Al-hamdu lillahi nahmaduhu wa nasta'inuhu wa nastaghfiruhu, wa na'udhu billahi min shururi anfusina wa min sayyi'ati a'malina. Man yahdihillahu fala mudilla lah, wa man yudlil fala hadiya lah.
All praise belongs to Allah. We praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil within ourselves and from the consequences of our deeds. Whoever Allah guides, none can misguide; and whoever He allows to stray, none can guide.
Ashhadu alla ilaha ill-Allah wahdahu la sharika lah, wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan 'abduhu wa rasuluh. I bear witness that there is no god worthy of worship except Allah alone, without partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.
Allahumma salli wa sallim wa barik 'ala nabiyyina Muhammadin, wa 'ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in. O Allah, send Your prayers, peace, and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, upon his family, and all his Companions.
I advise myself and all of you to have taqwa of Allah: to be mindful of Him, to obey Him, and to protect ourselves from what displeases Him.
Allah says in Quran 3:102: Ya ayyuhalladhina amanu ittaqullaha haqqa tuqatihi wa la tamutunna illa wa antum muslimun. Meaning: O believers, be mindful of Allah as He deserves, and do not die except in a state of submission to Him.
Allah says in Quran 4:1: Ya ayyuhan-nasu ittaqu rabbakum alladhi khalaqakum min nafsin wahidah, wa khalaqa minha zawjaha, wa baththa minhuma rijalan kathiran wa nisa'a; wattaqullaha alladhi tasa'aluna bihi wal-arham. Innallaha kana 'alaykum raqiba. Meaning: O humanity, be mindful of your Lord, who created you from one soul, created from it its mate, and spread from them many men and women. Be mindful of Allah, in whose name you appeal to one another, and honor family ties. Surely Allah is always watching over you.
Allah says in Quran 33:70-71: Ya ayyuhalladhina amanu ittaqullaha wa qulu qawlan sadida. Yuslih lakum a'malakum wa yaghfir lakum dhunubakum. Wa man yuti'illaha wa rasulahu faqad faza fawzan 'azima. Meaning: O believers, be mindful of Allah and speak words that are true and straight. He will correct your deeds and forgive your sins. Whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly achieved a great success.
First Khutbah
Servants of Allah, every one of us knows what it feels like to look sideways.
We see someone else's home, marriage, income, health, children, appearance, opportunities, reputation, or progress. We see a photograph, a promotion, a wedding announcement, a new car, a successful business, a child's achievement, or a life that appears peaceful. Then something moves inside us. We ask, Why them? Why not me? What do they have that I do not have?
Sometimes that question becomes sadness. Sometimes it becomes ambition. Sometimes it becomes resentment. Sometimes it becomes a hidden hope that the blessing will disappear. And sometimes we do not even recognize what has happened. We simply become less grateful for our own lives.
Today's reminder is about envy, comparison, and contentment with Allah's decree. These matters are not small matters of personality. They are matters of the heart. They affect our worship, our families, our friendships, our speech, our mental peace, and our relationship with our Lord.
In Islam, hasad means to resent another person's blessing and to wish that it would be taken away, whether or not we receive the same blessing. A passing thought or painful feeling may come without our choosing it. The test is what we do next. Do we feed it? Do we speak from it? Do we investigate the person, belittle them, backbite them, or secretly celebrate their difficulty? Or do we turn to Allah, restrain the tongue, and purify the heart?
There is also a lawful form of aspiration. A person may see someone using wealth for charity and say, May Allah bless me with the ability to do good like that. A person may see someone learning Quran and say, I want to grow in knowledge too. This is not wishing for the blessing to disappear. It is a desire for goodness without hatred toward the one who already has it.
There is no envy except in two cases: a person whom Allah has given wealth and he spends it rightly, and a person whom Allah has given wisdom and he acts according to it and teaches it to others.
Sahih al-Bukhari 73; Sahih Muslim 816
The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, directed our desire toward beneficial things. He did not tell us to become passive, careless, or indifferent. He taught us to seek excellence without allowing another person's blessing to become an insult to Allah's wisdom.
Allah gives different people different gifts and different tests. One person has wealth but carries a burden we do not see. Another has health but faces loneliness. One has children and worries about them every night. Another has no children and carries a quiet pain. One person's public success may hide private fear. Another person's ordinary life may contain a peace that many wealthy and famous people would purchase if peace could be bought.
