Khutbah – Being a source of good

Qalam Institute Podcast - Qalam Institute

This episode of the Qalam Institute Podcast explores the profound impact of small acts of kindness and how every individual, regardless of t

Key takeaways

• Every person has the capacity to do good, regardless of their resources or abilities.
• Sincere intention and action are more important than recognition or reward.

Main topics

• The concept of sadaqah jariyah (continuous charity)
• Small acts of kindness as forms of worship

Notable quotes

"Every single person has an opportunity to do some goodness. So much so that no person can ever say, 'I feel like I'm locked out.'"

Conclusion

The episode concludes with a call to recognize and seize everyday opportunit

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:01) As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. You're listening to The Qalam Podcast. Qalam's mission is to make Islamic knowledge accessible to everyone. If you have benefited from Qalam's work, please share it on with others. Continue to make dua. Pray that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accepts our efforts and that Allah gives us the ability to continue to serve more and more people. And thirdly, become a part of our mission. Plant your own sadaqah jariyah, your continuous charity by contributing and supporting our work. by going to supportqalam.com. Please visit the link, lend us your generous support, become a part of this mission, and share that link with others so that we can continue to do more and more work and help more and more people. Jazakumullahu khayran. Wassalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Speaker 1 (1:03) As-salamu alaykum. You're listening to the Qalam Podcast. Qalam's mission is to spread Islamic knowledge across the world to even more than the millions that are already benefiting. To help us continue our mission, support more podcasts like this one, and invest in your siddqa jariyat today, please visit supportqalam.com and donate generously. And jazakallah khair for listening. Speaker 3 (1:52) Surah Al-Fatihah Speaker 3 (2:15) We begin in the name of Allah, the Most High, the Most Gracious, the One to whom belongs all praise and all thanks. We seek His assistance. We ask him for his guidance, we beg him for his forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil that is within us and we seek refuge in Allah from the consequences of our evil deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides and can lead astray and whomsoever Allah allows to strain and can guide. I bear witness that there is no being worthy of worship except Allah alone, the one true God without any partners. And I bear witness that Muhammad ibn Abdullah is his servant and his final messenger. We ask Allah to bless and protect his last and final prophet, his family, his companions and those who follow his way until the end of times. A number of months ago, I had an early morning flight. I was traveling back home. If you've ever taken an early morning flight, perhaps you remember the experience. Now initially when you booked that early morning flight, you thought it was a phenomenal idea. Either because it was the best price, or you were thinking I'll get to my destination and I'll have the entire day. Whether it's an entire day of vacation or an entire day to spend back with family. Or it won't count towards your PTO. But there's a reason you took that early morning flight. But then on that day of the early morning flight, you begin to question life. Why did I do this? You get to the airport and you're not smiling. You're not making eye contact. You're not having casual conversations with anyone. The people around you have the same exact experience. That was my situation. I wasn't upset. I wasn't angry. Just tired. Perhaps a little grumpy. Perhaps still in my pajamas. Speaker 3 (4:03) And I got into the security line. Random strangers around me. No conversation is taking place. There's no eye contact that's happening between people. And as we all got close to the front of the security line, we noticed something strange, something off. That the TSA agent who was standing next to the metal detectors, who usually is barking orders or just telling people what to do, walk on through, empty your pockets. He was doing his job, but he was literally singing. Whatever he had to tell people, he was singing it. Initially, myself and those around me, we were taken aback. Like, what's wrong with him? What did he have for breakfast? Why is he so happy? You know, we live in a strange world that someone expresses too much happiness. We think they're weird, they're off. You know, that brother, that sister, they're always smiling. What's wrong with them? So we were taken aback. And most likely he saw our looks. But he didn't stop. He kept doing what he was doing. He was doing his five to five or whatever it was. He was doing his shift. He wasn't getting paid extra for singing those instructions. But as the seconds passed, as the minutes passed, And one by one, myself and the strangers around me, we went through the metal detectors. So much so, by the way, that this individual, when people got chosen for secondary screening, if that's ever happened to you, you feel agitated, you Speaker 2 (5:35) feel angry, annoyed. But to kind Speaker 3 (5:40) of put them at ease, to make sure that they didn't feel that way. In those moments when people got chosen for secondary screening, he would pause and he would look at them and he would say, congratulations, you've won today. And something amazing happened. By the time all of us had passed through the metal detectors, the entire environment, the entire atmosphere had changed. People were smiling. There was casual conversation that was taking place between strangers. At their bare minimum, there was a lot more eye contact. And sometimes it's moments like those that we experience in our daily lives that remind us of so many different statements of the Prophet ﷺ when he ﷺ would explain to us the concept of goodness, the concept of virtue, the concept of what it means to help others, to be kind to others, that every single person has an opportunity to do some goodness. So much so that no person can ever say, you know what? I feel like I'm locked out. I feel like I have nothing to offer. In a beautiful narration, the Prophet ﷺ, he says, that there is charity that is due upon every single Muslim. But then the narration says, it was said, O Messenger of Allah, what about someone that doesn't have the ability? Speaker 3 (7:17) In some of the other narrations, the Prophet ﷺ himself says, ask for the one who can't. So he gives another option. So he says, يَعْتَمِلُ بِيَدِهِ فَيَنْفَعُ نَفْسَهُ وَيَتَصَدَّقُ That person should find some work, benefit themselves and then give some in charity, benefit others. But then once again, it said, يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ Speaker 3 (7:44) What about someone that can't? They don't have the ability. So in one narration, the Prophet, he says that someone should help someone else get onto their riding animal, mount onto their horse, mount onto their camel. That was the context in the time of the Prophet ﷺ. For us, perhaps, that means that when it's Jumu'ah, or when we're at the grocery store, and we see someone is having trouble backing out, either because their camera's broken, either because they're at some level impaired, they have a disability, or they're just a bad driver. And they need help backing out. Perhaps all it takes is a few seconds, a few moments, that you stand at a safe distance behind their car, make sure no one's crossing in their way, and you help them back out. But that's what the Prophet ﷺ is saying. Help someone get onto their mode of transport. But then once again, the question is asked, Ya Rasulullah, what if someone that can't do