Honoring Honest Work

Honoring Honest Work - Khutbah by Nouman Ali Khan

Opening Prayer and Introduction

رَبِّ يَسِّرْ لِأَمْرِي وَاشْرَحْ لِي صَدْرِي وَاحْلُلْ عُقْدَةً مِّن لِّسَانِي يَفْقَهُوا قَوْلِي وَاللَّهُمَّ أَثْبِتْنَا عِنْدَ الْمَوْتِ بِلَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ وَاللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْنَا مِنَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالْحَقِّ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالصَّبْرِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

"My Lord, ease my task and expand my chest and untie the knot from my tongue that they may understand my speech. O Allah, keep us firm at the time of death upon 'There is no god but Allah.' O Allah, make us among those who believe and do righteous deeds and advise each other to truth and advise each other to patience, Lord of the worlds."

Today I want to speak about something that's easily taken for granted.

Brotherhood and the Foundation of Respect

I'll begin with something Allah says in Surah Al-Hujurat, when He describes and tells the ummah the first instruction after telling us that we are brothers to each other:

"Believers are nothing but brothers to one another." And we should make peace and reconciliation between ourselves. The first instruction after that was:

"Those of you who believe, don't let one group make fun of any other group. One nation, make fun of any other nation. One class of people, not make fun of any other class of people."

قَوْم back in the Arab times also used to be about the tribes. So the people were one tribe, and they would think that their tribe is the best, and they'd make fun of the other tribe. Those of you that come from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, whatever, the Pakistanis will make fun of the Bangladeshis, or the Punjabi will make fun of the Urdu speaking, or the Moroccan might make fun of the Algerian, or whatever else. This is one meaning of the ayah.

The Deeper Meaning of Ridicule and Superiority

But that's actually not the subject that I want to share with you today. There are many dimensions of this making fun of another group. And so first thing I want to do is describe something about the meaning of the word (سُخْرِية or سَخِرَة - sukhriya or sakhira) which is the verb used here: لَا يَسْخَرْ قَوْمٌ مِّن قَوْمٍ

There are multiple words in Arabic to make fun or make a joke. But this particular word has two dimensions. One of them is you're making fun of someone, you're laughing at someone. Of course you

can laugh at someone if something is funny, something looks funny, someone acts funny, something slips and falls, or whatever.

You can make fun of those things. But this word also gives us the implications of تَسْخِير which is the act Allah describes for when we subjugate animals, or how He has subjugated or overpowered the clouds, He has humbled the clouds. What I'm trying to get at is when you make fun of someone, assuming that they are less than you, that they are below you, that they are somehow subordinate to you, and with that mentality you think of someone, or you make someone feel inferior, that's also actually لَا يَسْخَرْ قَوْمٌ مِّن قَوْمٍ

In other words, one of the implications of this phrase in the Quran, this ayah, is that believers should not make any group of them, should not make any other group feel like they are less, feel like they are worth less than they are, you know, inferior to themselves.

The Noble Example of Prophet Dawud

That feeling again, it can come from tribe, it can come from race, but there are other places it can come from. And so I wanted to highlight one of those places that it comes from, that we have to be watchful of particularly. And I want to start actually with a hadith of the Prophet:

(Bukhari 2072)

The Prophet ﷺ says, "Nobody ever eats a single bite of food that is better than the bite of food they eat after having earned the money for that food with their own hand."

When you earn money with your own hand, and you eat meal, whatever meal, a single bite of it even, that's the best meal you've ever eaten. Whether that meal was three days old pizza, or it was just a piece of old, you know, stale potato chip or something, that's all you could afford, it doesn't matter. The fact that you earned with your own hand for that piece of food to go into your mouth, there's nothing better you could possibly have eaten.

And to add to that, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ made a statement about an example. And the example he gave was that the Prophet Dawud عليه السلام used to eat from the work of his own hand. If you know something about Dawud عليه السلام, he was one of the greatest rulers in the history of humanity.

Allah Himself said:

"Dawud, we are making you a khalifa in the land."

From Jewish historical accounts, his empire was so vast that there was virtually no part of the known world that was not under his control. You could think of it as one of the greatest rulers humanity has ever experienced, was Dawud عليه السلام

Allah's Special Favor Upon Dawud

As a matter of fact, even when all of the children of Adam عليه السلام were shown to him, all of humanity was shown to Adam عليه السلام in the beginning, Dawud عليه السلام stuck out to him. He asked about Dawud عليه السلام a special prophet of Allah. And what does Allah's Messenger say about this great king and ruler and prophet? He says, he used to eat every meal that he ate based on the work he did with his own hand.

What does the Quran describe about Dawud عليه السلام? Instead of describing to us the expanse of his government, how he used to render his armies, how many battles he fought, what descriptions do we find of Dawud عليه السلام? I'll just share one of them with you.

