shaytan gratefulness

Khutbah: Shaytan and Gratefulness

Opening

السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَكَفَىٰ، وَسَلَامٌ عَلَىٰ عِبَادِهِ الَّذِينَ اصْطَفَىٰ. أَمَّا بَعْدُ، فَأَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ. بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

Opening Quranic Verse

"Then I will come to them from before them and from behind them and on their right and on their left, and You will not find most of them grateful."

Hadith Reference

(Sahih al-Bukhari 4836, Sahih Muslim 2819)

And the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "Should I not be a grateful servant?"

Closing of Opening Section

سُبْحَانَ رَبِّكَ رَبِّ الْعِزَّةِ عَمَّا يَصِفُونَ، وَسَلَامٌ عَلَى الْمُرْسَلِينَ، وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِ سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَبَارِكْ وَسَلَّمْ

اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِ سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَبَارِكْ وَسَلَّمْ

اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِ سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَبَارِكْ وَسَلَّمْ

Main Khutbah Body

Understanding the Enemy: Shaytan's Strategy

When someone has an enemy and they know that that enemy will attack them or will do something to harm them, then the person who needs to defend themselves has several ways by which they seek to defend themselves. So one thing they do is they build up their own strength. You can even take example when there's wars between countries. So one thing the country will do when there's a war between two countries, countries will build up their strength. The other thing they try to do is they try to weaken their enemy. And the third thing that they do is they try to figure out the plan of their enemy. So they put spies in hidden places, they put spies in order to find out what is my enemy planning. So that if they know the methodology that the enemy intends to use, it will give them one leg up when they try to defend themselves. So they'll place these spies in different places and they put a lot of emphasis on what kind of reconnaissance those spies gain. They analyze that information. They go through that information. They decide which of it is good, which of it is bad, which of it will be beneficial. And then eventually they incorporate that into their plan of defense as well.

Same thing in the case of us and our great enemy Shaitaan. In our battle with Shaitaan, which is really where the battle lies in Islam, we have three ways by which we defend ourselves.

Number one, we build up our own strength. So we do acts of Ibadah. We read the Quran. We purify ourselves. We give Zakah. We fast during the month of Ramadan. All of these things they enact, they enable us to become strong. And that strength allows us to withstand the attacks, the whisperings, the planning, the plotting of Shaitaan.

The second thing we do is we try to disable Shaitaan. We try to weaken Shaitaan. And there are many ways by which that occurs. Sometimes Allah through His mercy, He inherently weakens Shaitaan. For example, the month of Ramadan. Sometimes we have been taught certain ways by which we weaken Shaitaan. For example, calling the Adhan draws away Shaitaan. It pushes away Shaitaan. Similarly, we have been taught just a very simple statement that we use all the time. So you recite that statement and that pushes away, repels Shaitaan. So that's the second way by which we defend ourselves.

And the third way, which is actually very interesting, is that Allah throughout the Quran in different places actually quotes Shaitaan. Actually puts in certain quotes of Shaitaan for us to be able to understand how Shaitaan works.

Allah Quotes Shaitaan in the Quran

Now, you think about it. I mean, if you're going to write a book and you decide that you're going to put together a book, the last thing you're going to do is quote your enemy in that book. In fact, you're not even going to take the name of your enemy in that book. But in this case Allah, despite Shaitaan openly being an enemy to Allah's creation and to Allah Himself, Allah in places actually quotes Shaitaan.

Now, the benefit of those quotes is that it allows the people who are going to be affected by Shaitaan to understand exactly how to defend themselves against Shaitaan. So, I just read to you an ayah. And actually this ayah is a quote from Shaitaan. And Allah is quoting Shaitaan in the Quran. And in this quote Allah has provided us with such deep wisdom because basically we're spying on Shaitaan.

Here, Shaitaan is talking to Allah. So, no one was present at that time. None of us were there. And Shaitaan said something to Allah about how he intended to misguide us human beings. And Allah out of His infinite mercy, He quoted that so that we have it, so that we can read it, we can reflect on it, and we can then see what mechanism will Shaitaan use to attack us and how can we then repel that mechanism.

