Send Forth for Yourselves: The Prophet's ﷺ First Sermon in Madinah

Occasion: Transcription of a khatira delivered at the weekly session of lessons on the Prophetic biography; its date is not given in the source Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — [Watch the original video on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_PVRp84tVk)

This is our weekly meeting with the lessons of the biography of the Prophet ﷺ and the moral lessons we learn from it. We had gone through some of the events of the Hijrah, and I want to move ahead to the Prophet's ﷺ entry into Madinah. After the Jumuʿah the Prophet ﷺ entered Madinah, and from that day the town of Yathrib was named "the City of the Messenger ﷺ".

The first sermon in Madinah

But before the Jumuʿah, or during it, it is narrated that the first sermon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ delivered in Madinah was that he stood in it, praised Allah the Exalted and extolled Him as He deserves, and then said:

أَمَّا بَعْدُ، أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ، قَدِّمُوا لِأَنْفُسِكُمْ. تَعْلَمُنَّ وَاللَّهِ لَيُصْعَقَنَّ أَحَدُكُمْ ثُمَّ لَيَدَعَنَّ غَنَمَهُ لَيْسَ لَهَا رَاعٍ، ثُمَّ لَيَقُولَنَّ لَهُ رَبُّهُ، لَيْسَ لَهُ تَرْجُمَانٌ وَلَا حَاجِبٌ يَحْجُبُهُ دُونَهُ: أَلَمْ يَأْتِكَ رَسُولِي فَبَلَّغَكَ، وَآتَيْتُكَ مَالًا وَأَفْضَلْتُ عَلَيْكَ، فَمَا قَدَّمْتَ لِنَفْسِكَ؟ فَيَنْظُرُ الْعَبْدُ يَمِينًا وَشِمَالًا فَلَا يَرَى شَيْئًا، ثُمَّ يَنْظُرُ قُدَّامَهُ فَلَا يَرَى غَيْرَ جَهَنَّمَ. فَمَنِ اسْتَطَاعَ أَنْ يَقِيَ وَجْهَهُ مِنَ النَّارِ وَلَوْ بِشِقِّ تَمْرَةٍ فَلْيَفْعَلْ، وَمَنْ لَمْ يَجِدْ فَبِكَلِمَةٍ طَيِّبَةٍ، فَإِنَّ الْحَسَنَةَ تُجْزَى بِأَمْثَالِهَا إِلَى سَبْعِمِائَةِ ضِعْفٍ، وَالسَّلَامُ.^[1]("To proceed: O people, send ahead something for yourselves. You will surely know, by Allah, that one of you will be struck down and will leave his sheep with no shepherd; then his Lord will say to him, with no interpreter and no guard to screen him from Him: Did My Messenger not come to you and convey to you? Did I not give you wealth and favour you? So what did you send ahead for yourself? The servant will look to the right and the left and see nothing, then he will look ahead of him and see nothing but Hell. So whoever is able to shield his face from the Fire, even with half a date, let him do so; and whoever does not find it, then with a good word, for a good deed is rewarded with its like up to seven hundred times. And peace.")

This is a Friday sermon which, if we read it again, would take us three or four minutes at most, yet it contains the means of salvation before Allah the Exalted on the Day of Resurrection, and through it we came to know a complete plan of action under whose shade the servant can walk to the meeting with the Lord of the worlds, glorified is He.

First: planning for tomorrow

The Prophet ﷺ says: «قَدِّمُوا لِأَنْفُسِكُمْ» ("Send ahead something for yourselves"). This speaks of working for the future: how we prepare ourselves for tomorrow, and how we follow the means in the best way and the finest condition. Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ moves us completely from this world to the Hereafter, to the decisive moment when everything is left behind.

