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Better Than 1,000 Worshippers | Khutbah by Dr. Omar Suleiman
There is more good in saving more than just yourself. The Prophet (Saw) taught frequently about the sincerity and superiority of those who go beyond worship, and build and benefit others.
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
We begin by praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala by bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for Him. And we bear witness that Muhammad (ﷺ) 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. We ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma ameen.
Dear brothers and sisters, Abu Umamah al-Bahili (رضي الله عنه) he narrates a narration in which two people were mentioned in the presence of the Prophet (ﷺ).
And this narration is one of those narrations that has multiple derivatives, some chains weaker than others that give further elaborations.
So whether it was talking about two men from Bani Israel, nations that came before with very specific details or two men hypothetically in the presence of the Prophet (ﷺ),
it's one of the most powerful narrations that highlights the difference between self-centered worship, self-centered ibadah.
And ibadah that translates into spreading the knowledge of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and that which was brought through the Messenger (ﷺ).
So he says (رضي الله عنه), dhukira li rasoolillahi (ﷺ) rajulan. Two men were mentioned in the presence of the Prophet (ﷺ).
Ahaduhuma abidun wal akharu alimun. One of them was a worshipper and one of them was a scholar.
Faqala rasoolallahi (ﷺ), fadl al-alimi ala al-abidi kafadli ala adnakum.
The Prophet (ﷺ) responded and he said that the virtue of the scholar over the worshipper is like my virtue over the least of you.
The virtue of the scholar over the worshipper is like my virtue over the least of you. Thumma qala (ﷺ), and the Prophet (ﷺ) said,
Inna allaha wa mala'ikatahu wa ahla al-samawati wal-ard, hatta al-namlata fee juhriha wa hatta al-hutan.
That verily Allah, His angels, the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth, even the ant inside its hole, and even the fish in the ocean,
layusalluna ala mu'allimin nasi al-khayr, they send their prayers upon the one that teaches the people good.
Again the Prophet (ﷺ) highlighted not just the virtue of the scholar over the worshipper, but he went into details (ﷺ).
And Fudayl ibn Iyad rahimahullah, who is the scholar that we will come back to at the end of this khutbah inshaAllah, he said commenting on this hadith, alimun, aamilun, mu'allimun.
He gave three titles, alimun, aamilun, mu'allimun. That a person who has knowledge, and acts upon his knowledge, and teaches the people.
So a scholar, someone who has knowledge in the first place, alim. Aamil, who acts upon his knowledge, mu'allim, who teaches other people his knowledge.
Qala yud'a kabeeran fee malakoot al-samawat, that that is a person who is truly called great in the heavens.
Now before you tune out the rest of this khutbah and say, well none of this has to do with me because I'm not a alim, I'm not a scholar. Pay attention to what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is conveying in the Qur'an.
Qala subhanahu qul hal yastawil ladheena ya'lamuna wal ladheena la ya'lamun. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, say are those who know and those who don't know equal?
And He says also subhanahu wa ta'ala, yarfa'il laahil ladheena aamanu minkum. That verily Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala raises those who believe amongst you, walladheena ootu al-ilma darajat.
And then Allah azza wa jal raises the people of knowledge amongst you by degrees. Is this reference only speaking to two distinctions or is there a spectrum?
And I want you to pay very close attention to what I'm saying here. When you say ibadah or someone is abid, someone's a worshipper, there's an entire spectrum of what that means.
There's a person who's a worshipper in that he prays the five prayers, he fasts Ramadan, he does the obligatory things and he prays his sunnah and maybe he fasts Monday and Thursday.
And there's a person who immerses himself further in ibadah, immerses himself further in worship. And in the process of full immersion, starts to maybe pray qiyam al-layl, pray the night prayer,
and fasts maybe an extra three days of the month or increases even upon that. The spectrum of ibadah is large, the spectrum of what it means to be a worshipper is large.
Likewise, when you hear these narrations and you hear these references to people who have knowledge, I don't want you to just think about, oh, this is referring to someone who has this degree and then that degree and then that degree.
Like hadith one talks about a bachelor's degree and then a master's degree and then a PhD.
Or that this is a distinction that is clearly made just by the virtue of the papers that we pass around and the titles that we pass around in our lives.
The point of these types of narrations is to extract not just fadl al-alim ala al-abid, the virtue of a scholar over a worshipper,
but the virtue of knowledge that is learned and spread over worship that is contained within yourself.
And the Islamic methodology to reading these types of texts is that you then color the rest of your life with this.
The virtue of learning something yourself versus teaching that to someone else. The virtue of implementing something for yourself versus spreading that good that is around you.
And that is where you start to see the degrees and the distinctions that start to stack up. That those who have knowledge are degrees ahead of those that don't.
Why? Pay very close attention. There's a narration in al-Tirmidhi and there's a weakness in its chain.
So don't take it as the words of the Prophet (ﷺ) per se, but take it for its meaning.
That a scholar is more severe on the shaytan than a thousand worshippers. One scholar is more severe on the shaytan than a thousand worshippers. Why?