Analyzing Shaitaan's Plan

So, what does Allah quote from Shaitaan?

ثُمَّ لَآتِيَنَّهُم

Then Shaitaan says: Certainly! After Allah rejects Shaitaan and removes him from the presence of Allah, then Shaitaan quotes back to Allah:

ثُمَّ لَآتِيَنَّهُم

Then verily, verily I will come upon them.

لَآتِيَنَّهُم ,Here it's a verb form of emphasis. Surely, surely I will come upon them. How? Now, one, he's saying I will definitely come upon them. I will attack them. I will come upon them. And then he describes the mechanism by how he'll do that:

مِّن بَيْنِ أَيْدِيهِمْ

I'll come from surrounding them

وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِمْ – and from behind them

وَعَنْ أَيْمَانِهِمْ – and from their right side

وَعَن شَمَائِلِهِمْ – and from their left side

So, here Shaitaan is showing fervently he's going to attack us from in front of them, from behind them, from the right of them, from the left of them. Shaitaan is basically saying he's going to attack us from every single direction. Okay?

And then he revealed something which it would have been better for him to not to have revealed. But Allah quoted it so that we could benefit from it. And what is that? What will be the result of my attacking them?

فَلَا تَجِدُ

Then he's talking to Allah. He's talking directly to Allah. He says:

وَلَا تَجِدُ أَكْثَرَهُمْ شَاكِرِينَ

And the result will be that you will not find that most of them will not be thankful. You will find that most of them will not be thankful.

The Core Issue: Thankfulness

So here Shaitaan is showing his mechanism of how he intends to distance people from Allah. He will attack them from the front. He will attack creation from behind. He will attack creation from the right. He will attack creation from the left. The result will be that they will be disconnected from thanking Allah. When that disconnection occurs, then Shaitaan knows that he won the battle.

So here this ayah is actually highlighting the importance of being thankful. The importance of being thankful. Because this is actually the result that Shaitaan is showing. He is showing that he will create, he will cause human beings to lack thankfulness. And once they lack that, then that's the disconnect that occurs between them and Allah.

So then the issue of thankfulness becomes very important. Because here Shaitaan identified it as the core of the matter. So for us to then go through the Sharia and understand thankfulness is very, very important. And that's what we're going to talk about for the next few minutes. Because it's essential for anyone who wants to progress to Allah that they inculcate within them being thankful.

Levels of Thankfulness

Now obviously the common thing which we run through our minds when you talk about thankfulness is being thankful to Allah. And that's essential. That's essential. That is the premise of the dhikr of Allah. It's a very, very special type of dhikr and it's a very, very deep type of dhikr.

Now a few days last week and then three weeks before that I talked about using the signs of Allah to remember Allah. So you see the tree and you think of Allah. You see the sky and you think Allah created it. You see the moon and you think Allah created it. That's one level of your interaction with the universe.

But there's actually a second level and that is, is that to remember that not only did Allah create each of these things, but He created it for us. You look through the Quran, Allah highlights:

هُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ لَكُم مَّا فِي الْأَرْضِ جَمِيعًا

It is Allah who created everything in the earth for you.

Reference: Surah Al-Baqarah 2:29

Right? So one thing is to look at the universe, to recognize that it's a sign of Allah and it reminds you of Allah being the creator, but then you have to go one step further. Then you have to recognize that Subhanallah, Allah

actually created this for me. Who am I? Who am I that this whole universe should be created for me? Yet Allah created this for each of us so that we could remember Him and so that we could be thankful to Him.

Interacting with Creation as Reminder

Now look at the benefit that we take from our universe. The sun, it warms us. The moon, it provides a gravitational force around us. It's not just a sign of beauty. These are vague, deep interactions that occur within the universe. People spend their lives analyzing the moon and its relationship to the earth and people will continue to do so until the end of time and they will not begin, they will never end on being able to recollect how thankful we should be to Allah.

