We Hear and We Obey: Which Comes First, Hearing or Obedience?

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on June 26, 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, our Lord, from the evil of this day, the evil of what is in it and the evil of what comes after it. Keep our hearts sound for us, and preserve for us our well-being and our security, in ourselves and our families. O Allah, we ask You to settle faith in the very root of our hearts, O Lord of the worlds.

Now then, in the words of Allah, Blessed and Exalted: ﴿آمَنَ الرَّسُولُ بِمَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْهِ مِنْ رَبِّهِ وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ كُلٌّ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَمَلَائِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ لَا نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِنْ رُسُلِهِ وَقَالُوا سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا غُفْرَانَكَ رَبَّنَا﴾ (“The Messenger has believed in what was revealed to him from his Lord, and so have the believers. All of them have believed in Allah, His angels, His books and His messengers: ‘We make no distinction between any of His messengers.’ And they say: ‘We hear and we obey. Your forgiveness, our Lord’”)^[1]

It strikes you that their asking for forgiveness came only after hearing and obeying. So the very asking of forgiveness came from the people of obedience, those who turn toward Allah, not from the people of disobedience, depravity and distance from Allah. From here we understand that asking for forgiveness has degrees and levels.

Between the People of Obedience and the People of Hearing and Obedience

Here we distinguish once more between the people of obedience and the people of “hearing and obedience.” What does this signify? It signifies that there is one who obeys within the herd and does not know what he is obeying or what he is doing; he prays as people pray, and he is rewarded, and fasts as people fast, and he worships the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, with the worship of the follower who walks along with the rest of the Muslims, neither departing from the foundation nor innovating anything. He walks with the people, and we ask Allah for acceptance for him and for us in every state.

But there is one who hears before he obeys. This is one of the people of reflection and understanding of what he does; he does not stand for a prayer without tasting its significance, its meaning and its sweetness, understanding its verses and reflecting on them, and he does not perform a day's fast without sensing Allah's favor upon him in every moment of the fast, and he neither circles a House nor runs between two hills without fully grasping the dimensions of what he is doing, in its educational, faith-related and intellectual aspects. This one worships Allah, Blessed and Exalted, not with the body alone, but the limbs of the body, the mind and the heart come together within him to perform the worship in its complete state: ﴿وَقَالُوا سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا﴾ (“And they say: ‘We hear and we obey’”).

The One Who Senses Shortcoming

These alone, among the people of obedience, are those who sense shortcoming however high the mountains of obedience they reach. These alone sense that they have not given the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, His due, however far their bodies have carried them; yet in their hearts there is a sense, I do not say of deficiency, but of shortcoming.

You see the Prophet ﷺ teaching us to seek Allah's forgiveness after the prayer, right after the prayer, so that part of the completion of remembering Allah after the prayer is: «أستغفر الله» (“I seek forgiveness of Allah”).^[2] And you ask, as we have asked many times: why? What is the point of this seeking of forgiveness at this moment? It is the fear of shortcoming; the fear that you have performed the prayer and missed from it a moment of your time in which you did not sense the sweetness of nearness to the Lord of the heavens and the earth, did not sense the sweetness of delighting in obedience before Him whom you called upon: ﴿اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ﴾ (“Guide us to the straight path”), and did not sense the help of the One whose aid is sought in your words: ﴿إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ﴾ (“You alone we worship”); for we are unable to worship unless You help us, and You alone are the One by whom we seek help.

The Sweetness of Obedience With Understanding

Those who said “we heard” mean: we understood, we grasped, we came to know. And only the people of reason perceive the sweetness and delight of obedience together with understanding. This is why you see the difference between two people: one delights in worship, aware and knowing, who knows the hidden details and subtleties of the matter, and a passing worshipper over whose heart and mind the prayer passes the way water passes over a rock, cleaning it on the outside but never probing its depths or going deep into it.

The Supplication

O Allah, give us insight into what lies before us, and make us, our Lord, among those who knew, tasted and obeyed. Make us, our Lord, among those whom You have accepted and from whom You have accepted, and let them taste the sweetness of Your reward in their obedience before You, through an increase of faith that You deposit in hearts, an increase of wisdom that You settle in minds, and an increase in the use of these obedient bodies. O Allah, amen, O Lord of the worlds. May Allah keep your day sound for you, and may He bless you and bless you in all you are.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Baqarah, verse 285; the speaker recited it as far as “Your forgiveness, our Lord.” ^[2]: Editor's documentation: Reported by Muslim (591) on the authority of Thawbān (may Allah be pleased with him): “When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ finished his prayer, he would seek forgiveness three times.”