Because a worshipper might break the hold of shaytan on him. But a scholar that actually learns and teaches breaks the hold of shaytan on a society.
A worshipper might open a door between them and Allah azza wa jal. But a scholar is supposed to open the doors for society to Allah azza wa jal and bring them all back to Allah azza wa jal.
You undo the knot of shaytan on your own head when you wake up and you pray. But you undo the knots of shaytan on society when you bring society closer to Allah azza wa jal.
Someone says, I don't give khutbah, I'm not a scholar, I'm not a teacher. Pay attention to the meaning of what the Prophet (ﷺ) is teaching us here.
The best of you are those that learn the Qur'an and then teach it. Did the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) assign a quantity to this hadith? Wa'allama? That someone who teaches the Qur'an, that means they teach the Qur'an in the masjid?
Or they only teach the Qur'an in Qur'an halaqas? Or does this hadith extend to the parent that teaches their child how to read the Qur'an?
Or a person who teaches a new Muslim or a non-Muslim or someone who doesn't know how to read the Qur'an, who volunteers their time. Says, you know what, I'll teach you how to read the Qur'an. Does it extend to you?
Teaching your non-Muslim colleagues who have been programmed to believe certain things about Islam. Yes, even if they live in a Muslim society. What the true meaning of those verses are and sharing that knowledge. There's a spectrum.
These ahadith are not meant to give you a neat categorization of people. But to give you something to aspire to.
That whatever you learn, make sure that you benefit yourself and then benefit someone else with that knowledge. Spread that khayr. Spread that goodness. And don't belittle the impact of spreading that goodness.
That it's one thing for you to unlock something within yourself. It's another thing to use what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave you. To unlock for other people.
And when you go back to that narration, that it is harder on shaytan. That one scholar is harder on shaytan, more severe on the shaytan than a thousand worshippers. There's also something else there.
That worship can become self-centered. Worship can become entirely about you. Worship can become entirely about finding your own peace of mind and your own salvation in the hereafter.
And what terrifies the shaytan is not just ilm that leads to your own connection to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But ilm that leads to service and ilm that leads to sacrifice.
Knowledge that leads to service and knowledge that leads to sacrifice. And so when the Prophet (ﷺ) says, Ahabbu al-nasi ilallah anfa'ahum lin-nas. The most beloved of people to Allah or khayr al-nas.
The best of people are those that are the most beneficial to the people. Isn't the point of ibadah to become beloved to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? And to become from the best of people? How do you take this into your own life?
One of the things that comes with the world that we live in today is the hyper exposure to everybody else.
And you can either equip yourself for that hyper exposure or you can be recluse in your own shell and give yourself all types of excuses.
Oh shaykh but I live in this place and I live in that place and I don't know that many people and I can't do much with this and I can't do much with that.
Every single domain that Allah azza wa jal has given to you, both on site and online is an opportunity to spread something that's good.
Is an opportunity to teach, is an opportunity to benefit, is an opportunity to grow and enrich and empower. That's ilm, knowledge.
We need people to learn their religion so that they can properly represent it. We need people to learn their religion so that they can properly dispel the false notions around it. And yes, extend that to everything else.
We need our own to be smart enough and equipped enough to where when they come into contact with other ideas,
whether that's on a university campus or in your workplace or on your social media, to be able to combat those ideas intellectually and thoroughly and with clarity and the benefit that you have by doing that is tremendous.
Just like khayrukum man ta'allama al-qur'ana wa'allama, la'an yahdiya allahu bika rajulan wahid. That if Allah lets you teach one person or guide one person,
benefiting one person and spreading that takes the shaytan's hold on you and removing that shaytan hold on you to removing it off of two people. The goal is to remove his hold off of as many people as possible.
And on the societies that are drowning in shaytanism. And I want to take this another step further.
If we were to say that the grip of shaytan on a society is broken by people that go into society and break shaytanic holds, yes, even on Muslim societies.
And if we were to say that the scholar is greater than the worshipper, then what about those that are paying the greatest price for this religion right now in places like Gaza?
And I want us to think about this very deeply. And I'm going to frame it with my own self and my own experience here. Many of us go to Umrah walhamdulillah rabbil ameen and we go to Hajj walhamdulillah.
May Allah facilitate Umrah and Hajj and accept it from us. Allahumma ameen. And there is no doubt that it is an incredible ibadah.
Hajj is a pillar of Islam and it should be fulfilled and a person should make the intention that as soon as Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives them the means they'll do Hajj. And Umrah is a minor pilgrimage.
It's a great opportunity to connect to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And I want to tell you something personally. That over the last two years, when you go to the haram,
and if you get, mashallah, that view of the Kaaba from one of the hotels, and you pray your salawat in the haram, walhamdulillah rabbil ameen,
on paper, on paper, praying in Masjid al-Haram is better than praying in Masjid al-Aqsa. On paper.
But not in a million years would I think to myself that my salah in the haram, in this moment,
is more valuable and deserving of more sacrifice than our brothers and sisters that are praying under bombs right now. And I'm going to share with you an exchange. It's a famous exchange.
