The Math of Allah's Mercy in Ramadan | Khutbah by Dr. Omar Suleiman

Opening

We begin by praising Allah by bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for Him. And we bear witness that Muhammad is His final messenger. We ask Allah to send His peace and blessings upon him, the prophets and messengers that came before him, his family and companions that served alongside him and those that follow in his blessed path until the Day of Judgment. And we ask Allah to make us amongst them. اللهم آمين

The Month of Ramadan - Like Yusuf Among His Brothers

Dear brothers and sisters, Al-Hafidh ibn Rajab says about this month of Ramadan:

That the month of Ramadan amongst all of the months of the year is like Yusuf with all of his brothers. Just like you had one that saved 12, you have one month by which a person can be saved for the entire year.

Allah's Merciful Math

And this khutbah is actually not about that statement. I want you to pay attention to something that is consistent not just in Ramadan, but outside of Ramadan as well, but especially in Ramadan - and that is the idea of Allah's merciful math. The way that things are multiplied not just in a way where your good deeds are multiplied with Allah, but in a way that Allah will redeem you for other parts of your life where you are insufficient and deficient out of His mercy - the math of Allah in regards to His mercy.

And so the idea that one Ramadan covers the entire year - all of the other months are forgiven because of that one month, just like Yusuf amongst his brothers. The idea that one Laylatul Qadr, one night covers an entire lifetime. Laylatul Qadr is better than a thousand months. You stand for one night and Allah writes down a thousand months for you out of His mercy.

And you could go on and on about how this math works with Allah. But if outside of Ramadan the minimum that a good deed is multiplied is by 10 up to 700, then inside of Ramadan you can only imagine how much in this month of mercy Allah writes down for us.

That is actually one of the things that the ulema mentioned in regards to the explanation of the hadith that all of the actions of the child of Adam are for him except for fasting. الصوم لي وأنا أجزي به - fasting is for Me and I reward accordingly. That it's not just the reward of fasting itself, it's the fact that within this entire month of Ramadan the portfolio of good deeds that you put forth that are already multiplied outside of Ramadan are multiplied in a way that the imagination cannot appreciate.

Examples of Allah's Mercy

Now here's the thing. You start to map this to every other element of our lives. You give one dollar, Allah multiplies it to 700, turns it into a mountain on the Day of Judgment. You pray five times a day outside of Ramadan. Allah could have kept it 50 prayers a day. He could have kept it 50 prayers a day and He would have been justified and it still would have been mercy to us. But He let it be five times a day and those five prayers cover the entire day.

The Blessing of Your Body - A Leased Vehicle

But I want you to pay attention to two particular hadith for the purpose of this khutbah so that you can remember them not just in Ramadan but outside of Ramadan, and I'll preface it with the following:

When you pay zakah on something or when you show gratitude for something that Allah gives to you, you're thinking about a blessing that you didn't wake up with and it came to you. So whether it's the blessing of some wealth that came to you, therefore there is zakah that's due on that wealth. There's sadaqah that's due on that wealth. Allah gave you food, you thank Allah for the food that came to you. Alhamdulillah for the food that just came to you, right? So you're constantly thinking about an intake process and then how you respond to that intake of some sort of blessing from Allah.

But what about the blessing of your body itself? I want you to think of it this way: if your soul is your existence, every single one of us is riding in a rented car right now. This is a leased vehicle. Your body is a leased vehicle that you're sitting in right now - your soul given to you by Allah, your body is a leased vehicle.

The First Hadith: Charity Due on Every Joint

And there are a few ahadith that speak to this and they're so deeply profound because the Prophet gave them a practical manifestation. He didn't leave it ambiguous and say alhamdulillah you have a body, alhamdulillah you have health, therefore you should be happy and you should say alhamdulillah and thank Allah for it. He was very precise as to what the requirements of that blessing actually are.

And so you have the first hadith from Abu Huraira that is authentic. He said Rasulullah said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 2989)

Every joint of the child of Adam has a sadaqa, has a charity that is due on it. And I'll say from now: I'm not fundraising in this khutbah. There's no fundraising in this khutbah. I know the word sadaqa makes you think in a very specific way. Please delete fundraising from your mind right now. There's no fundraising here. Every joint of the child of Adam has a sadaqa upon it.

In several narrations the Prophet said 360 joints. You can look into the science of that yourself and the miracle of that itself, but what the Prophet meant with the connecting joints were the 360 joints. And the ulema mention of the benefits of that word sulama that the Prophet did not mention the bones but the joints because every joint makes two things dependent upon the other, and it is the majestic way that Allah put us all together that we don't pay attention to. That's the external structure. That's the internal communication between the brain and the rest of the body, how every cell communicates, how every nerve is connected to the other. That is from the mercy of Allah in and of itself.

So he said: Every single joint has a sadaqa that is due upon it. Now in this narration he said:

That every single day when the sun rises, if you judge justly between two people, that is a sadaqa - the service of judging justly between two people, reconciling between two people, setting things straight between two people. That is a sadaqa.

He said: And you help someone get on to their ride, their mount - you help someone get on to their ride or you give them their goods. You either help them get on or you give them their goods. Load their groceries, right? Give them what is needed - that in and of itself is a sadaqa.

