Key to Paradise

Occasion: Summary of a Jumuʿah khutbah delivered at Bayt Al-Karim on April 24, 2026.Source: transcription of a recorded khutbah by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — watch the original video on YouTube

All praise belongs to Allah. We praise Him, seek His help and His forgiveness, and ask Him to increase the īmān in our hearts. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and that Muḥammad ﷺ is His final Messenger and Prophet.

The flyer for today's khutbah spoke of the door to Paradise, and the difference between two small words matters here: the door of Paradise and the door to Paradise.

On the Day of Judgment you will find angels assigned to you personally, sent to receive you, host you and greet you with peace. They will show you your place, and you will arrive with your own group, the people you stayed close to in this world. That is the door of Paradise, the one you will see standing open. Today we are looking for something earlier: the door to it, the one we must choose to walk through here, in this life.

You are already walking toward one. You came to the masjid. You did not ignore the call of Allah and go off to spend the rest of the hour on business and more money. You left everything behind you and came. So the question is which door you are heading for.

Everyone is looking for a door

In this world each of us is also looking for a door into enjoyment, and it is not the same door for everyone. For some it is money, for others children or a field of study or a specialty. I find my own enjoyment in speaking to people; I see myself doing my part in this world, and that gives me joy. Another man comes home at the end of the day and says he earned a thousand dollars, and that is not enough for him; he missed one deal, and he cannot rest, because he had hoped for ten thousand. People have different aims, different goals, different targets.

On the Day of Judgment the doors are named for what a person devoted himself to. The Prophet ﷺ said:

«مَنْ أَنْفَقَ زَوْجَيْنِ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ نُودِيَ مِنْ أَبْوَابِ الْجَنَّةِ: يَا عَبْدَ اللَّهِ هَذَا خَيْرٌ؛ فَمَنْ كَانَ مِنْ أَهْلِ الصَّلَاةِ دُعِيَ مِنْ بَابِ الصَّلَاةِ، وَمَنْ كَانَ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْجِهَادِ دُعِيَ مِنْ بَابِ الْجِهَادِ، وَمَنْ كَانَ مِنْ أَهْلِ الصِّيَامِ دُعِيَ مِنْ بَابِ الرَّيَّانِ، وَمَنْ كَانَ مِنْ أَهْلِ الصَّدَقَةِ دُعِيَ مِنْ بَابِ الصَّدَقَةِ»"Whoever spends a pair in the way of Allah will be called from the gates of Paradise: 'Servant of Allah, this is good.' Whoever was of the people of prayer will be called from the gate of prayer; whoever was of the people of jihad will be called from the gate of jihad; whoever was of the people of fasting will be called from the gate of al-Rayyān; and whoever was of the people of charity will be called from the gate of charity."^[1]

Abū Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, was listening for the right moment to speak. He asked whether anyone could be called from all of those gates at once. The Prophet ﷺ said: "Yes, and I hope you will be one of them."

Notice who is asking. Abū Bakr is a man who sees himself among the first of the first. He was never content to be second. And when the Prophet ﷺ needed someone for a hard moment, it was Abū Bakr he turned to, because Abū Bakr never said no. You may say, "That is the Prophet's closest Companion; of course he is different." But hold on to the example anyway, because it shows what a person can be.

The gates are within reach

What are these gates? Prayer, fasting, charity, trust in Allah, kindness to parents, remembrance of Allah, repentance. Is any of them out of reach? Can I not devote myself to one of them, so that whenever the time of prayer comes I am there?

Then the story of a very ordinary man. The Prophet ﷺ was sitting among his Companions when he said:

«يَطْلُعُ عَلَيْكُمُ الْآنَ رَجُلٌ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْجَنَّةِ»"A man of the people of Paradise is about to appear before you."

They looked, and a man walked in. He was nobody famous. He was not one of the elite of the community. He was a humble person. One of the young Companions was determined to learn his secret. He went to the man's home and said, "I have a problem with my father, and I would like to stay with you for a few days." The man answered, "Of course. Make yourself at home."

The young man stayed three nights and saw nothing out of the ordinary: nothing beyond what anyone else does. Finally he said, "The Prophet ﷺ gave glad tidings about you. I have looked for the reason and found nothing more than other people do. What is your secret?" The man said: when I go to sleep at night, I have nothing in my heart against anybody. Whatever people do is between them and Allah. I do not concern myself with it. I concern myself with my own future.^[2]

Think about that. We ask people for money. We ask them to stand for night prayer. But here was a man who did only what was required of him and went to bed with a clean heart. Are we really planning for our future in the hereafter, or not?

