Living in an Age of Excess
By Joe Bradford | 2025-12-18T21:51:30.026541+00:00 | Topic: Iman
Living in an Age of Excess
Khutba by Joe Bradford
Opening
(السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ - Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh)
أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّهُ. حَيَّ عَلَى ٱلصَّلَاةِ. لَا حَوْلَ وَلَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِٱللَّهِ. حَيَّ عَلَى ٱلصَّلَاةِ حَيَّ عَلَى ٱلْفَلَاحِ. ٱللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ، ٱللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ
(أَعُوذُ بِٱللَّهِ مِنَ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ، بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ - A'udhu billahi min ash-shaytanir rajeem, Bismillahir rahmanir raheem)
إِنَّ أَحْسَنَ ٱلْحَدِيثِ كِتَٰبُ ٱللَّهِ، وَأَحْسَنَ ٱلْهَدْيِ هَدْيُ مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى ٱللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، وَشَرُّ ٱلْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَٰتُهَا، وَكُلُّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ، وَكُلُّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَٰلَةٌ، وَكُلُّ ضَلَٰلَةٍ فِي ٱلنَّارِ
The best of speech is the speech of God. And the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad ﷺ. And the worst of things are those that are newly introduced, and everything newly introduced is an innovation, and every innovation leads astray, and everything that leads astray leads to the hellfire.
Living in Times of Excess
We live in a time, a time of excess. We live in a time of abundance. We live in a time when human health is at an all-time high, when wealth is at an all-time high. But in the inverse, we also live in a time when poverty is at its worst throughout the world.
Hunger is at its worst throughout the world. We have extremely beneficial, extremely good rates of health, length of life. People aren't dying as they used to. Many times, infant mortality was one of the main causes of people not surviving. Diseases like the flu used to take out entire populations. Now there's something that we get a shot for at our local drugstore, and we're fine.
We have so much to be thankful for, but we also have so much to be careful of. These excesses that we experience in our life, they stem from another type of excess. And that excess can be praiseworthy at times, when we try to use the faculties that Allah has given us to better our lives and better those around us.
And they can also be damaging, in that we use it to absolve ourselves of responsibility towards those around us. We have a certain form of greed, a certain form of gluttony, that may motivate us to come up with things that benefit people, but many times it motivates us to do wrong to those who have themselves done no wrong to others. And most importantly, it leads us to do wrong to ourselves, or most dangerously, it leads us to do wrong to ourselves.
The Contradiction of Our Times
But there's a different type of gluttony, something I believe that's at the core of the gluttony of the body, and of accumulation, and of consumption. It seems to be extremely contradictory that yesterday, so many people were expressing so much of what they were thankful for, and then today, unfortunately, we'll hear in the news about people being trampled about things that they were trying to gain and accumulate to say that they were thankful for.
It seems contradictory that we would have people expressing their thanks, and at the same time, young men with their hands up, being killed in the streets. But all of this excess stems from an excess that we have in our heart, to not act as moral people, to not be people of principle.
The Story of the Cow: A Lesson in Excess
Allah سبحانه وتعالى gives us an example of this in Surah Al-Baqarah. Indeed, this story is so important. The Surah was named by the Sahaba because of this story.
"And when Moses said to his people, God commands you to slaughter a cow."
What was their first reaction? Was their first reaction سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا - "we hear and we obey"? No, their first reaction was:
"What do you take us for, a joke?" This was the first reaction.
The Gluttony of Knowledge
This was the excess. This was the gluttony of knowledge. In that, we don't want to act on principle. But we want to absolve ourselves of responsibility. By first, some form of ad hominem attack. "You take us for a joke? Who do you think you are?"
Moses said, "I seek refuge in God from being from amongst the ignorant."
They said, "Call upon your Lord and have Him clarify for us what it is." SubhanAllah. Making this request, when in fact, all they had to do was slaughter a cow. All they had to do was make one proactive decision, which would have been an act of obedience. Regardless of what that cow was.
"He says to you, it's a cow."