And he went on. He said:

And a good word that you speak is a sadaqa.

And every step that you take to the masjid is a charity, is a sadaqa.

And he said: And for you to remove something harmful from the road is sadaqa.

Now if you pay attention to this hadith, all of it more or less surrounds the idea of service. It's a very interesting genre of a hadith because there are no less than 10 to 15 narrations that surround this notion from the Prophet. I'm not talking about the repeated chains, I'm talking about unique narrations from the Prophet when he's speaking about this - the sadaqa that's due on the joints. In this narration, it's all acts of charity and service.

And there is something very beautiful that the late Muhammad Ali said when he said: "Service is the rent that you pay for your room here on earth." It's the idea of when I wake up during the day, I have a body, I have health - what am I doing here? What am I doing here from the moment that I walk out to the moment that I return? How many people did I help along the way? How many pieces of garbage or something harmful from the road did I remove? How many things did I do throughout the day that made it easy for someone? How many times did I hold the door for someone? How many times did I help someone put something into their car, help someone do this or whatever it may be?

Starting with Your Family

You look throughout the day and the irony - by the way I say this because it's very important - a lot of times you read these hadith, you know who you don't think about? You don't think about your family. Even though your family would be the first recipients of these things, right? So judge between your kids as they're fighting - that's a sadaqa, right? Helping your spouse - sadaqa. All of these things are also included because those that are closest to you, they're most deserving of the good actions. And so you're not thinking to yourself, "Man, I need to go drive to some part of town and find people." These are things that can be manifested in your inner circle as well as forms of sadaqa, and they can be just as rewarding if not more rewarding.

The Second Hadith: Two Rak'ahs of Dhuha

But this hadith of this idea of sadaqa, the gratitude that you pay on your bones, on your joints - this one revolves around the service element. In other narrations, such as this one from Abu Dharr, and this narration is also authentic, it is Sahih Muslim, he said:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 720)

He said: That every day you wake up, you have a charity that's due on the joints of your body. Every subhanAllah is a sadaqa, every alhamdulillah is a sadaqa, every la ilaha illallah is a sadaqa, every Allahu akbar is a sadaqa.

He said: And to enjoin any good is a form of charity and to forbid an evil is a form of charity.

And all of that can be achieved with two rak'ahs that you pray of salatul dhuha.

The Math of Allah's Mercy

The math of Allah! Just two rak'ahs that you would pray. This is not a Ramadan hadith. This is outside of Ramadan. This isn't "oh well, I have to stay after salatul fajr until the sunrise." No, salatul dhuha can be prayed at home as well. Anytime that you can find some time between sunrise and dhuhr, pray two rak'ahs of dhuha. The Prophet is saying those two rak'ahs will cover all of the above.

And the hadith largely surrounds personal ibadah, personal ibadah. Now it's important because I thought it was beautiful - Imam Muslim had such tawfiq, such greatness in how he chaptered the chapters of hadith. So look at the name of the chapter: "Chapter of salatul dhuha - the two rak'ahs that you pray - and that the least of them is two rak'ahs and the best of them are eight rak'ahs and the middle of them are six and four rak'ahs, but the point is to be consistent." By the way, in Arabic this is a masterful sentence. I put it all in one sentence and then he put the hadith to show you that even when you think salatul dhuha, how many of us have been programmed to think two rak'ahs only? Right? Because we always take the minimum. We always take the minimum in our nature as human beings, as Muslims. We go to the minimum right away. But he's saying by the way, just a reminder: when you read a hadith like this, you could actually do more. So two is the least, eight is the best, and in between if you can do six or four, alhamdulillah, but be consistent, be consistent.

The Magnificent Mercy

Now here's what I want you to think about in this regard: two rak'ahs covers 360 joints. Allah did not say, for example, say subhanAllah 360 times so that it could be a cover for the 360 joints. And if He legislated that, it would have been justified and it still would have been merciful. Just to say thank you - 360 thank you's a day for what you have of your rented vehicle of your body. Isn't that worth it? Isn't that mercy from Allah? Of course it is. But Allah didn't do that. Two rak'ahs of salatul dhuha - you cover all of that.

Allah gave us also with these tasbihs and these tahmeeds trees to be planted in Jannah, palaces that are built. And a tasbih, as Imam Zuhri says in the authentic narration from Bukhari: one tasbih in Ramadan is like a thousand of it outside of Ramadan. Your brain can't start to comprehend the mercy of Allah.

Structured Mercy vs. Works

And I was having a discussion, in a debate recently, about where Islam falls in the works versus mercy debates, right? Is it a works-based religion or is it a mercy-based religion? How do you reconcile the hadith of the Prophet where he mentions that everyone will enter paradise only by the mercy of Allah, but also all of the ayats and ahadith: jahidu, sabiqu - you have to do, you have to do, you have to do?

And the answer, and Allah knows best, is that Islam is a religion of structured mercy. It's mercy with structure because mercy without structure is absolute delusion, absolute imagination. You render Allah - you try to render your notion of God as a tool of everything that you want to do for yourself. And so there is no requirement that's on you because human beings naturally will always sink to the minimum. Very few people will actually without incentive go higher.

