Selective Islam
By Nouman Ali Khan | 2026-01-08T15:53:47.592855+00:00 | Topic: Iman
Selective Islam - A Khutbah by Nouman Ali Khan
Introduction: The Warning from Surah Al-Hadeed
Today's khutbah is about a few ayat that belong to Bani Israel, but before I discuss some of the lessons that I'd like to share with you and remind myself with you of those ayat, I wanted to go over something that belongs to a different surah. This is in surah Al-Baqarah, but the ayah that I wanted to start off with today is in surah Al-Hadeed, the 57th surah of the Qur'an.
Allah poses a question to the believing community and it's a very hard question. He says:
"Isn't it time yet for those who believe that their hearts should tremble and their hearts should be filled with awe, with the remembrance of Allah."
"And they should not become like those who were given the book from a long time ago, meaning the Israelites, the Jewish community, the Torah and the Christians. They shouldn't become like those who were given the book a long time ago."
"A long period passed over them. Their hearts became hard. And most of them or a huge number of them are corrupt or they've become rebellious."
The Danger of Hard Hearts
I wanted to share with you that Allah mentions that those who have received the book, a believing community, something can happen to them after a long period passes. They can deteriorate and they can become rusty. Literally Allah describes that your hearts should be filled with the remembrance of Allah, not like those who were given a book and they had the book for thousands of years:
"They had it for a long, long time."
"Their hearts became hard."
And there's a relationship between the remembrance of Allah and the hearts becoming hard. But there's also a reality that people who claim to believe, people who have received revelation from Allah, like us today.
Our Current Reality
We have received revelation from Allah that we are in a very real danger that our hearts will become hard even though the Qur'an is in our hands and it's being recited by our tongues. And we're hearing it in the prayer. And we're engaged in the ritual worship of Islam.
And yet at the same time our hearts have become disconnected from this deen. And our hearts have disconnected themselves from Allah. We feel nothing inside.
"And Allah says, isn't it yet time that you started feeling something? Basically the question that's being asked is, why isn't something inside you rattled when you remember Allah? And He's warning you and me that we don't become like those who came before us who the same thing happened to."
The Essential Teachings of Torah and Quran
What I want to start off with today is one of those people, the Israelites, who Allah talks a lot about. And Allah describes what He gave them. What is it that He gave them? And in Baqara Allah describes that their hearts became hard even more. He says He compares them to rocks or even stiffer than rock, right? So there Allah described the essence of what they were given in their book, the summary of their entire book.
And the remarkable sunnah of Allah is in many ways that the summary that was given to the Israelites, the Torah, the essential teachings of Torah, are no different than the essential teachings of the Quran.
The fundamental message is the same. Which is why when Allah gave His messenger, (salallahu alayhi wa sallam), the Quran, He said:
"Confirming what's already there ahead of him in the Torah. It's not something new, it's a reaffirmation of what was already taught."
The Heart and Soul of Religion
But since so many of the fundamental teachings were lost, Allah decided to bring it back to the basics. Now some things about Jewish law if you don't know, which is similar to our fiqh in many ways, is that it's got thousands upon thousands upon thousands of fatawa. It's got, you know, like every single issue, how should you sit, how should you stand, when should you eat, what should you pray, you know, the dietary laws, the clothing laws, the marriage laws, the divorce laws, and every law with lots and lots and lots of details.
So there's literally thousands upon thousands upon thousands of issues in their fiqh, just like there are in ours. I mean it's an exhaustive volume of stuff. So Allah is going to do in His eloquence, He's going to take one or two ayat, in this case one ayah, and essentially mention the heart of the matter.
And I want to compare this for you. The human body is made up of many things, and every one of them is very intricate. Just studying how the finger works is an intricate thing. There are lots of joints inside, blood vessels inside, veins inside, muscles inside, and each one of them is extremely intricate. But if you want to talk about the essence of life, that's the heart, or maybe the heart and the brain. These are the essential components.
Other parts are there, they're valuable, but they're only alive because these things are functioning, you understand? So really the heart and soul of the matter is going to be discussed by Allah, which gives everything else life.
The Death of Spiritual Life
Now a person whose heart stops working, that's on the inside, the heart stopped working. And they're lying from a distance, you can't tell if they're dead or sleeping. The hands are still there, the body is still there, the face is still there, everything is still there from the outside, it looks exactly like any other person. But on the inside, because this is gone, everything is gone. And because the mind isn't there, the brain stopped functioning, everything is dead.
