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, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, 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, I want you to imagine if you walked into the Haram right now, walking into the masjid and you see the Ka'bah in front of you, and with you as you enter into
the Haram are the following types of people. You have a person who converted to Islam and had to be ostracized and alienated from their
family members and make substantial sacrifices in order to come to Islam in the first place
and then to make that journey to Mecca, entering into the Haram, bawling their eyes out and crying and looking towards the Ka'bah and saying, Alhamdulillah, Allah brought me here.
Alhamdulillah, Allah brought me to Islam. My life would have been in complete ruin had I not found Islam. This is the greatest thing that ever happened to me, even though I made the greatest sacrifices to get here.
And then next to that person is someone who repented to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, born and raised Muslim but lost their way along the way and came back to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala after years of estrangement and is crying and weeping because they know they didn't deserve another chance with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, but they got that other chance, and
they feel like they're becoming Muslim all over again and weeping and saying Alhamdulillah. And actually, I'm sharing a story with them before we enter into the Haram about how they had
a full heart attack in 2020 or 2021, and the heart completely shut off, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala just made it so that there was just some sort of intelligence that Allah put in
there, whereby the heart had just enough blood suddenly to keep him alive, and now he's back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, I can't believe that I'm here, Allah blessed me with another opportunity. Alhamdulillah.
And then you have a third person that's next to those two who has been born and raised Muslim their whole life, and they wonder why they can't get that type of emotion anymore and that motivation to do these things. So like, how come I feel so behind?
This person that converted to Islam and this person that returned to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? And then you have the son or the daughter of that person who was born and raised in Islam and is just kind of there because they were brought along for the ride and never really
felt like they had a choice. Alright, fine, we'll go to 'Umrah, we'll go to Hajj, we'll do what we have to do. Same way that Islam has been for their entire life, you know? My parents brought me to the masjid, my parents taught me how to pray, my parents told me to do this, my parents
taught me how to memorize Qur'an. And this is the scene, by the way, of four people with you as you enter into the Haram.
There's this question here about the freshness of that motivation and treating Islam and treating the faith like a gift and remaining motivated towards this deen on a consistent
basis, and feeling like it came from the heart—like, I chose Islam—whether it was for the first time or the second time, but I chose Islam—and a freshness that comes with that.
And sometimes, when you're watching someone go through it, you wish, even as Abu Bakr, radiyallahu ta'ala, 'anhu, wished when he saw new converts from Yemen come to the Prophet and weep, and he said, "I remember when we used to cry like that when we'd hear the Qur'an. I remember when
our hearts were like the hearts of these people as they're hearing the Qur'an for the first time." And you reminisce and you want that so badly. And there are some, and we always
talk about this, who take Islam for granted because they never felt like they had to work for Islam in the first place. And I remember when I was studying Islamic finance, there were two types of transactions that the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, prohibited amongst
many, but they're called al-mulamasa and al-munabada. And just stay with me for a moment because it took me right to an analogy of hidayah. Al-mulamasa is if you go to the marketplace
in Jahiliyyah and you touch something, it's yours. There's no—you can't put it back on the shelf, you can't give it back—khalas—you touch it, it's yours. Al-munabada is if the seller throws something to you and you catch it, it's yours. And of course, there
is an element of gambling, a very intentional superstitious type of this, where someone would intentionally subject themselves to this and, like, "Alright, I'm going to close my eyes, and whatever I touch is mine, no matter what I paid forward." So it's like gambling on the
part of the buyer, or "I'm going to pay the seller something, and whatever he gets his hand on and throws towards me, that's the one." And sometimes there's a lot of remorse and regret, like "I didn't choose this garment. This garment just came to me, and I don't know
what to do about that." And many of the 'ulama talk about the idea of faith in this way and how to stay motivated towards seeking to please Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and finding the
truth on a regular basis, and not treating this affair of Islam and this affair of faith like it's just something that fell on you, rather than something you should be seeking for your entire life over and over again, and trying to develop that freshness
of a relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And of course, this was very painful to the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and to many of those who converted to Islam, and they wanted so badly for their parents or their spouses or their children to see
the beauty of Islam, but they just couldn't see it. إِنَّكَ لَا تَهْدِي مَنْ أَحْبَبْتَ You cannot guide whom you will. You can show someone the way, you can be an example of
that way, you can give them the environment of that way, but if faith doesn't enter the heart, then that person is going to treat it either like a nuisance or, even worse, they're
going to reject it altogether. The pain of parents who try so hard to give their children everything, but it doesn't enter into the heart. And Allah 'azza wa jal mentions: لا إكراه
في الدين—there is no compulsion in religion. You want so badly for someone in your household or someone that's under your care to see the beauty of Islam and to embrace it, but it's
not working; it's not clicking. And this, by the way, is a message first and foremost to
those who grew up with Islam and don't realize how special what they have actually is. No
one can wish you into Jannah. No one can want success or salvation for you more than you have to want it for yourself. And a person should never think that just because I was
drawn into guidance, or something happened where it was conducive, and I never had to choose it in the way that a non-Muslim had to choose to become Muslim, that I have to somehow go on this journey where I step away from Allah so I could step to Him intentionally.
