Your Task Is to Remind; Reckoning and Guidance Belong to Allah

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 19 June 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

O Allah, we ask You for the good of this day, the good of what is in it, and the good of what comes after it; and we seek refuge in You from the evil of this day, the evil of what is in it, and the evil of what comes after it. O Allah, set right for us our religion, our worldly life, and our Hereafter; grant us right guidance in our affairs; protect us from the punishment of the Fire; keep us far from the Fire and from the causes of the Fire, and from any company that is driven to the Fire; and we ask You for Paradise and its causes, and for company that leads to it.

From Glorification to Reckoning

At the close of Sūrat al-Ghāshiyah, that sūrah which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would often recite together with Sūrat al-Aʿlā, as though the two were a single whole of shared meanings and structures, inseparable^[1]: al-Aʿlā begins with glorification, ﴿سَبِّحِ اسْمَ رَبِّكَ الْأَعْلَى﴾ (“Glorify the name of your Lord, the Most High”), and al-Ghāshiyah ends with reckoning, ﴿إِنَّ إِلَيْنَا إِيَابَهُمْ ثُمَّ إِنَّ عَلَيْنَا حِسَابَهُمْ﴾ (“Indeed, to Us is their return; then indeed, upon Us is their reckoning”)^[4]. That is the beginning of the first sūrah, and this is the close of the second.

Together the two sūrahs take the servant on a cosmic journey toward the Hereafter: they take a person through the whole journey of this world and then carry him across into the Hereafter, to the Day of Decision. And "al-iyāb" is the return once more to the starting point one was in; "they will return to Us." This is a statement about the disbelievers, indeed about all human beings, and it is not an address to the Prophet ﷺ.

Your Task Is to Remind

So what did our Lord say to His Prophet ﷺ in this blessed sūrah? ﴿فَذَكِّرْ إِنَّمَا أَنتَ مُذَكِّرٌ لَسْتَ عَلَيْهِم بِمُصَيْطِرٍ﴾ (“So remind; you are only a reminder. You are not over them a controller”). The Prophet's ﷺ task is to remind. So with whom is the reckoning? With Allah, the Mighty and Majestic. We have no authority to pass judgment on people; judgment over creation is in the hand of Allah, blessed and exalted.

And I do not say this to speak about the realm of creed and the final destinies of people on the Day of Resurrection; I am speaking about the simple, particular matter, to the point that we find ourselves judging people as failures or successes according to our own view and assessment. And in that is an important lesson: that it is Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, who decrees all measures, and this is also found at the beginning of Sūrat al-Aʿlā: ﴿الَّذِي خَلَقَ فَسَوَّىٰ وَالَّذِي قَدَّرَ فَهَدَىٰ﴾ (“Who created and proportioned, and who determined and guided”). How many a failure sits before you today, from whom you see neither benefit nor harm, from whom you hope for neither good nor evil, and then he is leading the world one day! And when Allah opens up His servants, and when He sends down His mercies into the hearts and minds of people, that is a matter in the hand of Allah, blessed and exalted.

Our Children and Our Own Experience

I say this because it comes to my mind when I look at our children, whom we always see as lacking^[2]: they are still young, they do not make decisions well, they cannot act, they do not handle life well, and we do not give them as much trust as they deserve for leadership in the future. So we judge them by the judgment of our own minds and experiences, yet we do not know when Allah, exalted is He, will bring good their way.

And the simplest lesson we can take from our personal experiences: what was I before? When I was my son's age, at his age, what was I doing? How was I acting? How was my assessment of matters and my judgment of people? How were my impulses and my random behavior that drove my father and mother mad? I was many stages beyond them, and still I come today to judge others!

ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and al-Khaṭṭāb's Donkey

And our Lord, glorified is He, addresses the greatest model and the pioneering Prophet who does not lie to his people ﷺ, saying: Remind; you are only a reminder; you are not over them a controller, neither in this world nor in the Hereafter; the outcome of all affairs is to Allah, glorified and exalted.

Imagine people speaking about ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him) according to their judgment, assessment, view, and estimation: they say, "If al-Khaṭṭāb's donkey were to accept Islam, ʿUmar would not accept Islam"^[3]. That is: if the animal, which by its nature does not know how to act or deal with life, were to rise above that and understand, grasp, comprehend, and feel, and so accept Islam, ʿUmar would still be very far from this matter, as though, in their eyes, he lagged far behind even the world of the donkey itself. And then, behold, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him) became the leader and pioneer of administration in all the sciences of life, one of the foremost heads of the administrative sciences, laying the foundations of the science of administration from its beginning to its end, and everything that came after is only branches of what ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) established.

And you may see one of the young men charging about in the world of immorality and corruption, and then today he is a great caller to Allah, speaking to people of guidance and benefit.

Do Not Confine People Within the Limits of Your Eyes

The upshot, so that I do not go on at length where there is no benefit: do not confine people's circumstances or their future within the limits of your eyes and your assessments. There is a very important dimension, the dimension of divine guidance, whose extent and reality none knows except the Lord of the worlds, glorified and exalted.

So whenever you regard someone as of little worth, or look at someone as being little, then ask Allah to multiply the good that is in him, ask Him, blessed and exalted, to increase the blessing he has, and ask the Lord of the worlds to expand his provision.

And this, by Allah, my brothers, we find in every one of us: each of us marks the people around him with a label. You live among your children, your wife, your relatives, your maternal uncle and your paternal uncle, and you know the flaw that is in each person, so you assess him by it. If the matter were turned around in the light of ﴿إِنَّمَا أَنتَ مُذَكِّرٌ لَسْتَ عَلَيْهِم بِمُصَيْطِرٍ﴾ (“You are only a reminder; you are not over them a controller”), then call upon the One who turns things about to turn their hearts toward obedience, and call upon the One of the most complete knowledge, glorified is He, to turn what they have of deficiency into completeness, for He is able to do that, glorified, exalted in His majesty.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: What is known from the Sunnah is that he ﷺ recited al-Aʿlā and al-Ghāshiyah in the Friday prayer and the two ʿEid prayers (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim). The speaker said "he would often recite al-Aʿlā and al-Ghāshiyah" and did not specify the occasion. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The transcript's wording here («في الكف الناقص») is garbled; only the general meaning has been retained. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: The saying is reported as the speaker related it, as what people said about ʿUmar before his conversion to Islam; I have not found a firmly established attribution for it. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: [al-Aʿlā: 1], [al-Aʿlā: 2–3], [al-Ghāshiyah: 21–22], [al-Ghāshiyah: 25–26].