Mufti Menk - Your Own Book
By Mufti Menk | 2026-01-11T17:01:01.315923+00:00 | Topic: Iman
Your Own Book - Mufti Menk
Opening Greeting and Bismillah
أَسْلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ
Opening Quranic Verse
"Say, O My servants who have transgressed against themselves, Do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, He is the Forgiving, the Merciful."
The Importance of Constant Reminders
My brothers and sisters, the first message which we have as Muslims for one another is to be conscious of Allah. No matter how much we remind each other about taqwa or about the consciousness of Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala, it will never be enough. In Islam, we are taught that the more we repeat the message, the more beneficial it is for us as Muslims.
Quranic Emphasis on Repetition
This is why in the Qur'an, when Allah says:
"Establish your salah and fulfill the zakat." He does not say it only one time, but He repeats it many times in the Qur'an.
"Remind and keep reminding for definitely the reminding benefits those who truly believe."
If you are a believer, you would be happy when people keep reminding you of the same thing over and over again. It is an honor, it is a privilege to be reminded because Allah has chosen the same in the Qur'an. He keeps reminding us, He keeps telling us.
The Fundamental Message of Worship
One of the most powerful things that He keeps telling us is worship me alone and don't associate partners with me:
"Worship Allah and do not associate partners with Allah in any way or form and be kind to your parents."
Have you ever thought why Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala adds the issue of being kind to parents immediately after He speaks about worshiping Him alone. The reason is Allah created you and I and Allah chose in order to bring you and I into this world a certain path. And on that particular path, He decided which will be your parents and mine.
And therefore Allah created you, yes, but through your parents. So He wants you and I to worship Him alone to begin with, and thereafter He says, those whom I chose to bring you into existence, be kind to them. May Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala help us to be kind to our parents.
But don't forget my brothers and sisters, remember to worship Allah alone. Every day we listen to messages, we hear people say things, but I promise you, the most powerful message we have is to ensure that we worship Allah alone. We don't ever render any act of worship for anyone or to anyone or anything besides the one who made us.
Allah's Right to Command Us
We owe that to Him. Indeed, Allah is the creator, for Him is creation. If Allah has created, doesn't He have the right to instruct? When Allah made us, He has the right to tell us what He wants us to do.
So this is why He tells us to fulfill the five daily prayers. My brothers and sisters, you will have speakers from across the globe. You will have those who speak to you via YouTube, via the internet, via the radio programs, the television programs, and those who speak to you live.
They will all remind you about the five daily prayers. What are you waiting for? Why is it that we listen to one message, another, a third, a fourth, a fifth, a tenth, a hundredth, but we still have not established our five daily prayers the way we should? Why is it that we find ourselves waiting? Who are you waiting for?
Quranic Question About Waiting
In another verse, referring to something else, Allah says, asking the question, "What are they waiting for? Are they waiting for the angels to come down or for Allah to come down or for the signs promised by Allah to come down?" My brothers and sisters, shouldn't we change before that?
I ask you today, every one of you, brothers and sisters, I ask you and I remind you and myself to become better in how we relate with Allah. (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) - the relationship with Allah, starting with your prayer, that is the basic.
The Urgency of Establishing Prayer
Allah has given you 136,000 heartbeats every day. If you miss one heartbeat, you might be a dead man or a dead woman. 136,000 heartbeats a day and you cannot read salah five times for the sake of Allah, that will not take you more than 50 minutes? Are you serious? Surely we should change.
What are you waiting for? Who do you want to listen to the message from? Choose the name. Which Muslim leader do you want him to say that, pray five times a day? You can go on to YouTube and listen to the same person you wish to give you the message. Ultimately it is the message of Allah.
So who do you want to come in front of you to tell you, please pray five times a day? It is the key to the solutions of the problems of this dunya and the akhirah, of this world and the next. That is the key. If you don't have the key, you won't be able to even cross the first step.
One of the first things that a slave shall be taken into account for is the salah. If that is in order, everything else will be much easier. If that is not in order, you have none to blame but yourself.
Your Book - The Most Important Book
Hadith on Finding Goodness in Your Book
(Sahih Muslim)
"On the day whoever gets their books and they see goodness in the book, they should thank Allah." Which book is this? The book that you are writing right now. You are writing a book.
Every one of us is an author. Every one of us is writing a book. There is a scribe on our behalf writing. The angels are writing. Whose book? Your book. Who is deciding the contents of the book? Well, your actions, your words, your deeds are deciding the contents of that book.
