The Seven Types of Special People
By Zaid Shakir | 2026-01-16T06:03:41.575754+00:00 | Topic: Iman
Friday Sermon: The Seven Types of Special People
By Imam Zaid Shakir
Opening Khutbah
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنتُم مُّسْلِمُونَ
O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims.
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اتَّقُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُم مِّن نَّفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ وَخَلَقَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا وَبَثَّ مِنْهُمَا رِجَالًا كَثِيرًا وَنِسَاءً وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ الَّذِي تَسَاءَلُونَ بِهِ وَالْأَرْحَامَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَيْكُمْ رَقِيبًا
O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul and created from it its mate and dispersed from both of them many men and women. And fear Allah, through whom you ask one another, and the wombs. Indeed Allah is ever, over you, an Observer.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَقُولُوا قَوْلًا سَدِيدًا يُصْلِحْ لَكُمْ أَعْمَالَكُمْ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَمَن يُطِعِ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ فَقَدْ فَازَ فَوْزًا عَظِيمًا
O you who have believed, fear Allah and speak words of appropriate justice. He will correct for you your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly attained a great attainment.
Amma ba'du, fa inna asdaqa al-hadithi kitabullah, wa khayra al-hadi hadyu Muhammadin ṣallā-llāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam, wa sharr al-umuri muhdathatuha, fa kulla muhdathatin bid'ah, wa kulla bid'atin dalalah, wa kulla dalalatin fin-nar.
الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي هَدَانَا لِهَذَا وَمَا كُنَّا لِنَهْتَدِيَ لَوْلَا أَنْ هَدَانَا اللَّهُ
Praise be to Allah, who has guided us to this; and we would not have been guided if Allah had not guided us.
الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي أَنزَلَ عَلَى عَبْدِهِ الْكِتَابَ وَلَمْ يَجْعَل لَّهُ عِوَجًا
Praise be to Allah, who has sent down upon His servant the Book and has not made therein any crookedness.
All praises due to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds. All praises due to Allah who has guided us to this path and we would not have been able to guide ourselves had not Allah guided us. All praises due to Allah who has revealed the scripture unto His servant and has made no crookedness therein. Alhamdulillah, Allah has blessed us together in safety and security.
The Two Great Blessings
This is one of two great, great blessings that we should give thanks to Allah for. It's interesting that these two blessings, when Allah says:
الَّذِي أَطْعَمَهُم مِّن جُوعٍ وَآمَنَهُم مِّنْ خَوْفٍ
"The one who has fed them and driven off hunger from them, and the one who has secured them from fear." So, basic fundamental needs: food, shelter, and then security. Almost 1400 years later, these were placed by Maslow at the top of his
hierarchy of needs. Allah is reminding us in the Quran, long before that, that human needs, basic human needs, don't change. These are timeless, and the timeless nature of these needs reflects the timeless nature of the human being, which reminds us why the message, the prophetic message, is so timeless. As they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Introduction to the Hadith of Seven
What we like to talk about today is one of the sayings of our Prophet when he reminds us or alerts us to seven categories or seven types of people who, not exclusively but emphasizing their virtue, will be given special protection on the Day of Resurrection.
This hadith, this prophetic saying, is related by Abu Huraira (may Allah be pleased with him), and Abu Huraira said that the Messenger of Allah said:
(Sahih al-Bukhari 660, Sahih Muslim 1031)
"Seven types of people whom Allah will shade in the shade of His throne on a day there will be no shade except that shade: a just leader, a young person who grows up worshipping and dedicated to the worship of Allah, a person whose heart is attached to the houses of worship (the masjid), two people who love each other for the sake of Allah—they come together for His sake and they depart for His sake, a man who is called by a woman who possesses great status and honor and great beauty and she calls him for illicit, unlawful relations and he says 'Verily, I fear Allah,' a person who gives in charity and hides it to such an extent that his left hand doesn't know what his right hand has spent, and a person who remembers Allah in private and their eyes flood over with tears."
