Your choices affect your whole family
“What you do will not only affect you, it will affect your loved ones, your children and your parents and everyone else.”
Our actions carry consequences beyond personal reward or punishment, affecting us and our loved ones, so we should choose good and avoid harm.
The khutbah in 5 steps
- Introduces Quranic teachings that good and evil deeds receive corresponding recompense.
- Distinguishes divine accountability from the broader effects actions have on others.
- Uses Prince Abdur-Rahman’s story to show ancestral kindness returning decades later.
- Describes how one family member’s criminal involvement harmed an innocent Muslim family.
- Urges listeners to consider their families and spread good through their choices.
In the khateeb's words
“Just because something happens to you, that doesn't mean you're being rewarded or punished. That thing that is happening to you, good or bad, may be the result of something that you or someone else did.”
“Be careful of what you do, what you put out there. It will come back around, not only to you, but your family.”
“What you do will not only affect you, it will affect your loved ones, your children and your parents and everyone else.”
For the dinner table
Today’s khutbah reminded us that our choices can affect our families and other people around us. The imam explained that these effects are different from reward and punishment, so we should not assume someone’s hardship means they are being punished. He told a story about Ibrahim’s kindness to John Cox and how that kindness later helped Ibrahim’s son gain freedom from slavery. He also described how one young person’s involvement in a dangerous situation brought distress to an innocent family. He encouraged us to think beyond ourselves and prayed that the good we do would spread to our children, parents, and everyone we love.
- When has someone’s kindness to you helped you be kinder to somebody else?
- How might a choice you make with friends affect people at home?
- What good thing could we do together this week that would help another family?
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