Quality, Not Quantity
By Nouman Ali Khan | 2026-01-08T19:23:17.078893+00:00 | Topic: Iman
Quality, Not Quantity - Khutbah by Nouman Ali Khan
Opening Du'a
"O Lord, expand for me my breast [with assurance] and ease for me my task and untie the knot from my tongue that they may understand my speech."
"O Allah, make us among those who believe, do righteous deeds, and advise each other to truth and advise each other to patience."
"O Allah, make us firm upon death with the statement, 'There is no god but Allah, Lord of the worlds.'"
Context: Surah An-Najm and the Nature of Revelation
This khutbah begins by Allah describing the event of revelation itself. Many of you are familiar that the first revelation to the Prophet (peace be upon him) is mentioned in:
"Read in the name of your Lord who created"
That's much later on in the order of the Quran. But Allah describes the event, what happened then. Like all we have in Surah Iqra' and Surah Al-Alaq is actually the quote from the angel Jibril from Allah (may He be exalted and glorified), word for word. That's the words that were said.
But here in Surah An-Najm what you have is what was going on, Allah describing the scene itself. How did revelation come to the Prophet (peace be upon him)? What was the experience like of seeing the angel Jibril? And it then also describes the journey later on in his life that the Prophet (peace be upon him) took along with Jibril (peace be upon him). So there's a number of things that are mentioned in the beginning of Surah An-Najm.
The Human Struggle with Change
But then the Surah actually transitions and talks about us. It talks about humanity, it talks about people, and it talks about the struggles people have to try to accept the call of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Now when we think of accepting the call of the Prophet (peace be upon him), we usually think of someone just taking their shahada.
Accepting Allah is one, accepting Muhammad is his messenger (peace be upon him), it's as simple as that. But there are other dimensions of accepting Islam. There are changes Allah wants to bring inside of a person.
And these are some of the changes that Allah highlights that people are reluctant to bring into their life. And that's where the Surah is almost towards an end. What are some changes Allah expects from people? This great revelation came to bring about a change.
To bring about a change inside of me and inside of you. And some of those changes are very, very hard to make. They're not easy changes because we're comfortable in one place and we don't want to move from that place to another place, right? So Allah will describe people now in these ayat that have a hard time changing.
The Person Who Turns Away
And I wanted to share this khutbah with you because you and I often can find ourselves in that place. We recognize what is wrong. We recognize what we need to fix.
And we're having a hard time changing ourselves. Or we find ourselves disappointing not anybody else, but even ourselves over and over again. And not finding the way out from that cycle.
So Allah (may He be glorified and exalted) says:
"Have you seen he who turned away"
Have you seen somebody who turned away? The Prophet is being told to take note of somebody who doesn't listen to his message. He invites him by the most powerful word ever given from the most compelling source and the most authenticated source ever given, Allah, and with the most authentic person, credible person ever, Rasulullah himself (peace be upon him). And yet somebody turns away.
Understanding the Rejection
What could be going on in their head? You know, when somebody doesn't listen to a message there could be two things wrong. It could be there's something wrong with the message. Or maybe there's something wrong with how it was delivered.
And it wasn't very convincing and you're not convinced. But the other could also be that maybe there's something wrong with the person giving it. And you're like, I don't want to listen to this person.
They have nothing good to offer me. Or I don't trust them. Or whatever it may be.
Even if they have the best things to say. You could have a corrupt politician give the most convincing speech but people don't want to hear it because he has no credibility. That could happen.
Rasulullah (peace be upon him) has the highest credibility and there's absolutely nothing wrong with the speech of Allah. This is the best of the best. So when he's giving the message of Islam to his audience, there's really no rational reason left for people to walk away.
There's no excuse left for people to say, well, what does he know? Or I wasn't that moved by the message. As a matter of fact, when the Quraysh, the most aggressive enemies of Islam, the most
aggressive opponents of Islam, are describing the Quran as "(سِحْرٌ يُؤْثَرُ - sih'run yu'thar)" - Magic, whose impact is left behind.
The fact that they called it magic already tells you that they don't think this is something casual. They recognize this is something supernatural. This is something incredible that cannot be dismissed by some logic or logical argument.