The food we eat. One is the apple. You look at an apple and you say Subhanallah, Allah created this. Look at how beautiful it is. But then you take a bite of it and then you say Subhanallah, Allah created it for me. It's there to nourish me. It's there for me to be reminded to thank Allah.

Now why should we even be reminded to thank Allah? Who needs to be reminded? Allah is so supreme that by default He should be thanked. We don't need to be reminded. But then Allah created the universe so that we could interact with the universe so that every time we actually interact with the universe it's a means of forcing us to remember Allah. So everything that we interact with is actually a reminder of 1) Allah and 2) It's an excuse to thank Allah.

You take a bite of rice or a bite of food. It's an excuse to thank Allah. You take a breath of air. It's an excuse to thank Allah. Right? I mean all of these are excuses to thank Allah.

Ways to Thank Allah

Now that's the obvious. And everyone knows that they need to do that. So we thank Allah in several ways:

1. By just being continuously grateful. Alright?

2. By not complaining.

Now many people get caught up in this situation where they look at their lives and they begin to complain. And actually it's so sad that we complain. It's so sad that we complain. The phone doesn't work for an hour. Something goes wrong with the line. We begin to complain. How can they do this to me? What kind of a company is this? Who do they think they are? And we begin to start complaining about these things which are just extremes of benefit, extremes of blessing.

Your computer goes wrong. You get a virus. It doesn't work for a day. Complain, complain, complain. I can't believe this happened to me. What kind of thing is this? This is not fair. It doesn't happen to other people. I never heard of anybody's computer being crashed by a virus. Why does this have to... It's complaint after complaint after complaint.

We don't think about the fact that nobody in the history of mankind had these things. I mean, think about the fact that you have a phone. Even kings 200 years ago didn't have a phone. Who are we to complain when the phone goes out for one day? Right?

So, it's very important to recognize that there is no excuse for complaining. There are people in this world who have an excuse to complain, but they're not us. Number one. And number two, those people don't complain anyway because they're usually the most content type of people. I've lived with them. I've met them. You go travel through the world. You see these people. They're relatively content. But us? What do we have to complain about? There's not enough salt in our food? We have food. Who's there to complain about how much salt there is in the food?

Yet we're so quick and so rash to judge and complain about everything. But actually the sign of the believer is that their tongue is constantly full of thanking Allah for the benefits that he's bestowed upon us. It's a part of your dhikr. This is what we mean by dhikr. To interact deeply with your environment in that way. So that's one level of thanking. And that's thanking Allah.

Thanking People: A Higher Level

But then Allah created another level of thankfulness. And that's where actually most of us fail. And that is that Allah not only demanded from us that we thank Allah for what he's bestowed upon us, but then he also requires that we thank Allah. We thank other people for what they do for us. We thank other people for what they do to us for the sake of Allah.

Thanking the Prophet ﷺ

So for example, it starts with the Prophet (peace be upon him). Look at the amount of sacrifice that the Prophet (peace be upon him) made for us. You look at the life he lived. You look at the difficulties he underwent. You look at the hardships, the tribulations, the trials and the concern that he had for his ummah. And that all deserves being thankful to the Prophet (peace be upon him). It demands it. It doesn't even deserve it. It demands it.

So much so that it's fard to say Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam after you hear the name of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Right? It's demanded. And in fact, it's demanded as part of our deen. In the salah, we send salawat on the Prophet (peace be upon him).

There's two ways by which you thank the Prophet (peace be upon him):

Number one is by sending salawat on the Prophet (peace be upon him). And so you find that's in our daily routine. Right? We highlight that 70 times after Fajr, 100 times after Fajr, 10 times after Fajr. Whatever it is. There needs to be inculcated within each of us a daily thinking of the Prophet (peace be upon him). It's mandatory to progression. It is mandatory to progression. And that's why when you come to me and you say, what are the few things that I need to do in order to progress to get nearer to Allah? One of those things is salawat on the Prophet (peace be upon him). It's essential.

It's like, you know, you have six — let's say there are six wheels on this car. It's one of those wheels. Without it, you're not going to move forward. So being thankful to the Prophet (peace be upon him) is essential. And that comes through two ways:

Number one, do salawat on the Prophet (peace be upon him).

