Bonds Between People: Faith and Hypocrisy

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 8 November 2025 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

In the verses recited in the Fajr prayer there are very many points to pause at, the first of which is His saying, Exalted is He: ﴿الْمُنَافِقُونَ وَالْمُنَافِقَاتُ بَعْضُهُم مِّن بَعْضٍ﴾ (The hypocrite men and hypocrite women are of one another), and His saying: ﴿وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتُ بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلِيَاءُ بَعْضٍ﴾ (The believing men and believing women are allies of one another)^[1]. So what is the difference between the two groups?

Allegiance Is a Relationship of Hearts

The difference is that allegiance is a relationship of hearts that connect, of inmost hearts that embrace and deal and understand one another. And hypocrisy, we seek refuge in Allah, does not know these meanings, nor grasp the dimensions of relationships of hearts, nor grasp the question of the higher interest behind which people set out, nor the significance of the true future, nor does it think with a wider and more comprehensive concept by which it realizes that there is a community and succeeding generations. The question of allegiance does not exist with the hypocrites; the hypocrite has no goal except his worldly interest that he puts in his pocket, or keeps as property under his authority: contracts and possessions, and this is hypocrisy. "Of one another," as if they were similar copies competing among themselves over the same things.

As for the people of faith, they have another matter; they deal with heaven. So what are the bonds that arise among the hypocrites, among one another? What is their kind? There are no bonds at all; they do not know this. As for the people of faith, each of them is connected to heaven, connected to the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, Exalted, so the relationship that arises between two parties has a third party between them, who is Allah, and He is the One who brings these hearts together and the One who separates them, and puts this one in his place and that one in his place. So if I strive to connect with you, while I am affiliated with faith and claim it, my first way is to supplicate Allah, glory be to Him, Exalted.

The Qur'an Cuts Off Ties Other Than the Bond of Faith

Therefore you see the Noble Qur'an cutting off ties short of the bond of faith; any relationship other than the relationship of faith is not considered in the Qur'an: ﴿يَا نُوحُ إِنَّهُ لَيْسَ مِنْ أَهْلِكَ ۖ إِنَّهُ عَمَلٌ غَيْرُ صَالِحٍ﴾ (O Nūḥ, indeed he is not of your family; indeed, his deed is other than righteous). And Allah struck a parable for those who disbelieved: ﴿امْرَأَتَ نُوحٍ وَامْرَأَتَ لُوطٍ ۖ كَانَتَا تَحْتَ عَبْدَيْنِ مِنْ عِبَادِنَا صَالِحَيْنِ﴾ (the wife of Nūḥ and the wife of Lūṭ; they were under two of Our righteous servants)^[2]. Even the relationship that existed was only an "under" relationship; imagine the matter: they were under two of Our righteous servants!

But when He speaks of the people of faith, He speaks of a covenant^[3], and speaks of the family bonds between husband and wife; that she is not under him and he is not under her, and neither is above the other, rather it is a matter of psychological, intellectual, spiritual and physical harmony, and an extended relationship, the basic link in which is Allah, glory be to Him, Exalted. Therefore you see the people of faith as people of intellectual, psychological and emotional maturity; they let go of trivial matters, overlook small things, and do not scrutinize what is petty in people's deeds, and so their whole life passes in a very natural way.

I imagine, for example, the wife of Ibrāhīm, upon our Prophet and upon him be the best of prayers and peace, who throughout that long life did not bear him a child, and yet she is smiling, glad, joyful in the blessing of the Lord of the Worlds, glory be to Him, Exalted, upon her, and then consider the Qur'anic expression: «فضحكت» ("so she laughed")^[4]. It is a glad tiding of an increase in the bonds between her and that believer who lives with her on the same line, and they move together on the same path.

A Second Pause: The Covenant and the Granting

In the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted: ﴿وَمِنْهُم مَّنْ عَاهَدَ اللَّهَ لَئِنْ آتَانَا مِن فَضْلِهِ لَنَصَّدَّقَنَّ وَلَنَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الصَّالِحِينَ﴾ (And among them are those who made a covenant with Allah: "If He gives us of His bounty, we will surely give charity and be among the righteous")^[5]. What is this matter? The matter of supplicating Allah, Blessed and Exalted. Notice that the verse did not say "he supplicated his Lord" but said: ﴿عَاهَدَ اللَّهَ﴾ (made a covenant with Allah), and there is a very great difference between them. For supplication is a pure request from the small to the great, from the little to the Mighty, glory be to Him, Exalted. But when you say "covenanted," it is not merely supplication, but supplication accompanied by insistence and a prior pledge, as if he is saying: "O Lord, a matter about which there is no doubt and no hesitation, and I will do it."