The Problem of Limited Charity
So even they, in their dismissal, have to call it magic. That's actually an insult to the Prophet (peace be upon him), but understand that in that insult there's also a compliment. They're recognizing the power of the Quran.
By the way, when you call something magic, then you're saying there's something unseen, unexplained going on here, that I can't quite put my finger on, but it's there. So in a sense, they've already taken a leap of faith. They've already believed in some level of the unseen when they say that.
But regardless, Allah then highlights, then why aren't they convinced? If they're willing to believe in the unseen and call it magic, why not just believe in Allah? I mean, if you're willing to believe in that, and defy common sense, and defy logic, and believe in, take a leap of faith, why not take the right leap of faith? And so Allah then answers that question by saying:
"And gave a little and [then] withheld"
He's highlighting one particular dimension of our personality that we have a hard time changing. He says about this person, he gives a little bit. What that means is he's charitable to an extent.
وَأَكْدَىٰ - Then he slows down, and he stops giving. This needs some attention. Allah is describing that human beings, even the ones who don't want to listen to anything about Islam, who don't want to hear what the Prophet have to say, they're also charitable people.
Universal Human Compassion
They also feel like if they were asked to support some worthy cause, they would give too. They're willing to give and support something good, but that goodness, first of all, they can't give too much, because if they give too much, then there are other things they want to do that they don't want to stop doing. Their money is allocated for some other things.
Allah put a consciousness inside of us. That consciousness is inside of an atheist, it's inside of a Christian, a Jew, a Hindu, all of them have it. If they see a child suffering or even an animal suffering, they'll give, they'll support.
Allah put that humanity inside of us. That's something all human beings share. So they do give.
Charitability is there. But when it comes to... One way to interpret these ayat is, when it comes to other good things, they hold themselves back. So that dimension of our goodness, you figure, well, yeah, you know, I do drink, I do this, I do the other.
Like you make a list of all the bad things you do, but then you say, you know, I do help out though. I do support some good causes. And you feel that because you're doing this, it should be able to compensate for all the other bad stuff that you're up to.
The Psychology of Self-Justification
Wa-akda, when it comes to other good things, he slows down. Others have interpreted this to mean, I'm only going to give but so much. So much that I don't feel bad anymore.
Like, you know, somebody pulled up at a red light and a homeless person stuck their hand out. And you could stick your hand in your wallet and pull out a 20. Or you could look in the cup holder for some quarters.
You have a choice. So you go for the quarters. At least I gave something, right? And you kept the 20 with you.
So he gave to an extent, but then held himself back. But I really wanted to highlight the latter interpretation. And that is, you give and you feel that now that you've given, you can slow down the other good things you're doing.
This is good enough, I'm a good person. I mean, I give. That should be good enough.
And then you appease yourself. You tell yourself a story in which you are or I am a good person. You highlight whatever little you do to yourself and say, you know what, I'm not that bad.
I do this, this and this. So what if I, you know, mess up here and there a little bit? It's, you see, you minimize, I minimize my mistakes. And I maximize in my mind the good that I do.
And it makes me feel good about myself.
"And gave a little and [then] withheld"
The Question About Knowledge of the Unseen
And so Allah (may He be glorified and exalted) then asks this person who thinks this way, and I hope you and I don't become these people. We can, we don't even know, only you know what goes on in your head.
Only I know what goes on in my head. Allah asks this person a personal question:
"Does he have knowledge of the unseen, so he can see?"
Does he possess knowledge of the unseen that he can himself see? A really strange question. A person gives a little bit, feels good about themselves, withholds themselves from doing other good deeds, and Allah asks him the question, do you see the unseen? Have you seen it for yourself? Why would he ask him that question? What does that question have to do with his behavior?
You see, when you decide that these good deeds are good enough for Allah, or that bad stuff is not that bad, you're speaking on behalf of Allah.
You and I are speaking on behalf of how Allah is going to judge. Oh, Allah and I, we have a special relationship, He gets me. He'll understand.
Really, He told you this, that He'll understand? You got some special communication from Him, from the unseen, that you can see for yourself what your deeds are worth, and what your bad deeds aren't that bad? Like, you know this for a fact? Or did you tell yourself that story? Allah is actually asking a very bold question, because you and I become very bold. We start assuming we can speak on behalf of how Allah will judge us. How Allah will pass judgment on us.