Second: moment-to-moment alertness

He says: «تَعْلَمُنَّ وَاللَّهِ لَيُصْعَقَنَّ أَحَدُكُمْ ثُمَّ لَيَدَعَنَّ غَنَمَهُ لَيْسَ لَهَا رَاعٍ» ("You will surely know, by Allah, that one of you will be struck down and will leave his sheep with no shepherd"). Imagine a person being taken at a single moment and leaving everything behind. Even if this image were the only thing we had in the whole body of preaching, it would be enough for me to be mindful of Allah at every moment; for none of us knows whether he will return to his home or never reach it, nor whether he will rise from his bed after his sleep or sleep a long sleep, nor when, how or where his life will be sealed. Hence this sharply worded warning from the Prophet ﷺ to these people: «تَعْلَمُنَّ وَاللَّهِ» ("You will surely know, by Allah"); he swears ﷺ to rouse the attention of his listeners.

So the Prophet ﷺ teaches us this concept: the concept of moment-to-moment alertness, which brings together two terms: «قَدِّمُوا لِأَنْفُسِكُمْ» ("Send ahead something for yourselves"), which means planning, and «تَعْلَمُنَّ وَاللَّهِ» ("You will surely know, by Allah"), which means caution at every moment. That is, the ḥadīth combines a system of complete future planning, which draws up plans and strategies over time, with caution against falling into error from one moment to the next. This is the height of perfect design, and engineers understand this better than we do: that you build a machine that runs with you over a long distance while you remain extremely careful that no error occurs at any moment, so you combine the two.

In this way the Prophet ﷺ teaches us how cheap this world is in the eyes of the believer, such that he leaves it in a moment or it leaves him in a moment, and the servant cannot extend that moment into another, because the appointed term has come and the promise of the Lord of the worlds has arrived.

Third: considering the consequences of deeds

Then he says: «ثُمَّ لَيَقُولَنَّ لَهُ رَبُّهُ…» ("Then his Lord will say to him…"). This is a third movement, toward considering the consequences of deeds. We could work through the whole of strategic planning in this prophetic sermon: we speak of the stage of planning for the future, then the stage of follow-up and great caution, then of tracking the consequences that might come about one day. He ﷺ says: «لَيْسَ بَيْنَهُ وَبَيْنَهُ تَرْجُمَانٌ: أَلَمْ يَأْتِكَ رَسُولِي فَبَلَّغَكَ، أَلَمْ أُؤْتِكَ مَالًا وَأَتَفَضَّلْ عَلَيْكَ…» ("With no interpreter between Him and him: Did My Messenger not come to you and convey to you? Did I not give you wealth and favour you…"), and so on. In this there is an awareness of the resources available for building the future.

If you carry this picture of the Hereafter over to a worldly comparison, namely building a machine for future planning, the first thing it calls for is the tools I will use: do I have these resources or not? I have a missing bolt, and I cannot find a time for it in production. It is as though the Lord of Might, glorified is He, through the tongue of the Prophet ﷺ in this ḥadīth, makes me aware of the amount of resources available to me in this universe, which allow the process of production to continue, beneficial, until the Day of Resurrection. Then He teaches me to be careful in this craft, so that it does not slip from my hands at any moment. Then He tells me where things end up: imagine, may Allah honour you, that you went to someone to adjust your wheel or tyre, and he fastened a bolt wrongly. What are the consequences of that? That the wheel comes off, or the tyre comes out of its place. So it is as though I look at the resources available: are the machines that will help me there or not? And when I assemble, I am extremely careful of error, and I keep in mind the consequences that could result from it. If the worker keeps these things in mind and gathers them together, his craft goes on to what Allah has decreed for it.

Real achievement

The Prophet ﷺ reminds us that the servant before Allah on the Day of Resurrection will see nothing but the deeds he sent ahead and prepared with for meeting Allah, blessed and exalted. As for the philosophies found in life, they are merely words repeated and then gone into the air. So what do we achieve? What comes out of our hands at the end of the day as a product?

Imagine a man who opened a very large, luxurious restaurant with tremendous resources, and he spends the whole day holding a brush, cleaning. A customer comes in and says: do you have any falafel? Do you have fūl? He answers: I am cleaning. Then customers come in and go out, come in and go out, and at the end of the day he says to his partner: look, brother, at the beauty we made all day long! And he is told: we want money, we want achievement. What did he take home?