And number two, by following the sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him).

Nothing would have made... That's actually the greatest way. And actually that... By following the sunnah, you are going to do the salawat as well. Because that's in the sunnah. So actually if you want to summarize it in one word, it's following the sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him). That is what makes him proud. That's the way you thank him. In fact, that's the request that he had of us. That on the Day of Judgment, that his community be huge. Right? And that being part of that community entails following the sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him). That's the essential way by which we thank him.

Thanking Parents

So, that's one level of thankfulness. But Allah didn't stop there. Then, he put each of us under the supervision of our parents. And one level of being thankful is that we be thankful to our parents for everything that they did for us.

Now, some people might be good at thanking Allah. And that same person might be good at thanking the Prophet (peace be upon him). But then there'll be a deficiency in thanking their parents. And that's essential.

We've been commanded through the Quran and Hadith that even if the parents are not Muslim, that we should still treat them properly. Meaning, be grateful for what they did for us. And that's lacking in so many of us. And that's what holds us back in some cases. Because this is what Shaitaan is highlighting. This being shakir is what Shaitaan is highlighting as the key of the matter.

So, if he knows that he can't disconnect you from thanking Allah, and then he figures he can't disconnect you from thanking the Prophet (peace be upon him), then the next place he attacks is thanking parents. That's the next place he attacks. Because he knows how important that is to the matter.

Now, one way is to actually openly go and thank your parents. And say to them, you did so much for me. And I'm so thankful. That's one way. But then the other way is to not create heartache within their hearts. And many of us are failing on that level. To not create heartache in their hearts. I mean, how often do we argue with our parents? Fight with our parents? Think that our parents don't know what they're talking about? And we really know what we're talking about?

And you know what, it doesn't matter. Even if they don't know what they're talking about, they still raised us. No one can repay their mother for the difficulty she undergoes when she gives birth. It's very difficult to have to carry around 12, 13 extra pounds. Look at people who get pregnant. You can ask them. The backaches they go

through. The sicknesses that they go through. The swelling of the legs that they go through. The pain of birth itself that they go through. It's just that much. No one can thank their parent, their mother, for just that much.

Then on top of that, how much is involved in taking care of a child? When you have a child, then you begin to recognize how much waking up at night, feeding the child, cleaning up the child, taking care of the child.

Basically giving up a year, two, three, four, five years of your life for the sake of that child. That's what our mothers did for us. And that's why it's so essential that we are proper with our parents. It's a whole separate lecture. I'm just trying to highlight a paradigm in your minds. Okay?

Thanking Spouses

The next level of thankfulness then occurs between a husband and wife. So he who's lacking, or she who's lacking — she or he who has these things in place. Meaning, okay, their relationship with Allah is in place.

Their relationship with the Sunnah is in place. Their relationship with parents is in place. Then the next place Shaytan hits is relationship between husband and wife.

That's the next place. One, either the wife will not be thankful to the husband, or two, the husband will not be thankful for having a wife. Now we begin to think that we deserve these things. As if we deserved the company of our wife. Or as if, you know, that the wife deserved the company of her husband. Where is that written?

We could have just been put in some island, living by ourselves with no one to talk to, no one to relate to, no one to spend time with. But Allah, He blessed us with this. With the blessing of marriage. And the blessing of marriage being halal.

So, one way by which this occurs is that it's open. The husband says to the wife, you never do this, you never do that, you never do that. Complaint after complaint after complaint. And you know what that does? That just brings Shaytan right in the middle of it. Because actually what we should be doing is we should be looking at our spouses and saying, look at these 50 good characteristics in you.

Of course there's going to be bad characteristics in a spouse. That's default. We're human beings. We've been created deficient. You're not marrying a prophet where prophets are perfect. You're going to marry a deficient human being. That's the definition of marriage. If you want to ask what's the definition of marriage, it's a connection between two deficient people. The deficiency is inherent in the definition of marriage.