This hadith has been related by Imam al-Bukhari, Imam Muslim, and others (mutafaqun alayh).
First: The Just Leader (Imam 'Adil)
He starts by mentioning a just leader. In certain capacities, all of us are leaders, and in whatever leadership capacity we find ourselves in, it's incumbent upon us to be just. Justice involves a trust. When we're put in a position of leadership-be that a lofty position that might involve executing state power, that might involve legislating on behalf of the general public, or be it something of lesser degree but certainly not lesser importance—because any leadership position is a position of grave importance. It might be the leader of the student body, it might be the members of the student council, it might be a husband as leader of the family, or it might be a wife in her capacities of leadership. Whatever it is, it is incumbent upon us to be just.
Allah reminds us in the Quran:
إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُكُمْ أَن تُؤَدُّوا الْأَمَانَاتِ إِلَى أَهْلِهَا وَإِذَا حَكَمْتُم بَيْنَ النَّاسِ أَن تَحْكُمُوا بِالْعَدْلِ
Indeed, Allah commands you to render trusts to those to whom they are due and when you judge between people to judge with justice.
"Allah enjoins upon you that you deliver the trust to its rightful possessor and when you judge or rule between people that you do so with justice." Whatever capacity you're in, it involves a trust, and the execution of that trust properly requires justice.
(Sahih al-Bukhari 893, Sahih Muslim 1829)
كُلُّكُمْ رَاعٍ وَكُلُّكُمْ مَسْئُولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهِ "All of you are in some capacity or another stewards, and each of you are responsible for those under your authority." Each of you are enjoined to be a just leader. This is foundational in our religion, and this could be an entire khutbah, but we'll move on in the interest of time.
Second: The Youth Raised in Worship (Shab Nasha'a fi 'Ibadatillah)
And then he says, "Shab nasha'a fi 'ibadatillah"—a young person who grows up worshipping and serving Allah. Now, there are two reasons—there are many reasons, but we can point to two—why they say the context and arrangement of words or phrases carries and conveys meaning in and of itself.
So why is the young person mentioned after the just leader? Because the young people, the youth, are the greatest resource that any leader has. The Prophet was surrounded by talented young people, starting with Ali bin Abi Talib and Zaid bin Haritha, who are amongst the first to accept Islam.
The First Muslims: A Representative Community
Khadijah-and there's a wisdom and a lesson in examining the people Allah brought to Islam first-Khadijah (may Allah be pleased with her), she's a woman, and women are the backbone of the society. And then Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), he's a young person, he's a youth. And Zaid bin Haritha, he was from the lower classes, from the servant, the servile class. But these are people who are integral for the sound functioning of a society. And then Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him), like Khadijah, but he being a man, he was a wealthy man.
So every class: the rich, the poor, the male, the female, and literally from the Arabs, the black and the white. Zaid bin Haritha was from Al-Arab Al-Aswad—from there are Arabs who are very dark in their complexion. And Imam Abu Faraj al-Jawzi, his book "Tanwir Al-Ghabash fi Fadl Al-Sudan wa Al-Habash"—the virtue of the black folk and the people of Africa—the first entry in the book is Zaid bin Haritha.
And then you have Al-Arab Al-Ahmar, as they say, the "red Arabs." So that first community and the first group to come into Islam had representatives from every sector: the rich, the poor, figuratively speaking the black, the white, the male, the female, the young, the old. Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) and Khadijah-Khadijah, as we know, was older than the Prophet, and Ali, based on various narrations, was between 10 or 12 years old. Abu Bakr was 3 years younger than the Prophet, and Zaid bin Haritha was in his 20s. So you had a representative sampling of society.
Young Companions Who Shaped History
In any case, the young person—these are the foot soldiers of the leader. People like Zaid bin Haritha, Zaid bin Thabit—the gatherer of the Quran, the compiler of the Quran, who oversaw that project—he was a young person. Aisha (may Allah be
pleased with her) was young, and she was trained at a very young age by the Prophet. Her sister Asma, who played such an integral role during the Hijra of the Prophet -she was his eyes and ears, bringing news of the Quraysh, bringing supplies in her garment—Dhat an-Nitaqayn (may Allah be pleased with her), she was a young person.
