Leave alone what does not concern you
“All of you are shepherds and all of you are going to be questioned about your flock.”
The excellence of a person's Islam is shown by leaving alone what does not concern them and instead occupying themselves with the affairs they will actually be questioned about by Allah.
The khutbah in 8 steps
- Opening: four hadith gather all good character (per Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani); this week focuses on 'leaving what does not concern you'
- Defining 'what concerns you': the affairs you will be asked about before Allah
- Hadith of Abu Barza: the four questions on Judgment Day (wealth, knowledge, youth, life)
- Hadith of Ibn Umar: everyone is a shepherd answerable for their own flock, not others' private affairs
- Consequences of meddling: it can bar one from Jannah (hadith of Anas), deprives truthfulness, and signals Allah's abandonment (Hasan al-Basri)
- Virtue of leaving it: elevation by Allah, the story of Luqman (truthfulness, long silence, minding his business)
- Abdullah ibn Salam's hope: a clean heart and leaving what doesn't concern him
- Second half: warning against asking about private affairs, tale-carrying (namima), and the call to count and guard one's words like Fudayl ibn Iyad's people
In the khateeb's words
“that what shows you have good deen you have good Islam is you leave alone what does not what does not concern you that you mind your business”
“the feet of a slave will not move yawmul qiyamah hatta yus'al an arba' until he is asked about four things”
“all of you are shepherds and all of you are going to be questioned about your flock”
For the dinner table
Today the khateeb taught us about the hadith: 'From the excellence of a person's Islam is leaving what does not concern him.' He explained that each of us is like a shepherd who will be questioned by Allah about our own flock, our wealth and how we earned and spent it, our knowledge and whether we acted on it, our youth and how we used it, and the family under our care. Busying ourselves with other people's private affairs is not harmless curiosity; it can keep a person out of Jannah, strip away truthfulness, and is even a sign that Allah has abandoned someone. He shared how Luqman the Wise, a former slave, was raised to honor partly because he minded his own business, and how the tale-carrier does more harm in an hour than a magician in a year. The good news is that whoever perfects their Islam and focuses on what truly concerns them is elevated by Allah and forgiven for what came before Islam. So this week, let's each guard our tongues like we guard our money and focus on our own responsibilities.
- If you had to guard your words as carefully as your money, what would you stop saying?
- What's one thing Allah will actually ask you about, your youth, your knowledge, or your family, that you want to do better with?
- When a friend starts telling you someone else's private business, what could you say to change the subject?
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