Honoring Honest Work

Nouman Ali Khan

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Channel: Nouman Ali Khan

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Episode Notes

Jumuah Khutbah on June 7th, 2017 @ Bayyinah Institute

The only thing that distinguishes one Muslim from another, as Nouman Ali Khan teaches us in this khutbah, is their level of fear of Allah. In Aya 11 of Surah Al-Hujuraat, Allah says that we must never make others feel inferior to us, whether because of their race or the job they do. Ustadh Nouman reminds us of how Prophet Dawoud, who was one of the greatest rulers humanity has ever known, was honored by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) for eating from the toil of his own hands and how the Quran too honored him for his ability to shape metal. Despite the greatness of his kingdom, he was an ironsmith, and by dignifying him as such, Allah has dignified every kind of halal work as work in the path of Allah.

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Hola horizonte Kitab al Karim akula rubella Humana shaytani r Rajim

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Latina Amano como mentone Asha yaku Hiram inhome Ella Aya rubbish sadly sadly, we are silly Emily was Lola melissani of Coco de la Houma, Sabina and del monte de la ilaha illallah wa la Miranda Mina Latina Amina Amina Sally hurt, whatever. So we'll talk what are some sub mineable Halloween, today's hookah is a difficult one. But certainly an important reminder for myself and for all of you, I feel it's something that's easily taken for granted. I'll begin with something Allah azzawajal says in sort of Punjab, when he describes the This tells the oma and the first instruction after telling us that we are brothers to each other in normal means non believers are nothing but brothers to one

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another. And we should make peace and reconciliation between ourselves the first instruction after that was, yeah, you have Latina Amanullah is a woman calm. Those of you who believe Don't let one group of one group make fun of any other group, one nation make fun of any other nation, one class of people, not make fun of any other class of people. Calm back in the Arab times also used to be about the tribes so that people were one tribe and they would think that their tribe is the best and they'd make fun of the other tribe. Those of you that come from, you know, you know, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, wherever the Pakistanis will make the you know, the Pakistanis will make fun of

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the Bangladeshis, or the Punjabi will make fun of the Ordo speaking or the Moroccan might make fun of the Algerian or whatever else, you know, this, this is one meaning of the ayah. But that's actually not the subject that I want to share with you today. There are many dimensions of this making fun of another group. And so first thing I want to do is describe something about the meaning of the word sakarya. Or sub Sahara, which is the verb used here is her comb, woman calm. There are multiple words in Arabic to make fun or to make a joke. But this particular word has two dimensions. One of them is you're making fun of someone you're laughing at someone Of course, you can laugh at

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someone, if something is funny, something looks funny, something someone acts funny, simple slips and falls or whatever, you can make fun of those things. But this word also gives us the implications of steel, which is the the act of lead describes for when we subjugate animals, or how Allah has, how he has subjugated or overpowered the clouds, he's humbled the clouds, what I'm trying to get at is when you make fun of someone, assuming that they are less than you, that they are below you, that they are in somehow somehow subordinate to you. And with that mentality, you think of someone or you make someone feel inferior, that's also actually lyoha Coleman Coleman. In other

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words, one of the implications of this phrase in the Quran, this ayah is that believers should not make any group of them should not make any other group feel like they are less feel like they are worth less than they are, you know, inferior to themselves. that feeling again, it can come from tribe, it can come from race, but there are other places it can come from. And so I wanted to highlight one of those places that it comes from, that we have to be watchful of particularly, and I want to start actually with a Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, ma calahonda and caught hiera Minh and Yakuza hoomin amellia D, we're in the Navy de la Salam konnyaku lumen amellia

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de the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says nobody ever eats a single bite of food that is better than the vital food they eat after having earned the money for that food with their own hand. When you earn money with your own hand, and you eat meal, whatever meal a single bite of it even, that's the best meal you've ever eaten. Whether that meal was three days old pizza, or it was just a piece of old, stale potato chip or something, that's all you could afford. It doesn't matter the fact that you earned with your own hand for that piece of food to go into your mouth, there is nothing better you could possibly have eaten. And that to add to that the Messenger of Allah

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sallallahu Sallam made a statement about an example. And the example he gave was what and then maybe the old alehissalaam the Prophet Alayhi Salam konnyaku lumen amellia de he used to eat from the work of his own hand. If you know something about those other his Salam he was one of the greatest rulers in the history of humanity. Allah azza wa jal, he himself said in a Jana Khalifa and fill out