Two Dangerous Extremes
You know, there are two extremes, and I want you to be aware of both of these extremes. They're both very lethal. Islam is about, the Quran especially, is about balance.
It's right in the middle. One extreme is someone says, man, you know what, I'm going to hell. I know, nothing I do is good enough.
My salah, I look around all the time, and like, I don't even know if that was wudu or what. I often don't remember if it's the second rakah or the fourth rakah. My head is everywhere else.
I don't even know what prayer I just did. And sometimes I don't even pray, I just sleep right through it. So I'm pretty much, I know I'm going to hell.
I'm a bad person, what can I do? I wish I was better, but I'm not. You become hopeless and you assume that Allah will throw you into hell. This, if you are like this, then you've also made a judgment on behalf of Allah.
You decide who goes to hell or Allah does. You decided to seal your own fate? You pass judgment on yourself? Why is Allah the judge then? Where did you get the guarantee where you're going? Where did you get the guarantee that your prayers didn't count, or they're not good enough, or you're not the one who grades them. You're not the one who evaluates them.
Often people tell you these things, your prayer is worthless. You know, you're not good enough. You're this or that or the other.
And you assume people's judgment of you is the same as Allah's judgment of you. It's not. They're worlds apart.
That's one extreme. You become hopeless. And on the other extreme, what is being described here, is you become delusionally hopeful.
The little that you and I do, we assume, should be way more than enough. I'm covered. I don't have to make any other changes.
I'm in my comfort zone.
"(Quran 53:35)"
Finding Balance Through Divine Guidance
And so then Allah says, how will you find balance? How are you going to not fall into one extreme where you become hopeless, and then on the other extreme where you become falsely hopeful? How do you stay in between? Because you know, at the end of the day, we have to be afraid of Allah. We have to be afraid that our deeds aren't good enough.
But we can't become entirely hopeless either. We have to have that (خَوْف - khawf) and (رَجَاء - raja') both at the same time. And the fear and that hope together.
So Allah then answers that question and says:
Hasn't he been informed of what was given in the scriptures of Moses? And that was given to Ibrahim (peace be upon him). You know, in other places in the Quran, Allah will describe the Quran itself, and the message of the Quran itself, and then he'll say:
This is already found in the previous scriptures, what was given to Musa and what was given to Ibrahim. Allah is saying, there's content in this book that if you were to try to internalize, I was to try to internalize, we would remain balanced.
We wouldn't become delusional either way. We wouldn't become hopeless, we wouldn't become overly hopeful. We'd remain balanced.
The Core Principle: Personal Responsibility
But that has to do with what is discovered inside the revelations that was given much before. And of course there are so many in the audience that had no idea what the revelation of Musa was, and they have no idea what the revelations of Ibrahim were. So Allah summarized them for us right here.
He said, okay, since you don't know, since many of those scriptures have been lost, let me tell you the part you need that you can live a balanced life, that you don't become this way. He says:
That nobody will be carrying anybody else's burden. Nobody will be carrying anybody else's burden.
This is one of the most powerful, profound statements in the Quran. You and I are going to be held responsible for who? Ourselves. At the end of the day, I have to be able to answer Allah for the choices I made.
I will not be able to blame society, pressure, friends, family, put something on someone else, it's going to have to be me.
No carrier of any burden will carry the burden of anyone else. Wizr by the way in Arabic is a heavy load.
Understanding Our Individual Capacity
You and I have been made capable by Allah of carrying heavy loads. Yes, you and I have many responsibilities. Yes, you and I have a lot of pressure on us. There's family pressure, there's financial pressure, there's emotional pressure, there are all kinds of pressures on you. There's all kinds of forces pulling at you. And they can pull you in any number of directions.
And you and I will fail often. We will make mistakes, that's going to happen. But at the end of the day, there are two kinds of people:
People have a pretty good view of themselves, even if they make excuses.
Like you and I can hide behind excuses. And say, well, yeah, I know it's messed up, but I mean, I can't help myself. But at least I'm good in this, this, and this.
No, no, no. Nobody will carry your burden. These small good deeds that you do are not necessarily going to compensate for the other bad deeds that you do.