Zaid bin Haritha, who was from the black Arabs, married Umm Ayman Baraka al-Habashiyah, who was subsequently named Umm Ayman—she was from Habasha. They married. Who was their son? Usama bin Zaid—Hibbu Rasulillah, the beloved of the beloved of the Messenger of Allah. And look who his parents were. The Prophet didn't love anyone like he loved Usama. They had a problem, they sent Usama. Something tough to discuss with the Prophet? Yeah, Usama. Ya Allah, he loves you, he'll never say no to you.
But how do we know Usama? He was that young general—the last army that the Prophet dispatched—16 or 17 years old. Who was under his command? Abu Bakr and Umar (may Allah be pleased with them) were under the command of a teenager! This is from his wisdom and his training, his tarbiyah.
And then after he passed, before the army went out, when the army finally went out, Abu Bakr and Umar (may Allah be pleased with them), acknowledging the Prophet putting them under the command of Usama bin Zaid, marched out to the outskirts of Medina with the army and then they turned back to attend to the affairs of the Ummah, which were at a very critical point owing to the passing of the Prophet.
The Virtue of Youth in Repentance
Secondly, a young person who dedicates himself or herself to the service of Allah has a whole lifetime ahead of them to serve. They say:
"Repentance in an elderly person is good, but in a young person it's better." And there are many of these sayings—"Modesty, shyness in a man is good, and it's better in a woman." We believe in shyness and we believe in femininity.
وَلَيْسَ الذَّكَرُ كَالْأُنثَى
And the male is not like the female.
الرِّجَالُ قَوَّامُونَ عَلَى النِّسَاءِ
Men are in charge of women.
We believe in young men being responsible. What happens? Read Dr. Leonard Sax-one of the reasons he says he calls the "failure to launch," 30-year-old men still living in their parents' basements—one of the major causes: where they told the men "You're not responsible, women anymore. They make their own money, they're smarter than you, they have more degrees." Okay, then I don't have anything to strive for or to prepare for. No responsibility worth bearing, so I just chill. Hope I find a good CEO lady with her own car and condo and money take care of me. May Allah give us tawfiq.
But so here, relevant: repentance in an elderly person is good, but in a young person it's better. Why? The shaykh (elderly person), he has one foot in the grave, so it's
good. You know, he's run out of gas now, so he decides to park the car. Alhamdulillah. But the young person has the energy to sin! So this guy, he can't sin if he wants to anymore—he doesn't have the virility, the vitality, nothing can help the guy. He's done. So if he repents, it's good. Alhamdulillah.
But a young person who's still viral, and a young person who still is immature in their thinking—see, the shaykh doesn't have any excuse if he gets in trouble. You should have known better. I have no sympathy nor pity for you. But a young person who isn't mature, and all these hormones are percolating, and he's at the height of his physical prowess, and she's at the height of her beauty—when they repent and turn to Allah and decide to serve Allah, you're looking at 5, 6, 7 decades of service, 5, 6, 7 decades of commitment and dedication. You're looking at a mind that's young and creative, placing itself into the service of Allah and His deen. That's a great thing. And that's why they mention it right after the just leader, because society needs that.
Third: Heart Attached to the Masjid (Qalbuhu Mu'allaq bil-Masajid)
A man whose heart is attached to the masjid-the masjid is a sanctuary. You can't-I've never heard a person swearing and cursing in the masjid. I've seen people having fights in the masjid. I was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania—context: the masjid is downtown, and there's some people who want a suburban masjid for whatever reason. So the masjid is right at the University of Pittsburgh, at Pitt. So I'm the guest khatib, finish the prayer: "As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah, as-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah." I said, "What's going on?" He said, "That guy, he's the treasurer, took all the money and bought a lot out in the suburbs outside of town. And that guy, he's the chairman of the board of the current masjid."