It's no longer functioning, this is not a functional human being. So what I'm trying to get at, when Allah says the hearts became hard, when He says for the people before us that their hearts became hard, that means everything else in the religion, even though it look like they're practicing the religion, is dead, is of no value, that's just artificial, it's just like a corpse, they're literally like a corpse.
And so if that happens to you and me, that we're Muslim, that we say Allah's name, that we pray, that we make du'a, that we make dhikr, that we recite the Quran, but the heart inside dies, then everything else outside becomes an artificial corpse, that others might see as alive, but Allah knows better what's going on inside the hearts.
So we beg Allah not to make us of those whose hearts have become hard.
The First Fundamental: Worship Only Allah
So now, when He's going to describe the fundamental religion, in this ayah for the Israelites, what He's basically teaching us is, what are the things that keep your heart from dying? Because if you hold on to these fundamentals, then your heart will not die. And if your heart will not die, everything else in Islam, everything else that Allah and His Messenger want from you, (salallahu alayhi wa sallam), is going to fall into place.
But if this isn't there, everything else is pointless, everything else is just superfluous. So what is this essential thing? He says:
"He says, He took a contract from the Israelites, an agreement, You're not going to be enslaving yourselves, worshiping anyone other than Allah. You've heard this a million times, but let's dig into this a little bit."
The Transformative Nature of True Worship
What does it mean to worship Allah? What does it mean to enslave yourself to Allah? The more you get to know Allah, the more it should change you and me. I want to give you some practical, you know, how does that work? When you get to truly appreciate that Allah is worthy of all praise, then you no longer seek praise yourself. You're no longer interested in praise anymore.
It changed you, because you internalized that:
"Alhamdulillah, it belongs to Him. So I don't need validation by people's praise. Now it's entirely His giving."
When you understand Allah is Al-Aziz, is the owner of all dignity and all authority, then you're not looking for respect from anywhere else. If it comes, it comes, but it only came because Allah wanted it to. But what Allah has given you, nobody can take away.
When you and I internalize, deeply internalize:
"That He is greater. Then you and I internalize that we're not so great. That we don't need to prove ourselves to anybody. It's a check on our own humility. It puts us in our place. When you and I realize Allah is:"
"He's the master of judgment day."
Every time you learn something about Allah, He's the owner of all justice, (العدل). Then you get really scared of His justice. And you start acting, if He's so just and He's let me, then I'm not free to roam. I can't just do however I please. When you recognize that Allah is Ar-Rahman, He's loving, caring, merciful, kind. And then He's given so much love, care and mercy to you.
Then how is it that Allah can be Ar-Rahman to me and I can be Zalim to someone else? That I could be oppressive to somebody else? I could be cold towards somebody else? This is going... Every time you and I learn something about Allah, our relationship with Allah evolves, our ibadah to Allah evolves. So it is this constantly growing.
The Need for Constant Reminder
And by the way, these things, they become rusty. Just because you know, Hamd belongs to Allah, you learned that in this khutbah, or you thought about it for a few seconds, that doesn't mean that eight hours from now, you're going to be thinking, that I don't need validation, that I don't need praise. You and I need reminder. We need to review these teachings.
That needs to come back and hit us again, and again, and again. And the most effective way that that will hit us, is actually Allah's words themselves. Which is why He says, isn't it yet time that their hearts:
"That their hearts became filled with awe by the remembrance of Allah."
And so many of the sahaba commented:
"The remembrance of Allah is the Qur'an itself."
The Prayer as Spiritual Nourishment
When every few hours, I stand in prayer, I stand up there and I say:
"Everything that I'm saying, every one of those ayat that I'm saying, has a reaction. It does something to my heart. He's gonna be the one that's worthy of praise. And by the way, that also means whatever I'm going through, doesn't take anything away from his praise. No matter how many problems I have."
Finding Meaning in Trials
Somebody, you know, we ask each other, hey, how's it going? You're like, yeah, alhamdulillah. Like we say alhamdulillah, like I got problems, what can I say? I'm supposed to say alhamdulillah. But I don't really feel it, I feel the problems. I don't feel the hamd. When I'm standing in front of Allah, leaving everything behind, and I say with full conviction, all praise and gratitude belongs to Allah. Then what I'm saying is, no matter what problems I'm going through, I know one thing for sure, this could have been way worse, and I'm praising Allah that it's not.
This could have been way, way worse. And Allah is not putting me through something that's a punishment, it's always a trial, it's always a test. And the test is only there for my improvement. Just like in any training, when you're put through a test, it's just there to make you stronger. That's all it's there for. And so you stand in front of Allah and you praise Him.