You're going to have to work on those bad deeds. Those small good deeds, you're going to have to try to make them a little bit bigger, and keep working on them. See, we recognize our potential.
And Allah knows that. Allah knows that you are capable and I'm capable of much better. We are not being asked to be perfect.
But we are being asked to push, to try. That's what we're being asked to do.
The Race Analogy
And you know, just like in a race, some of you can run a lot faster than others. Some of you, maximum you can run is half the speed of the person next to you. That's the best you can do. Allah is not going to see who came number one.
Allah is going to see who used their maximum effort. I want you to remember this example. It could be the case that somebody wins a race, but they put no effort in it.
It was easy for them. It was extremely easy for them. They beat everybody else.
You know, in the case of good deeds, Allah is not interested that you beat others, that you gave more charity than others, that you did more than others did. He's not interested. He's interested in seeing, what were you capable of? What potential did you have? And did you exhaust your potential or not? And that's a question that's different from one person to the next, to the next.
And this is why Allah says, your burden, nobody else can carry.
Because all of us are capable of carrying different burdens. We don't have the same capacity.
The Only True Asset on Judgment Day
Every individual has to actually ask themselves, understand what this means. It actually means you don't get to say, well, at least I'm not as bad as that guy. Well, would you expect me to be good like that person? I can't be that.
Allah is not asking you to compare. Allah is asking you to look inside yourself. Take a good look at yourself.
I take a good look at myself and say, am I actually doing the very best that I can? Could I be improving? Or am I comfortable doing that little bit, and then I slow down?
Is that my case? So when he says:
Such profound words. Human being will have nothing benefiting them when we come before Allah, we have no possessions.
You know that, right? We will come before Allah with no possessions. Nothing to our name. No property will be left.
No money will be left. No family ties will be left. All of it will be gone.
What is it that we will actually own on Judgment Day? This is the ayah that describes, here's the only asset that you and I will have on Judgment Day.
A human being will have nothing in his possession other than the efforts he made. Other than the efforts he made.
Allah didn't even say other than the good deeds, other than the perfect prayers. He's not even highlighting the act itself. He's highlighting the sa'i, the effort itself.
The trying, the struggle, the sweating over something. That pushing yourself and that pushing myself, that's all that is valuable to Allah. It's the only thing that's valuable to Allah.
The Invisibility of True Effort
And then it's that, you know, nobody can see that. That's the other remarkable thing. You know, if you put in, like, you know, I'm in teaching and I used to teach kids sometime ago.
And even when I teach adults, I feel like I'm teaching kids sometimes. But you know, when you're teaching children, and a child does a sloppy job at homework, really sloppy job. And you know this kid can do a lot better.
And you ask him, what did you do here? And the child says, I did my best, okay? I did my best. Well, I as a teacher know you, that's not your best. I've seen your best and that's not it.
You could do a lot better, right? But if I didn't know this student, and he said, I did my best, it was my first day meeting this kid, and he's got terrible handwriting. I've never seen his wonderful handwriting when he's in a better mood. And I look at him and he says, he did his best.
I'm going to believe him. I don't know any better. I think this is the best he can actually do.
I'll give him benefit of the doubt. On judgment day, it's not just the quantity of our deeds. It's actually the effort, which is quality.
Nobody will know if you did your best. An employee can tell the employer, hey boss, I'm doing my best. How's the employer supposed to know? That's his best.
There's no way to know. Only you can know if you're doing your best or not, right? But on judgment day, that invisible thing, whether or not you did your best, becomes visible.
And that his effort soon, it itself will become visible.
Quality Over Quantity
The effort will become visible. You see right now, our actions are visible. Our effort is not visible.
Somebody donated a million. Somebody donated a hundred thousand dollars. Seems like a big amount.
But maybe they make a hundred million. It's not an effort for them. Somebody donated 50 cents, but the only thing they had in their pocket was 75 cents.
That's all they had. That's a huge effort for them. But we won't know that.
Allah knows that. And on judgment day, it is the quality of our deeds that will become visible. Allah is therefore highlighting, what is our deen asking from us? It's asking a really serious conscious question to ourselves.
What level of effort am I willing to make? What kind of uncomfortable position am I willing to put myself in? You know Allah is not asking a lot of us. But even the minimum that He asks of us, sometimes becomes a lot for people.