But I've never heard anyone swearing and cursing in the masjid. I've never seen people engaged in lewd activities in the masjid. It's a sanctuary, just as the prayer is a sanctuary. The masjid is a place of prayer—"sajdah" from prostration, "masjid" is "ism al-makan," the place where prostration, the place where prayer takes place, is the masjid.
إِنَّ الصَّلَاةَ تَنْهَى عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالْمُنكَرِ وَلَذِكْرُ اللَّهِ أَكْبَرُ
Indeed, prayer prohibits immorality and wrongdoing, and the remembrance of Allah is greater.
"The prayer wards off the indecency and lewdness." The Prophet was informed about a person who was misbehaving, and he responded—and look at his wisdom—he didn't say, "You know, the guy is terrible." He asked, "Does he pray?" And they said yes. He said, "One day his prayer will prevent him from what you're describing." And right now, he's prevented during the prayer.
But as we get deeper into our prayer, as the years go by and we internalize the meanings of the prayer, that protective power extends outward. So we leave the prayer and for 15 minutes we're safe. And as time goes by, for half an hour we're safe because the power of the prayer has impacted our hearts. For 45 minutes we're safe, for an hour we're safe. And then the protective power of one prayer overlaps with the next, and then we're safe.
And the masjid has that same effect.
And the masjid has that same effect. A person whose heart is attached to the masjid is a person that Allah wants good for, is a person Allah wants to protect, is a person that Allah wants to elevate and to honor.
And the wording—one of the commentators on this hadith, he says: When Ramadan comes, we decorate the masjid, we put the lanterns up—"fanus," they say in Egypt- and he said the hearts of the believers are like those lanterns that illuminate and beautify the masjid. So just as those lanterns are hung and suspended from the ceiling of the masjid, the believers' hearts are suspended and beautify and illuminate the masjid like lanterns.
Fourth: Two Who Love Each Other for Allah's Sake
Two people who love each other for the sake of Allah. Love is again foundational to our religion. Our faith is not complete without love. Our Prophet ﷺ reminded us:
"You will not enter Paradise until you truly believe, and you will not truly believe until you love one another." Think about that: Paradise is contingent on faith, and faith is contingent on love.
And we mentioned the other day:
"Shall I not guide you to something which, if you do it, you will love one another? Spread the salam amongst yourselves." Spread salam amongst yourselves. This is practice for Paradise in this world.
Detachment from the World
They say:
"Die before your death." Detach yourself from the world before you are detached from the world. In other words, don't allow your heart to be filled with the world to such an extent that seeking power in the world, seeking influence in the world, seeking some privilege or status in the world becomes so important to you that you allow it to undermine, to greater or lesser extents, your attainment of the next world, of Paradise.
(Sunan Ibn Majah 4102)
"Detach your heart from the world and Allah will love you, and let go of what the people possess and the people will love you." They got there first, let them have it. You know, they have the power, let them keep the power. Who cares? At the end of the day, it's in a manner they're going to have to answer for.
You know, their opinion was the one everyone listened to. Don't argue for five hours trying to convince them your opinion was right. How important is it at the end of the
day?
day? What is the practical difference? You know, we'll paint the walls eggshell instead of pure white because their opinion was eggshell and your opinion is pure white. But it has to be pure white because that's what I like, and I'm going to fight for pure white. Ma sha Allah, it's really going to make a difference in the appearance of the building.
So two people, they love each other for Allah's sake, they come together for His sake, and they depart for His sake. They're coming and they're going—it's all a function of their love for Allah.
Their love is a function of their love for Allah, and their coming together is a function of their love for Allah, and their departing from each other is a function of their love for Allah.
"Those who believe are more intense in their love for Allah than their love for anyone or anything else." I would love to have the walls painted pure white, but I'm too busy being in love with Allah to care too much about it, because I don't love pure white that much.
And what comes before that:
"And among the people are those who take partners or equals that they love as they should love Allah." They love that white paint with the intensity they should love Allah. They love that power with the intensity they should love Allah. They love that status or prestige with the intensity they should love Allah. But those who believe are more intense in their love for Allah.
