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Khutbahs
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.
00:00We 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.
00:13We 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.
00:27Dear brothers and sisters, Abu Umamah al-Bahili, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu. He narrates a narration in which two people were mentioned in the presence of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
00:41And this narration is one of those narrations that has multiple derivatives, some chains weaker than others, that give further elaborations.
00:50So 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, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,
01:03it's one of the most powerful narrations that highlights the difference between self-centered worship, self-centered ibadah.
01:12And ibadah that translates into spreading the knowledge of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, and that which was brought through the Messenger, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
01:21So he says, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, "Dhukira li Rasulillahi, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, rajulan." Two men were mentioned in the presence of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
01:32Ahaduhuma abidun wa al-akharu alimun. One of them was a worshipper and one of them was a scholar.
01:40Fa qala Rasulallahi, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, "Fadhlu al-alimi ala al-abidi ka fadhli ala adnakum."
01:48The virtue of the scholar over the worshipper is like my virtue over the least of you.
02:01Thumma qala, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, said, "Inna Allaha wa mala'ikatahu wa ahla al-samawati wa al-ard, hatta al-namlata fi juhriha wa hatta al-hutan."
02:12That verily Allah, His angels, the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth, even the ants inside her hole, and even the fish in the ocean,
02:20yusallun ala mu'allimi al-nasi al-khair. They send their prayers upon the one that teaches the people good.
02:31Again, the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, highlighted not just the virtue of the scholar over the worshipper,
02:39but he went into details, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And Fuday al ibn Iyad, rahimahullah, who is the scholar that we will come back to at the end of this khutbah, insha'Allah,
02:50he said commenting on this hadith, "Alim, amil, mu'allim." He gave three titles: alim, amil, mu'allim.
03:03That a person who acts upon his knowledge, and acts upon his knowledge, and teaches the people. So a scholar, someone who has knowledge in the first place, alim.
03:16Amil, who acts upon his knowledge; mu'allim, who teaches other people his knowledge. Qala yud'a kabiran fi malakut al-samawat. That is a person who is truly called great in the heavens.
03:26Now before you tune out the rest of this khutbah and say, "Well, none of this has to do with me because I'm not an alim, I'm not a scholar."
03:34Pay attention to what Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, is conveying in the Qur'an. Qala subhanahu: "Qul hal yastawil ladhina ya'lamun wa al-ladhina la ya'lamun?"
03:46Allah, 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'u Allahu al-ladhina amanu minkum."
03:59That verily Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, raises those who believe amongst you, wa al-ladhina utul-ilm darajat. And then Allah, 'azzawajal, raises the people of knowledge amongst you by degrees.
04:11Is 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.
04:24When 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,
04:35he 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.
04:46And 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.
04:59The 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,
05:11I 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 this one talks about a bachelor's degree and then a master's degree and then a Ph.D.
05:25Or 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.
05:30The point of these types of narrations is to extract not just fadhlu al-alim ala al-abid, the virtue of a scholar over a worshipper,
05:42but the virtue of knowledge that is learned and spread over worship that is contained within yourself.
05:54And the Islamic methodology to reading these types of texts is that you then color the rest of your life with this.
06:03The virtue of learning something yourself versus teaching that to someone else.
06:12The 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.
06:24That those who have knowledge are degrees ahead of those that don't. Why?
06:38Pay 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.
06:46That a scholar is more severe on the shaitan than a thousand worshippers.
06:58One scholar is more severe on the shaitan than a thousand worshippers. Why? Because a worshipper might break the hold of shaitan on him.
07:12But a scholar that actually learns and teaches breaks the hold of shaitan on a society. A worshipper might open a door between them and Allah (ﻻ).
07:23But a scholar is supposed to open the doors for society to Allah (ﻻ) and bring them all back to Allah (ﻻ). You undo the knot of shaitan on your own head when you wake up and you pray.
07:35But you undo the knots of shaitan on society when you bring society closer to Allah (ﻻ). Someone says, "I don't give khutbah, I'm not a scholar, I'm not a teacher."
07:47Pay 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.
08:02Did 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?
08:16Or 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.
08:25Says, "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.
08:37Yes, 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.
08:50But 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.
08:59Spread that khair. 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.
09:11It'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 shaitan.
09:23That one scholar is harder on shaitan, more severe on the shaitan than a thousand worshippers. There's also something else there. That worship can become self-centered.
09:36Worship 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 shaitan is not just ilm that leads to your own connection to Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala.
09:48But ilm that leads to service and ilm that leads to sacrifice. Knowledge that leads to service and knowledge that leads to sacrifice.
10:00And so when the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, says, "Ahabbu al-nasi ila Allah anfauhum li al-nas." The most beloved of people to Allah, or khair al-nas, the best of people are those that are the most beneficial to the people.
10:12Isn'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.
10:26And 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.
10:35"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."
10:45Every single domain that Allah, 'azzawajal, has given to you, both on site and online, is an opportunity to spread something that's good.
10:53Is an opportunity to teach, is an opportunity to benefit, is an opportunity to grow and enrich and empower.
11:03That's ilm, knowledge. We need people to learn their religion so that they can properly represent it.
11:13We 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,
11:26whether that's on a university campus or in your workplace or on your social media,
11:36to 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,
11:49la'an yahdi Allahu bika rajulan wahid." That if Allah lets you teach one person or guide one person, benefiting one person and spreading that takes the shaitan's hold on you and removing that shaitan hold on you to removing it off of two people.
