Be Like The Bee!

Be Like The Bee!

Khutbah by Nouman Ali Khan

Opening Praise and Testimony

اَلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ، اَلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ خَالِقِ الْوُجُوْدِ مِنَ الْعَدَمِ وَجَاعِلِ النُّوْرِ مِنَ الظَّلَامِ وَمُخْرِجِ الصَّبْرِ مِنَ الْأَلَمِ وَمُلْقِي التَّوْبَةِ عَلَى النَّدَمِ، فَنَشْكُرُهُ عَلَى الْمَصَائِبِ كَمَا نَشْكُرُهُ عَلَى النِّعَمِ، وَنُصَلِّيْ عَلَى رَسُوْلِهِ الْأَكْرَمِ ذِيْ شَرَفِ الْأَشَمِّ وَالنُّوْرِ الْأَتَمِّ وَالْكِتَابِ الْمُحْكَمِ وَكَمَالِ النَّبِيِّيْنَ وَالْخَاتَمِ، سَيِّدِنَا وَوَلَدِ آدَمَ الَّذِيْ بُشِّرَ بِهِ عِيْسَى ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ وَدَعَا لِبِعْثَتِهِ إِبْرَاهِيْمُ عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ حِيْنَ كَانَ يَرْفَعُ قَوَاعِدَ بَيْتِ اللهِ الْمُحَرَّمِ، فَصَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَعَلَى أَتْبَاعِهِ خَيْرِ الْأُمَمِ الَّذِيْ بَارَكَ اللهُ بِهِمْ كَافَّةَ النَّاسِ الْعَرَبِ مِنْهُمْ وَالْعَجَمِ، فَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِيْ لَمْ يَتَّخِذْ وَلَدًا وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ شَرِيْكٌ فِي الْمُلْكِ وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ وَلِيٌّ مِنَ الذُّلِّ وَكَبِّرْهُ تَكْبِيْرًا، وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِيْ أَنْزَلَ عَلَى عَبْدِهِ الْكِتَابَ وَلَمْ يَجْعَلْ لَهُ عِوَجًا، وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِيْ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِيْنُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنُؤْمِنُ بِهِ وَنَتَوَكَّلُ عَلَيْهِ وَنَعُوْذُ بِهِ مِنْ شُرُوْرِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا، مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ ، وَنَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيْكَ لَهُ وَنَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُ اللهِ وَرَسُوْلُهُ، أَرْسَلَهُ اللهُ تَعَالَى بِالْهُدَى وَدِيْنِ الْحَقِّ لِيُظْهِرَهُ عَلَى الدِّيْنِ كُلِّهِ وَكَفَى بِاللهِ شَهِيْدًا، فَصَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ تَسْلِيْمًا كَثِيْرًا كَثِيْرًا

Introduction to the Sermon

ثُمَّ أَمَّا بَعْدُ، فَإِنَّ أَصْدَقَ الْحَدِيْثِ كِتَابُ اللهِ وَخَيْرَ الْهَدْيِ هَدْيُ مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، وَإِنَّ شَرَّ الْأُمُوْرِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا . وَإِنَّ كُلَّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ وَكُلَّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّارِ

اَللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْنَا مِنَ الَّذِيْنَ آمَنُوْا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالْحَقِّ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالصَّبْرِ آمِيْنَ يَا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِيْنَ

The Difference Allah's Book Makes

The believer thinks differently from everybody else and the reason for that is the Book of Allah. It shapes the way that we think. As a matter of fact, what I want to start with is an ayah of Surah Al-Mulk (Quran 67:10) where people are entering into hellfire and the crime for which they are entering is being asked of them as they enter. And so they respond :

"And they will say, 'If only we had been listening or reasoning, we would not be among the companions of the Blaze.'"

The Importance of Listening and Thinking

Very famous ayah. They say if we had only been people that listened. Now let's stop there for a second. Listening to the revelation, listening to the message, listening to the reminder, listening to advice - that part everybody knows. But it doesn't say (وَنَعْقِلُ) in the ayah. It says (لَوْ كُنَّا نَسْمَعُ أَوْ نَعْقِلُ). And the word (أَوْ) in the Arabic many of you know means "or." Had we listened or had we thought. Or had we thought. And the implication there is: Had we listened or at least had we thought.

The purpose of putting things in this way is very powerful. On the one hand, the Muslim will learn something when he or she listens. We listen to a khutbah, we listen to a reminder, we listen to a lecture. You read something even and you will learn. And you will take heed from that. You will take advice from that. And maybe change yourself for the better. And at least you should. Because listening to good advice and not changing is one of the reasons these people end up where they end up. They just refuse to listen.