And He decides the test, you're not the authority, you don't decide, why am I being tested this way? Why couldn't it be a different kind of test? Why couldn't it be... He's the Rabb al-'Alameen. And why is He being so harsh to me? No, He's not. He's ar-Rahman ar-Raheem.
And I don't care anymore, I don't care about this test.
"How do you not care? You're gonna stand in front of Him, He's gonna judge what you did. Well, I don't know how to do this on my own.
"Fine, I'll try my best. But I can't do it on my own. And what do you say?
"Help, I can't do it myself.
It's an entire conversation with Allah about my daily struggle, just in the Fatiha.
The Second Fundamental: Excellence to Family
Allah says to the Israelites, the first thing you must do is fix that bond with Allah, that conversation with Allah. When that happens, then it affects all the other relationships around you, and all the other relationships around me. So when the relationships around me, there's something wrong with them, then there's first something wrong between me and Allah. And that's creating something wrong around me.
Now there's two kinds of things, people do wrong to you, and sometimes you do wrong to people. And I've given you plenty of talks about when other people do wrong to you. This khutbah is about myself, when I am doing wrong to somebody else. Well, how am I supposed to think about this? Because you know, always, always, we are programmed to think about what somebody else did to us.
And they may have done things to us, not taking that away, but we have to now become people of introspection also. Somebody else doing wrong to you doesn't justify you doing wrong to somebody else. Those are two separate things. And Allah addresses both of those things. The problem however, is when we become people of extremes, when we discuss one thing and not the other.
Allah says, do the best you can be, make the best of what you can with the relationship with both your parents, close relatives, orphans, masakeen, and then those who can't help themselves.
The Concept of Ihsan in Relationships
In other words, not be perfect, not everybody's situation is the same, but whatever situation you find yourself, try to do the best you possibly can. If you at the end of the day can say, this is the best I could possibly do, you did ihsan. So even though that's not my khutbah, I wanna give you that qualifier, because that's an important disclaimer, that's necessary.
Allah is not expecting everyone to be exactly the same with all of their parents. My parents are a blessing to me, alhamdulillah. Somebody else's parents are a huge trial for them. They're not the same, it's not the same. Somebody's siblings are the best thing that ever happened to them, and somebody else's siblings is like habil and qabil. It happens.
Not every family is the same. Allah is not expecting the same exact behavior from everyone. What Allah is expecting though is ihsan. You know what that means? It means what's the very best you can do in your situation.
A Practical Example of Ihsan
I'll tell you something I may have mentioned before. A friend of mine had a terrible relationship with his mother. And you know in Islam how much Allah talks about the mother. How good you have to be to your mother. How we can never thank our mother. How she gave us birth. And how she almost died giving birth. And the favors of her, and the acknowledgement of her in the Qur'an is remarkable.
And in the sunnah of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم), it's so remarkable, the status of the mother. Everybody here knows. If you know nothing else about Islam, you know how high up mom is. You know that. And then he had a terrible relationship with his mother not because of him, because she was extremely abusive. And she tortured him mentally, psychologically, even physically sometimes.
To the point where he developed like a major anxiety and started having panic attacks and even started developing seizures. So when he would be in the company of his mom, he literally start foaming at the mouth and pass out. Like that happened multiple times to him because of the things his mother says. And the way she abuses him verbally. And he feels that he has to keep going back to go talk to his mom because he doesn't want to burn in hell. Because if I don't go back to mom, then Allah will be angry at me because you don't have to be the best to your mom.
And so, what am I supposed to do? And I told him, and I say this with a clean conscience. In his case, the best he can do is stay away from his mom. Take care of her rights, take care of her needs, but you cannot do that at the expense of you being abused yourself.
If that was the case, Ibrahim a.s. is in an abusive environment where his father is committing shirk. He's not there to just stay at home and I'm just gonna be with you no matter what. When he kicks him out, he leaves. He's gone. Not everybody's circumstance is the same. But anyway, that's a side note.
"With your relatives, with the orphans, you do the very best that you can given your circumstances. You have to do a full assessment of what your circumstances, maybe even get some outside help. But to expect that we all have to be perfect in every relationship and everybody's expected the same standard, that is just not our deen. That's just not Islam, okay?
The Third Fundamental: Speaking Well to People
In any case, after having said this, Allah describes the next step for the Israelites. And by the way, this was it. If you have your relationship with Allah good, and as a relationship, and as a result, you're trying to do the best you can within the close family. That's the next item, right? So first, you're deeply connected with Allah, and you're trying to do the very best you can within close family. Then what's next?