It is your book, my brothers, my sisters. Your own book. So write it well. Write it well. What have you got in your book? Do you have zina and adultery? Do you have alcohol? Do you have gambling? Do you have fornication? Do you have all sorts of sin? Do you have distance from Allah? No prayer? The eating of that which is haram? The stealing? The pinching? The deceiving? What else do you have in the book?
Well, I can tell you something very good. I read for you a verse at the beginning of this lecture.
The Mercy of Allah for All Sins
And I said that Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala has said, "O Muhammad(صلى الله عليه وسلم), tell my servants who have gone wrong, who have committed sin, who have transgressed against themselves, tell them, never lose hope in the mercy of Allah." You are breathing, it's not too late. You are alive, it's not too late.
Delete what is in your book, change it, write something else. When you make a mistake, you can rub it off, you can erase it, it's not too late. Never lose hope in the mercy of Allah.
Allah will forgive all your sins. How many of them? Every single sin that you have committed. There is no sin that is too big for Allah to forgive, including shirk.
The Condition for Forgiveness
If someone has associated partners with Allah, Allah will forgive you for as long as you ask for forgiveness. But the one who dies without asking for forgiveness, he is the one who needs to be worried. Because I read another verse today at the beginning of this lecture, where Allah says:
Allah will not forgive those who associate partners with Him and die in the condition without repenting.
Those are the ones whom Allah will not forgive. Who are those whom Allah will not forgive? Only those who die without seeking forgiveness from shirk, from associating partners with Allah. But if you have committed some of those sins, including shirk in your life, and you are still alive, you can seek forgiveness, Allah will forgive you.
Example of the Companions
Just like the companions of the Prophet(صلى الله عليه وسلم) most of them before Islam, they were mushrikeen. They used to associate partners with Allah. What happened? Allah forgave them.
When they declared their Islam, when they sought the forgiveness of Allah, they used to laugh and joke about how they used to worship sticks and stones prior to their entry into Islam. But they knew they were forgiven by Allah. So if someone has committed shirk, Allah will forgive them if they seek forgiveness.
But when Allah says, I won't forgive shirk, He is talking about those who die in the condition of shirk, where they have not yet asked Allah to forgive them. So the mercy of Allah dictates that He will forgive all those who seek forgiveness.
Hadith on Allah's Continuous Forgiveness
(Sahih Muslim)
"Whoever seeks forgiveness, Allah will forgive that person."
(Hadith - Sahih Muslim)
"Allah stretches His hand in order to forgive those who committed sins by night and those who have committed sin during the day." Allahu Akbar! May Allah grant us forgiveness.
Allah keeps on becoming happy and excited by those who seek His forgiveness until the day the sun will rise from the wrong side. On that day, the story is over.
Another hadith narration:
"Allah continues to forgive those of His worshippers who are seeking the forgiveness of Allah until they arrive at the point of death before just ghargara."
When your soul is being taken away from your body and you begin to see reality, then Allah says, now it's too late to seek forgiveness. May Allah forgive us. May Allah grant us a new beginning. May Allah make us steadfast with salah. Five salah a day, not three, not two, not one, but five. May Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala help us to fulfill all the five salah.
Our Identity as Muslims
We are Muslim. We are proud to be Muslim. People look at us and they think that we are barbaric. They think that we are extreme. They think that we are people who don't respect others. No, we want to show them we respect others. We are balanced people. We have very very great connection with our Maker. By five daily prayers, it's a pillar of Islam.
If you remove a pillar of Islam, the whole building drops. Remember that. May Allah grant us steadfastness.
The Joy of Receiving Your Book
So, the verse I mentioned, the beautiful verse, don't lose hope in the mercy of Allah. What have you done in your life? What did you write in your book? You can change all the bad, only put good things in your book. There is salah, fajr, dhuhr, asr. Imagine you get tics, tics, and it's in your book.
Quranic Verse About Receiving Your Book in Your Right Hand
"Ask for the one who will receive his own book. On his right hand, he will say, Hey, read my book!"
Because he will be happy and proud in his book. There is only good things. If he did bad in the world, he quickly ask Allah's forgiveness. So Allah forgave him and wiped out the sins. And sometimes Allah wipes out a sin by replacing it with good deeds that you may not even have done. But because of seeking forgiveness of Allah, He says:
"Those who repent, they do good deeds after the repentance. Allah says, We will take their bad deeds from the bad side of the scale. We will replace them with good deeds. We will multiply the good and we will show them that on the Day of Qiyamah."
Do you know why? Because Allah says, He is Most Forgiving. Not just Most Forgiving Most Merciful. غَفُورٌ means Most Forgiving. It was enough for Allah says:
"That's enough. Allah is Most Forgiving." Never ever did Allah say, He is Most Forgiving and stop there. He could have stopped, but He did not stop. Do you know why? Because He wants to tell us, together with forgiveness, I have mercy. I am the Most Merciful. I don't want to punish you. I want to forgive you.
