In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Echoes from the Pulpit.
The Story of Karim.
A sermon by the honorable Sheikh,
Khalid Ibn ‘Abdullah al-Humudi,
May Allah preserve him.
Praise be to Allah in times of ease and hardship.
Praise be to Allah in times of intensity and relief.
Praise be to Allah in times of comfort and difficulty.
Praise be to Allah for Your immense blessings,
And Your profound bounties.
Praise be to Allah to the furthest extent of praise,
And thanks be to Allah, before and after.
Praise be to Allah with a praise whose beginning does not run out,
And whose end does not cease.
Praise be to Allah with a praise that has no end,
And Allah is sufficient for me,
For there is no Lord but He.
And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone,
With no partner.
His door is open,
His giving is bestowed,
And His goodness comes and goes.
If the doors close upon you, be content,
For the door of Allah never closes.
So rise to the door and beseech Him in desperation,
With sincerity, just as the drowning man calls upon Him.
And rejoice, for gifts will pour down,
For the One you call upon is the Bountiful, the Gentle.
And I bear witness that our master, our prophet, and our beloved, Muhammad, is the servant of Allah and His messenger,
His chosen one and His intimate friend.
The chosen Messenger,
And the selected Prophet.
O you who sell amber in the land of Tayyibah (Madinah),
In the neighborhood of Ahmad, do not sell me amber.
Indeed, sending blessings upon the Prophet and his family,
Is what those who wish to be perfumed chant.
Send blessings upon the best of creation and you shall gain,
Ten blessings from Allah, and even more.
Whoever increases them, my Lord will relieve his distress,
And the sin, Allah will erase and forgive.
May my father and mother be sacrificed for you, O best of mankind,
And may the prayer of my Lord and peace be a fragrant scent.
O Allah, send blessings, peace, and increase and bestow grace,
Upon Your servant, Messenger, Prophet, and beloved, Muhammad,
And upon his family, the pure and the immaculate,
And upon his Companions, the noble and the blessed,
And grant them abundant peace until the Day of Judgment.
Now then, servants of Allah,
I advise you and myself to fear Allah.
“O ye who believe! Observe your duty to Allah with right observance, and die not save as those who have surrendered (unto Him)” (3:102)
“O ye who believe! Observe your duty to Allah with right observance, and die not save as those who have surrendered (unto Him)” (3:102)
O community of believers,
Our topic today is about correct understanding.
Understanding what?
Understanding the affairs of this world and the affairs of the Hereafter.
For understanding is a rank above the level of knowledge.
That is why Allah, the Almighty, says regarding Solomon,
﴾ And We gave understanding of it to Solomon ﴿
“And We made Solomon to understand (the case); and unto each of them We gave judgment and knowledge. And we subdued the hills and the birds to hymn (His) praise along with David. We were the doers (thereof).” (21:79)
He placed understanding before knowledge.
Ibn al-Qayyim, may Allah have mercy on him, says,
"Soundness of understanding and excellence of intention
Are among the greatest of Allah’s blessings
That Allah has bestowed upon His servant.
In fact, no servant has been given a gift after Islam
Better or more magnificent than these two."
Glory be to Allah!
To that degree?
Yes, O servants of Allah,
Because a lack of understanding
Is behind every trial and calamity
That has afflicted the Ummah,
Both individuals and groups.
And history
Bears witness to that.
Let me, O servants of Allah,
Mention to you one piece of evidence
Out of several pieces of evidence,
And a present example
Out of several examples.
A story that contains a lesson,
And perhaps it summarizes much speech.
A story that happened to a young man
Who did not fear Allah in his words and deeds,
And his name was Karim.
Karim narrates
His story himself, saying:
That he had borrowed a sum of money from a man,
Amounting to two hundred thousand riyals,
To complete some projects.
The man had set for him
A specific period
To repay the debt,
And both parties agreed to that.
The man trusted Karim
To the extent that he did not take written guarantees from him.
And this is a mistake.
The longest verse in the Qur'an,
The Verse of Debt,
﴾ O you who have believed,
When you contract a debt
For a specified term, write it down. ﴿
The point is,
After the specified period ended
For returning the amount,
The man came
And demanded his right from Karim.
But Karim
Denied it,
On the pretext that there was no proof of this debt.
He even drove him away from the place.
Here,
Karim stopped
Speaking and said,
With tears in his eyes,
"I did not know
What was awaiting me as a result of my injustice."
Karim continued his account:
That this man
Did not say anything
Except for one sentence:
"Allah is sufficient for me, and He is the best Disposer of affairs."
The man said it
While he was oppressed and wronged,
Then he went on his way,
Repeating,
"Allah is sufficient for me, and He is the best Disposer of affairs."
Karim thought
That the matter had ended at that point.
But after only three months had passed,
Karim lost
A major deal
Worth half a million riyals.
And from that day on,
Loss accompanied him
Constantly,
Until he lost all his wealth.
His wife had advised him
To return the amount to the man,
But he was arrogant
And did not return it,
And he persisted in injustice and pride,
Until he lost something great,
Which is that
His children were involved in an accident,
In which he lost
Three of his children
In a car accident.
And faced with that horrific event,
Karim decided,
Without hesitation,
To return the right to its owner,
And asked him for pardon and forgiveness,
So that Allah would not punish him
By depriving him of his wife and his son,
The seven-year-old,
For he was the last thing remaining for him
In this world.
The point, O servants of Allah,
The point in this incident
Is not the injustice,
Even though it is a point,
And the point also
Is not the man’s supplication
And his saying, "Allah is sufficient for me,
And He is the best Disposer of affairs,"
Even though it is a point.
