Everything Has a Price, and the Failure Is the One Who Pays It in the Wrong Place

Occasion: Fajr khatira delivered on 11 February 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

When we read the story of the Children of Israel at the opening of Sūrat al-Baqara, I ask a simple question: on what did these people spend their lives and their years? On what did they spend their lifetimes? What did they accomplish? What was achieved at their hands?

A Comparison between Deeds and Accomplishment

Compare the deeds that the Lord of the worlds, Glorified and Exalted, presents to us in Sūrat al-Baqara about the Children of Israel, and what they did in their personal lives and in the life of humanity of spreading corruption and so on, with the videos that come out to people now, and with the swamp you see before your eyes. You ask a very simple question: what did these people accomplish? What is the conclusion that we have in our hands?

So when we say, for example, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ spent his whole life, sixty-three years, of which forty before the message, of which the Sīra tells that he was a noble human being, a great person, a person who represented a model in life, his character trusted as much as people trust their seeing the sun and the moon; this is a product. Then you look after the message reached him and you see him working in the field of the call from its beginning to its end, from the start of his life to its end, accomplishing a work every day, and you see that a real legacy was left behind. And measure this speech against the life of Joseph, and the life of Moses, and the life of Abraham, and the life of David and Solomon and Zechariah; all these people whom Allah, Blessed and Exalted, created and who devoted themselves to this good in humanity.

Everything Has a Price

We say now: everything in life has a price, and the price is paid according to the value of the thing you obtain. We gave the example long ago of the one who wants to obtain a doctorate: he spends on it time and effort and expense and so on. And the one who wants to buy a shop and achieve his accomplishments and say: I am here, and prove himself financially and economically, spends a certain effort. And the one who wants a certain wealth spends, and likewise the one who wants a degree. So what do those who spread corruption in the earth want? What do these people want?

Then you come and say that the one who seeks Paradise spends his whole life for it. That is why you see that you have a tie to the mosque five times a day, and remembrance of Allah, Glorified and Exalted, at the beginning of the day and its end, and charity and spending, and fasting the whole month of Ramadan, and this is a very great effort; and there is ʿumra and ḥajj, and there is striving in the cause of Allah, and all these things come within the framework of the price about which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ spoke with his words: «ألا إن سلعة الله غالية» (“Indeed, the commodity of Allah is precious”).^[1]

The Failure Is the One Who Pays the Price in the Wrong Place

The failure in life is the one who pays the price in the wrong place. Imagine you are going to buy a glass of water, one of these glasses, for the price of a car; you put the price of a car on such things! And it is said to you: My son, it is a completely losing deal.

So let us say again to ourselves: sell in what ought to be sold in, and buy what ought to be bought, and spend the price that is the fattest thing you have: your life, your time, your age. Spend it in that by which you will win the good pleasure of Allah, Glorified and Exalted, one day.

I ask Allah, Blessed and Exalted, to benefit us and you by the faith He has given us, and to write us among the witnesses in this worldly life and on the day of meeting Him, Mighty and Majestic.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: The hadith in full: «من خاف أدلج، ومن أدلج بلغ المنزل، ألا إن سلعة الله غالية، ألا إن سلعة الله الجنة» (“Whoever fears sets out at night, and whoever sets out at night reaches the destination. Indeed, the commodity of Allah is precious; indeed, the commodity of Allah is Paradise”), reported by al-Tirmidhī from the hadith of Abū Hurayra, may Allah be pleased with him. And the text is as the speaker confined himself to.