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a NACA Halliburton fellow Don't doubt we are making you a halifa in the land. From Jewish historical accounts. his empire was so big there was no part of the known world that was not under his control. You can think of it as the one of the greatest rulers humanity has ever experienced. Was that was it his salon? As a matter of fact, even when all of the children of Adam alayhis salaam were shown to him? all of humanity was shown to Adam alayhis salaam in the beginning Tao darling Salam stuck out to me he asked about Islam, a special prophet of Allah. And what is the lead messenger say about

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About this great king and ruler and prophet. He says he used to eat every meal that he ate based on the work he did with his own hand. What does the Quran describe about his salon? Instead of describing to us the expanse of his government, how he used to render his armies, how many battles he fought, what what descriptions do we find out as a Salaam I'll just share one of them with you. He says what are called artina da da, da da we gave Tao Allah His Salama, special favor that comes only from us. Allah says a special favor was given to doubt on a solemn and a few of those things are uniquely miraculous to him. For example, big belly, big balloon, oh, BB Ma, who mountains sing

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along with him when he makes the praise of a lot of mountains with sing along with him, what plays and the birds too, but then he says what Island la Hadid. And he

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said, he says not and then we, we made Iren or metal, we made it soft for him. In other words, he learned how to melt and mold metal. And then Allah said, and then he, I instructed him directly work on the armor and make the links in the chain and make sure they're properly calculated. In other words, Allah showed him the engineering for the kind of work he was going to do the workmanship he was going to do with metal. Now the all of these images about the elderly salon tie together, going up into the mountains to find the materials he's going to use. And he sees the birds there that are singing the praises of Allah with him. And he brings those materials back. And he's burning those

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metals and fusing them and working on them like a you know, an iron Smith, a worksman. These are the kind of people that have you would think back even back in the days of a village, the lowest jobs, they're working with metals and burning them, it smells bad. You know, people don't want to be near them or around them. They're covered in smoke. They're covered in this black dust that comes from the work that they do. That's the work they do all day in it. It's not a job you do for five minutes or 10 minutes and you're done. You spend your waking day just working, working, working, exhausting yourself physically. This is a very labor, you know, physical labor, blue collar job, a factory job,

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you could say that thou alayhis salam used to do. This is the example the Prophet gave his Salatu was Salam. And this is the example that Allah started with, that Allah gave this person a special favor, that he made him work like this. What I'm trying to get at is that by giving this example the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has dignified through a law himself, every job. When you are driving a taxi, when you're standing at a cash register, when you're delivering pizzas. When you're, you know, you're working as a janitor at the airport, cleaning the bathrooms. When you're a security guard, there may be people around you say what do you do and you're embarrassed to say

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that's your job. You feel like you know, you have a degree, you're an accountant, you have an office, you're a programmer, you're a doctor, you're an engineer, or I'm just a taxi driver. I'm just, I just work at a grocery store. I just drive a truck. You know, you feel like you're less worthy because you do this kind of work. Allah azza wa jal honored all halaal work. And he said, there's no better meal you can eat than the one you earn with your own hand. That's that's the way by which a lot dignified it and He even gave the example of a prophet Alayhi Salaam Salaam that used to do physical labor. Another beautiful Hadith of the Prophet selection, I was so inspired by this

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in my inner who Cana in Canada, yes, Allah holiday, he had the Hema for houfy Seville Allah, if there is a person who makes efforts to provide for his parents, your parents have gotten old, they can't afford anything for themselves, you have to do extra overtime because your regular job you have enough to pay for yourself. But now you have to support your parents to your parents got sick or they're old, and now you need to support them too. So now all of your extra time is going into doing more work. So when someone makes these extra efforts to support both of their parents or even one of them, then that what the prop What did the profit call it for who Effie sebelah then that is

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in the path of Allah, that person is struggling in the path of Allah. That's, that's noble before Allah, you know, this person might feel bad, I don't get to come to the machine as often as I'd like to, I don't get to recite Quran as much as I'd like to. I used to learn so much more and I don't get to learn as much because I'm always working now. Because I'm supporting my family. I feel like I'm giving all my time to dunya and I used to give so much more time to lesbian. The Messenger of Allah comes to you and tells you know, that is also feeds me, Linda. And then he says there are people who are so desperate, they're bear they work so hard, whatever work they can find they do, but they

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barely make enough to survive themselves. They're barely surviving themselves hand to mouth, what you call, what does he say about them? What in Canada is Allah nuptse for Wolfie sebelah and he's making effort only to barely suffice for himself that is also in the path of Allah. That is also dignified. This is the beauty of our religion, a lot honors people. What we do is we look down upon them. We made someone