And consider the example: I ask to be hired by you in this company, and I have no alternative today other than so-and-so, so I say to him: May Allah bless you, joining this great institution is an honor for me and I will be extremely grateful, so I hope you will give me an opportunity. I tempt myself with the work he has. Then if he graciously accepts, and I had asked because I saw the great benefits he has that are beyond my reach, which I obtain only with great difficulty, then merely upon receiving the contract I look at my self and my strength and my skills and my experience, and I completely forget that the first possessor of favor and bounty is the one who granted me what is in my hands.

People deal with Allah, Blessed and Exalted, in the language of complete hope as long as they are in a state of weakness, and when the Lord of the Worlds blesses them they feel self-sufficiency. And that was the affliction of Satan, the affliction of Pharaoh, the affliction of Qārūn, and the affliction of everyone who felt independent of the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, Exalted, through his authority or his skills or his strength or his knowledge, and said: ﴿إِنَّمَا أُوتِيتُهُ عَلَىٰ عِلْمٍ عِندِي﴾ (I was given it only because of knowledge I have)^[6]. I am the one of standing! And in the same context our Lord tells us about those who were stronger than us before; so where are you going? As we pointed out yesterday: ﴿إِرَمَ ذَاتِ الْعِمَادِ ۝ الَّتِي لَمْ يُخْلَقْ مِثْلُهَا فِي الْبِلَادِ﴾ (Iram, of the pillars, the likes of which had never been created in the lands)^[7], nothing like this had happened before, and perhaps it will not happen that the like of these will be of such glory. Imagine that today they call artificial intelligence a "bubble"; and we know the bubble: something that grows, then goes "boom" and vanishes, as if it were empty talk. These are not constants.

And the point is that your supplication to Allah, Blessed and Exalted, is a matter that is answered, very simple. So know that if He gives you, the contract has been completed from His side, glory be to Him, and what remains is for you to fulfill. Whoever asked Allah for a child and He gave him, and whoever asked Him for wealth and He gave him, and whoever asked Him for status or position or knowledge or learning or whatever it may be, there is no request of a servant that is hard for the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, Exalted; with Him are the treasuries of the heavens and the earth: ﴿قُل لَّوْ أَنتُمْ تَمْلِكُونَ خَزَائِنَ رَحْمَةِ رَبِّي إِذًا لَّأَمْسَكْتُمْ خَشْيَةَ الْإِنفَاقِ ۚ وَكَانَ الْإِنسَانُ قَتُورًا﴾ (Say: If you possessed the depositories of the mercy of my Lord, then you would withhold out of fear of spending; and man has ever been stingy)^[8].

And here He says: ﴿وَمِنْهُم مَّنْ عَاهَدَ اللَّهَ﴾ (And among them are those who made a covenant with Allah), and I stop at this word, and I do not need to think about what comes after it; because the servant who raises his ambition to be one who makes a covenant with the Lord of the Worlds, betrayal is not to be expected of him.

Granting, Not Giving

﴿فَلَمَّا آتَاهُم﴾ (But when He gave them) He "granted" them (ātāhum), He did not "give" them (aʿṭāhum). So what is the difference? Giving is that you stretch out your hand to a hand and take something ready-made. As for granting, it is that the Lord of the Worlds, glory be to Him, Exalted, grants you by preparing the means before you, so you feel the happiness of receiving. A man asks Allah to provide him a child, and the news comes to him that his wife is pregnant; this is the first joy. Then he follows the pregnancy for nine months, every day asking about its news, even the stages of relative anxiety within this process represent happiness for him, as he awaits the crown prince. And the hardest moments, and the most intense in joy, delight and anticipation, are when our sister is in the operating room, or the midwife is present as we used to have in the old days, and he awaits the crown prince. Imagine: this is granting, not giving, not "take this and be on your way!"

And in it also is an indication of the greatness of the giving of the Lord of the Worlds, glory be to Him, Exalted. Let us return to the job example: I was asking for a job, and he said to me: Come, I will not give you the job in this place, I will make you chief executive of the whole group of branches in America. And I had only wished to be in that small corner! He said: No, come, you are my beloved, we pray together every day at Fajr, and I will give you everything. Allāhu akbar! The ambition became a ceiling higher than the conceptions of the son of Ādam, and that is the conception of granting from the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, Exalted.

So whoever asks from Allah, let him ask with the utmost ambition (not greed), and whoever receives from Allah, let him beware that this giving, or granting, or bestowal, may be a great test that we do not endure.

