Knowledge should humble, not divide believers
“It seems like the more we know, the more divided we are.”
Knowledge and religiosity are meant to unite and humble believers in service of others, but when used with arrogance they become a wedge that divides the ummah and can even nullify a person's worship.
The khutbah in 8 steps
- Opening khutbah praise and declaration that the best speech is the Quran, the best guidance is the Prophet's, and every innovation leads to the fire
- Exegesis of Surah al-Jathiyah 45:16-17: Bani Israel were given scripture, dominion, prophethood, and clear proofs
- Their tragedy: they only differed after knowledge came, out of mutual enmity (baghyan baynahum), using knowledge as a wedge rather than a tool to uplift
- Contemporary parallel: Muslims who study at Islamic universities return more divided, nitpicking and name-calling
- Story of the Israelite who swore Allah would never forgive his sinful neighbor; Allah forgave the neighbor and nullified the pious man's deeds
- Second khutbah: hadith of the three men at the Prophet's gathering, one sought refuge, one was shy, one turned away, and Allah responded to each accordingly
- Examples of humility from scholars: Sufyan al-Thawri listening attentively to a child narrating a hadith he already knew
- Umar ibn Abdul Aziz ordering his son to sell a 1,000-coin ring, buy a 2-coin one, and feed a thousand bellies; closing du'a for oppressed Muslims worldwide
In the khateeb's words
“and that the worst of all affairs is innovation in al-Islam, otherwise known as unprecedented actions of worship.”
“Every innovation is a heresy, every heresy leads to misguidance, and every misguidance leads to the fire.”
“Everything that God gave them to support their community was clear.”
“it seems like the more we know, the more divided we are.”
For the dinner table
Today the khateeb spoke about Surah al-Jathiyah, where Allah reminds us that He gave the Israelites scripture, leadership, and prophet after prophet, everything a community could need, yet after knowledge came to them, they split apart out of envy and rivalry. He warned that the same thing happens among Muslims today: people learn more about the deen and then use it to judge, nitpick, and look down on each other instead of lifting each other up. He told the story of a religious man who angrily swore that Allah would never forgive his sinful neighbor, and Allah responded that He had already forgiven the neighbor, while the arrogant man's good deeds were wiped away. The khateeb taught that the real goal of knowledge is service and humility, not winning arguments or feeling better than others. He praised scholars like Sufyan al-Thawri, who would sit and read with a small child and listen to a hadith as if he had never heard it before, even though he had known it for decades. The message for our family is simple: what we learn should make us kinder, humbler, and more eager to serve, never more arrogant.
- If knowledge is supposed to make us humbler, what is one thing you've learned recently that could help you serve someone else?
- The khateeb said the person you look down on might actually be closer to Allah than you, how does that change the way we treat people at school or in the masjid?
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