يُرِيدُ اللهُ أَن يَتُوبَ عَلَيْكُمْ : 4:28 Quran
"Allah wants to forgive you."
He's looking for the excuse to forgive you. When you say, Oh Allah, forgive me. He will change your life if you are truthful.
A Call for Immediate Change
My brothers and sisters, small effort is required from us. I am here in this beautiful city of Banjul, in the Gambia. What a lovely nation. What a beautiful country. I am here in this lovely masjid. They call it the pipeline masjid. I was wondering why, but I ask Allah to make it the pipeline to Jannah. We want to enter Jannah and Firdaus. We are here in our thousands.
If your life does not change today, on the day of Jumu'ah, in the house of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, when do you want your life to change? Stop your bad habits. It's not difficult. Cut them today. Promise Allah that you will cut your bad habits. We don't need those bad habits. Wallahi, they bring about temporary pleasure.
They don't bring about long-term goodness, calmness. Concentrate on your family members. Concentrate on those around you. Help, for the sake of Allah, those who are around you. Don't help because you want a sexual favor. Don't help because you want some other political favor. Don't help because you want some job or something of that nature. Help for the sake of Allah. And you will learn Jannah.
Practical Advice for Daily Life
May Allah give us Jannah. Helping people is not only through money. It is even through your good character. When you live in your house, make life easy for your children. Make life easy for your in-laws. Make life easy for the husbands and wives of your children. Make life easy for your uncles and aunts and your relatives. And Allah will make life easy for you. You make life easy for someone, Allah will make life easy for you.
You work for someone, fulfill your job correctly. Someone works for you. Respect them as though they are the boss, and you are the worker. Subhanallah. Rasulullah Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم), the greatest of creation, the most noble of all prophets of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. If you didn't know who he was, you would not even know the difference.
Because he respected people so much. His companions, subhanallah, when people used to come in, they used to ask, who is Muhammad from amongst you? Those who didn't know. Today we have a small job that is slightly higher than others. We want to be acknowledged, I am the boss. What boss? Subhanallah. The last time I checked, B-O-S-S was the name of a perfume.
May Allah grant us goodness. May Allah make us from those who can at least let out a good scent. My brothers, my sisters, remember, change your habits. Cut your bad habits for the sake of Allah. Treat
people with respect, you will get Jannah.
The Two Types of People
Going back to the book, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says:
Allah says, as for the one who gets his book on the left hand, which means there are some bad pages in that book, bad things written. They did not seek forgiveness. All of us, we commit sins.
We are human beings, we are Insan. We are the children of Adam. We all commit sins. But the winner is the one who immediately asks Allah's forgiveness and tries his best or her best not to repeat it again for the sake of Allah. That is the winner.
If I ask you, who of you have never committed a sin? None of us would be able to put up our hands, starting with myself. But if I ask you, how many of us have asked the forgiveness of Allah, the whole masjid will have put up their hands. Because we all want the forgiveness of Allah. O Allah, forgive us.
The Time for Change is Now
It is time for forgiveness. A Friday, the best day of the week in the house of Allah, at a time when it's very sacred and your heart is not soft. How? When is your heart going to get soft? How many messages would you like to hear? Every breath that you breathe is telling you, turn to Allah, I'm going to stop one day.
You breathe in and out, is it not going to stop one day? It will. So listen to that message. How many millions and billions you make, what type of job you have, how powerful you are, it becomes irrelevant the day your breath stops.
One heartbeat that goes out of order and there is a small qiyamah in your life. Because your life is almost ended. Two, three heartbeats, you are dead. What happens thereafter? They say in Arabic:
"The man has now transferred into the mercy of Allah." All his deeds, now in the mercy of Allah. It's up to Allah to accept or reject.
The Book Described in the Quran
My brothers and sisters, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala speaks about the book in the Quran. You know what he says? Which book am I talking about? Your book, my book, the one we are writing right now. May Allah help us to write it well.
We don't want to be embarrassed.
Allah says, "The book will be placed. And the mujrim, those who are criminals, they will say, what is up with this book here? It has left nothing. Every small thing, every big thing is in this book."
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, they will find everything they did in front of them. And Allah, your Rabb, does not oppress anyone. No one shall be wronged.
In this world, normally the power of a country is looked at by the power of the judicial system. When your judiciary is very balanced and fair, people love the country. They love the leadership. May Allah grant that to us. Ameen. Imagine, the court of Allah, there is no bribery, no corruption, nothing.