Many Qur'an reciters of the past, they used to stop at this verse. To emphasize, that it's just a cow. All you're asked to do is one simple thing, be a good person, listen and obey.
The Cycle of Excessive Questioning
They insisted, no, we have to know what this is. Do an act of obedience for which you will be rewarded.
"It's a cow, neither old nor young, but middle-aged between that, so do what you've been asked. Do that which you've been commanded."
"Call upon your Lord to clarify for us what color it is," because all of these cows, they look so similar to us.
So Allah سبحانه وتعالى clarified for them again. They asked about its color before that. What color is the cow?
After He clarified for them the age, the color, all of these details. What did they say?
"Now you've brought the truth. Now you've given us clarity."
The Danger of Excessive Detail
Who is the one to ask for clarity in this situation? Is it Musa that's supposed to answer their calls for clarity? Or they as believers who are supposed to act on principle? The gluttony of knowledge. Where we dig down and we dig so deep that we make things difficult for ourselves and for others. We want to become dogmatic followers of minutia.
So that when we're asked we can say, "I've fulfilled 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. I've done what was expected of me. I won't give anything more." But this idea, this idea of some authoritarian overarching rule system becomes oppressive eventually.
When people lose the ability to make decisions based upon what Allah سبحانه وتعالى has ingrained in their heart from the fitrah and the principles of truth and righteousness that He sent down in the Qur'an and in the Sunnah.
Examples from the Sunnah
And there are other instances of this that we find in the stories of the people that came before us. The Prophet ﷺ said:
كَانَ رَجُلٌ فِيمَنْ كَانَ قَبْلَكُمْ جَاءَ إِلَى رَجُلٍ فَقَالَ لَهُ ٱتَّقِ ٱللَّهَ، فَقَالَ لَهُ: هَلْ جَعَلَكَ ٱللَّهُ عَلَيَّ وَكِيلًا؟
[Reference: This appears to be a variation of a hadith found in various collections]
"A man came to another man and he said to him, 'Fear Allah.' So the man said to him in reply, 'Has God made you some form of agent over me? Has He given you some authority over me?' The man persisted in coming to him and telling him to fear Allah. Until he got frustrated.
And he said:
وَٱللَّهِ لَا يَغْفِرُ ٱللَّهُ لَكَ
'I swear to Allah, He will never forgive you.' Allah took their souls at that moment. And they were on the plane of the day of judgment. Standing before Allah. And Allah said to him:
مَنْ ذَا ٱلَّذِي يَتَأَلَّىٰ عَلَيَّ أَلَّآ أَغْفِرَ لِفُلَانٍ؟ فَإِنِّي قَدْ غَفَرْتُ لَهُۥ وَأَحْبَطْتُ عَمَلَكَ
'Who is it that has the audacity to say, That I will never forgive so and so. I have forgiven him. And all of your actions have been rendered void.'"
The Judgment That Belongs to Allah Alone
The gluttony of knowledge. The idea that somehow by fulfilling a set number of rules, we somehow become better and more moral. We somehow have the right to judge others. The act of being a judge is something which is Allah's right alone. But it's also the right of those that He places in authority of others.
So a parent has the right to judge their child. Because he is responsible for them. A judge in a court has a right to judge people. Why? Because he is adjudicating wrongs that have been committed between them. But for one of us to make a blanket statement about the salvation or the damnation of another person, in specific, then this is something that we have to avoid.
The Wisdom of Simplicity in Hajj
During the Hajj of the Prophet ﷺ, the Prophet ﷺ said:
(Reference: Muslim, Abu Dawood, and others)
"Allah has written upon you that you make Hajj so make Hajj."
قَالَ رَجُلٌ: أَكُلَّ عَامٍ يَا رَسُولَ ٱللَّهِ؟
A man said, "In every year, O Messenger of Allah?" The Prophet ﷺ was silent. "In every year, O Messenger of Allah?" he was silent. "In every year, O Messenger of Allah?" he was silent. Then the Prophet ﷺ said:
(Reference: Muslim 1337)
"Leave me as long as I leave you. Because if I were to say yes, it would become obligatory, and you wouldn't be able to. And if you were not able to, then you would disbelieve. So Islam is something which is simple."