Some of you guys know about love—when you're really in love, you don't care too much about anything else. Sometimes not even your schoolwork. So those who really love Allah don't care too much about anything else. They fulfill their shar'i duties and obligations because that endears them to Allah, but they really don't care too much about anything else.
Fifth: Resisting Temptation for Fear of Allah
And so a man—or it could be a woman—invited by a woman of status. She has money, she has honor and wealth—well, she had honor; she might not necessarily be calling him if she had honor. So we'll leave the honor off. But she has the status and she has the wealth and she has the beauty, and she texted him. He couldn't believe his phone. He got dizzy. He thought he was going to faint. And fortunately, it was time to pray. When he made wudu and the cold water hit his face, he texted her back:
"I fear Allah. Don't send me a text again, because I could get weak and my fear won't check me."
And it works both ways. She could be texted by the guy—he has big muscles, he memorized Quran, so he has a muscle between his two ears also (unlike some people with big muscles). His beard has so much sheen, she thinks it glows in the dark. He has a nice car. He's very pious too. She screamed, almost fainted, before texting him back as a tear fell upon the screen of her phone:
"Verily, I fear Allah." It's real. These things are real. We're human beings.
Human Worth in Islam
Look at the beauty of Islam—it's not morality predicated on human perfection. And your human worth isn't based on your money. It's not based on your social status. It's not based on your political influence or lack thereof. Your human worth is based on your relationship with your Lord. And if you are right with your Lord, you're right. And if you've been ennobled and dignified by your Lord with faith and with service, then you are an honorable, noble human being, and no one can take that away from you. No one can take that away from you. This is what we've been taught.
And so people have crushes on each other. People fall in love. People go temporarily insane and send all kinds of crazy messages to each other. Like this lady, she either texts you or approaches you in crazy ways. You know, "I love you, you're the apple of my eye, you're the sunshine of my life, everyone else is like a star and you're the full moon, your light eviscerates any pretenses of beauty that they might have." Don't ask my wife if I ever said something like that to her.
In any case, people do that kind of stuff. How do we respond?
"Verily, I fear Allah."
Sixth: Secret Charity (Sadaqah in Secret)
And hides it to such an extent that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand has spent. We're people who still believe in modesty and shyness.
Shyness was three or four years ago placed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders as a mental disease. Seriously. And of course, there's a whole lot of drugs to treat it, get you hyped up. "I'm not shy anymore!" It feels so terrible. I like being shy. That's part of our religion.
It's not in the least bit coincidental that a society that is moving further and further away from the deeper meanings of religion—at the surface there's plenty of religion in America, but what kind of religion is it?
Daniel Berrigan, who recently passed away, one of the Berrigan brothers-one of the things he said (he was an ordained priest, as was his brother Philip Berrigan, and the Berrigan brothers were two of the most influential figures in the movement to end the war in Vietnam)—one of the things he said: "I confront the Roman Catholic Church" (he was Catholic) "and other Christian groups and the synagogues of this
country for their cowardice and silence in the face of this country's crimes." What kind of religion is it?
And we should ask ourselves: What kind of religion are we living? So it's not so, as people move further and further away from true religion—and Muslims included. How many Muslims slaughtering each other in the name of Islam? What kind of Islam is that? What kind of just crass materialism in countries that are ostensibly the most Islamic, who are "closest to the pure sunnah of the Prophet"—the "pure sunnah," which is an impure expression, because what's the implication of the "pure sunnah"? That there's an impure sunnah? There's just the sunnah! "No, we embody the pure sunnah." Crass materialism, foreign policies that are putrid. Allahumma salli ala sayyidina Muhammad.
Public and Private Giving
Back to the point: sometimes we don't broadcast. There are times when we do—we go to these public fundraisers. You should raise your hand. "Who's gonna give ten thousand?" Raise your hand if you have it, to encourage the other people to give, to be an example. And the Prophet ﷺ encouraged public giving.
But there's a time for private acts of devotion. There's a time for quiet, to quietly interact with one's Lord. There's a time for acts of worship that are kept as a secret between a person, a believer, and their Beloved. So those lovers-lovers share secrets. There should be secrets you share with Allah.
