Ismail ibn Musa Menk The Leaking Bucket
By Mufti Menk | 2026-01-12T06:32:14.599176+00:00 | Topic: Quran
The Leaking Bucket
Khutbah by Mufti Ismail Menk
Opening and Praise
We praise Allah. We send blessings and salutations upon Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), his household, his companions. We ask Allah to bless them, to bless everyone of us, to bless our offspring, to bless those to come up to the end.
May Allah grant us all ease and goodness. My brothers, my sisters, I'm indeed so delighted to be here once again and to be able to share something good, insha'Allah, with you in a way that it will be a reminder for myself and for yourselves by the will of Allah.
The Purpose of Our Creation
What we need to realize and know is every one of us is trying to be a better person. Each one of us is trying to become better in several ways. Number one, in our relationship with our Maker because we as believers realize and recognize and believe that we were made by the Supreme Deity whom we are going to return to one day. And there was a purpose of creation that He made mention of in the Quran in more than one place.
Allah actually says, I have not created mankind or jinkind for any purpose besides for them to worship Me. When I was young, I used to ask myself, but what about football? What about everything else? I mean, you know, how can Allah say He's only made me to worship Him and that's it. You know, there's no other purpose to life.
Until as I grew older, I realized that the meaning of it is, in order to lead your life in the obedience of the Almighty, everything you do becomes an act of worship if your intention is correct. And if you are to stay away from prohibition, then for the time that you are staying away from prohibition and abomination, you're actually in the obedience of Allah worshiping Him. Then I realized that, you know what? It's something very broad.
The Test of Life
Then you find another verse in Suratul Mulk making mention of that purpose of life where Allah says:
It is He who created death and life to test you who from among you has better deeds.
So I need to make sure that I have the best possible deeds according to my capacity given to me by Allah. This is mentioned in Suratul Mulk and there are, like I said, many other verses that speak of the purpose of creation. Allah says, death and life are made because He wants to test us who has better deeds.
So I'm going to make sure that I have better deeds than I had before. One might say, I'm in competition with everyone else. In actual fact, you are in competition with your old self. You're in competition with who you were yesterday. And yes, amongst us, there are some who have done much more. Some who are slow in the way they get closer to Allah.
The Trials That Test Our Faith
But remember, the ultimate failure or passing would be determined at the end of your life. So you need to keep going. There is a narration of Muhammad (peace be upon him), he speaks of how a person would worship Allah for 70 years and right at the end, they mess up in such a big way. They turn away, they become despondent.
You know, sometimes it happens that a person is really pious in the sense that they don't miss a salah. They actually do a lot of good deeds. They recite the Quran, they've learned the meaning of it, they try. And then suddenly something big happens in their lives that according to them is negative. And when that happens, it's a test of your iman.
When People Lose Faith
I know of people who lose their faith sometimes and they start thinking to themselves after having been obedient for so many years, they start saying, you know what, where is Allah? What is He doing? Where is Allah in my life? I'm sick, I'm ill, and I'm just not getting better. And I'm praying every day for the last 20 years, it hasn't helped me.
I remember entering a hospital once and there was a person who was telling me, I'm considering abandoning Islam. And I said, why? So he says, because I'm a Muslim, I've been praying to Allah for so long and I'm just not getting better. I said, well, you know what? Two things, what are you considering becoming? He says, I'm looking into this faith and that faith, and he gave me a few names. I told him, I know of people in that faith you want to go into who are even worse than you.
The Mercy of Allah and Seeking Forgiveness
You know what, my brothers, my sisters, when you seek the forgiveness of Allah, don't ever let the devil come to you and make you doubt the mercy of Allah. Don't ever let the devil come to you and make you doubt. He comes to you and he makes you think to yourself, I was too sinful, I don't think that Allah is actually going to have mercy on me. I think I was really really nasty, I was really bad.
