what they were in to, it is that belief in the akhirah.

It is that belief that I'm going to be resurrected after death and I'm going to be held accountable for my decisions in this life. And I'm going to face the consequences, whether they are good or whether they are bad. That absolutely transforms a person's paradigm and outlook on life.

And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that people are judged based on this. The person who will go into paradise, he will say:

Verily, I was sure that I was going to meet my accountability. And so, the person prepared for it.

The Result of These Qualities

These are six qualities Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala describes the muttaqun, the righteous ones with in the Qur'an, in the beginning of the Qur'an. And He says:

Those people who have these six qualities, these are people upon true guidance from Allah, from their Lord. وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ And those people, they are the ones who are successful.

The hum over here, أُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ It indicates as if no one else besides them will be successful. These are the people who will be successful on the day of judgment. So let us engage in some introspection and ask ourselves, how much of these qualities do I put inside of my life? Do I exemplify inside of my life? And let us try to improve ourselves.

أَقُولُ مَا سَمِعْتُمْ وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ لِي وَلَكُمْ وَلِسَائِرِ الْمُسْلِمِينَ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