And so if the same mercy is accessible with this and this, why even try? And so Islam is about positioning yourself for the mercy of Allah, knowing that you cannot get in except by the mercy of Allah, but it still requires you to take your steps forward. And Allah is not exhausting you but He's attaching you to Him so that you can continue to grow and to grow and to grow and to grow.

The Reality Check: Freedom

Now this khutbah is going to take another turn here because this is where it stops being the feel-good khutbah. This is where it stops being the feel-good khutbah about the mercy of Allah and how many tasbihs you do and "don't worry, just give this much charity and so much will happen and do this and all of this will happen."

I want you to think now as well about a blessing that we rarely, rarely thank Allah for, which isn't just the 360 joints, but the freedom of that body - the freedom of that body. Your freedom to speak, your freedom to walk, your freedom to come to the masjid, your freedom to stand up, your freedom to move.

Because I want you to think about how someone would read this hadith in prison right now. My 360 joints are confined to a cell. Did you ever thank Allah for your freedom enough? Have you reached the point where you've said to Allah alhamdulillah - not only do I have all this but I can use all of this? Because that's also important.

Think about a person whose joints are confined or who can't take more than three steps around the cell. Think about a person who does their sujood behind bars and doesn't know the nature of the ground that they're making sujood on or what's going to come on them as they are making sujood.

Sister Lika's Story

Here's what I want you to think about. Yesterday I visited our sister Lika Kurdia. I want you to remember her - sister Lika spending her second Ramadan in Prairieland Detention Center. And before I got there, the head chaplain of the prison was talking about how sometimes they don't get salatul Jumu'ah right. Sister Lika - sometimes they don't get their suhoor on time, the prisoners. It's up to the guards. The guards are very cruel. Sometimes they'll come a minute before with their food. It's not enough time to be able to drink water or to get any type of suhoor. And iftar is whenever it is.

Then you know what really got to me? As I was about to leave, I had to pray salatul dhuhr and I just asked the prison, I said, "Hey, can I pray dhuhr?" They said okay, and I was about to leave the room. And anyone that will ever visit a prisoner, if you want to know how dehumanizing it is - because a prisoner can't take two steps without a guard staring them down like this. And so even when you go, if you're an attorney or clergy, you go and you leave and a guard will stand - a male guard will stand and look at your sister like this until another guard comes and removes her, puts her in another cell.

I said, "Hey, is it okay if she joins me for prayer? Can she just pray behind me dhuhr?" And off the cuff she said yeah, and she knew that she did something wrong but it happened, alhamdulillah.

And I was thinking about this. She was telling me earlier how salatul dhuhr has become difficult. They're trying to get dhuhr organized. Can we get people to come out and pray dhuhr? And how the prisoners don't often get to pray dhuhr or they don't get the right type of dhuhr? They don't know who's the imam that's gonna be amongst them?

And that salatul dhuhr in dhuhr was more precious to her than an entire year of her prayers alone, by her words. Salatul Jumu'ah, when they get to pray - you know one of the prisoners said, "I mean I get to - it's the one time that I can close my eyes and feel like I'm in a masjid." It's salatul Jumu'ah, the one time of the week where I can close my eyes and just feel like I'm in a masjid and I'm no longer in a prison.

Other Brothers and Sisters in Captivity

Brother Yaqub Aira, who would carry around his camera, be around here all the time - what's his tasbih? You notice tasbih is the dried pieces of bread that he strung together - those rough pieces of bread and he turned it into a tasbih in prison for himself.

Your sister Aafia Siddiqui - you look around and you find a 20 year old in this masjid. That woman has spent more time in that cell than the full age of that child - going to 20, 21, 22 years old.

What's the Price of Your Freedom?

What's the price of your freedom? What's the price of your freedom? And so go back to that first hadith that I mentioned: to remove a stone from the road - what about removing chains from someone's body? To take a step towards the prayer - what about helping someone to be able to pray because they're no longer being able to give that freedom? To help someone get on to a mount or get on to a ride as a sadaqah, as a form of charity - what about helping someone to regain their freedom of transportation in the first place?

And so I come to that, dear brothers and sisters. And if you're sick of me talking about it, then you should wonder if I'm sick if I stop talking about it.

Your sister Aafia - tomorrow, please join us to that protest at 2 p.m. Don't forget your sister Lika who's an hour away from here. Don't forget all of the prisoners who are unjustly incarcerated. There is a whole system of mass incarceration in this country. It predates the last few years. Muslims are stuck in prison. Don't forget your brothers and sisters. Don't forget all of those people that are being picked up by ICE. Don't forget them and ask yourself: What are you doing? What's the price of that ni'mah of the freedom of your body that you have?

Closing Du'a

May Allah allow us to properly thank Him for the blessings that He's given to us. May Allah have mercy on us despite our deficiencies. May Allah have mercy on our brothers and sisters all over the world and those that are around the corner that are not having the same freedom that we have this Ramadan. May Allah free them and may Allah free us all from An-Nar. اللهم آمين

عباد الله