Friday sermon on self-accounting.
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The Shaykh : All praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our own souls and from the bad of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide, and whomsoever He leaves to misguide, none can guide. And I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family and his Companions and those who follow them with excellence until the Day of Judgment).
As for what follows:
Indeed, every merchant looks into his business records at the end of the financial year to see what he gained, what he lost, and what profit he missed. Can it be compensated, or not? And we are at the end of this year, the year 1417, so we ask Allah the Exalted to conclude it for us with good, to pardon us for what we fell short of in our obligations, and to forgive us for what we violated of the forbidden.
O my brothers! It is obligatory for a person to look at his past year: what did he do? Did he perform the obligatory as it should be, or did he fall short? Did he avoid the forbidden and stay away from it, or did he fall into it? If he has been negligent in the obligatory, he must make up for it as long as he is in the time of respite. He should think: Did he complete his ritual purity? Did he complete his prayer? Did he complete his fasting? Did he complete his zakah? Did he complete his Hajj? He should look into that.
Perhaps a person has some fasting of Ramadan remaining, and he says: "The time ahead is long; I have the right to postpone it until there remains from the month of Sha'ban the number of days I owe." This is permissible, but the utmost firmness is for a person to hasten to make up the fasting he owes, because he does not know what may befall him. He may be struck by an illness that prevents him from fasting, or he may die and it not be made up on his behalf. So let him look into that.
Likewise, let him look into his wealth: Did he count it completely and precisely? Did he account for himself as if the poor were his partners? Rather, did he account for himself as if the people in debt were his partners in his wealth? Let him look into this, because if he neglects the obligation of zakah, he is to be feared of falling into the saying of Allah Blessed and Exalted is He:[Ali 'Imran 3:180].
Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said, and he is sufficient in knowledge and jurisprudence: "If a person is negligent in paying his zakah until he dies, his liability is not cleared even if his heirs pay it from his wealth after him, because he was determined not to pay zakah during his lifetime. And what does it benefit him that his heirs pay it on his behalf after his death?" Therefore, purify your wealth! Purify your soul by paying the obligatory zakah, and do not be negligent with it! Do not be negligent in it! For it is the companion of prayer in the Book of Allah Mighty and Majestic.
Think also about Hajj! Did you perform Hajj according to what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) advised you, where he said: Did you take the rituals as the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did them, or did you be negligent in them, seeing them as mere rituals you perform, or offering a ransom or sacrificial animal in their place?
Many people neglect Hajj greatly, making it as if it is rituals with no benefit, no purification of the heart through it, and a person does not feel spiritual comfort in it. Rather, it is as if they are things he does with only a physical action.
You must account for yourself: Did you fulfill what is obligatory for you toward those who deal with you? Did you pay the debt that is in your liability, which is not deferred and you are able to pay? If you delay repayment, you are in a state of injustice until you pay. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said: So every moment that passes for a person who has a due debt and does not pay it, he is thereby an oppressor. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said: Sahih Muslim 2578.
Think, O my brother, about your treatment of your family: Did you fulfill the duty of the wife? Did you treat her with kindness, or did you treat her like a dumb slave, not caring about her or concerned with fulfilling her right, but rather neglecting and degrading her?
Think about your children: Did you fulfill their right in the obligation of care? In preventing them from the forbidden? In encouraging them to the obligations? All this is what we must account ourselves for.
Think: Did you fulfill the right of your Muslim brothers? Do you spread the greeting, or do you boycott?
Think about yourself: Did you lie on any day in the past year? Did you give advice in dealings? Many things and many things we are negligent in and neglect, and we do not account ourselves for them, even though merchants, who are owners of perishing wealth, are found to be very precise at the end of the year.
As for the future, we do not know what Allah is doing in the coming year. Our days are three: a day that has passed with what was in it and cannot be made up, a future day in which we do not know what Allah is doing, as Allah Mighty and Majestic said:[Luqman 31:34] And our present day, its beginning has passed and its end has not yet come, and we do not know what will be in it.
So it is upon us to prepare ourselves for the future with sincere determination and complete desire for good, so that we receive and welcome our new year with diligence, sincerity, and obedience to Allah Mighty and Majestic.
And let it be known, O my brothers, that this world is not a place of permanent residence for a person to strive to complete his luxury in it. It is a place of passage, it is a place of righteous work, but it is, by Allah, the sweetest place for one who does good. It is the sweetest place for others, otherwise the Hereafter is better and more lasting, without doubt.