Actually listening has two dimensions. On the one hand is just something going in your ear. And on the other is actually applying, listening and actually complying with it. This is actually true of the Arabic language and also true of English. You know when you say to somebody, "I tried to tell him, I tried to give him advice, but he didn't listen to me." But it doesn't just mean he didn't hear me. It means he didn't obey what I was saying. He didn't comply with me. Right? So listening has this duality.

But the latter is what I want to highlight: Or had we only thought. Had we only applied our intellect. In other words, Allah is telling us in that ayah and many ayahs outside of that, that the Muslim is supposed to be constantly thinking. And he has plenty of reasons to think even if they're not sitting there and listening to a sheikh teach them something. We're constantly people of thought.

Signs for Reflection

And so what makes us think are ayahs. The purpose of the ayahs: (لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ لِقَوْمٍ يَعْقِلُوْنَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ لِيَدَّبَّرُوْا آيَاتِهِ) - "So they can reflect on the ayahs." And the ayahs not just of the Quran, but the ayahs of creation all around us.

When you look at the sky outside, you're supposed to think about something. When you look at a tree outside, you and I are supposed to think. This is what a Muslim does. We think differently about the same thing everybody else sees. They all see it too and we see it too. But when we see it, we see something else. We see an opportunity to think, to reflect.

The Wahy to the Bee

And so today's khutbah is actually about one thing that gets overlooked - that Allah wants us to think about, that He wants us to really reflect on. And this is the difference between when we read the Quran just at a surface level - we just read the Quran and we just move on - or we stop and think about actually what Allah says.

He says in this remarkable ayah (Quran 16:68):

"And your Lord revealed to the bee."

Allah revealed. Your master revealed. When you say salam to Rasulullah, your master revealed. Now when the Rasul hears "My master revealed," he's thinking he revealed Quran. He revealed revelation to him, isn't it? But Allah in this particular ayah says I'm not talking about wahy to you. I'm talking about wahy to

the bee. The honey bee. Allah revealed. Your master. The same master who reveals Quran to you is the one who revealed something to the honey bee.

Reflecting on the Insignificant Bee

Now let's think about that for a second. A honey bee is something insignificant to most of us. It's not something you see everyday. Even if you do, you get scared of it. You shoot it away. You live in a city, which means that you're more than usual, more than normal, disconnected from nature anyway. All around you is more concrete and grind than there is the natural creation of Allah. Right? The one creation you can't escape is the sky. It's always there. But you know most people that live in a busy city, they have no time to even look up. They just look around and go in the tube or take the bus. They don't even look up at the sky.

So what are we going to reflect on? We don't get time to think even for ourselves or for what Allah wants us to think about. So in this particular khutbah I want to take something that we would overlook entirely - a bee - and highlight first of all that Allah told his messenger that there is a kind of wahy that I didn't give to you that I gave to the bee. So I want you to think about the bee. Subhanallah.

The Special Nature of the Bee

And we're going to have to think about this bee because obviously Allah telling us this - everything Allah tells us in Quran is for our guidance. So now I as a believer, as a Muslim, I have new respect for this small creature because Allah described it as something that receives Allah's wahy. Allah didn't say that about the cow. He didn't say that about the camel. He didn't say that about the bird. He mentions those animals. He does. He mentions lots of animals in the Quran. Lots of other creation in the Quran. But this wahy thing - it really captures you. Like there's something special about this creature that Allah wants me to pay attention to. And this is a matter of thought.

As a matter of fact, I'll tell you - and this is not going to be the subject of today's khutbah - but I'll tell you personally, when I studied this ayah a few months ago, I watched maybe 5 or 6 documentaries on bees just because Allah wants us to appreciate this creature. Allah has given it wahy. So everything it does has to do with wahy. It's inspired by wahy. And it has lessons to learn. And I didn't know enough about bees. So I wanted to study. And I consider that studying Islam. That is studying Quran. When I'm watching a documentary and I'm taking notes on what a bee does, that for me is studying Allah's deen, because that's what Allah wants us to think about.

You see, we have to have a broad perspective on how Allah wants us to approach knowledge and wisdom when He revealed to us this grand book.