Then what's next is:
"Speak to people the best way you can. Say good and beautiful things to people.
If you don't have something good to say in public, don't say it. If you don't have something beneficial to offer, then don't, just keep your mouth shut. Only say beautiful things.
لِلنَّاسِ actually, by the way, means two things in the Arabic language. Say good things to people, and also means say good things about people. That became a fundamental.
By the way, you know what that means? Every time you don't, your heart gets harder. Every time you don't, it affects you. Not someone else. You would think your words are affecting somebody else. They're affecting you, they're affecting me. When we're talking about somebody else. When we're talking to somebody else in other than nice or kind ways.
The Fourth Fundamental: Establishing Prayer and Giving Zakah
Now:
And then he says:
Establish the salah, give zakah.
You would think Allah says, worship only me. The number one item should be pray. Number two item should be give zakah. He says, no. First item, fix your relationship with me. And before you understand what that truly means, know that when your heart becomes soft towards Allah, it will naturally become soft towards the people around you. And then, and to make sure it stays that way, establish the salah.
Meaning the salah is a means by which your ibadah to Allah will be reinforced, and your goodness to others will be reinforced.
The Problem of Hard Hearts in Prayer
If you're standing there in prayer, and you're annoyed with your wife, because there's too much noise coming from the kitchen, and ruin your salah or something. Or if you're standing in salah, and kids are running around, you're like, as soon as I'm done, I'm gonna, you know.
How is your heart become soft? What is that? What did you just do? The outside of the prayer was all there, but the heart hasn't softened. What is that compared to the messenger of Allah, (صلى الله عليه وسلم), who can stop in the middle of a khutbah for a crying child? What Islam is this? This is the Islam where the heart is hard and only the outside is left.
The Progression to Violence
And when that happens, when the heart becomes hard, not only will the ummah become harsh, you'll become harsh towards close relationships, then the harshness of the tongue will come, you'll speak harshly to other people or about other people, and eventually the heart becomes so hard, that even what happened to the Israelites, it became so hard, that they were willing, Muslim was willing to kill another Muslim.
Allah had to reveal:
"You will not be killing each other. You will not be killing your own people. You'll not be kicking them out from your own homes.
Unimaginable a believer would kill another believer. It's not so unimaginable for us today. So much of the violence that's happening in the ummah is not happening at the hands of outside forces, some other invading force. So much of the killing that's happening in the ummah today is two people, both of them who claim:
(لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّٰهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ ٱللَّٰهِ صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ)
And what's even, while all of this is happening, the people who speak harshly, like, they hate this group, this group, they're not even Muslim, they're kafir. And this one says, no, they're not Muslim, they're kafir.
And you're both praying, you're taking the same dhuhr prayer break, and asr prayer break, and then going to kill each other again. And while you're both doing this, you're reciting the same Qur'an, praying to the same Allah, you're doing all of that. And we say, how come there's such crazy violence in the ummah? And I'll take a step back, it doesn't just come out of nowhere.
First is the heart that becomes hard, then it's the close relationships that become stiff, then the tongue becomes harsh, and all of that evolves eventually into bloodshed. That evolves into bloodshed. It doesn't just come out of nowhere.
So when we don't soften, when our tongues don't soften, when our relationship with Allah and our close relationship doesn't fix, when we don't do that stuff, then we don't get to complain that there are some people killing each other. Because we're part of that cycle. We're part of that same chain of process. They're just the most extreme end of it. But there's a lighter version that we're culprits of. That's the progression in these ayat.
The Core Issue: Selective Islam
And in the midst of those ayat, Allah said:
"Do you believe in some parts of the book and deny other parts of the book?
So this is the part that I really wanted to talk to you about and conclude with. One of the indications that the heart has become truly hard. And that religion is now only artificial.
I told, you know, the core of our religion is ibadah. And ibadah means everything you learn about Allah impacts you and your personality, your thinking, your feelings in some way. That's ibadah at the end of the day. Allah is the most giving, you become the most grateful. That's how that works. Allah is the provider, then you're careful with what He provided. Allah is the judge, you're not gonna cross His lines.
When that relationship is not there anymore, then what happens? There are lots of crazy extremes that happen. Allah says, you believe in some parts of the book and you disbelieve other parts of the book.