But if a questioner asked: Who is the sweetest of people in life in this world? We would say: It is the one who believed and did good, as our Lord Mighty and Majestic said:[An-Nahl 16:97]
Welcome, O my Muslim brother, welcome this year with diligence and activity, and change what is corrupt in your state to reform. For the living person can be straight by the will of Allah, and if he dies, he dies upon what he was upon.
Welcome this new year with activity in righteous work, with activity in noble morals, with activity in raising children, with activity in raising the family, with activity in doing good to creation, with activity in all your works. Do not be negligent. Whoever becomes accustomed to negligence, negligence becomes his character and he remains so always. And whoever accustoms himself to diligence, firmness, and self-accounting, he will succeed by the permission of Allah Mighty and Majestic.
Before us is a future, before us are days that are stages for righteous work.
Every day the sun rises, there is a charity for every joint of yours. This is what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:Sahih Muslim 1009 And a person has three hundred and sixty joints, so it is necessary that you give three hundred and sixty charities every day. But it is not only charity of money, rather it is varied charities: every takbir is a charity, every tahlil is a charity, enjoining good is a charity, a takbir is a charity, forbidding evil is a charity, everything by which a person draws near to Allah is a charity, and it suffices for a joint from the joints. Rather, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said: meaning: it suffices in place of that Sahih Muslim 720.
You must look, O my brother, at what are the duties of the day and night? The greatest of the duties of the day and night after the testimonies is prayer. Prayer includes obligatory and voluntary. The obligatory are five, known and not hidden from a Muslim. The voluntary: some are attached to the obligatory, some are independent, some are restricted to a time, and some are unrestricted.
The voluntary prayers attached to the obligatory are: two rak'ahs before Fajr, four rak'ahs before Zuhr with two taslims, two rak'ahs after the Zuhr prayer, two rak'ahs after Maghrib, and two rak'ahs after 'Isha'. As for 'Asr, it has no regular sunnah, but it came in the hadith from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family):Jami` at-Tirmidhi 430Hasan (Darussalam).
There are voluntary prayers not attached to the obligatory, such as witr. Witr is an independent voluntary prayer that concludes the night prayer, by the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family):Sahih Muslim 751b. So whoever stands in night prayer should delay witr to the end of the night, and whoever does not stand should do witr at the beginning of the night. For this reason, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said: .
The minimum of witr is one rak'ah. That is, if a person prays the rawatib of 'Isha, two rak'ahs, then does witr with one rak'ah, it suffices because he made the last of his night prayer witr. And if he does witr with three, it is better, and with five it is better, and with seven it is better, and with nine it is better, and with eleven it is better. If a person sleeps through his witr, he prays it during the day, but he makes it even, meaning: not witr, because the night has ended, but he makes it even so that he has made up his portion, but without witr.
There are also other prayers for specific occasions, such as the prayer upon entering the mosque, for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:Sahih al-Bukhari 1167. The Sunnah of ablution: When a person performs ablution, he should pray two rak'ahs, and he should strive not to engage in idle talk during them, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) performed ablution and said: Sahih al-Bukhari 164.
There is the Duha prayer, the Tahajjud prayer at night, and voluntary prayer in general at any time you wish, except for the prohibited times. These are: from the Fajr prayer until the sun has risen the height of a spear, at the time of the sun's zenith until it passes, meaning when the sun is at its highest point until it declines, and from the Asr prayer until sunset. In these three times, one does not perform general voluntary prayer, but one does perform voluntary prayer that has a specific cause, meaning if the voluntary prayer has a reason, pray it even in the prohibited times.
There is also the zakat of wealth, which is obligatory, and there are other obligations regarding wealth besides the zakat of wealth, such as financial maintenance, for it is obligatory for a person to spend on his wife and his relatives.
As for what follows:
Indeed, every merchant looks into his business records at the end of the financial year to see what he gained, what he lost, and what profit he missed. Can it be compensated, or not? And we are at the end of this year, the year 1417, so we ask Allah the Exalted to conclude it for us with good, to pardon us for what we fell short of in our obligations, and to forgive us for what we violated of the forbidden.
O my brothers! It is obligatory for a person to look at his past year: what did he do? Did he perform the obligatory as it should be, or did he fall short? Did he avoid the forbidden and stay away from it, or did he fall into it? If he has been negligent in the obligatory, he must make up for it as long as he is in the time of respite. He should think: Did he complete his ritual purity? Did he complete his prayer? Did he complete his fasting? Did he complete his zakah? Did he complete his Hajj? He should look into that.