The Command to Build Homes

In any case, in this ayah Allah says: (أَنِ اتَّخِذِي مِنَ الْجِبَالِ بُيُوتًا) - "That it should make homes from the mountains." Allah revealed to the bee that it should make - that directly - (أَنِ اتَّخِذِي) - a command directly to it. You see in Arabic, the expected language from here is (أَنْ تَتَّخِذَ مِنَ الْجِبَالِ بُيُوتًا) - "It should make its home in the mountains." (وَمِنَ الشَّجَرِ) - "And it should make a home in the tree." (وَمِمَّا يَعْرِشُونَ) - "And it can also make up a home in what people build for it."

Meaning people make bee hives, don't they? There's bee farming. So what people build, it can make a home in there too.

Allah's Direct Communication with the Bee

Now we learn in this ayah first of all that Allah made it a point to mention that He directly commands the bee. He speaks to it directly. (أَنِ اتَّخِذِي) is used in the second person. Allah directly communicates to the bee of where it should build its home.

And one of the other incredible benefits from this is: if you've ever had honey or any by-product of honey, which is a massive industry in the world - and as a matter of fact, it's not just honey. Most of the farming, for example in California - is the biggest almond farms in the world. You know, the almond growth, 90% of the world's supply, and all of it comes from honey bees that actually extract the pollen from certain kinds of plants. So they farm them there.

Now Allah revealed to it: "You can make your home in the mountain, and you can make your home in the tree." But if Allah did not mention (وَمِمَّا يَعْرِشُونَ) you will only find honey bees working in trees and mountains. We will never be able to farm them. But He said (وَمِمَّا يَعْرِشُونَ). So what you and I enjoy of the supply of honey is because of Allah giving it permission and giving it allowance to build its home so that we can farm. Just think about that. It makes you reflect on the fact that all of what we enjoy from Allah's creation is because Allah explicitly commanded creation, in this particular case, to be in our service.

The Hadith About the Believer and the Bee

But really what I wanted to talk to you about is some guidance from this small creature. Not just an appreciation of this creature, but some guidance. And I found something so incredible I'm still baffled by it. I found a hadith of our messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم) considered sahih:

(Source Name)

"By the One who has my life in His hand." Allah's messenger could have said anything without swearing, but he swears by Allah first because what he's about to say must be really incredible.

And he says:

(Musnad Ahmad 21707)

"The example of the believer is just like the example of the bee."

I'm sitting there going Subhanallah. First Allah told us that he reveals to the bee. Now Rasulullah says that if you want to be a mu'min, you should be just like the bee. What am I going to be like the bee? How am I going to be like the bee? What is the bee going to teach me about my iman? About how to live as a

believer? Apparently this is so serious that the messenger of Allah swore by Allah first and then said that. Must be something really serious.

Lessons from the Bee - Pure Consumption

So he told us some things we should pay attention to. And there are many more, but I want you to look at what the Rasul has said. He says:

(Musnad Ahmad 21707)

"It eats well, it eats good and pure."

When a bee goes to a bed of flowers, it doesn't take the flower that's immature. It doesn't take the flower that's gone bad. It doesn't even go to a flower that it can smell somebody else has already gone - some other bee from another hive has already sat on it. It does not go to that flower. It goes to a fresh, clean, pure flower. It only goes to that.

The first aspect of what I highlighted here is the rizq we pursue. Not just the food we eat, but the rizq we pursue. The job you're going to go get. The business you're going to go start. The money you're going to make. And the food you're going to eat. Look for the pure thing. Look for the thing that's pure. Look for the best. And you know, the bee doesn't settle for less. It keeps looking until it finds the very best.

So you know what? We're supposed to be high achievers. This is part of the attitude of a mu'min

(Bayhaqi in Shu'ab al-Iman 4928)

"When anyone among you does something, he should perfect it." You should do the best. And that's what the bee does. It goes for the best. That's the first thing.

Giving More Than Taking

Then he says:

(Musnad Ahmad 21707)

"And the way it sits on the flower, the way it sits down is really nice. It's good and pure."

And you have to study that. What that means you won't know until you study a bee. When you learn about bees, you find out that they take pollen, which from flowers means they're going to eat from the flower. But they're never going to eat from the flower until they will give the flower a lot more than they will take. They will give it life. They will give it pollen.

So if you're - and all of us have relationships just like a bee has a relationship with a flower. Every one of us is in relationships. And in every single one of my relationships and every single one of your relationships, you get something and you give something. In your marriage you give something and you get something. With your parents you give something and you get something. With your teachers you give something and you get something. With your employer or your employees you give something and you get something. There's always a give and take.

