Be Put to Use Before You Are Replaced

Occasion: A summary of a Friday khutbah delivered at the AIA Masjid on September 18, 2026Source: A transcription of a video khutbah by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

Praise be to Allah, and blessings and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who conveyed the message, fulfilled the trust and gave sincere counsel to the Ummah. To proceed:

The title of our khutbah last Friday was: ﴿فَاسْتَمْسِكْ بِالَّذِي أُوحِيَ إِلَيْكَ﴾ (“So hold fast to that which has been revealed to you”) [al-Zukhruf: 43]. And I have seen nothing more fitting or more wonderful after this call than that we continue reminding ourselves of where matters end up if we do not hold fast. For there has come from my Lord, glorified is He, a severely worded warning: ﴿وَإِن تَتَوَلَّوْا يَسْتَبْدِلْ قَوْمًا غَيْرَكُمْ ثُمَّ لَا يَكُونُوا أَمْثَالَكُم﴾ (“And if you turn away, He will replace you with another people; then they will not be the likes of you”) [Muḥammad: 38].

Your choice is one, with no second; your path has no return; and the crossing is made once: either you arrive or you fall. Life is a passageway, and the Hereafter awaits as a dwelling, and the servant has no choices other than what Allah has chosen for him. If you hold fast to the word of tawḥīd, Allah has granted you all good and kept you far from every kind of evil. And there is no sane person on the face of the earth who chooses what is bad after good has come to him, or who swerves from the most correct path after being guided to it. These are the simplest of equations, yet people swerve.

Where did this warning come?

It came in a unique place, in a sūrah called Sūrat Muḥammad ﷺ. And the wonder is that you see this warning at the close of the sūrah. What comes to people's minds when they hear “Sūrat Muḥammad” is that Muḥammad is the one primarily addressed in it. Yet Allah's address to him in it comes only with His words: ﴿فَاعْلَمْ أَنَّهُ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَاسْتَغْفِرْ لِذَنبِكَ وَلِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مُتَقَلَّبَكُمْ وَمَثْوَاكُمْ﴾ (“So know that there is no god but Allah, and ask forgiveness for your sin and for the believing men and the believing women. And Allah knows your movement and your resting place”) [Muḥammad: 19]. A charge that seems almost passive: know, and seek forgiveness, in a sūrah whose content is all about fighting and thorough subduing of the enemy.

Then you look at the position of the sūrah and you see another call, with which Sūrat al-Aḥqāf closed, when Allah commanded him to intensified patience: ﴿فَاصْبِرْ كَمَا صَبَرَ أُولُو الْعَزْمِ مِنَ الرُّسُلِ وَلَا تَسْتَعْجِل لَّهُمْ﴾ (“So be patient, as those of determination among the messengers were patient, and do not seek to hasten it for them”) [al-Aḥqāf: 35]. And in al-Aḥqāf: ﴿وَاذْكُرْ أَخَا عَادٍ إِذْ أَنذَرَ قَوْمَهُ بِالْأَحْقَافِ﴾ (“And mention the brother of ʿĀd, when he warned his people in al-Aḥqāf”) [al-Aḥqāf: 21]. So what happened to them when they saw the punishment? ﴿فَلَمَّا رَأَوْهُ عَارِضًا مُّسْتَقْبِلَ أَوْدِيَتِهِمْ قَالُوا هَٰذَا عَارِضٌ مُّمْطِرُنَا ۚ بَلْ هُوَ مَا اسْتَعْجَلْتُم بِهِ ۖ رِيحٌ فِيهَا عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ ۝ تُدَمِّرُ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ بِأَمْرِ رَبِّهَا﴾ (“And when they saw it as a cloud approaching their valleys, they said, ‘This is a cloud bringing us rain.’ Rather, it is that which you sought to hasten: a wind within which is a painful punishment, destroying everything by the command of its Lord”) [al-Aḥqāf: 24-25]. They were extremely arrogant, to the point that they thought the means of life were subjected to serve them alone, that they controlled the world, and that the wind, the seas, the rains, the mountains and the rivers were all under their command. So the Qur'an told them: «بأمر ربها» (“by the command of its Lord”), not by your command.

And if you go back to al-Zukhruf, in which «فاستمسك» (“So hold fast”) came, you find a reminder of one who resembles them: ﴿أَلَيْسَ لِي مُلْكُ مِصْرَ وَهَٰذِهِ الْأَنْهَارُ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِي ۖ أَفَلَا تُبْصِرُونَ﴾ (“Is not the kingdom of Egypt mine, and these rivers flowing beneath me? Then do you not see?”) [al-Zukhruf: 51], ﴿فَاسْتَخَفَّ قَوْمَهُ فَأَطَاعُوهُ﴾ (“So he made light of his people, and they obeyed him”) [al-Zukhruf: 54]. They glorified him and inflated his self until he thought himself the one and only god.

