If Today Was Your Last Day
By Mufti Menk | 2026-01-11T21:48:50.033384+00:00 | Topic: Iman
If Today Was Your Last Day
Mufti Menk
Opening
"[Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings]"
"[In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful]"
"[I seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the accursed]"
Opening Dua and Declaration of Faith
"I hope that Allah makes us from among those... My brothers and sisters, if this was my last day, what should I learn? What should I do? If this was my last day, what would I do right now? The first thing I would do is renew my iman in Allah and repent from my mistakes."
"We renew this testimony once again:"
"I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger."
"If we are ready to renew this testimony again and again, my last day is another day we might change as we flee before we exit this world..."
Main Khutbah
But we need to be able to uphold the values of the very statement that we are articulating. There is no point in a person declaring that he believes that Muhammad ﷺ is the messenger, yet his life is totally void of the teachings of Muhammad ﷺ.
Each one of us, my brothers and sisters, should make a very big effort on a daily basis to improve ourselves. Nobody is perfect. Each one of us have involved in some sort of sin, minor or major. May Allah forgive us.
May He protect us from major sin and may He make us more conscious of minor sin. Each one of us is trying our best to improve. Remember if this was your last day, you would cancel all appointments of sin that you might have made and this may just be your last day.
Cancelling Sinful Appointments
This would mean that anyone whom out of the fear of Allah and the love for Him cancels any of their sinful appointments or deeds, they would definitely earn the pleasure of the Almighty. He becomes happy with them. Who knows, there could be a deed that one had planned to do which was so accessible to that particular person and solely because of the Almighty and the consciousness of the Almighty, they decided to cancel the deed.
Who knows, Allah might look at that cancellation and grant such a person jannah. Take a look at the hadith which makes mention of seven categories of people who will be granted a special shade on the day of Qiyamah, a special shade on the day of judgment. They will be the VIPs on the day of judgment when we have scorching heat, more scorching than the city of Kuwait this afternoon.
We will be adding such heat and yet the beautiful feeling of such an air condition today is so good that when we walk into the house of Allah, we forget about the heat outside. So imagine if we are granted a special shade and a special place on the day of judgment. Well, there are seven categories that are made mention of from amongst those who will be getting that particular shade.
May Allah make us from at least one of those categories. From amongst them is:
"Seven are (the persons) whom Allah will give protection with His Shade on the Day when there will be no shade except His Shade (i.e. on the Day of Judgment), and a person who is invited to commit illegal sexual intercourse by a woman having a high status and beauty (who says to him, 'Come on for illegal sexual intercourse') but he says, 'I am afraid of Allah.'"
(Sahih al-Bukhari Hadith 1423)
A man who was invited to commit adultery by a woman who was very good-looking, of high social standing and perhaps economic standing as well, of high lineage without any form of barrier in the sense that it was very easily facilitated. The opportunity was there.
The facilitation was there. Nothing stopped him from engaging in adultery besides the fact he says, I fear Allah. So Allah says such a man deserves my shade on the day of judgment.
He deserves this VIP standing on the day of judgment. My brothers and sisters, this means if you cancel a sin or if you abstain from it solely because you are conscious of your maker, he will grant you something good in return, something that will definitely make you smile the day that everyone else will be frowning. May Allah protect us.
The Importance of Constant Repentance
So brothers and sisters, we repent. We ask Allah's forgiveness as well. If this was my last day, I would constantly repent throughout the day.
Take a look at Muhammad ﷺ, wherein the narrations make mention of how he used to repent 70 times a day and some narrations say up to 100 times a day he used to repent and ask Allah's forgiveness:
(https://sunnah.com/search?q=muslim+2702)
"The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: 'I seek forgiveness from Allah and turn to Him in repentance more than seventy times each day.'"
Yet my brothers and sisters, he did not commit a sin. He was protected by Allah. So he engaged in istighfar, asking Allah's forgiveness.
O Allah, forgive me. O Allah, forgive my wrongdoings. O Allah, forgive that which I have done, which I know and that which I don't know.
He used to repeat different wordings of forgiveness and repentance up to 100 times a day. Brothers and sisters, be honest. How many times have you and I sought forgiveness today? I think the majority of us would say, not yet.
Allah forgive us. So if we get into this beautiful habit of Muhammad ﷺ of asking Allah's forgiveness, it will do a lot of good for us because we need to know that:
"The one who repents from sin is like one who has no sin."