So how can you look for perfection there? Where are you going to find perfection? It's not possible. The whole point of the marriage is that you look at all the good that's been given. The fact that you could marry and then be thankful for that. The fact that Allah created spouses for us so that there could be peace between us. And we're not thankful for that. That's one blessing in and of itself.

And then on top of that, the fact that it was an opportunity to fulfill the sunnah. Such dirty people like ourselves. And Allah gives us the opportunity to fulfill the sunnah by saying qabiltu, I accept. Do you know what a great blessing that is? On the day of judgment it will become apparent what a great blessing that is.

And then beyond that, there's so many good characteristics in each person. I don't care how bad the person is. There are still good characteristics in that person. There are still good characteristics in that person. Otherwise Allah would not have created. Even if you can't find one good characteristic, it's a creation of Allah in the end. That human being is a creation of Allah. It's still a nisba to Allah. It's a reminder of Allah.

And yet we're so quick with our tongues. Oh you never did one good thing for me. Oh you never pick up this after yourself. Oh you always just think about yourself. And then one by one by one. What do we do? We break the shukr. And we end up disconnecting ourselves from Allah.

And the Prophet (peace be upon him) was very careful to warn wives in particular about this. And the Prophet (peace be upon him) quotes that they'll come and say, you never did anything for me. Years and years of doing things for the wife. And then all of a sudden, you never did anything for me. And it's very, very distasteful to Allah. And that's from the hadith. Because it's the essence of lacking shukr.

So it's very important that we be careful. Because see this is where Shaytan's going to get you. He knows you're going to pray five times a day. So he knows you're thanking Allah. He knows that you're going to be doing salawat and following the sunnah. So he knows that you're thanking the Prophet (peace be upon him). He knows that he can get you to — you're careful with your parents. The next place he hits is the wife. And the next place he hits is the husband.

And so it's very important that we follow the sunnah of the marriage. Learn how to be with one's spouse. And it's really important that you take advantage. You take this thankfulness.

The Power of Appreciation in Marriage

I'll tell you right now, thankfulness is the secret to a marriage. Thankfulness meaning being appreciative. I was one day in the ER, in the emergency room. This lady walks in. She has bruises all over. Bruises all over. She was just beaten. So we start asking her what happened. Because she has new bruises and she has old bruises. So what happened to you? So she openly admits: My husband, he beats me.

Then we start asking, why don't you leave him? Why don't you leave him? And she says, no, he loves me. I can't leave him. He appreciates me. I can't leave him.

That appreciation of that person, despite the fact that he beat his wife, was so strong that she was not willing to leave it. Because it was such a strong attraction. Despite the fact that he beat her, she was not willing to leave it. And that's the power of being thankful.

Now not that that should be an excuse to do things that are against the Sharia. But what it highlights is that all these people who complain about their relationship with their spouses — actually the essence is this: that you don't appreciate the spouse. And it's usually two ways. It's never one person wrong. The wife doesn't appreciate the husband, or the husband doesn't appreciate the wife. And usually it's both.

Instead they pick out each other's faults all day. So they pick out each other's faults all day. And what happens? Shaitan has a party. So that becomes his home. And then he just begins to create rift. And he begins to create hate. And he begins to create all these things which basically destroy your life. So then there's no peace in the home. And then you begin to seek peace in other places.

But actually the essence is in being thankful.

The Prophet's Example in Gratitude

And the Prophet (peace be upon him) was very, very careful in warning us about things. I mean you look through Hadith. The Prophet (peace be upon him) never complained about the food that he was given. You find in clear Hadith that the Prophet (peace be upon him) states that he never complained about the food that he was given.

In other Hadith, Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) says what? I served the Prophet (peace be upon him) for 10 years. 10 years. That's not any short period of time. That's a very big part of the life of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Basically half of his prophethood. Anas says I served the Prophet (peace be upon him) for 10 years. He never said to me, why didn't you do such and such in that way? No matter how the job was done, Anas was accepting of it and happy that he did it.