He says:

"We gave Dawud عليه السلام a special favor that comes only from us." Allah says a special favor was given to Dawud عليه السلام. And a few of those things are uniquely miraculous to him. For example,

"Mountains sing along with him." When he makes the praise of Allah, the mountains would sing along with him. "And the birds too."

But then he says, "We made iron or metal soft for him." In other words, he learned how to melt and mold metal. And then Allah instructed him directly, "Work on the armor and make the links in the chain and make sure they're properly calculated." In other words, Allah showed him the engineering for the kind of work he was going to do, the workmanship he was going to do with metal.

The Dignity of Physical Labor

Now all of these images about Dawud عليه السلام tie together, going up into the mountains to find the materials he's going to use. And he sees the birds there that are singing the praises of Allah with him. And he brings those materials back.

And he's burning those metals and fusing them and working on them like an ironsmith, a worksman. These are the kind of people that have, you would think, even back in the days of a village, the lowest jobs. They're working with metals and burning them. It smells bad. People don't want to be near them or around them. They're covered in smut. They're covered in this black dust that comes from the work that

they do. That's the work they do all day. And it's not a job you do for five minutes or ten minutes and you're done.

You spend your waking day just working, working, working, exhausting yourself physically. This is a very labor, physical labor, blue collar job, a factory job you could say, that Dawud عليه السلام used to do. This is the example the Prophet gave. And this is the example that Allah started with, that Allah gave this person a special favor that He made him work like this.

What I'm trying to get at is that by giving this example, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ has dignified through Allah Himself every job. When you are driving a taxi, when you're standing at a cash register, when you're delivering pizzas, when you're working as a janitor at the airport, cleaning the bathrooms, when you're a security guard, there may be people around you say, what do you do? And you're embarrassed to say that's your job.

You feel like, oh, you have a degree, you're an accountant, you have an office, you're a programmer, you're a doctor, you're an engineer. Oh, I'm just a taxi driver. I just work at a grocery store. I just drive a truck. You feel like you're less worthy because you do this kind of work.

Allah honored all halal work. And He said, there's no better meal you can eat than the one you earn with your own hand. That's the way by which Allah dignified it. And He even gave the example of a Prophet عليه السلام Dawud عليه السلام that used to do physical labor.

Work as Worship - Supporting Family and Self

Another beautiful hadith of the Prophet I was so inspired by this:

(Ahmad 16693)

"If there's a person who makes efforts to provide for his parents, your parents have gotten old, they can't afford anything for themselves, and you have to do extra overtime because your regular job, you have enough to pay for yourself. But now you have to support your parents till your parents got sick or they're old, and now you need to support them too. So now all of your extra time is going into doing more work."

So when someone makes these extra efforts to support both of their parents or even one of them, then that, what did the Prophet call it فَهُوَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللهِ "Then that is in the path of Allah." That person is struggling in the path of Allah. That's noble before Allah.

You know, this person might feel bad, I don't get to come to the masjid as often as I'd like to. I don't get to recite Quran as much as I'd like to. I used to learn so much more and I don't get to learn as much because I'm always working now, because I'm supporting my family. I feel like I'm giving all my time to dunya, and I used to give so much more time to Allah's deen.

The messenger of Allah comes to you and tells you, no, that is also في سبيل الله. And then he says, there are people who are so desperate, they work so hard, whatever work they can find they do, but they barely make enough to survive themselves. They're barely surviving themselves. Hand to mouth, what you call. What does he say about them?

(Ahmad 16693)

"And he's making effort only to barely support himself, that is also in the path of Allah."

That is also dignified. This is the beauty of our religion. Allah honors people, what we do is we look down upon them. We make someone feel inferior.

Breaking Down Social Hierarchies

I started with: لا يَسْخَرْ قَوْمٌ مِّن قَوْمٍ "Don't make someone feel diminished. One group compared to another group."

You are a bunch of friends, all of you graduated from college, one of your friends couldn't graduate. One of your friends had financial difficulty, or his parents business failed or whatever, he dropped out of school, worked at the gas station. The rest of you graduated, the rest of you are hanging out, and talking about what jobs you're doing, and you keep reminding him of how he's the dropout.

This is لَا يَسْخَرْ قَوْمٌ مِّن قَوْمٍ Even him standing at that gas station, even him pumping that gas is actually something noble and dignified by Allah. That's something Allah honored him with. This is the reminder that Allah gives us when He talks about us earning our income.

Work as Allah's Favor

You know how Allah describes earning income in the Quran? Whatever job you have, whether you do business, whether you're working at an office, whether you work at a hospital, whether you do physical labor, it doesn't matter what kind of job you do. All of it within the realm of halal has one name. And especially on the day of Friday, what does He say?