(https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:2423)
A person who repents from a sin is equivalent to he who has never sinned. May Allah forgive him.
Allah's Promise of Converting Sins to Good Deeds
So much so that Allah speaks about the beauty of forgiveness in the Qur'an and we find him saying:
"Except for those who repent, believe and do righteous work. For them Allah will replace their evil deeds with good. And ever is Allah Forgiving and Merciful."
After speaking about sinful people and some of the sins that people engage in and the type of punishment that will be multiplied for them, Allah says, except for those who repent and do good deeds. If you have these two conditions, repenting and doing good deeds, Allah says, we will delete those sins and in fact convert them into good deeds on the right side of the scale such that when you and I arrive on the Day of Judgment, we will see so many good deeds that perhaps we may not have engaged in directly. Upon questioning, you will find out those were the sins that Allah has converted into good deeds because of two conditions.
You sought forgiveness and after that you did good deeds. How many of us are ready to seek forgiveness and to do good deeds thereafter? Brothers and sisters, no matter what you've done in the past, never lose hope in the mercy of Allah. No matter how bad your past has been, there comes a day when you should change and so should I for the sake of Allah. Life is not everlasting, but the life after death is indeed everlasting.
So prepare for the life that is everlasting whilst you are in this temporary life. As we always say:
"The life of this world is just a place of passing and the life of the hereafter is a place of everlasting."
So take from your passing place that which will be beneficial for you in your everlasting place, something common sense. May Allah bless us. May He make us strong and steadfast.
Seeking Forgiveness from People
Brothers and sisters, if this was the last day you were living, it would be the best of your interests to go out to those whom you have wronged and so have I and to ask them for forgiveness. Whether they forgive you or not is up to them. The fact that you have tried very humbly and you have said, my brother, my sister, my father, my mother, my wife, my husband or my son, my daughter and so on, my uncle and aunt or my in-laws, I have wronged you in this way or in that way, please forgive me.
I humbly plead with you. There will come a day that Allah has described in the Qur'an:
"The Day when there will not benefit [anyone] wealth or children, But only one who comes to Allah with a sound heart."
A day that wealth and children will not help you, nor avail, besides He who has arrived with a pure heart. May Allah grant us that pure heart.
May Allah purify it for us. So brothers and sisters, do not be too proud to go out and ask those whom you have wronged for forgiveness, even if it is a worker who has worked for you and you have spoken out loud to them.
Take a look at Muhammad's ﷺ time when he was passing one of his companions who was beating a slave of his and Muhammad ﷺ tapped him on the back and as he turned around, Muhammad ﷺ said:
"Know that Allah has more power over you than you have over this slave."
(https://sunnah.com/search?q=muslim+1659)
I would like you to know that the Almighty has greater power over you than you have over the slave of yours.
He looked at Muhammad ﷺ quite impressed and at the same time he was trembling in the fear of Allah and he said, O Messenger, I free him for the sake of Allah. How many of us are ready to make peace with those whom you work with and for those who work for us or with those who work for us? Sometimes we take it for granted because the Almighty has placed them on a lower level than us, not realizing they may be in jannah before me and you.
Take a look at Bilal ibn Rabah al-Habashi. How powerful a companion he was, yet earlier he was downtrodden by Umayyah ibn Khalaf and the others in Mecca.
And yet when Muhammad ﷺ came back from the mi'raj, he looks at Bilal ibn Rabah and he says:
"O Bilal, I heard the sound of your sandals in Paradise."
(https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:3689)
O Bilal, I heard your footsteps in paradise.
Sometimes there are people who work for us who are more regular with their prayers than we are. Sometimes they are closer to Allah than we are.
Reading the Quran Daily
Brothers and sisters, if this was your last day, ask yourself, have I picked up the word of Allah to read it? How often do I read the word of Allah? Do I read the Qur'an on a daily basis? Do I try to understand what Allah has said? Sometimes we work through the verses of the Qur'an without concentrating on the meaning, not realizing that Allah has revealed the Qur'an in order that it be a reminder for myself and yourselves and in order that we ponder over its verses.
In surah Saad, Allah says:
"[This is] a blessed Book which We have revealed to you, [O Muhammad], that they might reflect upon its verses and that those of understanding would be reminded."
A book that we have revealed, blessed in order that its verses be pondered over and that may act as a reminder for those with sound intellect. May Allah bless us all.