We see the outside of people's lives. Allah knows the inside. We see a moment. Allah knows the entire journey. We see the gift. Allah knows whether it will be gratitude or a trial, whether it will bring a person closer to Him or become a reason for arrogance and neglect.
Allah says:
Do not wish for what Allah has favored some of you over others. Men will have a share of what they have earned, and women will have a share of what they have earned. Ask Allah for His bounty. Surely Allah has full knowledge of all things.
Quran 4:32
This verse does not tell us to stop asking Allah. It tells us where to ask. Do not stare at people with resentment; ask Allah from His bounty. Do not turn another person's provision into evidence that Allah has forgotten you. Do not treat the distribution of one blessing as the full account of a person's life.
Allah's gifts are not limited to what can be displayed. Faith is a gift. The ability to pray is a gift. A heart that feels remorse after sin is a gift. A parent who taught you one sincere prayer is a gift. A spouse who stands beside you during hardship is a gift. A child who says something innocent that brings you back to Allah is a gift. Safety, lawful income, a sound mind, a body that carries you to the mosque, a friend who reminds you of Allah, and a sin from which Allah saved you without anyone knowing-all of these are gifts.
But comparison makes us blind. It teaches us to count what others have and to forget what Allah has already placed in our hands.
Look at those who are below you and do not look at those who are above you, for that is more likely to prevent you from belittling the blessings of Allah upon you.
Sahih al-Bukhari 6490; Sahih Muslim 2963
This is not a command to despise people who have more, nor is it a command to ignore injustice or stop improving ourselves. It is a cure for the heart. When we constantly look upward at possessions, status, beauty, and achievement, we train ourselves to feel poor even while surrounded by blessings. When we remember those facing greater hardship, we recover gratitude and humility. Then we can pursue lawful improvement without hatred and without worshipping comparison.
Our age has made comparison constant. In the past, a person might compare himself with a few relatives, neighbors, or colleagues. Today, a person can open a screen and compare his home, body, marriage, income, holidays, friendships, and entire life with hundreds of carefully selected images before breakfast.
We know, intellectually, that people display highlights. But the heart can still react as if the display is the complete truth. A person begins to believe that everyone else is moving forward while he is standing still. He forgets that he is comparing his private struggles with other people's public presentations.
My brothers and sisters, do not allow a screen to become your teacher about what a successful life is. Do not allow advertising to define sufficiency. Do not allow another person's timeline to become a judgment against Allah's decree for you. A delay is not proof of rejection. A different path is not proof of failure. A smaller home is not proof of a smaller value. A later marriage is not proof that Allah has abandoned you. A health struggle is not proof that you are unloved by Allah. A child's difficulty is not a certificate of parental failure.
We must be careful here. Contentment with Allah's decree does not mean pretending that pain is not painful. It does not mean that we may not grieve, seek treatment, ask for help, pursue work, make plans, or hope for change. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, cried. Ya'qub, peace be upon him, grieved deeply over the loss of Yusuf, peace be upon him, and said:
I only complain of my suffering and grief to Allah.
Quran 12:86
There is a difference between complaining about Allah and complaining to Allah. There is a difference between sadness and objection. There is a difference between taking lawful means and believing that the means control the outcome. Contentment means that while we work, ask, treat, plan, and struggle, we know that Allah is the Lord of the result. We do not make our peace dependent on receiving exactly what we wanted.
Allah says:
No disaster strikes upon the earth or within yourselves except that it is in a register before We bring it into being. Indeed, that is easy for Allah. So that you do not grieve over what has escaped you or exult over what He has given you. And Allah does not like everyone self-deluded and boastful.
Quran 57:22-23
The verse gives us balance. Do not collapse over what has passed you by, and do not become arrogant over what has come to you. The blessing and the deprivation are both tests. The question is not only, What did I receive? The deeper question is, What did I do with what I received? Did it make me thankful? Did it make me generous? Did it make me humble? Did it make me more obedient?
Allah also says:
Your wealth and your children are only a trial, while Allah has with Him a great reward.
Quran 64:15
Notice the verse does not say that wealth and children are evil. They can be among the greatest blessings in life. But they are a trial because they reveal what is in us. Wealth can produce generosity or arrogance. Children can produce love and responsibility or pride and heedlessness. Beauty can produce gratitude or vanity. Knowledge can produce service or contempt. A large opportunity can produce obedience or distance from Allah.
