Good deeds cannot excuse harming others
“Not hurting others is not a bonus.”
A person can arrive on Judgment Day with abundant prayer, fasting, and charity yet become spiritually bankrupt by harming others, so believers must protect people's rights, repair wrongs, and cultivate good character before death.
The khutbah in 6 steps
- Introduces the hadith of al-muflis, whose victims take his good deeds and give him their bad deeds.
- Explains that insults, slander, unlawful wealth, violence, and physical harm can destroy a person's spiritual account.
- Warns listeners not to assume the hadith applies only to obviously evil people or distant tyrants.
- Teaches that good character and people's rights are essential parts of Islam alongside prayer, fasting, and other duties to Allah.
- Applies the warning to small daily harms involving family, classmates, coworkers, WhatsApp, and parking lots.
- Concludes with practical steps: guard the tongue, increase good deeds, seek forgiveness, repay rights, and reconcile before death.
In the khateeb's words
“Having good akhlaq, having good adab, not hurting others is not a bonus. It is part of our deen.”
“But when you transgress others, when you slandered others or hurt others, you've not only disobeyed Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, but you've taken someone else's right.”
“So the least that you can do is do more good deeds. Do more good deeds. Do more hasanat. Pray more salah. Read more Quran.”
For the dinner table
Today's khutbah reminded us that prayer, fasting, and charity matter deeply, and so does how we treat people. The khateeb described the spiritually bankrupt person who arrives on the Day of Judgment with good deeds but loses them to people they have harmed. Good manners and kindness are part of our faith and our responsibilities, including with the people closest to us. Even a remark that seems small to us can hurt someone deeply, so we need to guard our tongues. We can put this reminder into practice by asking Allah for forgiveness, doing our best to repair harm and return what we owe, and increasing our good deeds.
- How can we tell when a joke has stopped being fun and started hurting someone?
- What could you say or do to make things right after hurting a sibling or classmate?
- What is one way we can practice kinder speech as a family this week?
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