By the way, it's one of the tricks of Shaytan. One of the tricks of Shaytan is that, "I did not choose righteousness, therefore I have to step into wickedness so I can choose it
again and be fresh." And so someone says, "You know, I never really wanted to pray. It was kind of given to me growing up, but I never really felt it, so it was pressure." And you know,
"I don't want to start doing this good deed because someone else expects it of me." It actually totally disrupts human complexity altogether. Because when you look at how many of those who
embraced Islam initially embraced Islam in the context of pressure—tribes are embracing Islam, my tribe is embracing Islam—they went along with the flow as well. That
doesn't mean that they were hypocritical, but that there was a flow, there was a channeling into Islam, and so I'm going to enter into Islam as well. But it wasn't that, since it wasn't the original Muhajiroun and Sabiqu'n—no, like people are coming into Islam. I was
born into the household of Islam. Tribes became Muslim. You know, one of the people that we praise so consistently when we talk about sadaqah: Abu Talha, radiyallahu ta'ala 'anhu, who responded to the verse:
لَن تَنَالُوا الْبِرَّ حَتَّى تُنفِقُوا مِمَّا تُحِبُّونَ "You will not achieve al-birr (righteousness) until you spend from what you love." And he acted in one of the most sincere ways that we ever read of among the Sahaba. He came to the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and he said, "I love nothing more than this garden,
Bayraha, in front of the masjid of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And Allah said, 'Until you spend from what you love,' I'm giving what I love, my most precious real estate. You know, that that
man entered into Islam because his wife, Umm Sulaym, set the mahr—the dower. He wanted to marry Umm Sulaym, radiyallahu ta'ala 'anhu, and her mahr was Islam. You want to marry
me, you've got to be Muslim. That doesn't mean that he didn't sincerely embrace Islam, but there was certainly something that facilitated that and that pushed him, because he really wasn't interested in looking into Islam in the first place. But look how sincere he ended
up becoming! Look at the motivation shifting and the intention turning. And so someone says, "I don't want to start praying, or I don't want to go to the masjid, or I don't want to do this because someone else made me do it." Or "I don't want to wear hijab because someone
else is expecting me to wear hijab. I don't want to start showing up to this event because someone else is expecting me to start showing up to this event." That's not how this works.
Sometimes Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, by actually giving us these environments where righteousness is incentivized and there is a moment where it's actually awkward to not do the right
thing—those are the best things that Allah 'azza wa jal can give to us—until the right type of motivation and the right type of heart settles into it, and then I come into it. We
can't deny this element of our deen. The Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, said, "Allah is amazed by those people that entered into Jannah in chains." What does that mean? Does that mean that the
Muslims chained people up and forced them to become Muslims? No. What this means is that battles were fought in early Islam, and there were captives that ended up embracing Islam
and ended up becoming the scholars of this religion and ended up becoming the forerunners of this religion. It was initially a situation where someone else was pulling me into the
fold of Islam. Again, not forcing them to become Muslim. And no, this does not give you permission to go and put someone in chains and say, "Until you become Muslim." I'm not saying
that. I'm saying that when you read the history of human complexity, there is Mu'allafat al-qulub— there are those whose hearts were softened through extra spoils of battle from the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Sometimes there were other things to try to incentivize, to push people to stay
on the right path. The same way that when you tell your kids to memorize Qur'an and you promise them that when you finish this juz', I'm going to give you this, and when you do this, I'm going to give you that—until the relationship becomes transformational,
until it goes into that. So then I come back to each and every single one of us: How do I maintain that freshness of motivation in pursuing Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and feel
that same type of renewal and revival, approaching Islam like a new Muslim who just
found the gold, the gift that it actually is? How do I approach Islam like a gift and not a burden, even if it's been made very easy for me?
Allah 'azza wa jal facilitated it for me without me ever really having to struggle to find it. I want to give you a hadith from Shaddad ibn Aws, radiyallahu ta'ala 'anhu, because it comes in the form of du'a.
And al-Hafiz Ibn Rajab, rahimahullah, mentions that in this du'a, this is one of the ways that you see the comprehension, the comprehensiveness of the speech of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,
and the ways that he taught his companions how to make du'a. Shaddad ibn Aws, radiyallahu ta'ala 'anhu, was one of the early Muslims. And when he embraced Islam, he embraced it with extreme hardship, like many of those early Muslims.