The Principle of Linguistic Simplicity
إِذَا سَمِعَ كَلَامَ ٱلرَّسُولِ صَلَّى ٱللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ فَهُوَ لِمَرَّةٍ وَاحِدَةٍ
When a word is used in the Arabic language, or a command is used in the Arabic language, linguistically, does he mean, keep getting me a drink of water over and over and over again? Or does he mean, give me one drink of water? When the Prophet ﷺ said, make hajj, did he mean one? Or consistently? Arabs say in the language, means one time. So we understand things as they're said.
إِنَّهَا بَقَرَةٌ - "It's just a cow."
Had we done that one thing, we would have been fine. Had we warned that one man, we would have been fine. But when we go beyond that, to make things difficult for ourselves.
The Balance Between Clear and Unclear
Why do we do that? We do that because we have an innate sense of absolving ourselves of responsibility. We think through detail, we'll resolve ourselves of responsibility. The hadith of al-Nu'man ibn Bashir:
(Reference: Bukhari 52, Muslim 1599)
"Halal is clear, haram is clear. Between these two are things which are not clear. Many people do not know them."
Lessons from Misapplied Knowledge
The Prophet ﷺ said about a group who killed someone after improper application of knowledge:
(Reference: Abu Dawood 336 - regarding the incident where someone was killed due to incorrect advice about ritual purity)
"You killed him, may God find you." May God find you is a phrase that's used in Arabic. It's not literal. It means to either strongly condemn or strongly praise someone.
The Prophet ﷺ was strongly condemning their action of not asking but also improperly applying the principles that they knew. It would have been enough to say:
فَإِن لَّمْ تَجِدُوا۟ مَآءً فَتَيَمَّمُوا۟
"If you don't find water, then make tayammum." So the Prophet ﷺ condemned those who misapplied principle, who spoke without knowledge, as well as those that inquired about things that didn't directly relate to the application of the principles that they were given.
The Importance of Character Over Ritual Detail
If you think about everything in the Qur'an, many times those issues come up to guide people back to how they should be people of akhlaq, people of principle and character.
The Question About Righteousness
When the Sahaba would ask questions of the Prophet ﷺ, a man came to the Prophet ﷺ asking:
مَا ٱلْبِرُّ؟
"What is righteousness?" Now before we even mention what he said, think about what the man asked about. What is righteousness? Many times we have the assumption that we know what righteousness is. Which is exactly why Bani Israel said:
أَتَتَّخِذُنَا هُزُوًا
"Are you joking? You think we're a joke? We know what's proper for us to do."
So they started to ask about incessant details that really didn't matter to the principle of the matter, to the foundational issue that was at hand to obey God.
The Prophet's Definition of Righteousness
A man came to him and he said:
مَا ٱلْبِرُّ؟
"What is righteousness?" The Prophet ﷺ noticed. He didn't guide him to, pray this many times, do this, do that. He didn't give him a laundry list of things to do. He guided him to foundational principles of character in our faith:
ٱلْبِرُّ حُسْنُ ٱلْخُلُقِ
(Reference: Muslim 2553)
"Righteousness is good character." What is good character? Each and every one of us knows in our heart what good character is.
وَٱلْإِثْمُ مَا حَاكَ فِى نَفْسِكَ وَكَرِهْتَ أَن يَطَّلِعَ عَلَيْهِ ٱلنَّاسُ
(Reference: Muslim 2553)
"And sin is that which shakes around in your chest and you're afraid of people finding out about it."
Guiding us to principles. This is important.
The Balance of Rules and Principles
The rules are important. But those rules should never overtake and overcome us and make us incapacitated to be people of principle, to be people of righteousness. In fact, if you implement the rules correctly, you'll find that naturally you'll be a person of بر a person of righteousness, a person of أخلاق a person of character, a person of طيبة a person of good nature.
But when you're dogmatic on the rules and you disregard the principle completely, then you'll find that your life will become more difficult and you'll find that you won't be able to stand up for those things which are just and which are right.