Therefore, we must never assume that the person with more of the world has more honor with Allah. Nor should we assume that the person with less has been humiliated. The scale of Allah is not the scale of advertisements, social media, or public applause.
Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the one most mindful of Him.
Quran 49:13
The heart infected by envy says, If they rise, I must be falling. Islam teaches something better: another person's blessing does not reduce Allah's ability to bless you. Another person's success does not cancel your worth. Another person's provision does not consume your provision. The treasures of Allah do not run out because someone else received.
When envy appears, do not negotiate with it for hours. Turn to Allah quickly. Say, in your own language: O Allah, bless them in what You have given them, protect their blessing from harm, and grant me what is good for me from Your bounty. This is difficult at first, especially when the heart is wounded. But every time you refuse to feed envy and instead make a sincere dua for that person, you weaken the disease.
If you have spoken against someone because of envy, stop. If you spread a rumor, correct it. If you mocked their success, repent. If you harmed their reputation, repair what you can without creating greater harm. Repentance is not merely feeling guilty. It is turning back to Allah, abandoning the sin, regretting it, and restoring people's rights when people's rights were violated.
And if you are the target of envy, protect yourself without becoming unjust. Do not answer every suspicion with suspicion. Do not respond to hidden hostility by becoming hostile to everyone. Seek refuge in Allah, recite the Quran, maintain wise boundaries, and do not allow another person's sickness to infect your heart.
Allah taught us to seek refuge from the evil of the envier when he envies. This reminds us that envy can lead to real harm through words, actions, deception, and injustice. But the remedy begins with Allah. We ask Him for protection, and we also ask Him to purify us so that we do not become what we fear in others.
The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:
Do not hate one another, do not envy one another, and do not turn away from one another. Rather, be servants of Allah as brothers.
Sahih al-Bukhari 6065; Sahih Muslim 2559
Look at the order of this guidance. The Prophet did not merely say, Do not feel anything unpleasant. He gave us a way to live: servants of Allah, brothers and sisters in faith. When Allah is the center, we do not need to compete for the position of being admired by every person. We can celebrate another believer's good, advise one another sincerely, and seek our own lawful share from Allah.
True richness is not the size of a bank account or the number of possessions. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:
Richness is not having many possessions. Rather, true richness is the richness of the soul.
Sahih al-Bukhari 6446; Sahih Muslim 1051
A rich soul can enjoy a blessing without worshipping it. A rich soul can see another person's blessing without feeling personally attacked. A rich soul can work hard without believing that the result defines human worth. A rich soul can say, Alhamdulillah, even while asking Allah for more. It can say, Allah has not given me everything I want, but He has not withheld everything good from me.
Contentment is not laziness. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, taught us:
Be keen on what benefits you, seek help from Allah, and do not feel helpless. If something befalls you, do not say, If only I had done such and such. Rather say, Allah decreed, and He does what He wills.
Sahih Muslim 2664
There are two commands here: pursue what benefits you, and seek Allah's help. Then, when the outcome is not what you hoped, do not imprison yourself in endless if only. Learn the lesson, take responsibility where responsibility is yours, and release what you cannot change to the One who knows what you do not know.
Sometimes Allah gives by withholding. Sometimes a door closes because walking through it would have harmed our faith, our family, or our future. Sometimes the answer is delayed so that we mature before receiving it. Sometimes we are protected from a blessing that we were not ready to carry. We do not claim to know the specific wisdom behind every event. But we trust the wisdom of the One who knows.
And even when we have sinned, we must not compare ourselves to others in a way that produces despair. Someone else may appear better than us, but we do not know his hidden deeds. We may appear worse than someone else, but the door of repentance is open to us. Allah wants us to compete in righteousness, not compete in appearances. The person who returns to Allah sincerely may become better through repentance than he was before the sin.
So let us ask ourselves honestly: What comparison is stealing my gratitude? Whose blessing am I resenting? Which account, conversation, or habit repeatedly awakens dissatisfaction in me? What lawful effort have I neglected because I was busy watching someone else? And what blessing have I stopped noticing because it became familiar?
Servants of Allah, the cure is not to deny desire. The cure is to place desire under faith. Ask Allah. Work lawfully. Accept His wisdom. Thank Him for what you have. Protect your tongue. Make dua for those whose blessings test you. And remember that the greatest gift is not getting everything you want. The greatest gift is reaching Allah with a sound heart.
I say these words of mine, and I seek Allah's forgiveness for me, for you, and for all Muslims. So seek His forgiveness; He is the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful.
