True success comes from remembering Allah
“You have the best form of living, yet you don't want to live it.”
Worldly perfection without purpose leads to emptiness and despair, while true success and contentment come only from the remembrance of Allah and orientation toward the hereafter.
The khutbah in 8 steps
- Opens with graduation and summer travel season; cites Imam Shafi'i's five benefits of travel
- Recounts his second trip to Japan, a nation that has perfected outward metrics of life
- The paradox: highest quality of life alongside among the highest suicide rates
- Locals explain the cause: a purposeless daily routine of work, eat, sleep, repeat
- Muslims differ because they have purpose; the heedless know the dunya but not the akhirah
- True success (fawz) is escaping Jahannam and earning Jannah; true richness is richness of the soul
- Dhikr as the answer: Medina humming like bees with remembrance; tasbeeh takes form before Allah's throne
- Closing exhortation: enjoy summer but fill the hole in the heart with dhikr, followed by dua
In the khateeb's words
“How can you have subhanAllah, the best form of living? You have the best form of living, yet you don't want to live it.”
“And we have no absolute purpose in life. We work. We eat. We feed our families. We sleep. And we repeat.”
“Walakin al-dhina, true richness, true success, true contentment is what? The enrichment of the soul.”
“But every single time we pray, we build a new connection with Allah. We ask something new from Allah.”
For the dinner table
The shaykh told us about his trip to Japan, a country that seems to have perfected everything on the outside, clean streets, perfect trains, long lives, yet many people there feel so empty that they don't want to keep living. He explained that having everything in this world means nothing if your heart has no purpose. As Muslims, we have that purpose: Allah and the hereafter. True richness isn't stuff, it's a heart rich with remembering Allah. So this summer, have fun and enjoy, but keep your heart connected to Allah through dhikr, that's what makes life truly meaningful.
- If someone had every toy, game, and gadget but still felt empty inside, what do you think would be missing?
- What is one way our family could remember Allah together this week?
- The shaykh said every prayer is a new connection with Allah, what's something new you could ask Allah in your next salah?
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