But the greatest intended meaning is the understanding
That settled in the soul of that oppressed man,
That Allah
Does not
Let his right be lost.
So he supplicated
And turned to Allah,
Because he knew
In the depths of his soul,
With the knowledge of certainty,
And the truth of certainty,
And the eye of certainty,
That Allah
Does not
Let his right be lost,
And He took his right for him.
These concepts,
If they were to settle in our souls,
By Allah,
We would not transgress against anyone,
And we would not wrong anyone,
And we would respect one another,
And value one another,
And show mercy to one another,
Because we know,
And we believe,
And we are certain,
That Allah
Sees and hears,
And He is capable of all things.
If we understood the reality of this world
And its insignificance,
And that it is fleeting
We work for the everlasting afterlife.
And that is why,
when the Prophet, peace be upon him, said,
"The two rak'ahs of the dawn prayer
are better than the world and all that is in it."
Subhan Allah!
A mere two rak'ahs,
which you perform
in less than two minutes,
are better than this entire world,
with everything it contains
of palaces,
trees,
rivers,
gold and silver,
and wealth.
Yes,
because the world
is fleeting,
while the reward for those two rak'ahs is lasting.
And that which is lasting is better than that which perishes.
With concepts such as these,
we correct our path and our journey in this world.
We know
that it is a place of passage,
not a place of settlement;
a place of transit,
not of permanence.
The lasting bliss,
the lasting bliss is in Paradise, O servants of Allah.
There, in Paradise,
you will die—
[you will be free from] the death of gray hair,
the exhaustion of staying up late,
the fatigue of travel,
the tears of longing,
the weariness of the years,
and the loss of loved ones.
Even death itself—
even death—
will die.
So for the likes of this,
let the workers work.
This is the correct understanding
that we must work toward.
Allah, the Almighty, says:
"O mankind,
O mankind,
indeed the promise of Allah is truth,
so let not the worldly life delude you,
and let not the Deceiver delude you concerning Allah."
We ask Allah, the Majestic,
to teach us what benefits us,
to benefit us by what He has taught us,
to increase us in knowledge,
and to grant us deep understanding of the religion.
May Allah bless me and you through the Great Qur'an,
and benefit me and you with what is in it.
“This (which) We recite unto thee is a revelation and a wise reminder.” (3:58)
I say what you hear,
and I seek the forgiveness of Allah for myself and for you.
So seek His forgiveness,
for He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah for His benevolence,
and thanks be to Him for His guidance and grace.
I bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone, with no partner,
and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger,
may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
and upon his family and his Companions.
Now then, O servants of Allah,
correct understanding
is a great blessing from Allah.
To know, O servant of Allah, the reality of this world,
so that you do not make it your sole concern—
this is correct understanding.
To know the reality of the afterlife
and to work for it—
this is correct understanding.
To know that Allah sees you,
watches over you,
and is fully aware of you,
so you perform deeds that please Him
and avoid what would anger Him—
this is correct understanding.
In fact, even some matters
that some people have learned with a mistaken understanding
must be addressed and changed.
Some say,
"Daughters are a burden until death."
Yet the Prophet, peace be upon him, says:
"Whoever supports two girls until they reach maturity,
he and I will be in Paradise like these two."
And some say,
"Relatives are like scorpions."
Yet the Prophet, peace be upon him, says:
"The one who severs ties of kinship will not enter Paradise."
And some say,
"Keep silent and you will be safe,"
meaning: if you see a wrong, remain silent.
Yet the Prophet, peace be upon him, says:
"The best of jihad is a word of truth."
And the best of deeds
is enjoining good and forbidding evil.
And some say,
"If a husband is kind to his wife,
he is a fool or weak."
Yet the Prophet, peace be upon him, says:
"The best of you are those best to their families."
How strange is this understanding!
These are alien, strange concepts.
Some even say,
"A pile of stones
is better than a human neighbor."
Yet the Prophet, peace be upon him, says:
"None of you truly believes
until he loves for his neighbor
what he loves for himself."
Some even
object to the distribution of provision and say,
"Allah, the Almighty,
might give gold
to those who have no sense."
Yet Allah, the Almighty, says:
"And We have favored some of you over others."
“And Allah hath favoured some of you above others in provision. Now those who are more favoured will by no means hand over their provision to those (slaves) whom their right hands possess, so that they may be equal with them in respect thereof. Is it then the grace of Allah that they deny?” (16:71)
And there are many others
that have settled into the minds of some people
as mistaken concepts,
an incorrect understanding.
Therefore, O servants of Allah,
let us correct these concepts.
Let us correct these mistaken concepts.
Let us seek the help of Allah,
and let us call upon Allah, the Exalted in His Majesty,
to grant us correct understanding,
so that we may be guided
to righteous and correct action.
Let us know,
and let us be certain,
that the earth
does not forget the foreheads of those who prostrate.
The night
does not forget the sighs of the worshippers.
The cheek
does not forget the tears of the repentant.
And Allah knows
that despite our sins, we are believers.
Life passes in haste,
so beware of long-term hopes.
Guard your tongue from slips,
for everyone is born,
and will eventually die,
while Allah is the Ever-Living who never dies.
So perform righteous deeds to gain [reward],
and hasten before you regret.
Be keen to understand the world
for what it truly is:
keep it in your hand,
but do not let it into your heart.
And be keen to understand the afterlife
with the correct understanding
that strengthens you
and encourages you
toward righteous and correct action.