He says, "When the prayer is done, go spread out everywhere in the land wherever you have to go, and pursue out of Allah's favor."

That earning, whatever earning you do, Allah describes it as Allah's favor on you. That's Allah's favor on you. And when Allah favors someone, He has honored them. There is no dishonor when someone has favored Allah. There cannot be, those two things cannot coexist.

Family Pressures and Career Choices

And so let's bring this concept closer to home. This notion, that for some reason, because you have a better job than somebody else, and by the way, we don't just do this among strangers, we do this within our families. There's a young man that says, I don't wanna be a doctor, I wanna be a pharmacist. And his family is like, you're a loser.

You know, you could have been something. You're just gonna be a pharmacist? Yeah, it's better hours, I get to do other things that I meant to do with my life, I don't know if I wanna spend another 5 years or 6 years continuing this education, etc., etc. So I've decided I wanna be a pharmacist.

Or worse yet, that's suicide for many parents, son or daughter decides to become a nurse.

"This is why you studied biology, to become a nurse? You know?

Even worse, some of these young people decide they're going to study history, and then their parents are yelling at them, what job are you gonna get studying history? Well, I love history and I think it's important to learn, and I think I'm gonna teach afterwards. You wanna be a teacher? Get a real job, a teacher? People who can't do, teach.

You know? At least go to law school and become a lawyer or something, why can't you get a real job? Even within our families, we make certain lines of work, certain contributions. We make them feel diminished.

The Need for Muslim Professionals in All Fields

Or worse yet, if a young man or woman decides they're going to study psychology or going to counseling, because they feel the Muslim community needs a lot of counselors. Our women need counsel, our parents need counsel, our teenagers need counsel, our young children need counsel. And we don't have anybody to get counsel from. We have to end up in the care of non-Muslims.

Because we don't have enough professionals in this space. So somebody decides to go into counseling and everybody else makes fun of this one that decided to do a major in counseling. You know, because what are you gonna do with that? How do you get a career out of that?

Making people feel inferior for the work that Allah gave them talent in, the work Allah inspired them to do. I'm not saying you shouldn't aspire for better and better careers, but don't make people feel inferior for the work that they do.

Respecting Different Paths and Talents

There are some young men in the audience today that are no good at college, they're just not. No matter how much you try to make them study, they cannot. But they're really good at fixing cars. They just made natural born mechanics. They could be the best mechanic in the nation.

I don't make him feel horrible because he didn't finish his degree, because he tried, he couldn't do it. But when he put his hand in this work, he was excellent at it. And now he's gonna run 3, 4, 5 garages of his own. And then he's gonna hire the accountant that graduated from one of the schools he failed out of. That's what's gonna happen. And there are people like that.

Not everybody has to take the same path. We feel like the pathways that society has delineated for us, they are the only way to get respect in society. If you get a degree from a college, then you get respect. If you have a job in an office, then you get respect. If you do this, this and this, then you get respect. But if you're a farmer, you get no respect. If you're a taxi driver, you get no respect. If you're a mechanic, you get no respect. If you work at a store, you get no respect.

Who decided this? Did Allah and His Messenger give us this standard? There's a reason we stand in one row. We don't check what your job is first. We don't check how much you make first before you stand in a row in salah.

"The most noble among you are the ones that are closest to Allah, the ones that are most cautious of Allah."

The Warning Against Superiority Complex

And so in that remarkable ayah, which I'll conclude with, but before I go to that ayah again about Dawud (عليه السلام). Because the end of it is just absolutely incredible. Before I do that, one more ayah on the side that I want to share with you from surah al-Qasas.

Allah says:

"That final home, meaning Jannah. We have reserved it," Allah says. "We have reserved it for people who don't want to be superior to others on this earth. They don't want to feel superior to others in this life. They don't want to make other people feel inferior in this life. That is not what their life is about."

لَا يُرِيدُونَ عُلُوًّا فِي الْأَرْضِ

And by the way, when you create a culture and a society in which some people feel inferior, some people are made to feel superior, and this culture perpetuates, you know what happens? Then everybody at the bottom is always trying to be like everybody at the top. You have people that are not making any money, they're poor, they're living in subpar housing or whatever, and their dreams of living in a mansion, and you know, the kind of car, and the kind of fancy ride or whatever. This is fasad.

The Example of Qarun

That class society that's created where one group is constantly vying for the dignity of another group, that is fasad. That is exactly what happened in the case of Qarun. That's why this ayah comes at the end of the story of Qarun.

When Qarun had all of his wealth and everybody else in the Israelite community was poor, they said:

"If only we had what Qarun has, we'd be doing great if I had what he had. Man, so sweet. I wish I had what he had."