And many of those early Muslims then transitioned over decades, And many of those early Muslims then transitioned over decades,
and they felt like their hearts weren't as fresh as the day they became Muslim, and they worried about themselves. Like, have we become desensitized to all this? Are we not pursuing lofty enough goals? I remember when we used to have to do this, and we used to have to do that,
and now things seem to be getting too easy for us, and there's a complacency that's setting in. So he would say later on in Islam, after the death of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam,
that I've restrained myself from speaking about many things that I learned from the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. Meaning like, there's a caution there. Am I saying it right? Am I relaying on behalf of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam properly?
But he said, there's one thing that I speak freely with. And he said, it's a du'a that the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam taught me. A supplication that the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam taught me.
And I'm going to focus on the first line of the du'a. I'll read it in its full insha'Allah ta'ala, and then I'll focus on the first line. The Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam said to Shaddad,
قَالَ يَا شَدَّدُ إِذَا رَأَيْتَ النَّاسَ يَكْنِزُونَ الذَّهَبَ وَالْفِضَّةَ فَكْنِزْ هَؤُلَاءِ الْكَلِمَاتِ
O Shaddad, when you see people start piling up gold and silver, then treat this du'a like a treasure. Start to pile up with the statements of this du'a. What does the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam mean?
When you see people's motivations turn very worldly, they approach their world with such motivation, their dunya, their income, their career goals,
their whatever goals with such motivation and determination. He said, instead I want you to treat this du'a like a treasure.
And the very first line of the du'a is the one that al-Hafidh ibn Rajab spent some time with that fits this khutbah. The first line of this du'a,
اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ الثَّبَاتَ فِي الْأَمْرِ وَالْعَزِيمَةَ عَلَى الرُّشْدِ
O Allah, I ask you to remain firm on this way and I ask you for al-'azimah 'ala al-rushd, to be determined, motivated towards rightful guidance,
constantly seeking the next way to please Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and then being able to commit to that. The first part of the du'a is discipline, not falling off. The second part of the du'a is still pursuing lofty goals,
still pursuing rightful guidance and trying to do more and more and more and getting close to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Not one day feeling an emotion saying I want to do this and then not doing anything about it. No, someone that's constantly setting new goals in their deen
and constantly looking for the next way to please Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And just like that person follows their bank account and follows how they got this and they got this and they got that. No, like I want rightful guidance the way that a new Muslim wants rightful guidance.
You know there's this famous saying of like Habib, the fighter. He talks about like discipline is what wins, not motivation. You need discipline, not motivation, because discipline is what's going to keep you on. And that's true. Sometimes you're not going to feel like praying.
You might not have felt like coming to Jum'ah today, but you still came because you knew that you had to. Sometimes you're not going to feel like doing this ibadah or doing that ibadah, but you're disciplined enough to keep to it.
But you also want the motivation to keep going for more and more and more and more. And so this is in the du'a of the Prophet ﷺ.
وَأَغْفِرُ لَكَ لِمَا تَعْلَمُ وَإِنَّكَ أَنْتَ عَلَّامُ الْغُيُوبِ is the end of it in one narration. The Prophet ﷺ would say, O Allah, I ask you for firmness upon this matter and determination upon rightful guidance
and the deeds that bring about your mercy and the acts that necessitate your forgiveness and the ability to be grateful to you for your blessings and the ability to excel in worshiping you
and a heart that is sound and a tongue that is truthful. And I ask you for the good that you know and I seek refuge in you from the evil that you know and I seek your forgiveness for what you know.
Indeed, you are the Knower of all of the unseen things. Insha'Allah ta'ala, we'll put the du'a written online biddenillahi ta'ala in the description so you can go back and watch it and you can memorize it. But I want to focus on the first thing and insha'Allah ta'ala I'll conclude with this.
The ulama mentioned that there is the opening of the door of guidance, right? And then there is al-istimrar, to continue upon it. And if you look at the majority of the du'as
of the Prophet ﷺ, they focused on this idea of being able to continue, to stay motivated and to do better and to excel. And the ulama mentioned of this in particular,
this type of muscle, this type of motivation, that there are two reasons why people start to lose motivation. One of them is depression, paralysis. I don't mean depression in the medical term.
I mean, you know, like so many bad things are happening, there are so many setbacks and so I don't really feel motivated to keep doing good because the bad just keeps on getting bigger and bigger and bigger and so I don't really see a way forward. And this is like when Allah ﷻ says,
وَلَا تَهِنُوا وَلَا تَحْزَنُوا وَأَنتُمُ الْأَعْلَوْنَ إِن كُنتُم مُؤْمِنِينَ That don't lose heart and don't grieve when you are the victorious, should you remain believers. And what this means is that if you look around the world and you say, Palestine is getting worse.