Al-hamdu lillahi rabbil-'alamin. All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds. We praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We bear witness that there is no god worthy of worship except Allah alone, without partner, and that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.
Allahumma salli wa sallim wa barik 'ala Muhammadin wa 'ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in.
Servants of Allah, I advise myself and you to have taqwa of Allah. Guard your hearts from envy, guard your eyes from unhealthy comparison, and trust Allah's wisdom in what He gives and what He withholds.
Second Khutbah
The central message is simple: another person's blessing is not an accusation against you, and your hardship is not proof that Allah has forgotten you.
Do not let comparison turn gratitude into bitterness. Do not let envy turn a brother or sister into an enemy. Do not let a delayed answer turn you away from the One who hears every prayer. Pursue what benefits you, ask Allah for His bounty, and accept that His knowledge is greater than yours.
For the coming week, take three practical actions.
- Guard your inputs. Identify the people, accounts, conversations, or habits that repeatedly awaken envy in you. Mute, limit, or leave what harms your heart. Replace some of that time with Quran, beneficial learning, family connection, or quiet gratitude.
- Turn envy into dua and lawful effort. When a person's blessing comes to mind, ask Allah to bless that person and to grant you what is good for you. Then choose one beneficial goal of your own and take one real step toward it, while seeking Allah's help.
- Practice contentment each evening. Name one blessing Allah gave you, one difficulty through which He sustained you, and one act of obedience or gratitude you can offer tomorrow. If an outcome disappoints you, say with conviction: Allah decreed, and He does what He wills; then learn, adjust, and continue.
O Allah, make our hearts sound. Remove from us envy, arrogance, resentment, despair, and hatred. Make us grateful for Your blessings, patient during hardship, sincere in worship, and content with Your decree without becoming passive or neglecting the means You have made lawful.
O Allah, forgive the believing men and believing women, the Muslim men and Muslim women, those who are living and those who have passed away. Forgive our parents, our teachers, our families, and all who have a right over us. Have mercy on our deceased and raise them among those whom You have forgiven.
O Allah, guide us to the truth and make us steadfast upon it. Keep our hearts firm upon faith. Do not allow our hearts to deviate after You have guided us. Grant us sincerity in private and public, and make our final words the testimony that there is no god worthy of worship except You.
O Allah, bless our families. Place love, mercy, patience, and faith between spouses. Protect our children and young people. Give them righteous companionship, beneficial knowledge, sound judgment, purity, courage, and a firm connection to prayer and the Quran. Protect them from harmful influences, despair, addiction, exploitation, and every path that distances them from You.
O Allah, heal the sick among us with a healing that leaves no illness behind. Ease the pain of those who are distressed, anxious, grieving, or lonely. Bring relief to those facing fear, family difficulty, displacement, or uncertainty. Give patience and support to those caring for the sick.
O Allah, help those burdened by debt. Provide lawful and dignified means for those struggling financially. Bless those who are searching for work, protect those whose work is difficult, and place blessing in every lawful income. Give shelter, food, safety, and hope to those in hardship.
O Allah, protect the oppressed wherever they are. Relieve their suffering, preserve their lives and dignity, strengthen their hearts, and grant them justice and safety. Guide those with power to restrain themselves from ظلم, oppression and transgression, and open paths of relief that are good and just.
O Allah, guide our leaders and those responsible for the affairs of people. Grant them justice, wisdom, honesty, mercy, and accountability. Protect communities from corruption, violence, hatred, and injustice. Unite us upon truth and righteousness, not upon wrongdoing or blind partisanship. Make us people who listen, speak fairly, fulfill trusts, and repair harm.
O Allah, accept our prayer, fasting, charity, Quran recitation, repentance, and every act of worship. Accept what is sincere and forgive what is deficient. Protect us from showing off, hypocrisy, heedlessness, and the trials that could take us away from faith. Protect us from the trials of life and death, from the punishment of the grave, and from the punishment of the Fire.
Our Lord, give us good in this life and good in the Hereafter, and protect us from the punishment of the Fire. O Allah, grant us lawful provision, beneficial knowledge, righteous deeds, a sound heart, and a meeting with You while You are pleased with us.
Allahumma salli wa sallim wa barik 'ala nabiyyina Muhammadin, wa 'ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in.
Indeed, Allah commands justice, excellence, and giving to relatives, and He forbids immorality, wrongdoing, and transgression. He admonishes you so that you may take heed.
Establish the prayer.