12:01The goal is to remove his hold off of as many people as possible. And on the societies that are draining in shaytanism.
12:15And I want to take this another step further. If we were to say that the grip of shaitan on a society is broken by people that go into society and break shaytanic holds,
12:22yes, even on Muslim societies. And if we were to say that the scholar is greater than the worshipper,
12:37then 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.
12:50And I'm going to frame it with my own self and my own experience here. Many of us go to 'Umrah, walhamdulillah rabbil 'alamin, and we go to Hajj, walhamdulillah. May Allah facilitate 'Umrah and Hajj and accept it from us. Allahumma ameen.
13:03And 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.
13:11And 'Umrah is a minor pilgrimage. It's a great opportunity to connect to Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala.
13:22And I want to tell you something personally. That over the last two years, when you go to the Haram, and if you get, masha'Allah, that view of the Ka'bah from one of the hotels,
13:34and you pray your salawat in the Haram, walhamdulillah rabbil 'alamin, on paper, on paper, praying in Masjid al-Haram is better than praying in Masjid al-Aqsa.
13:43On paper. But not in a million years would I think to myself that my salah in the Haram, in this moment,
13:53is more valuable and deserving of more sacrifice than our brothers and sisters that are praying under bombs right now.
14:03And I'm going to share with you an exchange. And I'm going to share with you an exchange. It's a famous exchange.
14:16Between Abdullah ibn Mubarak, rahimahullah ta'ala, and al-Fudayl ibn Iyad, rahimahullah. Al-Fudayl, whom we mentioned. A great scholar in Islam.
14:24And Abdullah ibn Mubarak, rahimahullah ta'ala, was an alim, was an amir, was a mujahid fi sabil illah. He was all of those things. You would find him in the haram and you would find him on the battlefield defending the frontiers of the religion.
14:38Defending against the onslaughts. Against this ummah. And there was some blame and criticism that was thrown towards those.
14:47Who were not partaking in the traditional understanding of ibadah that we have. And he sent him back a very famous letter. Abdullah ibn Mubarak wrote a letter to al-Fudayl.
14:59Ibn Iyad, where he says to him, Ya Abid al-Haramayn, law afsartana, la'alimta annaka fi'l ibadati tal'abu. Man kana yakhdibu khaddahu bi dumu'ihi, fanuhorunal bi dima'ina tatakhadhabu.
15:13Ya 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.
15:27We 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, Falakitutu al-Fudayla bi kitabihi fi'l haram.
15:41I saw al-Fudayl reading his letter in the haram. Faqara'ahu wa baka. And he read it and he cried. And he said, Sadaqa Abu Abdur Rahman wa nasaha. Abu Abdur Rahman, being Abdullah ibn Mubarak, is telling the truth.
15:56And he's giving us sincere advice. SubhanAllah, a few days ago, one of the journalists from Gaza sent me a message.
16:08And 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.
16:20And 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.
16:35We'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.
16:45Those of you, brothers and sisters, that are struggling in the deepest of ways. Because as Abdullah ibn Mubarak was suggesting to al-Fudayl, that while your tears may stain
16:57your 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,
17:08but 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 all of this, is that your tears
17:22on your prayer rug are beautiful. Tears are beautiful. Allah Aza wa jal wants to see your tears. Tears protect the sincerity of everything that you do. Your ibadah protects you. Your worship is necessary.
17:34Because otherwise, even an alim, even a scholar or a mujahid, could be dragged into the hellfire if they are devoid of that ibadah. But sometimes Allah Aza wa jal wants more than your tears.
17:48Sometimes it's your voice in the public domain. Sometimes it's your ink. Sometimes it's your feet, for those that have the ability.
17:59Sometimes 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
18:13should be struggling. Because today, resisting oppression and dismantling the lies and equipping our youth with the
18:21truth allows us to spread that struggle and that sacrifice and that benefit so much more. So yes, we need students of knowledge that can defend the religion with clarity
18:34and 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.
18:46We 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.
19:01All 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.
19:14And in this day and age, Allah Aza wa jal has expanded our reach and our potential. Don't forget the person that you interact with on a day-to-day basis, and don't forget
19:24the 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.
19:38May Allah Aza 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.
19:52May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala guide us to use whatever tools we have in our box to not just be worshippers 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 this. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful.
20:06 May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful.
20:20 May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful.
20:34 May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful.
20:48 May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful.
21:02 May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful.
21:16May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful.
21:30May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala guide us to be the most merciful of the merciful.





















































































































































































































































































