No. In the same way that when a person reverts and declares their shahada, enters the fold of Islam, we believe that, that everything prior to that would be deleted completely in terms of sin and negativity. In that same way, when you engage in tawbah and repentance and you turn to Allah seeking forgiveness, everything evil you've done or the things that you are seeking forgiveness from would actually be totally wiped out.
Say, O Muhammad (peace be upon him), tell my worshippers, those who have transgressed against themselves, those who have committed sin, those who have done wrong, those who've involved in that which would be displeasing to me, tell them never lose hope in the mercy of Allah.
Never lose hope, never become hopeless regarding the mercy of Allah. Why? The verse continues to say, for indeed, Allah will forgive all the sins that you've committed, all of them. And indeed, He is Most Forgiving, Most Merciful.
A Powerful Du'a for Protection from Sin
Can I teach you a prayer that you need to continuously make in order for you to be protected from sin?
Keep on repeating this. It means, Oh Allah, let me be content with what is halal so that I don't go into haram. Let the halal be sufficient for me so that I don't go into haram.
That's a powerful dua. Allah will make you content with what is halal so that you don't look towards haram. Whether it is your spouse, whether it is your wealth, whether it is something you'd like to achieve, Allah makes you happy with that which is permissible, that which is halal, so that you don't go into that which is haram.
Trusting in Allah's Plan
Now when we say this, it's important for us to realize that Allah Almighty has created people in our midst who will serve us, and we will serve others in a way that we are pleasing Allah. But it's Allah who granted that to us.
For example, if I have, say, a breakdown with my motor vehicle on the road, and I don't have a jack in my car, or I have one and it's faulty, and I stop and it's the middle of the night, and I say, Oh Allah, help me. And suddenly here comes someone, a motor vehicle, and they stop, and assalamu alaikum, they know you. Wow, how come you're here? No, I need this jack and so on. They say, don't worry, you step aside, I'll do it for you.
And then you realize, no, hang on, this is not Allah, this is just a human being. You say, no, no, no, you carry on, I'm waiting for Allah to come. That's what people do. And you think you're so pious, but it's Allah who says, I have sent that person to you.
Preparing for the Meeting with Allah
And as we grow, as we grow, we become more conscious of the fact that we need to meet with Allah. Allah is so merciful, so merciful, that we should not be frightened of meeting Him. In fact, we should look forward to the meeting with Allah, but you need to prepare in a way that you have done something at least to take forth.
O Allah, make the best of our deeds the last of our days. And the most beautiful of our days, the day when we meet You, O Allah, let it be a beautiful day.
The Concept of Coming with Good Deeds
Listen to this verse. It appears in more than one place in the Quran:
Those who come with a good deed on that day, will have in return something better than the deed they did, and they will be safe from the tremor or the shaking or the fear of that particular day. And in another place Allah says:
Whoever comes on that day with a good deed, shall have it multiplied tenfold, and that's the minimum. You will have your good deed multiplied tenfold.
Now I ask you a question, those of you who speak the Arabic language, when you do a good deed, what do you say? When you want someone to do a good deed, what do you say? You say (افْعَلْ - if'al) or you say (اعْمَلْ - a'mal). But you don't say (ايت به - ayt bih). You say, do it, act upon it, do it, but you don't say, come with it. In this verse Allah didn't say, whoever does a good deed will have it multiplied by ten. Whoever acted upon a good deed will have it multiplied by ten.
He uses a special verb, and that is, to come with. (جاءَ بالشيء - jaa'a bishay') To come with something.
Whoever comes with the good deed. That means, I need to do the good deed, and then pack it, and keep it, and hold it in such a way that one day I can come with it. Right? That's what it means.
The Hadith of the Bankrupt Person
From this some of the Mufassireen have actually said, to do the deed is simple, but to come with it on the day of judgment is much more difficult. You might be slightly confused. Let me explain. It goes back to a hadith of Rasulullah (peace be upon him) reported in Sahih Muslim, narrated by Abu Hurairah. He says, the Prophet (peace be upon him) asked us:
(Sahih Muslim 2581)
Do you know who is a person who's bankrupt? Do you know the bankrupt person?