Between Abdullah ibn Mubarak rahimahullah ta'ala and Fudayl ibn Iyad rahimahullah. Al-Fudayl who we mentioned. Great scholar in Islam.
And Abdullah ibn Mubarak rahimahullah ta'ala was a alim, was a amir, was a mujahid fee sabeelillah. He was all of those things. You were to find him in the haram and you would find him on the battlefield defending the frontiers of the religion.
Defending against the onslaughts. Against this ummah. And there was some blame and something that was thrown towards those.
That were not partaking in the traditional understanding of ibadah that we have. And he sent him back the very famous letter. Abdullah ibn Mubarak wrote a letter to al-Fudayl.
Ibn Iyad where he says to him, Ya abid al-haramayn law absartana la'alimta annaka fil-ibadati tal'abu man kana yakhdhabu khaddahu bidumoo'ihi fanoohooruna bidimayina tatakhadhabu
Ya abid al-haramayn, O you who is worshipping in the two harams, if you could see us right now, you would know that your worship compared to what we are going through is mere amusement.
We whose eyes are stained with tears know that our eyes are stained with blood. Al-Fudayl received this and it's a longer risalah. And the narrator says, falaqitul-fudayla bikitabihi fil-haram
I saw al-Fudayl reading his letter in the haram. faqara'ahu wabaka And he read it and he cried. And he says, sadaqa Abu Abdur Rahman wa nasaha
Abu Abdur Rahman, being Abdullah Mubarak, is telling the truth. And he's giving us sincere advice.
SubhanAllah, a few days ago, one of the journalists from Gaza, he sent me a message.
And he said that I'm watching you on Instagram and I'm seeing all these halaqat of dhikr and ilm, these gatherings of dhikr and ilm and I miss it.
And he said vicariously, we're living through you. And I had to read that message over and over again. You're living through us. We're seeing your gatherings of knowledge.
We're seeing these halaqat of Qur'an. We're seeing the people gathering in the West and we're living. We're remembering those days that we used to have. And I told him, wallahi, we're living for you.
Those of you are brothers and sisters that are struggling in the deepest of ways. Because as Abdullah Mubarak was suggesting to al-Fudayl, that while your tears may wash
your cheek, there are some people whose blood is defending the ummah. And if we were to take all of these ahadith together, a worshipper protects himself. A scholar protects a generation.
But a martyr dies protecting the integrity of both of them. And the ability for all of those things to take root. What does this mean for us? What I want us to take, dear brothers and sisters, from this all, is that your tears
on your prayer rug are beautiful. Tears are beautiful. Allah azza wa jal wants to see your tears. Tears protect the sincerity of everything that you do. Your ibadah protects you. Your worship is necessary.
Because otherwise, even a alim, even a scholar or a mujahid could be dragged into the hellfire first if they are devoid of that ibadah. But sometimes Allah azza wa jal wants more than your tears.
Sometimes it's your voices in the public domain. Sometimes it's your ink. Sometimes it's your feet for those that have the ability.
Sometimes it is what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave you of your thoughts. That of these days, the way that we honor the sacrifice of those that are making the greatest sacrifice to protect what we do, is actually struggling to figure out how we
should be struggling. Because today resisting oppression and dismantling the lies and equipping our youth with the
truth allows us to spread that struggle and that sacrifice and that benefits so much more to where yes, we need students of knowledge that can defend the religion with clarity
and students of history that can defend Islamic history with clarity and students of politics that can dismantle and shatter the lies that are being told about the Muslim world with clarity.
We need those students and we need those advocates who defend the oppressed and we need volunteers who apply their skills in different domains and we need parents that plant the seeds in
the next generation. All I'm saying is it's not enough to say, ya Allah, I'm crying.
Because there are people who are giving so much more than tears. And in this day and age, Allah azza wa jal has expanded our reach, our potential.
Don't forget the person that you interact with on a day to day basis and don't forget the spaces that you can infuse with something powerful in a world that is supposedly becoming
a global village while a genocide can happen on our screens. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala be with our brothers and sisters in Gaza. May Allah azza wa jal reward them for their sacrifice.
Those journalists, those doctors, those children, those who are bearing the brunt of evil. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to become advocates for them. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala guide us to use whatever tools we have in our box to not
just be worshipers or people of clarity ourselves, but people who bring clarity to the world around us. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala guide us to do so. Allahumma ameen.


































































































































































































































































