Being Gentle in Our Demands

But the bee gives a lot more than it takes. It gives a lot more than it takes. And what it gives makes the life of the recipient better. And what it takes doesn't harm the recipient. What it takes doesn't harm the flower. (وَضَعَتْ طَيِّبًا - "And the way it sits, it's very nice.")

And by the way, it has to sit right on the most delicate part of a flower. And the bee is actually a heavy creature, relatively speaking to a flower. So if it puts its entire weight on the flower, the petal or the piece that it's sitting on where it's going to extract from, it can actually break. So it keeps hovering so it doesn't put its entire weight on it. Its wings keep flipping so it doesn't put its whole weight on it.

What are we learning? You have a relationship, but you keep demanding until the people that love you - your friends, your employees, and your spouse - they break. You want something? Sure. But don't take too much. Take it easy. Don't put so much pressure that they break. And if you want something, give more. Bring something first and then demand. And when you demand, demand very little. Just enough. Just enough.

Respecting Others' Provisions

The other benefit of that is: when another bee from another hive is passing by and it sees a bee eating from a flower, it doesn't even say "Let me wait and let me just go mess everything up." Because you know, if the two different hives, they go to the same flower, the flower gets messed up. It cannot pollinate. That flower is going to die. So the bee recognizes that this flower has already got a relationship with that hive. I shouldn't come to it. It comes close, it smells it, it senses it, and it goes to another flower that hasn't been touched yet.

So you know what we do right? Somebody opens up a shop. I'm like, "Yes, good business. I should open up the same exact shop right across the street from him and take all of his customers." As soon as the customers want to walk into his store: "Hey brothers, let me show you something."

What does the bee do? "Let this guy - there's plenty of other places I can go. Allah's rizq is vast. I don't have to take the food out of his plate to eat on my plate." This is what we do right? There are people who - they are so stingy. I know Muslim professionals that are making good money. I know doctors - they make good money. And then they have a med student, somebody who's looking for an internship in the hospital, and they don't recommend him because maybe 5 years down the line he'll make more money than me, 10 years down the line. I wouldn't want that. We don't even like helping each other out.

The attitude of a believer is: "Look, this one's earning his rizq. I should go earn my rizq somewhere else. I shouldn't cut his rizq." It's not a cutthroat attitude like in corporate societies. It's not cutthroat. You're not there to take somebody else's money away and make your money. "You know, I just gotta get mine. That's all I care about." Subhanallah.

Taking Without Breaking

So he says: (وَوَقَعَتْ فَلَمْ تَكْسِرْ - "It sits but it doesn't break. It puts demands. It takes, but it doesn't break. It takes in the best way.") (Musnad Ahmad 21707) What a great way to eat. What a great way to live.

And this is not just about money. It's also about relationships, as I was trying to say before. In every one of our relationships, what we're learning then - if we're like a believer, if we truly understand the lesson of the bee that the Rasul is making so much emphasis for us to understand that we have to learn: Am I putting too much pressure on my children? Am I demanding too much from my parents? Am I asking too much from my husband? Am I asking too much from my wife? Am I asking too much from my friends? Am I too hard on my employees? Am I too hard on my teachers? You have to ask those questions because we want to be like the bee.

Sharing Benefit with the Community

And then he says at the end: (فَلَمْ تُكْسِرٌ - "It doesn't break the flower and it doesn't cause corruption.") (Musnad Ahmad 21707)

You know, one of the most remarkable things about bees is their - the flowers they go to are very far from where they themselves are. Their hives are far and the flowers are much further away. So they will go at a distance of sometimes many miles. And then when they come back, they come back to their hive. And their hive is not just their own home. They have a big neighborhood. Everybody lives in that hive.

So Allah taught them to do a particular dance. They hover in the air a certain way which actually tells the rest of the bees the coordinates of the other flowers. "Look, I just made some of this for myself, but you guys will benefit from this too. I will point you to it." And it actually gives them navigation. It's called the bee dance. And you know, the popular term uses the bee dance. It does it before the other bees so they can all get this too. They can all go eat too. And they can build their community together. They can build the hive together.

So it recognizes that when you benefit someone else, it's not competition. When you benefit someone else, we're all getting benefit. We're all benefiting. "I can't build a hive by myself." The bee recognizes all of us have to do well.

The Problem of Jealousy in the Muslim Community

What happens in the Muslim community when we don't have iman? When somebody is doing well, we get jealous. And if you're doing well, you want to make sure you don't tell anybody else how you got there. "So where do you get your supplies?" "I don't know, I forgot." "So where did you apply for a job? What is your resume?" "I don't know, I lost the file." You don't want to help anybody else because you're

like, "This is competition. Why would I help competition? Why would I let them get a seat on the table? No, no, no. We can't have that. Everybody is going to look out for themselves."