So they said, yeah, the one who doesn't have dirham and mataa, the one who doesn't have wealth, money, provision, and assets. No assets bankrupt. He says, wait. A truly bankrupt person is he who comes on the day of judgment. And they have lots of prayer, and lots of fasting, and lots of good deeds, and lots of zakat,
of charity, lots of it. And when you hear that much only, you start thinking to yourself, hang on. Is there not a mistake somewhere here? How can a bankrupt person be one who has lots of charity, lots of prayer, lots of good deeds, lots of fasting, voluntary deeds, we call them naafilah.
But hang on. Listen to the rest of the statement. He says, he comes on the day of judgment with his deeds. Before he can actually take those deeds forth, he has wronged this one, sworn that one, backbitten about that one, eaten the wealth of that one, harmed that one, perhaps murdered that one, etc.
The Currency of the Hereafter
So what happens? There is justice on that day, justice. You had a lot of money, you had a lot of wealth, but you owed people, so you had to start giving them bit by bit, and you started giving those whom you owed, and you had nothing left, and there were still so many people you owed.
So, if you look at it in deed currency, and that's the currency on that particular day, because Allah says:
Wealth and your children won't help you except for those who have a sound heart.
Those who come forth and they have not wronged others, those who come forth and their deeds are protected, their deeds are looked after, those are the ones who will have success on that particular day.
The Difference Between Sins Against Allah and Sins Against People
This is why we say, when you commit a sin between you and Allah, the chances of forgiveness are far greater than when you commit a sin against a fellow human being. Don't we always say, your character, your conduct, your character, your conduct. When the Prophet (peace be upon him) was asked, what are the deeds that would take people to paradise? He said two things: (تَقْوَى اللهِ وَحُسْنُ الْخُلْقِ - taqwa Allahi wa husnul khulq). What does that mean? The consciousness of the Almighty, you fulfilled your relationship or your duty and obligation unto the Almighty and, he says, brilliance of character and conduct.
The Justice of the Hereafter
When the person's deeds are depleted, do you know what happens? There are still so many whom he owes because he has wronged them. So Allah instructs that the bad deeds of those people who were wronged be taken and thrown onto the scale of this person who came initially with so many good deeds. Look at that.
Now what happens? He starts getting bad deeds. So, the sins committed by someone else were given to me. That's not just, but it's only just if I did something to deserve them to come onto me. And that would be, I wronged that person, I back-bit, I was back-biting about them. I slandered this one, I cheated this one, I deceived the other one, I lied to that one.
Seeking Forgiveness from People
But the problem is, if your sin is connected to another human being, some of these pointers that I've been saying, you know, slander, backbiting, deceiving, abusing, etc., etc., then there is a fifth condition above those four, and that is, that person needs to forgive you. That person needs to forgive you, and our pride would make us not even want to go and seek forgiveness.
I remember someone come to me and says, Sheikh, I'm going for hajj. I said, mashallah. Just forgive me, please. I said, alhamdulillah. Forgiven for what? I don't think you've done it. No, you know, whatever I've said about you, I said, what did you say? It's okay, leave that, you know.
The Proper Way to Seek Forgiveness
So, when you've done something wrong to a fellow human being, you need to make sure that as they may forgive you, it's your duty to undo what you've done. Your duty. So you go back to the people whom you might have addressed and you make sure that you tell them, you know, I said this about the sister. I was wrong. I actually sought forgiveness. She is a very good sister, etc, etc.
I tell you the original way is to put your pride wherever it could be. Take it out. Go forth and say, you know brother, I worked here many, many years ago. I, unfortunately, I was young. I was a person who never had an understanding and I stole 20 bucks from you and here it is. I'm really, really sorry. Please forgive me. Right? That's the proper way.