Reference: Sahih al-Bukhari 6038, Sahih Muslim 2309

And now you think, if you think your clothes need to be ironed a certain way, or your food needs to be prepared a certain way, or your house needs to be put together in a certain way, then what about the Prophet (peace be upon him)? He's the prophet. He's been sent to do this work for 23 years. He has a limited period of time. He has a huge task before him. If somebody deserved to complain about how tasks were done, it would have been the Prophet (peace be upon him). His job was much more important than ours. The whole future of humanity depended on his back.

When he assigned a task, he assigned it with purpose. And he assigned it with Sultan from Allah. Yet he never complained. He never complained about the food that was put before him. He never complained the way that Anas fulfilled the task that he assigned him. This was just not part of the sunnah. Complaining is not part of the sunnah. And being thankful is totally part of the sunnah.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) was so thankful to the companions. He spent time with them. He focused his energy on them. He gave them the attention that drew in that barakah. And actually that's the secret.

The Promise of Increase Through Gratitude

Allah Himself states in his glorious book:

وَإِن شَكَرْتُمْ لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ

And if you are thankful, then I'll increase you.

Meaning if a husband learns to thank his wife and a wife learns to thank her husband, Allah will increase the barakah in that marriage. That's where the barakah comes from. Being appreciative, being thankful. Then Allah will increase it. And what will he do? He'll increase the marriage. What does that mean? The result of the marriage will increase. And so what is that? (سُكُون - Sukoon/peace).

Because Allah states that he created wives:

So that you can take sukoon from them.

He created spouses so you can take sukoon from them. So actually the barakah of the marriage comes from being thankful. And then when you thank, that brings sukoon into the marriage. And then that's the dunya. That's where we find coolness of our eyes. That's the dua: Oh Allah make my children the coolness of my eyes and our spouses the coolness of our eyes. That's where we're supposed to find coolness. That's not where we're supposed to find heat. That everything else is fine and the arguments start when you walk in the door.

So it's very important that thankfulness be essential, an essential part of our daily routine. Especially in our relationship with our spouses.

Thanking in Every Direction

Now once you have Allah, thanking him down, and you have thanking the Prophet (peace be upon him) down, and you have thanking your parents down, and you have thanking your spouses down, then the next thing is to recognize that you have to thank in every direction. And actually it all comes under the summary of this.

Because what does Shaitan say? That he's going to come from ahead of us. Right? And behind us. And from the right of us. And from the left of us.

And so actually the way to actually detract Shaitan from all those directions is to look in every direction and to thank in that direction.

Behind — the way you thank is to look at the past in your life and be thankful. Now how many people are there behind you? You know behind, literally what I mean by behind is the time behind you. So many people allowed you to get to the point where you are. There are so many people that allowed you to get to the point where you are. It's essential that you go and thank each of them.

All that's going to do is: it's going to number one, alleviate you on the day of judgment from having any responsibility towards them. And number two, it's going to bring barakah into your relationship with people.

And then you need to thank the people on all sides of you.

Example: Thanking the Community

Let's just take an example. So we're, number one, just look at the people sitting around you. When a group of people get together, then Allah sends extreme barakah upon that group. When a group of people come together to remember Allah, Allah sends a special barakah upon that group. And forgiveness is bestowed upon all of them.

From hadith, the angels take the dhikr of a group of people remembering Allah. They carry it up to Allah until Allah testifies that he forgave every person in the gathering, including the person who didn't intend to sit, but they just came and sat anyway.

(Sahih al-Bukhari 6408, Sahih Muslim 2689)

Now, that's something that deserves to be thankful for. One, to thank Allah that he created that opportunity. And two, to look at the people. If we didn't have each other here, we wouldn't be able to create that environment for those angels to come. If I was sitting by myself and doing dhikr, I would not have that opportunity to purify myself the way I do when a group of people come together.

So, I have to be thankful to each and every person here. And we all have to be thankful to each other that we brought one another here. So that we created this excellent opportunity to be forgiven by Allah. Do you understand the opportunity that's being presented? It's not a small thing for Allah to swear, to swear that he forgives every single person in the gathering. Because they came only for the sake of Allah. That is no small thing.

That's actually the whole ordeal. If Allah is ready to forgive everything, then we're done, it's over. We'll make it into Jannah. That's the whole ordeal. And Allah is granting it because we came together. So that deserves some thankfulness.