So Sūrat Muḥammad is the way of salvation from an end like the end of al-Aḥqāf, and the one and only way to reach the opening (al-fatḥ); so consider the sequence: al-Aḥqāf, then Muḥammad, then al-Fatḥ, then al-Ḥujurāt. And the opening is a favour from Allah: ﴿إِنَّا فَتَحْنَا لَكَ فَتْحًا مُّبِينًا﴾ (“Indeed, We have given you a clear opening”) [al-Fatḥ: 1]. So what was it that Muḥammad ﷺ did? ﴿وَمَا رَمَيْتَ إِذْ رَمَيْتَ وَلَٰكِنَّ اللَّهَ رَمَىٰ﴾ (“And you did not throw when you threw, but it was Allah who threw”) [al-Anfāl: 17].

Had Allah willed, He would have taken retribution

And at the beginning of the sūrah the Lord of the worlds says: ﴿وَلَوْ يَشَاءُ اللَّهُ لَانتَصَرَ مِنْهُمْ وَلَٰكِن لِّيَبْلُوَ بَعْضَكُم بِبَعْضٍ﴾ (“And if Allah had willed, He could have taken retribution from them, but it is to test some of you by means of others”) [Muḥammad: 4]. Did our Lord not do to the people of ʿĀd and Thamūd and the people of Lot what He did? And to Pharaoh and Qārūn? Had He wished, He would have turned the tables as though they had never been; but it is so that He may test some of you by means of others. It is as though He, glorified is He, is speaking to you, O you who desire Paradise, O you who love the Prophet ﷺ: look at the place of the test, and at the place where Allah has put you.

What is strange is that some of us are content with being Muslim and with praying. That is for you, not for the religion. I pray for myself and for my own final outcome; it is a kind of giving, but the religion asks for giving of another kind.

Here you are, being called to spend

﴿هَا أَنتُمْ هَٰؤُلَاءِ تُدْعَوْنَ لِتُنفِقُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ فَمِنكُم مَّن يَبْخَلُ ۖ وَمَن يَبْخَلْ فَإِنَّمَا يَبْخَلُ عَن نَّفْسِهِ ۚ وَاللَّهُ الْغَنِيُّ وَأَنتُمُ الْفُقَرَاءُ ۚ وَإِن تَتَوَلَّوْا يَسْتَبْدِلْ قَوْمًا غَيْرَكُمْ ثُمَّ لَا يَكُونُوا أَمْثَالَكُم﴾ (“Here you are, being called to spend in the way of Allah; and among you are those who withhold. And whoever withholds only withholds from himself; and Allah is the Free of need, while you are the needy. And if you turn away, He will replace you with another people; then they will not be the likes of you”) [Muḥammad: 38]. Our Lord wished to make clear to us that spending is a kind of giving and a proof of one's presence in the world of sacrifice for the sake of this religion. And being stingy with money is part of being stingy with one's self and one's being when one is called.

Nor is this sentence alone in the Qur'an. In al-Tawbah: ﴿انفِرُوا خِفَافًا وَثِقَالًا﴾ (“Go forth, whether light or heavy”) [al-Tawbah: 41], and in the same sūrah He, glorified is He, warns: ﴿إِلَّا تَنفِرُوا يُعَذِّبْكُمْ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًا وَيَسْتَبْدِلْ قَوْمًا غَيْرَكُمْ﴾ (“If you do not go forth, He will punish you with a painful punishment and will replace you with another people”) [al-Tawbah: 39]. So it is a Qur'anic pattern that you see in al-Tawbah, in Muḥammad and elsewhere, each according to its context.

And how often have we recalled together the scene of that Companion who stood in the battle saying: There is nothing between me and Paradise but these dates; if I live until I eat them, that is indeed a long life. So he threw them away and threw himself between the ranks.^[1] And it is narrated of such a scene: By Allah, we do not know whether he fell upon death or death fell upon him.^[2] Those were souls that appeared in order to say: O Lord, we are wherever You have put us to use.

What is your task?

What is strange is that we do not know our task. I know that I work as an imam, and perhaps this is what Allah has put me to use in: to stand before people and then be questioned about my work and deeds every Friday, rather every day. But if I were content with being an imam and preaching to people, and neglected my family and children, fell short in my life with my wife and relatives, was undutiful to my mother and drove my father away, and was content with this one part, would that be right? Is it right that you feel your role in one small corner and then forget your roles in all the other realms and aspects of life? Who are you? And who am I? A question that no one but you will answer. And if you turn away, then from what?

ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān (may Allah be pleased with him) had a role from which he did not hold back. And Khālid ibn al-Walīd (may Allah be pleased with him) was not a man of financial giving, but he was a man of voice, strength, victory and intellect. ʿAlī was in one field, ʿUthmān in a field, Abū Bakr in a field and ʿUmar in a field, may Allah be pleased with them all; and when they stood together you saw an integrated system of work and giving.

As for the real problem, and I seek Allah's forgiveness for our shortcomings, it is that each one of us does not grasp the reality of his role in life. Do you think that my Lord created me in vain, and that I am here to eat and drink and enjoy myself, to gather wealth? Or am I here for a greater role? Our very presence has become a cause for accusation, and our Islam has become an object of suspicion; and if we are not able to prove this presence in this world, what we belong to will be lost, and Allah prevails over His affair. But where are the employees in this great company, in this mighty institution called Islam? Where are its workers? What do we give and what do we not give?

Each of us has a role. What is required is that you discover your role, know its reality, and discover the talents in your hands and spend them for your religion.

Where shall we flee?

If an order of dismissal from my task here were issued to me by the Lord of the worlds, I would leave this work and go off to something else; but with our Lord, where would you go? If you are dismissed from a company, they tell you: Thank you, we no longer need your services, and you go to another. But with Allah, if He employed you as a Muslim carrying this identity, raising this banner and belonging to this religion, and then dismissed you from it, where would we go? Where would we flee from Allah except to Him?

We fled from our religion when we fell short in worship, which is one of the strong indicators of faith. If you ask about the night prayer in the lives of Muslims, you see a very great shortfall; if you ask about completing the five prayers, you see a great shortfall; and if you ask about spending, you come upon what follows.

Two days ago we were speaking in a reflection about the words of the Exalted: ﴿وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ أَنفِقُوا مِمَّا رَزَقَكُمُ اللَّهُ قَالَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَنُطْعِمُ مَن لَّوْ يَشَاءُ اللَّهُ أَطْعَمَهُ﴾ (“And when it is said to them, ‘Spend from that which Allah has provided for you,’ those who disbelieve say to those who believe, ‘Should we feed one whom, if Allah had willed, He would have fed?’”) [Yā Sīn: 47]. What does it mean? If Allah wanted to feed them, He would have fed them; so the matter is outside me, I am not responsible. Imagine how Satan made attractive to them a logic of the most logical kind! And how many a Muslim applies this principle even if he does not claim it! We look at the poor with the look of those who pray for them: O Lord, relieve them; but reaching hands into pockets and real spending does not exist. And many of us, when they spend, spend only as a sedative for the conscience: one spends a small amount to calm his conscience because of what is happening in another place, or because of the amount of money he has, and so he deceives his own eye about himself before himself. As for setting out from a burning eagerness to defend the Ummah and what it holds sacred, that is found only in those upon whom Allah has mercy.

We are speaking about feeling responsibility, carrying the concern, and awareness that the whole Ummah is in your hand, or in your pocket, or in your mind. And if all hands reach out at one time, the Ummah rises.

Supplication

O Allah, return us and the Muslims to Your religion with a beautiful return, and preserve for us the well-being of faith and of hearts. O Allah, do not distance us from Your Book, and do not let our minds be heedless of understanding it nor our hearts of feeling it. O Allah, make us firm, guide us, make us content, and strengthen our hearts. O Allah, grant gentleness to the people of Gaza and those around them, firmness to the people of truth and support to the people of righteousness. O Allah, forgive us our shortcomings and help us to do more work for You and in Your way, O Most Merciful of the merciful, and do not disgrace us or expose us in this world or in the Hereafter.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: The story is in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, from the ḥadīth of Anas (may Allah be pleased with him), in the account of ʿUmayr ibn al-Ḥumām (may Allah be pleased with him) on the day of Badr, and the speaker's wording gives the meaning; Muslim's wording is: «لَئِنْ أَنَا حَيِيتُ حَتَّى آكُلَ تَمَرَاتِي هَذِهِ إِنَّهَا لَحَيَاةٌ طَوِيلَةٌ» (“If I live until I eat these dates of mine, that is indeed a long life”), and he threw away the dates he had with him, then fought them until he was killed. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The speaker cited this phrase in the context of the narration, and the editor has not found its source; it is not in the wording of Muslim's ḥadīth about ʿUmayr ibn al-Ḥumām (may Allah be pleased with him), so it is not to be attributed to him.