The Importance of Forgiving Others
You know what I learned from this? If I want the forgiveness of the most forgiving, I need to have within me a quality of forgiving others as well. And you forgive them, alhamdulillah, as best as possible.
Allah tells us the best thing you could do is have patience. Learn to forgo and forgive. It's better for you.
Some people hold small things against others in a way that it becomes a bigger burden on their shoulders than anyone else's. It becomes a point of stress and depression. You haven't released, just release it, release it as best as you can.
The Leaking Bucket Analogy
Our bucket was not leaking. We had deeds, we filled them into the bucket and you know what we did? We ensured that there was no leak at the bottom. The reason is, let's ask ourselves, how many of us? We do good deeds. We fulfill our prayers. Mashallah, five prayers a day. Some of us even more, you know, that which is voluntary as well.
And mashallah, we dress appropriately, we have so much of goodness, we're getting closer to Allah, we fast and so on and we start thinking to ourselves, alhamdulillah, you know, mashallah, I'm thankful to Allah that Allah's made me you know, read five salah in the first saf, I read it with jama'a or I read Quran every day, I read so much of Quran but you know what? At home the way you speak to your wife or your husband is so nasty that as you come out of the masjid having read that salah, you come into the home with a leaking bucket. That salah went straight through the bucket.
The Responsibility Towards Our Families
Many of us speak to our children in a way that we abuse them. Wallahi, we abuse them, not realizing that Allah is watching, Allah knows. I've come across cases where mothers use a statement of Muhammad (peace be upon him) to blackmail their children. And parents do the same sometimes. They use a statement to blackmail.
Yes, your status is known. We say, serve your parents, serve your mother, you will earn Jannatul Firdaus. Don't you hear that? You will earn paradise by serving your mother or by serving your parents. You need to be kinder to your mother than your father. Do you agree?
That is kindness. So, people say, your paradise is under my feet. You will do as I say. Come on, come on. That's not what the Prophet said. He didn't say that you can use that statement to blackmail your kids.
Respecting Our Parents
And the other way as well, sometimes you have a son or a daughter, very pious, mashallah. They're really trying hard and mashallah, reading Quran and doing this and they speak to their parents like subhanallah, they wouldn't even speak to anyone else.
If your parents, one or both of them, arrive at old age, do not speak to them disrespectfully. Allah says:
If your parents, one or both of them, arrive at old age, in your presence, you need to know what to do. You don't ever utter, oof, to them. And that's a bad expression, let alone a bad statement.
The Difficulty of Protecting Good Deeds
It was easy to pray. It is ten times more difficult to protect that prayer. I tell you, a lot of the guys, they'll come and they'll pray and mashallah they'll take long in salah and so on. Shaitan comes to them before they exit the masjid and starts making them have evil thoughts about someone else.
That very thought has probably resulted in you losing the entire reward of the whole salah that you made and on top of that earning a sin from Allah. What happened to your bucket? It had a massive hole at the bottom. Huge. Not just a leak. It was a waste. Straight down.
Protecting Our Fasting
You know in Ramadan we fast. Everyone fast. Have you noticed it's easier to fast in Ramadan than outside Ramadan. Have you noticed that? Why? We're doing it collectively. It's the season and so on. But, have you also noticed that sometimes in Ramadan, tempers flare.
The reason is in the same way that when you do a bad deed, you seek forgiveness. When you do a good deed, seek to protect that deed. You follow what I'm saying? When you do a bad deed, you seek forgiveness, it's wiped out. When you do a good deed, seek protection so it's consolidated.
So, shaitan comes to you towards the end of the day, knowing that you are packaging the whole deed, and it's now going to go into that bucket solid. He comes and makes it leak. Why? Just before it ends, spoil it for them. So now you start arguing and fighting. That's why the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) warns us of this, and he says, when you are fasting, you don't swear, you don't abuse, you don't commit immorality, you don't say vulgar words, and if anyone comes to try and argue with you, what should you say? Look, I'm fasting.