Do not pull a person down

I remember a friend of mine, older than I am, who was extraordinarily generous. He used to travel to different parts of Egypt collecting money from people to build a school in each city. Whatever the people gave, he matched. Whatever the sum, he matched it. Then he would return and build.

One day, before setting out for one of those cities, he was praying and had gathered several people to travel with him in the same car. One of them stood watching. My friend finished two rakʿahs, and began two more, and then another two. The man called out, "What are you doing? We are going to collect money, and I will certainly put in a million, and you are fasting and praying. Leave something for us to enter Paradise next to you."

It sounded like a joke, but look at what he was doing. Why pull a person down? Remember what Abū Bakr used to do, and compare the two. Do we have the ability to compete with the Companions? Most of us will say no. But one man of the generation after them used to say: do the Companions think they will enter Paradise before us? No. By Allah, we will be next to them there.

Everyone is busy right now with the news of the world, with the price of gold and silver, and with where the money is going. We have responsibilities and we have to plan: a strategic plan, a plan for work, for the future. But in the same breath we must plan for the hereafter. Paradise is the real future for everybody. So: what is your plan, and which door will you go through?

Who comes to Allah with you?

I have given you two examples, one from the time of the Prophet ﷺ and one from our own days. What about you and me? I am trying as hard as I can to come to Allah with my children beside me. I have prepared them to carry the call to Allah. I can say to Him that I struggled to deliver a good message to people, and I ask Him to accept that, and I can bring my children with me, with the same mindset, the same goal. If they are better than I am, I will be glad.

But as an imam I see, every single day, people coming to tell us that their children have gone out of Islam. I do not want to put it that harshly, but we have faced it. Why? Because they came to America and enjoyed the dollar and the houses and the services and the roads. What are we looking for, if we stay here or go there and lose our dignity with our children?

We are all going to be under the earth one day. Everything we have we will leave behind, and it will be called inheritance. Who will receive it? A pious person, or an ignorant one? When Ibrāhīm, peace be upon him, made a special prayer for the descendants who would come after him, he put it in clear words.^[3]

If we can prepare a new generation, they will already have a different mindset about life. They can use AI better than I can. They can move the religion to the next stage. But without us, they will not find the way. My role is to put them on the track and then let them go, and I cannot do that if they never come.

Responsibility before rights

That is what we are trying to do in this masjid, with this good community. Twice a week we give a short explanation of one of the short sūrahs, quick and clear. We sit to receive anyone who needs counselling, family counselling especially. When the prayer time comes we pray, and immediately afterwards we explain one of the duʿāʾs of the Prophet ﷺ, again easy and fast. And the heart of it is a time for our youth.

Unfortunately, we are not finding your children. I am not sure what they are doing. Homework? Devices? Are they learning the religion from other teachers, in other courses elsewhere? I hope so. But I do not want them sitting at home like couch potatoes while we are here and even the grown-ups who come to pray leave their children behind. This is the place they need to come to. If we start with them here, with the foundations of the religion, they will become good spouses, good business people, good leaders. They will feel their dignity. They will not be embarrassed that their name is Muḥammad or Sumayyah, nor shorten it to something that sounds more at home. They will keep their names, and their dignity, through any difficulty.

After that we hold a lecture on purifying the soul and on educating ourselves to be good Muslims. We try, not for your sake only, but because this is our responsibility, and every one of us will stand before Allah. He will ask me, "Ahmed, you had a position there. What did you do with it?" What will I say? "I was relaxing. It was a comfortable place, and the people did not come to the masjid. It was a good time for me"? Would that carry me to any of the doors of Paradise? And He will ask you why you did not come. Will you say you were tired from work, that you needed a break? Is that a good excuse?

Before I leave this place, I ask you to think about your responsibility before you think about your rights. Look at the sky and ask what you owe to your religion, to Allah. We all say, "Yā Allah," at any time and in any action; but before asking what Allah is giving, ask what you are giving, and leave something good behind you.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: reported by al-Bukhārī and Muslim, from Abū Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: the hadith of the man whom the Prophet ﷺ announced as one of the people of Paradise; reported by Aḥmad from Anas ibn Mālik, may Allah be pleased with him. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: Ibrāhīm's prayer, ﴿رَبِّ اجْعَلْنِي مُقِيمَ الصَّلَاةِ وَمِن ذُرِّيَّتِي رَبَّنَا وَتَقَبَّلْ دُعَاءِ﴾ [Ibrāhīm 14:40]: "My Lord, make me an establisher of prayer, and from my descendants. Our Lord, and accept my prayer." The khatib did not recite it in the khutbah.