Seeking the Face of His Lord, the Most High: Where Does All This Striving Go?

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 17 July 2025 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

The Poignancy of Sūrat al-Layl

May Allah welcome you, and may Allah, the Most High, be pleased with you, and may Allah accept your striving to His house for the Fajr prayer. In reciting Sūrat al-Layl there are poignant stirrings that the worshipper feels as he recites the verses in measured tones, recalls the scenes, and moves between the parts of the blessed sūrah. And among what draws attention is the saying of Allah, blessed and exalted: ﴿إِلَّا ابْتِغَاءَ وَجْهِ رَبِّهِ الْأَعْلَىٰ﴾ ("but only seeking the face of his Lord, the Most High").^[1]

Within a general framework of trying to understand human beings: where is the end of all this striving? What are you busy with? How much do you spend? How many sources of provision do you have? The bodily strength that is in you, the breadth of your chest, your grasp of things, your ability to think, your social relationships, the achievements you have attained in your life, your children, your homes, your possessions, what you have spent in life until now; all of this, to where? Seeking the face of the Lord of the Worlds? Or seeking the face of the human self, looking into itself? Or seeking the faces of the people among whom you live?

Everyone Strives

Everyone strives, and everyone moves, and everyone spends, and everyone talks, and everyone sleeps, and everyone procreates, and everyone does what the rest of the people do. Everyone passes his night and passes his day, and months and years and weeks and days and hours and minutes and seconds go by over him; life passes over everyone. But there is a very great difference between one over whom a part of his life passes while he is in the cause of Allah, and one who passes his time seeking the face of Allah. And those who live as cattle live, indeed they are more astray, because they were given that understanding and were entrusted with this mind and did not use it.

The animal has no obligation; the animal thinks as much as it can, and strives to avoid dangers and to reach places of safety and peace, and is careful about the trust it has been charged with, its young or its possessions, in what it is equipped for and what is set for it at entirely fixed times. But you, O master over the universe, O possessor of eminence in knowledge, O possessor of standing in rank with Allah, you for whom Allah, the Most High, made the lofty abode and the highest station, you in whom Allah deposited the mind and the conscience and the inner feeling, and deposited in you sensation, and gave you a heart that beats and a mind that thinks and a body that moves and is affected. You are the king of this earth and what is on it and who is on it and what is in it. And glory be to Allah, the All-Powerful, the aim and the purpose come to distinguish between types and persons.

The Slave of the Dinar

And the Prophet ﷺ, when he gives us an approximate example of this, says: «تَعِسَ عبدُ الدينار، تَعِسَ عبدُ الدرهم، تَعِسَ عبدُ الخميصة» ("Wretched is the slave of the dinar, wretched is the slave of the dirham, wretched is the slave of the velvet cloak").^[2] Allah is the Greatest! And then the words of the Lord of the Worlds, glory and exaltation be to Him, illuminate this meaning for us when we hear: ﴿وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَن يَتَّخِذُ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ أَندَادًا يُحِبُّونَهُمْ كَحُبِّ اللَّهِ﴾ ("And among the people are those who take rivals besides Allah; they love them as they love Allah").^[3] And the scholars and commentators and exegetes begin to analyze the words and their formulation and to examine them, and then they find themselves before the ḥadīth of the Prophet ﷺ that explains the Qur'anic meaning.

And the Prophet ﷺ says: Wretched is the slave of the dinar; so what is the significance of "the slave of the dinar"? He lives for it, and lives in its shade, and lives in its wake; if he finds the dinar he is made happy by it and his life is dazzled by more and more influences, and if he loses the dinar he may die of a heart attack, or his heart and mind palpitate so that he does not know where he is, or he goes mad, when he loses the basic currency that he sees as the first foundation of life. But the righteous and the prophets and those whose aim is the Hereafter, who hope for Paradise, regard wealth as a connecting means and not a hoped-for goal; for those with the great goals look to the true value through which they hope for a secure, tranquil future.

A Great Stature

Servants of Allah, when we hear ﴿إِلَّا ابْتِغَاءَ وَجْهِ رَبِّهِ الْأَعْلَىٰ﴾ we are looking at a very great stature. And it has been reported in the narration that the verse was revealed concerning Abū Bakr, may Allah, blessed and exalted, be pleased with him, Abū Bakr who was eager to remain the person of the most complete standing. Even when he was tried by people in his honor, he preserved the degree of purity of heart within him; and although he bore something in himself against those who spoke about his honor and the honor of his daughter, may the good pleasure of Allah be upon them all, Allah, blessed and exalted, revealed His saying: ﴿أَلَا تُحِبُّونَ أَنْ يَغْفِرَ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ﴾ ("Do you not love that Allah should forgive you?").^[4] So the verse came addressing this man specifically, and he said: We do love it, our Lord. So he pardoned and resumed spending even on the one who had spoken about his honor. Great souls seek greater goals, and therefore the reward is great, and Paradise is not cheap, and its price is the dearest thing in this universe.

I ask Allah, the Most High, the All-Powerful, to inspire us and make us steadfast, and to take our hearts and minds by the forelock to right guidance and direction, and to make us firm with the firm word in the life of this world and in the Hereafter. O Allah, we ask You for the people of Palestine pardon and gentleness and mercy and compassion; O Allah, establish them, and help them against Your enemy and theirs, O Lord of the Worlds, and do not give any human being a way against them. O Allah, forgive us our shortcoming toward them and toward Your call and Your religion, O Most Merciful of those who show mercy, and mend our brokenness, and use us in what pleases You, and do not let us die except while You are pleased with us.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Layl, verse 20. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The ḥadīth was recorded by al-Bukhārī from the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayra, may Allah be pleased with him, in the wording "Wretched is the slave of the dinar and the slave of the dirham and the slave of the velvet cloak…", and the speaker cited it with repetition of "wretched" by way of abridgment. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Baqara, verse 165. The speaker confined himself to this portion of it. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Nūr, verse 22, and in its exegesis is the story of Abū Bakr and Misṭaḥ, may Allah be pleased with them both. The speaker's linking of the revelation of the verse of al-Layl to Abū Bakr was reported by him with the words "it has been reported in the narration" without specifying its source.