Allah as the Source of All Provision
I want to leave you, there's a lot of ayah to cover, but since our time is getting over, I just want to leave you with one ayah.
This passage began with a criticism of someone who gives a little bit, and he assumes that that little bit should be good enough. No more effort necessary.
That's where we began this conversation.
Allah at the end clarifies, by the end of this conversation, He clarifies in fact, what Allah does for you. And He said some profound words. It's such a brief ayah.
Allah is the one who makes you wealthy. Allah is the one who gives you independence. Allah is the one who takes care of your problems.
Al-Ighna' in Arabic is to make you independent. You had a dependency on somebody, you had a financial problem, you had a material problem, and Allah is the one who actually remove that problem from you. It's not your efforts.
So when you're giving a little, you're giving a little from what Allah gave you. It's not from your account, it's from the account Allah filled. That job you got wasn't because of your resume, because of my resume, it's because Allah allowed for that job to happen, that opportunity to happen.
So first Allah says, Allah is the one who makes you wealthy to begin with, you're being cheap with Allah. But even the more profound word after that was:
Iqna' in Arabic is to make somebody satisfied. It's such an amazing thing to say.
True Contentment Comes from Allah
Allah is actually saying, just because somebody is wealthy, somebody has a lot, doesn't mean that they're satisfied. It's not the same thing. Somebody could have more wealth than you've ever imagined, and they're not satisfied.
They're not happy with it. They're not at peace. Allah says, just like he's the one who gives wealth, he's actually the one who also puts tranquility and satisfaction in your heart that you're happy with what you have, you're content.
Al-Iqna' Those two things are separate. You know sometimes somebody could have nothing, but they have qanat. They're satisfied.
They're content. And when they're content, their greed is let go. They're not, you know, and by the way, I'm reducing this to a conversation about money.
The last thing I want to share with you is not just about money. It's about our behavior too. Some of you young men, for example, young women, you're tempted by something.
You're tempted by alcohol, I don't know, drugs, whatever it may be. Some party you want to go, something you want to do. And you and I will be pulled, and you're going to think, if I miss out on this opportunity, YOLO, you only live once.
How am I going to find contentment if I don't live a little? When am I going to get this chance again? How am I going to, you want me to just keep missing out?
Because all Islam seems to be saying is, don't have fun, and don't live your life, and don't be happy. I want to be happy. How come Allah doesn't want me to be happy? How come He just wants me to just miss out all the time? Because I just want to be content.
I just want to fulfill what I want. And Allah says, by the way, He's going to give you the wealth. Even if inappropriate and haram means of making money are coming your way, thrown your way.
Allah Controls Joy and Sorrow
You can make easy money in the haram way. And you say to yourself, no, Allah is going to give me wealth. And because you don't have that money now, you can't do the things you wanted to do.
And Allah says, no, Allah, I'll make you happy. I'll make you content. Which is no surprise that in the same passage, He says:
He's the one who makes you laugh. He's the one who makes you cry. Our joy and our sadness is not even our own. That is also granted by Allah.
And I pray to Allah (may He be glorified and exalted), we become of those who are given laughter, who are given joy in life. Because we accepted that Allah is the one who gives.
Because we accepted that our efforts, just when we make a little bit of effort, Allah will give us in this life, and He will give us in the next.
The Promise of Seeing Our Efforts
That's all Allah is asking of us.
I did say this was the last thing. Now I promise this is the last thing.
I said when our efforts are made, we will see them on Judgment Day, yes. But Allah did not say in the ayah:
وَأَنَّ سَعْيَهُ سَوْفَ يُرَى فِي الْآخِرَةِ
Allah didn't say that. Allah didn't say His effort will be seen, Her effort will be seen in the next life.
In fact Allah is saying, if you and I can become people of effort to improve, then actually very soon, we'll start seeing things turn around in our lives even now. Not only in the afterlife, even now. All He wants to see is effort, and effort isn't easy.
But after that effort, after that difficulty:
Then that ease is coming. May Allah (may He be glorified and exalted) bring ease into our lives that have any difficulty. May Allah (may He be glorified and exalted) make us truly genuinely people of effort, that we are able to bring those sincere efforts before Allah on Judgment Day, and they are of value.