The Weight of Deeds
Allah says:
(Quran) (21:47). On that day of judgment, we will put up the scales of justice. And no one will be oppressed. On the day of judgment, the scales will be there. The weight of the deeds.
When I do a deed, it has a weight. It's a spiritual weight. Not kilograms, but spiritually, there is a weight of the deed. It either frees me, or it traps me. When I do a bad deed, there is a weight. The problem is, sometimes there are very simple deeds that are extremely heavy on the scale. Both good and bad. It was so easy, but it was really heavy upon the scales.
I want to give you some examples on both sides, right? One is the last hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari, where the Prophet (peace be upon him) says:
(Sahih al-Bukhari)
(Sahih al-Bukhari 7563). They are very light on the tongue, they are very loved by Allah, and they are very heavy on the scale. What are they? سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ وَبِحَمْدِهِ، سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ الْعَظِيمِ . We should be repeating these. They're very easy to earn reward.
The Weight of Hurtful Words
And on the other hand, one day Aisha spoke about one of the wives of the Prophet (peace be upon him) saying, you know what, she's short. And she said it in a slightly derogatory way. She's short, you know, she's short. And the Prophet (peace be upon him) says, you know what, oh Aisha, if the statement you uttered was ink, as a droplet, it would change the color of the ocean.
You know what that means? Don't say hurtful words. You don't know if they were in the form of a droplet of ink, they would change the color of the ocean. That means it's a serious statement. You hurt someone. Don't do that.
Being Content with Allah's Decree
Be happy with what Allah has given you. Allah has given you the best for you. That's what He's done. Those who are tall, not happy. Those who are short, not happy. Then who is happy? Those who are medium are also not happy. They want to be shorter or taller. Then what?
Those who have boys, not happy. Those who have girls, not happy. Those who don't have children, not happy. Those who have both boys and girls, it's a handful, man. So then who is happy? Be happy with what Allah has chosen for you. And you will meet with Allah with a smile. You'll be the happiest person. Why? What He decreed for you, where you had no role to play, you were always happy with it.
Taking Action While Trusting Allah
You don't just say that, oh Allah, do whatever you want. And then you sit back and relax. No salah, no zakat, no fasting. Oh Allah, if you want me to read salah, you'll take me to the masjid. If it's destined for me, I will go. That is foolish.
Like the man who came at the time of Umar ibn Khattab, they wanted to punish one of the guys who had stolen. But he was smart. So he says, Ya Umar, Ya Amirul Momineen, how can you punish me when it was written that I was going to steal? Smart boy, right? Smart guy. How can you punish me? It was written. Don't you believe in destiny?
So Umar ibn Khattab says, yes, and it was written that we were going to punish you as well. Amazing how we look at things sometimes, we justify certain things where we don't play our role. And we say, well, it was written. It was written. Written? Yes, it may have been written that you were foolish not to have used what Allah gave you, bestowed upon you.
Closing Advice
My brothers and sisters, I've spoken for more than an hour. And for me, it felt like I just spoke for 20 minutes.
I hope that we've benefited firstly myself to begin with. I hope firstly we can have our buckets. And secondly, we can fill them. And thirdly, we can ensure that they're not leaking. So that we don't lose our good deeds.
Brothers and sisters, try your best to become closer to Allah. Let's not judge one another, but let's encourage one another. Let's not be people who look down upon one another, but let's try and motivate
one another. So that each one of us can work on our own weaknesses. And each one of us can be people who would actually get closer to Allah in a way that when we arrive on the day of judgment, we will have that bucket filled with deeds with no leakages.
Closing Du'a
أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَٰذَا وَصَلَّى اللَّهُ وَبَارَكَ عَلَىٰ نَبِيِّنَا مُحَمَّدٍ سُبْحَانَكَ اللَّهُمَّ وَبِحَمْدِكَ أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا أَنْتَ أَسْتَغْفِرُكَ وَأَتُوبُ إِلَيْكَ