And the Rasul of Allah recognizes the endless wisdom that will come from learning from this bee, because Allah himself told him: "Look at the wahy that comes to the bee."

The Path of Humility

Down to the path it takes, Allah calls it (سُبُلَ رَبِّكِ - "the paths of your Lord.") If you see a bee, it goes around in circles and wiggles and you can't tell the clear flight path. And Allah says every turn it takes is the pathway of its master. It's the pathway Allah made it take. And Allah calls it ذُلّلًا also. The hal in the ayah uses ذُلْلًا and ذللًا suggests that it moves with humility. Allah describes the bee moving with humility.

It's got a job. It's got an important function. It's on a mission. But just because it's on a mission doesn't mean that it's arrogant. You know, when people become busy, they become arrogant. "I'm too busy for you. I have no time for you. You know, don't call me later." So some of you have a good job and you don't have time to call your mother back. Right? This is ذللًا. Even if it's going to do work, it moves with humility. Subhanallah.

The Ultimate Benefit - Healing for Humanity

So Allah finally - in this like two minutes that I have left - one last thing about bees. There's many things to talk about, but just one last thing. Allah made this creature incredible and He made it do this work. It's earning its livelihood. You can think of these lessons as: this bee has relationships, it's benefiting itself and it's benefiting the community, the environment around it. But above and beyond that, if enough of them do that, they create a hive. And in that hive you get honey. And that honey benefits way beyond those bees.

فِيهِ شِفَاءٌ لِلنَّاسِ - "There emerges from their bellies a drink, varying in colors, in which there is healing for people."

"There is a cure and healing for humanity from that little effort." Subhanallah.

The Lesson for Our Ummah

What are we learning from that? If you and I learn to become a believing community, and we learn to benefit each other, and we learn to live alongside each other, and take our rizq in moderation, and not put too much pressure in our relationships, what we become doesn't just benefit us. Humanity needs

healing. What a community of bees can heal - the world. So many ailments are healed through honey. One of the prophetic medicines is honey.

And it does - honey does not happen until a community of bees learn to live with each other and learn to work with each other. Then this ummah, if it's supposed to be like the bees, if we learn to work with each other and live with each other and create an harmonious community, then we don't just benefit each other. We become a healing for mankind.

Because mankind has gone greedy. Mankind is eating. Everybody wants something for themselves. "Looking out for number one," they call it. We're eating this planet alive.

The Disappearing Bees - A Sign of Our Times

And by the way, it's no irony that as fitna increases in this world, one of the great tragedies of this world is that the honeybees of the world are disappearing. One of the great ayat of Allah is disappearing.

And Allah said at the end: (وَلَمْ تُفْسِدْ - "And it did not corrupt.") The way it eats, it produces more life. When the bee eats, it produces more life. The way manufacturing works today, the way businesses work today, the way you and I consume today, we don't produce more life on the earth. What we manufacture by the exponential amount is more death. We create more pollution on the earth. We create more intoxicants on the earth. We create more social waste and economic waste, not just physical waste on the earth. We create fasad.

And he says: "Learn to consume like the bee so you don't create fasad. You make the world better. You can have yours, but it doesn't mean it has to cost the world something. It doesn't mean it has to cost the next generation something." Subhanallah.

Closing Prayer

May Allah help us appreciate it. Make us a people of thought in this profound religion that has been given to us. Wallahi, this religion, if you think about it, it is something else. And if you've been following this religion and you've never given it any thought, it is something else entirely.

May Allah make us a people of thought, a people of reflection, and a people that can truly reflect on the ayat of the Qur'an and the profound words of his messenger.

Second Khutbah

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَكَفَى، وَصَلَاةٌ وَسَلَامًا عَلَى عِبَادِهِ الَّذِينَ اصْطَفَى، خُصُوصًا عَلَى أَفْضَلِهِمْ وَخَاتَمِ النَّبِيِّينَ مُحَمَّدٍ الْأَمِينِ . وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ

اللهم صل على محمد وعلى آل محمد كما صليت على إبراهيم وعلى آل إبراهيم في العالمين إنك حميد مجيد، اللهم بارك على محمد وعلى آل محمد كما باركت على إبراهيم وعلى آل إبراهيم في العالمين إنك حميد مجيد

عباد الله، رحمكم الله، اتقوا الله