Put Allah before endless distraction
“You are usually distracted by something which is less important, from something which is more important.”
Surah at-Takathur warns that the urge to accumulate, compete, and boast about having more (wealth, likes, cars, houses) distracts us from what is truly more important, so believers must set Allah-centric priorities in an age of information overload.
The khutbah in 6 steps
- Opening on 'Al-haakum al-takasur' (Surah at-Takathur) with a shallow translation: the urge of having more and more distracts you
- Linguistic analysis of 'al-haa' (lahuv = distraction), compared with three other Quranic words for distraction: ghafla, samadha, sahwah
- Rule: lahuv means being distracted BY something less important FROM something more important; applied to phones, video games, WhatsApp/screen-time statistics
- First meaning of takasur (from kathra): the urge of having more and more, likes, retweets, nicer cars, bigger houses
- Second meaning (tafa'ul form): competition in having more, outspending others on weddings, houses, dresses
- Third meaning (tafakhur): boasting and flexing about having the best, described as a 'mini Firaun' in the heart
In the khateeb's words
“Whenever the word lahuv is used, you are usually distracted by something which is less important, from something which is more important.”
“So if you are using cell phone, or playing video games, or watching FIFA, and you are being distracted by more important things, family time, responding to your parents, espouse, kids, so on, so forth, assignments.”
“Average American in 2025 will open a WhatsApp app daily 25 times.”
“In 2025, an average American spends 7 hours 17 minutes on screen.”
For the dinner table
Today's khutbah was about Surah At-Takathur, the verse that says the urge to have more and more distracts us. The khateeb explained that being distracted always means being pulled by something less important away from something more important, like when our phones pull us away from family, parents, and prayer. He shared that the average American opens WhatsApp 25 times a day and spends over 7 hours on screens. He also described how the verse includes competing with others, wanting a bigger house or fancier wedding just because someone else has one, and even boasting and flexing about what we have. His reminder was simple: this isn't about halal and haram, it's about priorities, and we should ask Allah to help us make our priorities Allah-centric.
- If you checked your screen-time report right now, what app do you think would be at the top, and what would you rather spend that time on?
- The khateeb said we sometimes buy things to impress people we don't even like, why do you think people do that?
- What is one 'more important' thing in our family that a 'less important' thing keeps interrupting?
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