What We Gain: Tying Our Bonds to Allah

So what we gain from our talk today, to combine the two texts: that the bonds between us and anything around us, the binding element in them is Allah. Do not attach yourself to a child or a wife or a father or a mother or a doctor, do not attach yourself to anyone on the face of the earth except through your relationship with Allah, glory be to Him, Exalted, for He is the One who makes people's hearts compliant. You may have a son who disobeys you, or a daughter who does such-and-such, or an uncle or a brother such-and-such; my brother, your first and only weapon is Allah. For the Lord of the Worlds is the One who makes hearts compliant, calms souls, quiets alarm, bandages wounds, and soothes feelings; Doer of what He wills, glory be to Him, Exalted.

So do not tie yourself to anyone on the face of the earth except through the Lord of Might. You hear of a relationship that extended between a man and his wife for thirty or forty years, then he drags her through the courts, and she changes so that you speak to her as if you were speaking to a devil. What happened? They lived a very long honeymoon! The hearts changed, my brother. And a son who does such-and-such to his father, what happened? It is impossible if you had imagined that this would happen; the hearts changed. And partners who had been companions for years and decades, said: Let us get closer to each other and do a project together, so what do you think of marrying off the children? Then they come to take each other to court to be adjudicated among them. What happened? The turning of hearts. So tie your relationship with people to being a relationship with Allah, glory be to Him, Exalted; if people draw near to you, it is only our Lord who drew them near, and if people move away from you, it is only Allah, Blessed and Exalted, who moved them away from your path. And if Allah gives, He gives for a wisdom, and if He withholds, He withholds for a wisdom. So why are you sad? All matters are in the hand of the Lord of the Worlds, glory be to Him, Exalted.

The Second Point: The Price of a Request

And the second point: if you ask the Lord of the Worlds for something, know that it has a tax, and the first tax is the tax of obedience and gratitude to the Lord of the Worlds, glory be to Him, Exalted. Imagine the ḥadīth of the Prophet ﷺ, the meaning of which is that upon every joint of the children of Ādam each day there is a charity^[9]. And the meaning of this is that you do not need to bring out three hundred and sixty charities and run, but you need to review the blessings of Allah, Exalted is He, upon you, blessing by blessing. So I enter the house today, for example, and say: Where is the boy? Where is the girl? Where is the wife? You review in order to know how to thank the Lord of the Worlds, glory be to Him, Exalted. And here in America at the end of the year we sit and review all the things we bought in order to submit them to the "IRS" and do the taxes; we review everything and say: Wow, all this is my income! Or: This year was modest. These reviews help you gain more precision in the matter of gratitude to the Lord of the Worlds, glory be to Him, Exalted.

I ask Allah, Mighty and Majestic, to make us know Him. And I ask Allah, the Most High, the Almighty, to relieve every oppressed one on earth, and to have mercy on the people of Palestine and the people of Sudan. O Allah, we ask You for the people of Gaza victory and honor, O Lord of the Worlds, and we ask You by Your mercy and gentleness to be gentle with our people in Sudan altogether; O Allah, be gentle with them, spare their blood, and preserve what You entrusted to them of good and blessings. O Allah, we ask You to keep safe every oppressed one on earth, and to have mercy on every one who asks You. O Allah, amen, and may Allah send blessings and peace upon our Prophet Muḥammad and upon his family and Companions, and abundant peace.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: From Sūrat al-Tawba (verses 67 and 71); the speaker recited the two verses in the Fajr prayer and referred to them. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The first is from Sūrat Hūd (verse 46), and the second from Sūrat al-Taḥrīm (verse 10). ^[3]: Editor's documentation: The transcript has «ميثاق اليف», which is unclear; perhaps what is meant is «الميثاق الغليظ» ("the solemn covenant") which occurs in the Qur'an regarding spouses, but it was not established in the body because of the garbled hearing. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: The speaker refers to the story of the wife of Ibrāhīm (peace be upon him) in Sūrat Hūd (verse 71); and he limited himself to the words «فضحكت». ^[5]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Tawba (verse 75), and his saying «فلما آتاهم» is from verse 76. After it the speaker mentioned «فلما آتاهم من فضله» followed by a word unclear in the transcript, so it was not included. ^[6]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Qaṣaṣ (verse 78), concerning Qārūn. ^[7]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Fajr (verses 7 and 8). ^[8]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Isrāʾ (verse 100). ^[9]: Editor's documentation: The speaker related it by meaning, and its wording was not given in full in the transcript. Its origin is what Muslim (720) narrated from the ḥadīth of Abū Dharr, may Allah be pleased with him: «يُصبح على كل سُلامى من أحدكم صدقة…» ("Every morning a charity is due on every joint of each of you…"), and in the ḥadīth of ʿĀʾisha, may Allah be pleased with her, in Muslim (1007) that the human being was created with three hundred and sixty joints.