You cannot cheat. The truth is the truth, the false is the false. Those who got away with murder in this world, will never get away with murder in the eyes of Allah.
Let's make peace before we die. We don't want to be criminals. We don't want to be the mujrims that Allah spoke about in this verse. But we want to be from those who can say, read my book, I tried hard. I tried hard. Yes, I faulted. Yes, I sinned.
A Message of Hope
I want to give you news. Those of us who have committed sin, even if that sin went right up to adultery. Even if that sin went up to fornication and drinking and so many other sins, drugs. Remember, cut it for the sake of Allah and seek forgiveness because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran:
"As for those who committed immorality, whether it is adultery or fornication or any immorality, if they committed it or those who have wronged themselves by committing any sin, if they remember Allah and they seek forgiveness for their sins," saying, who is there who's going to forgive me besides Allah?
I ask you a question. Don't we all believe the same thing? Who is going to forgive you besides Allah? No, no, no. I have no option but to hope in Allah. I have no other option because Allah is my maker and I'm going to go back to Him. What other option do I have? Nothing, zero.
So I ask Allah, O Allah, forgive my sins, have mercy on me and grant me Jannah and give it to everyone of us. Ameen. So Allah says, those who remember Allah and seek the forgiveness of Allah because they know that there is none to forgive the sins besides Allah, you know what? If they don't continue in their bad ways and habits and they try their best to be upright, Allah says:
"Those are the ones who will achieve the mercy of Allah. That's what Allah says. And they are the ones who will get paradise, Jannah." Amazing.
Subhanallah. Look at how merciful Allah is. He is saying, if you want Jannah, it does not mean you are a person who never committed a sin. No. You are a person who committed sins but you sought the
forgiveness of Allah. That is when you are in the mercy of Allah. That is when you will get Jannah. Amazing. Thank Allah we have hope.
We have hope. We will not lose the hope in the mercy of Allah. We will have hope.
The Path to Paradise
So this is the beauty of Allah. I want you my brothers and sisters to remember these words. And I want you to understand, always turn back to Allah. Always turn back to Allah. Never lose hope. Write your book well when we get into the Akhirah.
We must all be from among those who get our books on the right. Get our books on the right and we keep walking into Jannah. Into the companionship of Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم). And we meet there and we will be in the best place ever.
And we will never regret the little suffering that we had on this earth. Subhanallah. I want to tell you a very good message. I know I have already taken up a little bit of time but it's not like I come to Banjul every day. So let me spend a few more minutes. Something very very interesting.
The Example of the Prophet's Simple Life
If I were to ask you, who is the most loved unto Allah? The answer is Muhammad, peace be upon him. If I were to ask you, who is the highest of creation, the most noble of all prophets of Allah? The answer is Muhammad, peace be upon him. Have you ever thought, Allah loves him more than you and I but he never sat in an aircraft.
Allah loved him more than you and I but he has never had a watch. Allah loved him more than you and I but he never had a tap which he could turn on and the water would come out from. Allah loved him more than you and I, he did not have a fan or electricity. Allah loved him more than you and I, he never had a car. Forget about Mercedes, he never even had a Toyota. Allah loved him more than you and I, he did not have a bicycle.
Allah loved him more than you and I, he did not have the type of clothing that we have that goes to show that everything we have is irrelevant in the eyes of Allah. It's got to do with who is closer to Allah, who gets Jannatul Firdaus. Remember that.
When you have things, it's not a sign of the happiness of Allah. Sometimes maybe when you don't have it, it's a sign of the happiness of Allah. You follow what I'm saying? But if Allah has blessed you, there's no harm. Let your blessings bring you closer to Allah and make you humble. Some people when they have the blessings, they turn away from Allah. Some people when they have blessings, they become arrogant.
The Two Keys to Paradise
Remember my brothers and sisters, two things will take you to paradise:
"Be conscious of Allah and treat the other people with a lot of respect."
I call on you to do those two things. This is the pulpit of Jummah. This is a sacred pulpit. It is a pulpit from which people are hoping to listen to a message of mercy, a message of goodness, a message of closeness to Allah, a message that will move us. I hope and I pray today's message has moved myself and everyone of us.
We might be struggling in our countries. We might be suffering in a way or two. Those who are better than us have struggled more. And they said, Oh Allah, if you are happy with me, I don't mind the struggles that I'm going through. If you are happy with me, it's okay. Everything else is irrelevant. May Allah grant us a little bit of strength.
Closing Dua
May Allah help us to improve ourselves, to reach out to one another, to respect one another, to reach out to both Muslim and non-Muslim in a way that we will fulfill what Allah wants us to fulfill. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless every one of us.