Perhaps a person has some fasting of Ramadan remaining, and he says: "The time ahead is long; I have the right to postpone it until there remains from the month of Sha'ban the number of days I owe." This is permissible, but the utmost firmness is for a person to hasten to make up the fasting he owes, because he does not know what may befall him. He may be struck by an illness that prevents him from fasting, or he may die and it not be made up on his behalf. So let him look into that.
Likewise, let him look into his wealth: Did he count it completely and precisely? Did he account for himself as if the poor were his partners? Rather, did he account for himself as if the people in debt were his partners in his wealth? Let him look into this, because if he neglects the obligation of zakah, he is to be feared of falling into the saying of Allah Blessed and Exalted is He:
And let not those who [greedily] withhold what Allah has given them of His bounty ever think that it is better for them. Rather, it is worse for them. Their necks will be encircled by what they withheld on the Day of Resurrection. And to Allah belongs the heritage of the heavens and the earth. And Allah, with what you do, is [fully] Acquainted.
وَلا يَحْسَبَنَّ الَّذِينَ يَبْخَلُونَ بِمَا آتَاهُمُ اللَّهُ مِنْ فَضْلِهِ هُوَ خَيْراً لَهُمْ بَلْ هُوَ شَرٌّ لَهُمْ سَيُطَوَّقُونَ مَا بَخِلُوا بِهِ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ وَلِلَّهِ مِيرَاثُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرٌIbn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said, and he is sufficient in knowledge and jurisprudence: "If a person is negligent in paying his zakah until he dies, his liability is not cleared even if his heirs pay it from his wealth after him, because he was determined not to pay zakah during his lifetime. And what does it benefit him that his heirs pay it on his behalf after his death?" Therefore, purify your wealth! Purify your soul by paying the obligatory zakah, and do not be negligent with it! Do not be negligent in it! For it is the companion of prayer in the Book of Allah Mighty and Majestic.
Think also about Hajj! Did you perform Hajj according to what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) advised you, where he said:
Take from me your rituals of Hajj.
خذوا عني منساككمMany people neglect Hajj greatly, making it as if it is rituals with no benefit, no purification of the heart through it, and a person does not feel spiritual comfort in it. Rather, it is as if they are things he does with only a physical action.
You must account for yourself: Did you fulfill what is obligatory for you toward those who deal with you? Did you pay the debt that is in your liability, which is not deferred and you are able to pay? If you delay repayment, you are in a state of injustice until you pay. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said:
Delaying the payment of a wealthy person is injustice.
مطل الغني ظلمBe on your guard against committing oppression, for oppression is a darkness on the Day of Resurrection
اتقوا الظلم فإن الظلم ظلمات يوم القيامةThink, O my brother, about your treatment of your family: Did you fulfill the duty of the wife? Did you treat her with kindness, or did you treat her like a dumb slave, not caring about her or concerned with fulfilling her right, but rather neglecting and degrading her?
Think about your children: Did you fulfill their right in the obligation of care? In preventing them from the forbidden? In encouraging them to the obligations? All this is what we must account ourselves for.
Think: Did you fulfill the right of your Muslim brothers? Do you spread the greeting, or do you boycott?
Think about yourself: Did you lie on any day in the past year? Did you give advice in dealings? Many things and many things we are negligent in and neglect, and we do not account ourselves for them, even though merchants, who are owners of perishing wealth, are found to be very precise at the end of the year.
As for the future, we do not know what Allah is doing in the coming year. Our days are three: a day that has passed with what was in it and cannot be made up, a future day in which we do not know what Allah is doing, as Allah Mighty and Majestic said:
no soul perceives what it will earn tomorrow
وَمَا تَدْرِي نَفْسٌ مَاذَا تَكْسِبُ غَداًSo it is upon us to prepare ourselves for the future with sincere determination and complete desire for good, so that we receive and welcome our new year with diligence, sincerity, and obedience to Allah Mighty and Majestic.
And let it be known, O my brothers, that this world is not a place of permanent residence for a person to strive to complete his luxury in it. It is a place of passage, it is a place of righteous work, but it is, by Allah, the sweetest place for one who does good. It is the sweetest place for others, otherwise the Hereafter is better and more lasting, without doubt.
