What you feed shapes your heart
“The Quran and the sunnah is what your heart and your soul is actually calling for.”
The khutbah argues that what we repeatedly take in through our eyes and ears shapes the heart, so protecting our attention and feeding the soul with Qur'an, Sunnah, remembrance, and good community is essential to clear judgment and contentment.
The khutbah in 6 steps
- Explains the Qur'anic relationship between the heart, hearing, and sight, and how corrupted hearts misread signs.
- Develops the eye as a divine gift and urges protection from harmful visual input.
- Applies the argument to pornography, device addiction, social media, comparison, and the 'Tinder effect' in marriage.
- Contrasts curated online images with contentment through dhikr and argues for character and religious commitment over endless options.
- Uses examples attributed to Umar, Uthman, Anas, and Rumi to illustrate self-restraint, spiritual insight, and the soul's true nourishment.
- Closes by urging Qur'an, Sunnah, family, loved ones, and mosque community, followed by prayers for steadfast hearts and oppressed people.
In the khateeb's words
“You feed it good, you're giving it beauty and goodness. You feed it something ugly, you're corrupting it little by little.”
“They're making a business out of this. This is money to them. They're presenting you something to keep your eyes glued. That's all it is. It's not truth.”
“The Quran and the sunnah is what your heart and your soul is actually calling for.”
For the dinner table
The khutbah taught that our eyes and ears feed information to the heart, and a healthy heart helps us understand reality well. What we repeatedly watch, especially endless social-media images, can distort our ideas of beauty, success, and even marriage. The speaker encouraged us to protect our gaze, resist every passing desire, and choose character and faith over endless options. He reminded us that dhikr, Qur'an, Sunnah, family, loved ones, and good community nourish the soul more deeply than doom-scrolling. We ended by asking Allah to keep our hearts firm and help oppressed people around the world.
- What is one thing your eyes often show you that makes you compare your life with someone else's?
- When you feel restless or tired, what could nourish your soul better than scrolling?
- What qualities besides appearance would help you recognize a good future spouse or friend?
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