Performing Prayer with Presence
Brothers and sisters, if this was your last day, how would we fulfill our own salah? Would we whip through it and dash through the sajdah, the prostration and the bowing, the rukoo'? Is that what we would do? I don't think so. If this was my last day, I would take my time in my prayer and I would ensure that the prayer is done in a way that perhaps Allah take me away in the condition of sujood. May Allah grant that to us.
Brothers and sisters, if you look at Muhammad ﷺ statements, he says:
"When you stand to pray, perform as if it is your last prayer."
(https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:4171)
Whenever you pray, you should pray as though that prayer is your last and final opportunity to pray.
If that is the case, what would go wrong in your prayer? Brothers and sisters, sometimes we rush to the masjid and we rush out of the masjid quicker than we rushed to the masjid. If that is the case, surely there is room for improvement.
Brothers and sisters, sometimes we get our heads on the ground as though we are doing a favor to our maker, not realizing that Allah does not need us for our worship. It is us who need Allah. For every
moment you spend in sujood and prostration, you are in actual fact the closest you ever could be to your own maker.
Listen to the words:
The closest that a slave can be to his maker is when he is in the condition of prostration.
Now, will you rush through that prostration? Are you irritated with the creation, with the creator or with your link with the creator? Sometimes we read salah as though we are irritated with Allah. May Allah protect us.
We need to improve on that, my brothers and sisters. If we treat every single day of our lives as though it is going to be the last day that we are going to be given an opportunity to live, we will become much better people. Any and every opportunity, any and every opportunity to do a good deed shall be done.
And any and every opportunity to abstain from a sin shall be done. May Allah protect us. Another question.
Eating and Drinking with Consciousness
If today was the last day that you were to live, how would you eat and drink? It's interesting. We would definitely name Allah before we start eating and we would not indulge in a way that we glut ourselves, that we can't even walk after we've eaten because we know I just need to eat a little bit to perhaps survive until the fixed time of Allah. I will thank him for my food and my drink and at the same time I will use the energy that I derive from the food and drink for something that will be meaningful in my life so it can help me in the hereafter.
So brothers and sisters, whenever you are eating and drinking, if you are a believer and you feel that this is perhaps the last opportunity I will have to eat and drink, you will automatically fulfill the sunnah:
As the Prophet ﷺ teaches us and he encourages us to try to maintain a third for solids, a third for liquids and a third for air. Amazing.
Some people if we were to tell them if this was your last day what would you do? They perhaps might tell you we would sin as much as we can meaning we will fulfill as many desires as we can because we only live once so we should enjoy it.
We have a new phenomenon on the globe which states you only live once - YOLO. That is void of belief. A mu'min does not believe in that.
Life as a Sacred Test
A mu'min, a person who believes in Allah realizes that life is a sacred gift of Allah. It is a test and an examination. Just like when you enter an exam room, you cannot do anything that is against the examination board.
You cannot cheat or deceive. The invigilators will perhaps catch you and you might be disqualified totally. So we have one huge examination center known as the dunya and every one of us are being carefully invigilated by the angels and other witnesses and each one of us is worried we should not be disqualified from paradise.
Ya Allah grant it to us through your mercy.
Reaching Out to Suffering Muslims
My brothers and sisters, we have so many gifts that Allah has blessed us that he has not given others on the globe. We have food and clothing.
We have accommodation. We have good limbs mashallah and good health. We need to ask ourselves, if this is my last day in this world, how have I reached out to the others who are going to remain on the globe after I leave? Today we have Muslims who are suffering across the globe.
Be it in Syria or Somalia. Be it in any other country like Burma or Bangladesh. How many of us have reached out to these people through our own pockets? Through the little money that we have? Through the wealth that we have? There are people as we are seated here who are dying of hunger across the globe.
They are your brothers and sisters. If this was your last day, how did your millions help you? How did your thousands help you? If you could not spare perhaps a small percentage for those whom you might leave behind, do you want your heirs to fight over your wealth after you leave? Well go and study the lives of the wealthy. A lot of them across the globe, their wealth is being scrounged upon by their own heirs whom they have left behind.
Some of them, brothers and sisters, who have stopped speaking to one another solely because the father was a rich man. Now that he passed away, they are fighting over his wealth. Better than all that would be if I could donate a little charity and I could teach my children to be donating as well and charitable people.