But if a questioner asked: Who is the sweetest of people in life in this world? We would say: It is the one who believed and did good, as our Lord Mighty and Majestic said:
Whoever does righteousness, whether male or female, while he is a believer - We will surely cause him to live a good life, and We will surely give them their reward [in the Hereafter] according to the best of what they used to do.
مَنْ عَمِلَ صَالِحاً مِنْ ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنْثَى وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْرَهُمْ بِأَحْسَنِ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَWelcome, O my Muslim brother, welcome this year with diligence and activity, and change what is corrupt in your state to reform. For the living person can be straight by the will of Allah, and if he dies, he dies upon what he was upon.
Welcome this new year with activity in righteous work, with activity in noble morals, with activity in raising children, with activity in raising the family, with activity in doing good to creation, with activity in all your works. Do not be negligent. Whoever becomes accustomed to negligence, negligence becomes his character and he remains so always. And whoever accustoms himself to diligence, firmness, and self-accounting, he will succeed by the permission of Allah Mighty and Majestic.
Before us is a future, before us are days that are stages for righteous work.
Every day the sun rises, there is a charity for every joint of yours. This is what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
Sadaqa is due on every joint of a person, every day the sun rises.
يصبح على كل سلامى من الناس صدقة كل يوم تطلع فيه الشمسThis suffices for that.
يجزئ من ذلكtwo rak'ahs which one prays in the forenoon
ركعتان يركعهما من الضحىYou must look, O my brother, at what are the duties of the day and night? The greatest of the duties of the day and night after the testimonies is prayer. Prayer includes obligatory and voluntary. The obligatory are five, known and not hidden from a Muslim. The voluntary: some are attached to the obligatory, some are independent, some are restricted to a time, and some are unrestricted.
The voluntary prayers attached to the obligatory are: two rak'ahs before Fajr, four rak'ahs before Zuhr with two taslims, two rak'ahs after the Zuhr prayer, two rak'ahs after Maghrib, and two rak'ahs after 'Isha'. As for 'Asr, it has no regular sunnah, but it came in the hadith from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family):
May Allah have mercy upon a man who prays four before Al-Asr.
رحم الله امرأً صلى قبل العصر أربعاًThere are voluntary prayers not attached to the obligatory, such as witr. Witr is an independent voluntary prayer that concludes the night prayer, by the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family):
Make Witr the end of your night prayer.
اجعلوا آخر صلاتكم بالليل وتراًWhoever fears that he will not be able to get up at the end of the night, let him pray Witr at the beginning of the night, and whoever hopes to get up at the end of the night, let him pray Witr at the end of the night, for the prayer at the end of the night is witnessed, and that is better.
من خاف ألا يقوم من آخر الليل فليوتر أوله، ومن طمع أن يقوم من آخره فليوتر آخره فإن صلاة آخر الليل مشهودة، وذلك أفضلThe minimum of witr is one rak'ah. That is, if a person prays the rawatib of 'Isha, two rak'ahs, then does witr with one rak'ah, it suffices because he made the last of his night prayer witr. And if he does witr with three, it is better, and with five it is better, and with seven it is better, and with nine it is better, and with eleven it is better. If a person sleeps through his witr, he prays it during the day, but he makes it even, meaning: not witr, because the night has ended, but he makes it even so that he has made up his portion, but without witr.
There are also other prayers for specific occasions, such as the prayer upon entering the mosque, for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
If anyone of you enters a Mosque, he should not sit until he has offered a tworak` at prayer.
إذا دخل أحدكم المسجد فلا يجلس حتى يصلي ركعتينIf anyone performs ablution like that of mine and offers a two-rak`at prayer during which he does not think of anything else (not related to the present prayer) then his past sins will be forgiven.
من توضأ نحو وضوئي هذا ثم صلى ركعتين لا يحدث فيها نفسه غفر الله له ما تقدم من ذنبهThere is the Duha prayer, the Tahajjud prayer at night, and voluntary prayer in general at any time you wish, except for the prohibited times. These are: from the Fajr prayer until the sun has risen the height of a spear, at the time of the sun's zenith until it passes, meaning when the sun is at its highest point until it declines, and from the Asr prayer until sunset. In these three times, one does not perform general voluntary prayer, but one does perform voluntary prayer that has a specific cause, meaning if the voluntary prayer has a reason, pray it even in the prohibited times.
There is also the zakat of wealth, which is obligatory, and there are other obligations regarding wealth besides the zakat of wealth, such as financial maintenance, for it is obligatory for a person to spend on his wife and his relatives.