The situation of the Muslims is getting worse. This is happening, this is happening. And you start to lose motivation, then you renew your belief in the qadr of Allah ﷻ, in the divine decree of Allah ﷻ, in His power.
And that is the diagnosis for that, that Allah ﷻ is ultimately in charge and Allah ﷻ's power will reign supreme and Allah ﷻ will not let my good in the process go unrewarded.
But then the second one is disinterest, lack of motivation that comes out of being disinterested, that comes out of no longer feeling the freshness of the day you return to Allah ﷻ as a new Muslim
or repented to Allah ﷻ as a refreshed Muslim or had these lofty dreams. And this is the part where you have these du'as from the Prophet ﷺ to enable yourself.
And you look to how easy Allah ﷻ has made certain things for you. And you have to ask yourself,
what are the lifetime deen goals that I have set for myself, that I keep on working towards, like a person who is desperate for Allah ﷻ's reward.
And if you're not setting big goals for yourself, at the religious level, then that's an indication that you're not motivated towards the big reward that Allah ﷻ has promised to you, that you're treating deen like a side hustle,
that you're treating religion like just something that you do on the side and my parents brought me into it and yeah, I mean I do this because I do that, but it's not my number one priority. That has to actually represent itself
in the goals that you're setting for yourself on a regular basis. And when you look towards the people that Allah ﷻ has put in our lives as examples of those who stay fresh, of those who stay motivated,
ask Allah ﷻ, because sometimes it's not the environment, sometimes it's not the lack of an example, sometimes it's not that Allah ﷻ hasn't given me enough pressure and enough people to push me in that direction.
Sometimes it's that the heart needs to be unlocked. And so you find all of these du'as of the Prophet ﷺ, the most frequent one, يَا مُقَلِّبَ الْقُلُوبِ ثَبِّتْ قَلْبِي عَلَى دِينِكَ O Turner of hearts, make my heart firm on your way.
Ask Allah ﷻ to open your heart towards rightful guidance. Ask Allah ﷻ to make your heart firm upon rightful guidance. And then surround yourself with people that are motivated towards that rightful guidance.
And then do the actions of those that are motivated until you find your own internal motivation taking over as well. Remember when Abu Talha married Umm Sulaim, Islam was an obstacle to his marriage. After Abu Talha married Umm Sulaim,
he went so far in his Islam that even the most precious real estate in the world, he volunteered it for the sake of his Islam. Sometimes the heart becomes unlocked, and the motivation becomes refined
as you keep pushing yourself, and pushing yourself, and pushing yourself. Even when you, quote-unquote, don't feel like it. Alhamdulillah for the things that Allah ﷻ put in our lives that push us towards good.
And the people that Allah ﷻ put in our lives, and the circumstances that Allah ﷻ put in our lives that push us towards good. And alhamdulillah for the crises that sometimes are forced in our lives
to make us be forced into choosing Allah ﷻ once again and coming back to Allah ﷻ fresh. And we ask Allah ﷻ for husn al-khatimah, for a good ending at the end of it all.
And we ask Allah ﷻ that we return to Him with hearts that are attached to Him. That we come to Allah ﷻ with fresh, with fresh iman, with fresh faith.
That what Allah ﷻ has facilitated for us, that we take the best course of action in regards to it. And we ask Allah ﷻ to forgive us for our shortcomings in regards to what He has revealed to us. And we ask Allah ﷻ to make us amongst those
who love this deen, who love this message, and who work for this deen, and who worship Allah ﷻ sincerely day and night, in private and in public.
May Allah ﷻ forgive us and have mercy on us. May we not be among the losers. May Allah ﷻ forgive us. May Allah ﷻ forgive our parents. May Allah ﷻ have mercy on them as He did to our parents when we were young. May Allah ﷻ grant us from our wives and children the pleasure of our eyes. And may He ﷻ make us imams for the righteous.
May Allah ﷻ help the oppressed brothers in the east and the west. May Allah ﷻ help them in Palestine, and in Lebanon, and in Sudan, and everywhere. May Allah ﷻ protect you from your enemies, the enemies of the deen. May Allah ﷻ show us in the oppressors the wonders of your power. May Allah ﷻ destroy the oppressors with the oppressors.
At the end of this ayah, Allah says: وَعِبَادُ اللَّهِ يَأْمُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالْإِحْسَانِ وَإِيتَاءِ ذِي الْقُرْبَىٰ وَيَنْهَىٰ عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالْمُنْكَرِ وَالْبَغْيِ يَعِظُكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَكَّرُونَ فَاذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ يَذْكُرْكُمْ وَاشْكُرُوهُ عَلَىٰ النِّعَمِ يَزِدْ لَكُمْ وَلَذِكْرُ اللَّهِ أَكْبَرُ وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ
يَعْلَمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