The Three Deeds That Continue After Death
For indeed if I leave a child whom I have taught goodness, it will be of benefit for me. As you know, the narration of Muhammad clearly says:
(Sahih Muslim Hadith 1631)
That a person who passes away, their deeds are cut off except for three. What are those three? A charitable deed that continues in reward or a piece of knowledge that they have imparted or a righteous child who prays for them.
May the Almighty make us from any one of those three and may He grant us from amongst those three. For indeed my brothers and sisters, today we have a notion that when someone passes away, we should all make dua for that person.
Yes, we should. Sometimes after a person passes away, people will build a masjid on his name. People will drill boreholes on his name or her name.
The question I have, what did you do in your life? That is the question. Why did you wait to die for others to do it on your name? Do it while you're alive. Allahu Akbar.
You want to drill the boreholes? Get them done now. You want to do something, build a masjid? Get it done now. You want to be benevolent? Go ahead now.
Don't wait to die and then people do it on your behalf. One wonders how Allah will look at those deeds. May Allah bless us all.
The Reality of Death and Accountability
People ask a question. We want to read Quran because someone has passed away. Well, if they themselves never ever read the Quran, how then are you going to benefit them? If someone did not pray himself or herself, we will ask Allah to forgive them.
But you cannot now pray on their behalf and say, you know what? I will fulfill all the prayers that this person did not pray. If that was the case, would it be right for us to declare the shahada in place of someone who did not declare it in their lives? No.
No soul shall shoulder the burden of another.
We need to know this. And this is why the Almighty is most merciful, most forgiving. Brothers and sisters, impart some goodness.
If there is anything good you are planning to do, do it today. Don't wait for tomorrow. You may never see tomorrow.
If there is anything bad you are planning to quit, quit it today. Whether it is a habit of a cigarette or a shisha or whatever else it is that is considered minor by some, yet they are not minor. They are dangerous
not only for your health, but even for your spirituality and your body.
And for the day you meet with Allah, would you be proud of the fact that you have smoked away 500,000 boxes of Marlboro in your life? May Allah protect us. With that amount of money, perhaps we might have been able to assist 5,000 refugees who do not have homes today in Palestine. My brothers and sisters, let's reach out to one another.
Recognizing Yourself - The Mark of Intelligence
And one of the best points we can say, reach out to yourself. Reach out to the good inside you. Every one of us is made up of a lot of good and sometimes a little bit of bad as well.
Some of us allow the bad to dominate in such a way that nobody can see the good in us. And some of us allow the good to dominate such that it eclipses the bad. I call on you and myself today to increase the good and to decrease the bad.
Make it your business and mine to prepare for the day you meet with Allah. This is why I started with a narration where the Prophet speaks of a genius, an intelligent person, an intellect, a sound, sharp person. Who is he? Is he the one who has a PhD, who can outwit others? Perhaps who can outdo others in terms of work and salary and so on.
The hadith says:
He is the one who recognizes who he is. He recognizes himself and he does deeds which will help him after death. An intelligent person is he who recognizes himself.
How would you recognize yourself? Ask yourself. If I am 40 years old, for example, where was I 45 years ago? Don't stop until you find an answer. And then ask yourself, where are those who have passed away last year and the previous year? Where did they go? And ask yourself, can I avoid going where they went? You will answer these questions.
And when you answer them, you will come to realize that life is so short that people who are more powerful than us and more wealthy than us, they had bigger physical build, they also died. And today they are not even available for us to speak to. Do you feel any one of them? Do you feel their presence here? Or can you even hear a slight sound of theirs? They were more powerful than you and they had much more wealth than you.
They have all gone to meet their maker. So have I and so are you. There will come a day, 100 years from today, when nobody will know that we existed. There will come a time when our great grandchildren will not even know our name. Do you know that? And evidence for that, how many of you know your great grandfather? I think very few. Very few.
May Allah grant us goodness. So in the same way that 5 years before birth, we were not to be mentioned, perhaps 100 years after death, the bulk of us will never ever be mentioned again. Even our own progeny will never know that we existed.
They might know that somewhere, somehow, I had a grandfather who came from this region of the world, but they won't be able to pinpoint. And evidence for that is we, beyond a certain point, cannot pinpoint it. Do you know what? As the years are passing, we are becoming more and more oblivious of who our fathers and grandfathers were.
We are becoming people who are not even bothered with our own relatives. And we don't even know that this person is related to me. Yet we are supposed to be fulfilling their rights and duties.