The Story of the Man Who Fasted
Ramadan is coming. There's a story—and we'll wrap up—of a man who fasted for 20 years voluntarily. So he goes to the marketplace to buy his dates to break his fast, and the vendor is ignoring him. And so the people gather around—it's the public marketplace—and the vendor is ignoring him. "I need my dates!" He's just talking to the other customers. People come after him, giving them their dates, and the guy is getting irate. You know that feeling when person after person cuts the line, you need to get your stuff.
And so finally the guy says, "I need my dates to go home and break my fast! No, I've been fasting voluntarily for 20 years, and this never happened to me!" And the vendor looks up. He says, "Yes, I'm Shaytan. You've been fasting for 20 years indeed. And you've been waiting for 20 years to tell the people about it, and I just gave you your opportunity to do just that."
You didn't have to say that. You could have kept that secret between him and Allah. "My dates, I have to break my fast. I've been fasting 20 years and I've never encountered a vendor like you." "Indeed you haven't. I'm especially devious." La hawla wa la quwwata illa billah.
Keep this secret between you and Allah. And Yawm al-Qiyamah, you have the great, great, great fortune of meeting your Beloved:
Knowing that you never broke that secret. You decide what it is.
Seventh: Remembering Allah in Solitude
"And a person who remembers Allah all alone, and their eyes flood over with tears."
It's easy to cry in public—and not to say the tears are insincere—but you're in the masjid, it's Ramadan, and Sheikh al-Fasi is leading the taraweeh as he did in Orange County a couple years ago, and you're out there in the parking lot. He starts crying, the whole jamaat is crying because they're moved and touched. I'm not belittling that in any way.
But sometimes you're caught up in the spirit of the moment. You can't help it. You can't control yourself. That emotional tsunami just sweeps you away. But it's another thing when you're all alone and there's no one around, and you remember Allah, and one aspect:
"Remember the blessings of Allah." Remember the blessings of Allah.
The Story of Shahid Khan
A lot of you guys are too young and too blessed to be penniless. Students can come close, but ask your parents. You know, your parents—many of your parents came to this country with nothing. They didn't have anything in the suitcase. They just said, "Carry a suitcase, no one will bother you. You won't get stopped at the border." They get suspicious—"What are you doing? Where's your suitcase? Some kind of spy or something?" You have a suitcase, you have a Paris sticker on it, a London sticker- you never left Karachi in your life. But nothing, came with nothing.
Shahid Khan, the Muslim Pakistani, owns the Jacksonville Jaguars, which he purchased for 850 million dollars cash. Came to this country with nothing. He didn't even have money to pay for a hotel room, so he went into the kitchen and asked could he wash dishes in exchange for a room. And then Allah blessed him to invent a bumper that was 3 pounds lighter than the standard bumper. And Toyota trucks were missing the weight limit by 2 pounds to be exported to America. And they came upon his bumper, and Shahid Khan got the Toyota contract—not just for the trucks but eventually the cars. And the company that he started at the bottom and worked his way to the top became a multi-billion dollar company. And he came to America with nothing.
Right, a lot of you aren't Shahid Khan, and your parents aren't Shahid Khan, but you know Allah has been good to you, and Allah has been good to your family. Don't forget those graces, because the ingrate is threatened with the punishment of Allah.
"When your Lord proclaimed: If you give thanks for My blessings, I will increase you in those blessings. And if you fail to give thanks, if you are an ingrate, you should know that My punishment is severe."
Remember the blessings, remember Allah, and don't hesitate to shed tears, because those tears are in and of themselves a great, great, great blessing.
Conclusion: The Blessing of Being Pioneers
In conclusion, building on the last point, let me say this, brothers and sisters: we are blessed to be here. We are blessed to be part of something that's historic. All of us could be somewhere else. We might be somewhere else, and we might think we're a lot happier because on the surface we might be happier. It is what it is.