Examples of Selective Practice
How does somebody do that? Nobody comes and says, by the way, I love this surah, I believe in this surah, next surah, no, I'm a kafir of that surah. Nobody does that. Nobody does that. Nobody says, I like,
ayah number 35, I believe. Ayah number 36 though, nah, not happening. Nobody does that.
And what is this kufr? You know what this is? Then you decide what parts of the religion are suited for you. And what parts of the religion I can just ignore. They're not, it's not my thing. That's just not my thing. And so people do this in different ways.
For some people, the outside of the religion, the length of the beard is really important. The head cover is really important. You have to wear a shawar kameez, or a thobe, or something. And those are Islamic clothes. And I'm wearing kafir clothes right now. And I'm, you know, because I'm not covering my head, according to, and there's a fiqh behind it, that's not, I'm not discussing it. But because of this, I'm not as Islamic as some other people, or somebody else.
Or this guy doesn't even have a beard.
His face is haram. Or that one doesn't wear hijab. You know, what kind of hijab is that? Look, there's a hair sticking out.
You know. The outside, the appearance.
Hypocrisy in Practice
And where did you, when you go to somebody's house, where did you get the chicken? Did you get it from the Zabiha, please? How Zabiha is the Zabiha, please? Did you do an exhaustive background check of the butcher? Did you find out where he was born? And how many animals he's killed so far? Does he pronounce:
properly or not? Because if not, I'm not eating here, I'll just have the salad and I'll go. This is their Islam, checking the ingredients on every ice cream packet, to make sure you're not eating haram. But when it comes to giving mahr to the wife, when it comes to giving the inheritance, the same long beard, same hijab, same super halalified everything else.
When it comes to money, I don't know where that Islam went. Where did it go? It just disappeared all of a sudden. When it comes to speaking kindly to people, when it comes to not backbiting against others, when it comes to not putting someone down, when it comes to not slandering somebody, it just disappeared.
So in some things extremely Islamic looking, and other things, that's worse than any kafir would ever do.
By the way, justice, kindness, mercy, forgiveness, softness in speech, they only come when a heart is soft. But the outside appearance and impressing somebody with your religious, you know, you can quote stuff, you even know Arabic, you can quote that stuff and look religious, that stuff anybody can do. Anybody can do that. Abu Jahl spoke really good Arabic. He was really good.
The leader of the munafiqun, Abdullah ibn Ubayy, he gave epic speeches, man. His Arabic was way better than mine. Way better. So you wanna just quote Arabic, and you feel like you're more religious, that's not what makes somebody religious. Knowledge doesn't make you more religious. Appearance doesn't make you more religious. It doesn't make you a better person. But for some people, that's essentially Islam. And everything else, if somebody doesn't look that way, then you judge them. And you don't even judge yourself over the wrong things you're doing in your life. And the way you're dealing with people.
The Other Extreme: Convenience Religion
Even in the way that the prayers have become. You're praying perfectly, you're like, according to my school of thought, the hands should be here, or here, or wherever they are. And the entire prayer, looking at the guy's hands next to you, whose hands are a little bit lower, like... And as soon as salah is done, bro, your ruku was just not 90 degrees, it was more like, you know, you need to fix your ruku. Where was your heart? Your heart was not in ruku. Your heart was not in... Why are you checking somebody else's prayer? What's wrong with you? When did that happen? This is a heart that is not overwhelmed by the remembrance of Allah.
On the other side is the other extreme. People that say, no, no, no, I'm not that religious, I don't want to be like these people, they all look religious, but you know, really they're just scum, and they're cheaters, and liars, and all of that. I don't want to deal with them, etc, etc. I know what they're all like, etc. Fine, you're not Islamic, you call yourself normal. I don't want to be the religious type. Cool, good for you. Except when it's to your advantage.
So when your son is acting up, you start quoting, you know, in Islam, you have to be good to your mom. What? When did Islam just... Mom just got religious? No, mom didn't get religious, just religion served her purpose right now. So she quoted it.
Or the husband who doesn't even pray, drinks, whatever else, you know, abusive. And the wife speaks up, you know, in Islam, women are supposed to be obedient. Islam? Really? You? Islam? When do you quote Islam? When you can slap somebody with it.
This is:
There will be people that have lived a completely non-religious life, and then they're going through a divorce. I've seen cases like that, they're going through a divorce. And, you know, in the Western courts, it's like the women and men, they get 50-50, right? But Sharia court is gonna give you more money, so he becomes religious during the divorce, and says, I'm gonna go to Sharia court because I don't want her to have... Masha'Allah. This part of the Sharia is very beloved to me. Everything else about Sharia, who cares? Who cares? This is:
The Deeper Problem: Negotiating with Allah
But let's take a deeper look. Let's take a look at ourselves. What have we become? If I truly acknowledge this about myself, and you acknowledge this about yourselves, if we don't become people that when we pray, when we stop and pray, and we recite Allah's words, that we don't give up our own pride, ego, insistence, addiction.