Thanking Those Who Maintain the Masjid

Now look, we're in this masjid. It's a clean place. If it was dirty, no one would want to sit here. You know, if this place was dirty, no one would come. Don't you think there's somebody that cleans this place? When was the last time we thanked those people?

I mean, really, just sit down and consider. Somebody just creates this and all of a sudden it's just here, people make effort to build this masjid, to establish this masjid, to lay down the carpet in this masjid, to keep the place clean, to have a microphone that works, to have the temperature working, to have the light bulbs above us. All of these things did not just show up.

That's the problem. We start thinking we deserve. Nobody deserves except Allah. He deserves all praise. No one else deserves anything. Everything else is a gift. We don't deserve to be sitting in this masjid on this clean carpet with these light bulbs above us. Allah granted it to us as a gift. And He created a means for it to occur. And then Allah demands that we thank those people.

Now, when was the last time we thanked those people? I mean, there's a clean washroom. There's a place to make wudu. There's a clean masjid. The parking lot's running properly. We just take it for granted. That's heedlessness. It's called being ghafil. And being ghafil is just the next one step away from kufr.

And so it's very important that we be thankful. One, that Allah created the masjid for us to be able to worship here. Two, that Allah created a group of people. We should make du'a for them. We should thank them. We should even give them gifts. Because it's really what allows us to benefit from such opportunities. So it's essential that we make thankfulness a part of our daily routine.

The Hadith on Thanking People

So much so that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said:

The person who does not thank the people, he didn't thank Allah.

(Sunan at-Tirmidhi 1954, Sunan Abi Dawud 4811)

So here the Prophet (peace be upon him) established such a simple equation. If you don't thank people, you're not thanking Allah. He who has not thanked people has not thanked Allah.

Now think about the people in your life and how often we thank them. Right? Our wives, our spouses, our friends, our brothers, our teachers, the people who organize the masjid, the people who around us we benefit from. It deserves thankfulness. Because if you didn't thank people, you didn't thank Allah.

So when you read that hadith, you need to think: Who are the people that I can thank? And go around and think as many of them as you can. And in the end, all that's going to do is:

One, it's going to show Allah that you didn't think you deserved it, but you're grateful for it being given to you. That you recognize that there was a scenario that was created. And that scenario was created by Allah.

And number two, it's going to highlight, it's going to increase you.

And if you're thankful, Allah will increase you.

So He'll increase you in your company of people. He'll increase you in your nearness to Him. He'll increase you in the blessing of this masjid. He'll increase you in every way. That's His treasure. It's so vast that He can increase you in every single way.

Some people can say, well I can only increase you in money. I can only increase you if you need a car. I can only increase you if you need houses. Allah increases in every single way. His treasure is so vast that it applies to every single thing around you. Your relationship with people. Your relationship with your parents. Our relationships with our spouses. Our relationships with one another. Etc.

The Prophet's Night Prayer

So it's very, very important. And this is why the Prophet (peace be upon him) used to say:

Should I not be a grateful servant?

(Sahih al-Bukhari 4836, Sahih Muslim 2819)

The Prophet (peace be upon him) used to stand and he used to pray all night. And the Sahaba used to say, why? Why are you doing this? You don't even need to do this. Allah is saying to you that He's forgiven your past sins and any your past mistakes and any mistakes you might make in the future. And so the Prophet (peace be upon him) used to say:

And he used to pray all night. That was his means of being thankful to Allah. And then he used to spend the day thanking the people around him in whatever way was appropriate. Whether it meant visiting them when they were sick to show his appreciation towards them, or whether it meant spending time with his family to show his appreciation towards them. Etc. In every way he was thankful in his action and in his tongue.

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Closing Dua

So may Allah give us the tawfiq to be among those who are thankful to Him, to be among those who are thankful to the Prophet (peace be upon him), and to be among those who are thankful to An-Nas (the people).

اللَّهُمَّ آمِينٍ

وَصَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَسَلَّمَ تَسْلِيمًا كَثِيرًا

وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