And there is a difference between a man who talks with the customer a great deal and does not meet his need, so he takes nothing from him, and another who does not bother with these verbal courtesies but perfects his work, so people come to him from every direction. You say to one of them: what takes you to this man? He does not smile! And he says: but his food is good, his workmanship is solid, and the quality of the product with him is not found with anyone else.

It is as though the Messenger of Allah ﷺ tells me that I must pay attention to the real product I come away with, that is, to real achievements in the reality of this world. What have I achieved at the end of the day for this mosque, for the house of Allah, blessed and exalted? In the last six months? In the last year? What have I done?

Half a date

Then he ﷺ says: «ثُمَّ يَنْظُرُ قُدَّامَهُ فَلَا يَرَى غَيْرَ جَهَنَّمَ، فَمَنِ اسْتَطَاعَ أَنْ يَقِيَ وَجْهَهُ مِنَ النَّارِ وَلَوْ بِشِقِّ تَمْرَةٍ فَلْيَفْعَلْ» ("Then he will look ahead of him and see nothing but Hell. So whoever is able to shield his face from the Fire, even with half a date, let him do so"). Whenever I mention this text I ask: where is the first half? Where is the other half? You can hardly find half a date in anyone's hand unless he has devoured and bitten off the first half. So you will not find someone holding half a date and nothing else besides, as though he owned nothing of the debris of this world but that. Then what of someone who owns more? Whoever owns more than that is richer by stages than the owner of the half date. If one of them gives something in charity and the other does not, we do not say to the rich one: mā shāʾ Allāh, he has achieved something; rather, the achievement of the owner of the half date is greater. Then what of one who owns a great deal, and yet is stingy toward the house of Allah, and stingy toward himself and his own condition? Glory be to the All-Creating, the All-Knowing.

Then with a good word

He ﷺ says: «وَمَنْ لَمْ يَجِدْ فَبِكَلِمَةٍ طَيِّبَةٍ» ("And whoever does not find it, then with a good word"). Glory be to Allah; it is as though it points out that the believer does not count what he spends: if there is no money, then a word, or a smile, or advice, or a gentle courtesy, or feelings of affection and trust that make you feel safe when you meet your companion. We will not count what we spend in the way of Allah, blessed and exalted. That is why Allah the Exalted said: ﴿وَمَن يُوقَ شُحَّ نَفْسِهِ﴾ ("And whoever is protected from the stinginess of his own soul").^[2] The matter is not tied to numbers, but to a giving disposition or a withholding disposition. The giving disposition offers anything: either it puts its hand in its pocket and brings something out, or you always find a smile on its face, a light-hearted word with others, and a good word. The withholding personality, however, frowns and is stingy even with feelings, and does not express what it holds.

Perhaps we will suffice with these words, which represent for us, as I said, a constitution by which we go on in our lives, and we will continue next week, if Allah, blessed and exalted, wills. May Allah reward you with good, be pleased with you, be good to you and keep you all safe, and the peace, mercy and blessings of Allah be upon you.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: The text of the sermon is given as the speaker narrated it according to the automatic transcript; «ليصعب» appeared in the transcript and «لَيُصْعَقَنَّ» was adopted according to his later pronunciation of it («يصعق»). An unclear phrase appeared in the transcript before «أَمْثَالِهَا إِلَى سَبْعِمِائَةِ ضِعْفٍ», so the phrase was given without the first measure of multiplication. The speaker did not mention the source of the narration; as for the narrator he named and the quotation from «al-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm», we could not find them in an open source, so the attribution was removed and the report kept in the form of a narration. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The speaker confined himself to saying «ومن يوقَ شحَّ نفسه»; the verse is in Sūrat al-Ḥashr (9) and Sūrat al-Taghābun (16), and he did not pronounce the rest of it.