You and I have certain sins, we're doing some things wrong, and we don't wanna let go of that wrong. We're afraid of letting it go. It's too dear to us, it's too sweet to us, it's too compelling to us. And when we're standing in front of Allah, we're telling Allah, ya Allah, I'm willing to pray for you, I'm willing to recite Quran, I'm willing to do all this other good, but let me just hold on to this sin. I don't wanna let go of this. Okay, I'll make up for it with all this other good stuff.
Somebody who earned a single sin, and that mistake took a hold of him, it surrounded him. Like you start negotiating with Allah, I do all this other ibadah, but this one, two, three haram things, let me just hold on to them, okay? I'm not dealing with that. I'm not even... You know, at first you maybe even make istighfar for it, eventually you stop even making istighfar for it. Allah knows how I am. At least I do all this other good stuff. This is:
Believing in some parts of the book, rejecting, denying, ignoring other parts of the book.
The Severe Warning
And so I conclude with the scary conclusion that Allah Himself gives. May Allah protect all of us. He says:
What is the compensation for somebody who does that among you? Except humiliation in this worldly life.
And on the day of resurrection, they will be rejected and taken back to the most intense of all punishment. In other words, there's Jahannam, and there's the worst of Jahannam. This is the worst of Jahannam.
And Allah is not at all unaware of the things that you do.
Why Such Harsh Punishment?
Why is Allah making such a harsh punishment for these people? There's Quraysh who are attacking the Prophet. They're making war against the Muslims. Why don't they get أَشَدّ الْعَذَاب? Why are these people getting أشدّ الْعَذَاب the worst of all punishment? Why?
Because these people are supposed to be believers. They're supposed to be ambassadors of Allah's deen. When they take part of the book, and they reject other parts of the book, they make the book itself look ugly. They make Islam look ugly.
And for so many other people who could have come to Islam, when they see their behavior, they walk away from Islam. As a matter of fact, even their own young, their own younger generation says, my parents acted in this way. My uncles acted in this way. They were religious in this, this, but look at how they behaved in this, this, and this. I want nothing to do with Islam. You were the reason to push shaitan's agenda onto your own. To spread kufr within your own. What bigger crime is there?
And so Allah says:
And Allah is not at all unaware of what you people do.
The Real-World Impact
I was compelled to give this khutbah because as I speak to people, they reach out to me via social media about whatever problems they're going through. And I cannot begin to tell you how many times people have said, because of how my family behaved towards me, because of how my in-laws behaved towards me, because of how my siblings behaved towards me, my parents behaved towards me, my children behaved towards me, I don't even want anything to do with Islam. I don't even know what God's doing. Ma'azallah.
Like they start questioning deen itself because of how they were. These are religious people, they treated me like this? How can that be? So Allah says, people like that deserve the worst punishment. You know:
So may Allah not make us from those people.
The Final Warning: Trading Afterlife for This World
I know I've taken over my time, within a minute I'll be done. I just wanna share with you how Allah Himself concludes this passage. He says:
These are the people that have purchased worldly life, and given away the afterlife.
Why did He say that? Because when people do that, when people take some parts of the religion, and ignore other parts of the religion, for whatever reason, I've mentioned a variety of reasons in this khutbah. When people do that, then they do that because they want something to gain in this world. Whether it's control, whether it's their own agenda, whether it's some greed, whether it's some lust, only quote parts of the religion that serve your cause in this life.
Well, then that's all you want from the religion is, you want something to be served in this life. You do not come to the Qur'an and the sunnah of the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam, so that you can earn Allah's favor in the next life. You're only coming to it because it serves you in some way in this life.
Then Allah says, fine, that's all you're gonna get then. That's all you want, that's all you get.
Conclusion and Prayer
May Allah make us of those that are at the service of this deen, and do not force the deen of Allah to be at the service to us.
Verily, Allah commands justice, excellence, and giving to relatives, and He forbids indecency, wrongdoing, and oppression. He admonishes you that perhaps you will remember.
And establish prayer. Indeed, prayer prohibits immorality and wrongdoing, and the remembrance of Allah is greater. And Allah knows that which you do.
Indeed, prayer has been decreed upon the believers a decree of specified times.