We are supposed to be looking after one another. May Allah bless us.
The Four Conditions of Repentance
Brothers and sisters, I have spoken and I have tried to answer a question.
If this was your last day, what would you do? How would you change your life? Brothers and sisters, repent for the sake of Allah, for I seek repentance as well. And I ask Allah almighty to forgive me and to forgive all the believers. And we ask Allah almighty to grant us goodness in paradise and make us more conscious of our deeds.
All praise is due to Allah. All praise is due to Allah. All praise is due to Allah.
Brothers and sisters, Umar ibn Khattab had a statement that is recorded next to his name. He used to say:
Take account of your deeds before they are taken account of. And what this would mean is, make sure that you have a record of your deeds scattered with lots and lots of repentance before the almighty takes a record of those deeds and you find, you find that you have deeds that you are embarrassed about.
May the almighty forgive us. The beauty, my brothers and sisters, to seek forgiveness, there are four conditions. If these four conditions are met, the sin is wiped out and deleted.
Firstly, admit that you are wrong. Secondly, regret the sin that you have committed. Thirdly, ask the almighty to forgive you.
And fourthly, promise not to do it again. The minute you meet these four conditions, there is no way that you will not be forgiven. But there is bad news as well.
What is the bad news? If you have committed a sin against a fellow human being, there is one more condition. That is the fifth condition. What is that? You need to go to them and seek forgiveness.
And that is not easy. Because Allah is Ghafoor Raheem, Most Forgiving, Most Merciful. Fellow human beings are not Ghafoor Raheem.
They are not Most Forgiving, Most Merciful. So make sure that your link with fellow human beings is a link of goodness. And this is why when someone addresses you with ignorance, you need to just say peace and walk away as the Qur'an instructs us rather than start engaging them in discussion in a way that we begin to say hurtful words that might usurp their rights.
A true worshipper of Allah is he whom when he is addressed by the ignorant, he just says peace and walks away.
He knows it is going to be futile, fruitless to engage in debate and discussion in certain quarters. So we ask the Almighty to make us from those who can take account of our own deeds and wherever you are going wrong.
The Importance of Immediate Change
It is quite simple to put things straight. Seek forgiveness, ask Allah and He will wipe out. Imagine, I am not too sure about the policies of this particular country but what I do know in most countries you have a tax man who is very very feared.
Every little dollar that is earned has to be recorded. And if they catch you with a dollar you have earned which you did not record, you shall be fined. People are so worried.
They hire top accountants and they pay thousands of dollars in order that every dollar is accounted for in a way that we will be saved from undue and unnecessary embarrassment. Nobody is asking me or you to hire accountants and pay them thousands of dollars in order to teach us how to go into paradise and take account of our own deeds. We have lectures in the masjid.
We have ulamah. We have scholars. We have people who remind us of goodness.
We have the Friday khutbah. We have so many other gifts of Allah. Today we have radio programs.
We have so many other programs. The media is full of goodness as well. If you look for the right things, you will find it.
If you are looking for the wrong things, they will leave you astray. So brothers and sisters, in the same way that we are bothered about how every dollar must be accounted for by for the tax man of this world, we need to be bothered on a higher level of meeting with Allah with correct accounts. And the beauty is in this world you take your accounts and you present them.
When you are wrong, you are penalized. When it comes to Allah, the minute you've seen that your accounts do not balance, you can balance them with tawbah, subhanallah. You can balance it with repentance.
I said moments ago, no matter what you've done my brother, no matter what you've done my sister in the past, let the past be the past. Turn a new leaf today. Become a better person.
Give up your gambling. Give up your perhaps addiction, meaning if you are hooked on to something wrong, give it up. Whatever it is, whether it is adultery or pornography, anything else, the scourges of the age are plenty.
There are so many to mention. I know and you know where our weaknesses are. May Allah forgive us all.
Brothers and sisters, these reminders come now and again. For us to say that I will turn tomorrow is not good enough. If you are motivated now, say to yourself, I turn now to Allah.
I have turned my face to Allah. I have dedicated my entire life to Allah. If we are to leave the turning until tomorrow morning or until we go out of this house of Allah, the spirituality outside shall dilute the feeling that we feel right now in the house of Allah.
The spirituality is high. We may not hear another sermon because Allah might take us away before the end of today. May Allah bless us all and may He grant us goodness and ease.
Closing Supplications
Brothers and sisters, it is important that we send blessings and salutations upon Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.