But wherever we might be, those who are honored to beat that path that we're walking on, to open those doors that we walk through—their names: John Harvard's name, for all of the imperfections of Harvard when it started out as a humble little institution with seven students, all of the imperfections of a fledgling institution in a fledgling community in a new world. Might have Elihu Yale. Their names will be remembered for posterity.
You are the John Harvards. You are the Elihu Yales. You are the pioneers. And that's a great, great honor.
The Sahaba—their names we know. We don't know the names of the tabi'in; some do study hadith and you know the asanid. You know Abu Bakr, Umar, Ali, Al-'Ashara Al-Mubashshirin bil-Jannah. You know their names: Abdur Rahman bin Auf, Abu Ubaydah bin al-Jarrah, Sa'id bin Zayd Al-Akhiri. You know the wives of the Prophet. You don't know the wives of the Companions. You know the pioneers whose names have been preserved by history, but you don't know the names of the ones who walked on the path that they laid down.
You are laying down a path that others will walk on. Your names are the names that history will remember. And you've been honored and blessed. We've been honored and blessed in that way.
And like any blessing, no blessing is immune from eradication. As we just said, Allah says: "If you give thanks, I will increase you, I will give you more, I will pile and rain My blessings down upon you. But if you are ungrateful, if you don't appreciate My blessings, if you don't honor My blessings, if you don't show respect for My blessings"—I didn't say it, our Lord said it—"you should know that My punishment is severe."
So cherish the blessings, brothers and sisters. Cherish the blessings-you'll get more. You're not getting enough knowledge? Give thanks, and you'll get more knowledge. That's how it works. And if you're ungrateful, the little bit you have, you won't even realize you have.
May Allah bless us to remember His blessings. May Allah bless us to remember Him.
Closing Du'a
(Sahih al-Bukhari 6369)
(Sunan al-Tirmidhi 3502)
اللَّهُمَّ انْصُرِ الْمُسْلِمِينَ فِي كُلِّ مَكَانِ اللَّهُمَّ انْصُرِ الْمُسْلِمِينَ فِي سُورِيَا، فِي حَلَبَ، فِي هَذِهِ الْأَيَّامِ الْبَلَاءِ، فِي هَذِهِ الْأَيَّامِ الصَّعْبَةِ، يَا اللَّهُ اللَّهُمَّ انْصُرْهُمْ، وَخَفِّفْ عَنْهُمْ، وَفَرِّجْ عَنْهُمْ، وَعَنِ الْمُسْلِمِينَ فِي فِلَسْطِينَ، وَفِي الْعِرَاقِ، وَفِي أَفْغَانِسْتَانَ، وَفِي الصُّومَالِ، وَفِي مِصْرَ ، وَفِي الْجَزَائِرِ، وَفِي تُونِسَ، وَفِي كُلِّ مَكَانٍ، يَا اللَّهُ، وَفِي الْهِنْدِ، وَفِي بَاكِسْتَانَ، وَفِي بَلْغَالِ، فِي كُلِّ مَكَانٍ، يَا اللَّهُ
اللَّهُمَّ انْصُرِ الْمُسْلِمِينَ فِي تُرْكِيَا فِي هَذِهِ الْأَيَّامِ، أَيَّامِ الْمُؤَامَرَاتِ وَالْأَزَمَاتِ ، يَا اللَّهُ اللَّهُمَّ خَفِّفْ عَنْهُمْ، وَفَرِّجْ عَنْهُمْ، وَاحْفَظْهُمْ ، يَا اللَّهُ، وَاحْفَظِ الْمُسْلِمِينَ فِي كُلِّ مَكَانٍ، يَا اللَّهُ
اللَّهُمَّ انْصُرْنَا فِي هَذَا الْبَلَدِ ، يَا اللَّهُ اللَّهُمَّ انْصُرِ الْمُسْلِمِينَ فِي كُلِّ مَكَانٍ، وَفِي كُلِّ زَمَانٍ، أَنتَ مَوْلَانَا فَانصُرْنَا عَلَى الْقَوْمِ الْكَافِرِينَ
Aqim as-salah.