This is corruption at its core. This is corruption inside of the hearts. And it makes people want to earn money by any means possible. Then they no longer care about what's halal and what's haram. Then they just say, so long as it's a good job, I'll do it. So long as it makes good money, I'll do it. The distinction about the good earning, the halal earning, the legitimate earning with the work of your own hand goes away.

Excellence in Work - The Completion of the Message

And so now as I conclude, I wanna share with you the final part of that ayah. In which Dawud (عليه السلام) Allah spoke to him and told him to work on the iron and to make sure he perfects his craft.

First of all, in that ayah, Allah highlighted specifics that you didn't have to. You could've just said to Dawud, Allah could've just told us about Dawud (عليه السلام) to work on the metal, to craft. But he even goes:

"Make sure every single link in the chain that you make is perfectly calculated." When you do a job, do it perfectly. That's what he told him. In telling him that.

And by the way, it's not just about Dawud (عليه السلام). The ayah ends:

"All of you be good, do good. I'm watching what all of you do." Halfway through the story of Dawud (عليه السلام) Allah transitions. He doesn't... what's called an iltifat. He transitions. And he talks to you and me.

And says, by the way, I'm not just telling you the story of Dawud. You better be great at your jobs too. And you better do right by your jobs too. It doesn't matter if you're a high power executive. It doesn't matter if you're a janitor. It doesn't matter if you're a clerk somewhere. Doesn't matter what your job is. You better be the best at it. And you better be earning every penny that you're given.

Bringing Excellence to Every Job

You better not be the one sleeping on your job. Your work should be defined by ihsan. You know there are people who have jobs, who hate their job. They hate their job. The only reason they're in their job is because of the paycheck. That's it.

You know. And there's like... There are people I've seen like that in the... Not to pick on the people in the post office, but a lot of times. There are people just sitting there at the department of motor vehicles. The guy just doesn't want to help you. They're just not interested. They're looking at when is lunch. You know. And when they see more people are walking in, they're like, number 56. You know. They're so depressed to see you.

Whatever job you have. Whatever job you have. You must now feel that you have to bring ihsan to it. You have to bring excellence to it. Your very best to it. Just because this is a favor from Allah to you. If this job wasn't there, if that work wasn't there, you would be asking people. You would be asking to borrow money from them. To take a favor from them. To pay the electricity bill. To pay for the groceries at home. To pay your children's food.

We don't want to ever be in that position where we have to ask somebody else.

"The dignity of a person is that they don't feel in need of other people." The fact that I'm independent. That I can drive my own car. That I can live in my own housing. That I can pay for my own clothes and my own food. That's part of my dignity.

Having to ask someone is humiliating and embarrassing. So whatever job you have, you and I can have complaints about our job. That's fine. That's fine. But if we forget that every single job you and I have is actually a fadl of Allah. Is actually a favor of Allah.

Moral Consciousness in Work

By means of which He allowed us to provide rizq for ourselves, to give rizq to our families. And that because it's a favor of Allah, we have to take care of that favor. We have to do right by our jobs. We can't be sleeping on the job. We can't be just getting by because our manager is not watching us 24x7. You can't just walk late into your office or into your job anytime you feel like it because there's nobody checking on you.

Allah is still checking on you. You still owe Him that. That's part of the ihsan that we bring.

You know Allah will tell us:

"Fulfill all contracts. Fulfill covenants." When you make an agreement and there's an expectation, you fulfill that expectation to the very best of your ability. And so وَاعْمَلُوا صَالِحًا "Do right."

This is what I conclude with now. Not only must we earn halal, but we must do good with the work that we do. We must make sure that the jobs that we have are a means by which good is produced in the world. We cannot be part of corrupt industries. We cannot be part of a machinery, a corporate machinery, that creates more corruption in the world. You can't just earn your keep, your money, and not worry about what this is a part of.

This is why you can't just go get a job at a brewery that makes beer. Or a weapons manufacturer or something. These people produce evil in the world. They cause destruction and death in the world. We have to be morally conscious that what we're doing is going to do good in the world. It's going to serve some better purpose in the world.

And so we have to be conscious about that in the workplace and the thing that we're contributing towards. وَاعْمَلُوا صَالِحًا And then finally Allah says, whatever you do, I'm carefully watching.

Closing Prayer

Your boss may not be watching, nobody else may be watching, but Allah certainly is. May Allah make us conscious of our work, and may Allah give us the ability to earn halal rizq, and to spend it in the best possible way. May Allah continue to favor us with His fadl for ourselves and our families, and give us the best of rizq in this dunya and in the akhirah.

اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ عِبَادَ اللَّهِ رَحِمَكُمُ اللَّهُ حَمِيدٌ مَجِيدٌ