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feel inferior. I started with Mr. Coleman Coleman. Don't make someone feel diminished on one group, compared to another group, you are a bunch of friends, all of you graduated from college, one of your friends couldn't graduate, one of your friends had financial difficulty, or his parents business failed, or whatever he dropped out of school worked at work at the gas station, the rest of you graduated, the rest of you are hanging out and talking about what jobs you're doing. And you keep reminding him of how he's the dropout. This is is Coleman Coleman, even him standing at the gas station, even in pumping that gas is actually something noble and dignified by Allah. That's

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something Allah azzawajal honored him with. This is the reminder that Allah gives us when he talks about us earning our income, you know, how Allah describes earning income in the Quran. When you have whatever job you have, whether you do business, whether you're working at an office, whether you work at a hospital, whether you do physical labor, it doesn't matter what kind of job you do, all of it within the realm of halaal has one name. And especially on the day of Friday, what does he say for is a coup de Sala fantasy to fill our world with a home and family law.

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He says when the prayer is done, go spread out everywhere in the land go everywhere, you have to go and pursue out of a less favor. That earning whatever earning you do, Allah describes it as a laws favor on you. That's a laws favor on you. And when a law favor someone, he has honored them. There is no dishonor when someone has favored Allah, there cannot be those two things cannot exist coexist. And so let's bring this concept closer to home. This notion that for some reason, because you have a better job than somebody else, and by the way, we don't just do this among strangers. We do this within our families. There's a young man that says I don't I don't want to be a doctor, I

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want to be a pharmacist, and his family's like you're a loser. You know, you you could have been something you're just going to be a pharmacist. Yeah, it's better ours, I get to do other things that I meant to do with my life. I don't know if I want to spend another five years or six years continuing this education, etc, etc. So I have decided I want to be a pharmacist. Or worse yet, that's suicide for many parents have a son or daughter decides to become a nurse in alila, he were in a lay him on your own. This is why you studied biology to become a nurse. You know, even worse, some of these young people decide they're going to study history. And then their parents are yelling

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at them. What are you gonna, What job? Are you gonna get studying history? Well, I love history. And I think it's important to learn. And I think I'm going to teach afterwards I want you want to be a teacher.

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get a real job, a teacher, people who can't do teach, you know, go at least go to law school and become a lawyer or something, why can't you get a real job. We even within our families, we make certain lines of work, certain contributions, we make them feel diminished. Or worse yet, if a young man or woman decides they're going to study psychology are going to counseling, because they feel the Muslim community needs a lot of counselors, our women need counsel, our parents need counsel, our teenagers need counsel, our young children need counsel. And we don't have anybody to get counsel from we have to end up in the in the in the care of non Muslims. Because we don't have

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enough professionals in this space. So somebody decides to go into counseling, and everybody else makes fun of this one that decided to do a major in counseling, you know, because what are you going to do with that? How do you get a career out of that? making people feel inferior for the work that Allah gave them talent in the work of mine inspires them to do, I'm not saying you shouldn't aspire for better and better careers, but don't make people in theory feel people, people feel inferior for the work that they do. There are some young men in the audience today that are no good at college, they're just not no matter how much you try to make them study, they cannot but they're really good

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at fixing cars. They just made natural natural born mechanics, it could be the best mechanic in the nation. I don't make him feel horrible, because he didn't finish his degree because he couldn't, he tried, he couldn't do it. But when he put his hand in this work, he was excellent at it. And now he's gonna run three, four or five garages of his own. And then he's gonna hire the accountant that graduated from one of the schools he failed out of. That's what's gonna happen and there are people like that, not everybody has to take the same path. We feel like the the pathways that society has delineated for us, they are the only way to get respect in society. If you get a degree from a

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college, then you get disrespect. If you have a job in an office, then you get respect. If you do this, this and this then you get respect. But if you're a farmer, you get no respect. If you're a taxi driver, you get no respect. If you're a mechanic, you get no respect. If you work at a store, you get no respect who decided this? That align is messenger give us this standard. There's a reason we stand in one row. We don't check what your job is. First. We don't check how much you make first before you stand in a row in salon in the UK.

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Karma Karma and Allah here at car calm, the most normal among you are the ones that are closest to Allah, the ones that are most cautious of Allah. And so in that remarkable ayah, which I'll conclude with, but before I go to that I again about doubt on Instagram, because the end of it is just absolutely incredible. Before I do that, one more I on the side that I want to share with you from sudo cosas. Allah says tilaka daru, Akira, na jalahalli Latina LA, Luna rulu and Phil are the one of a sudden

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that final home meaning Jenna,

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we have reserved it, Allah says we have reserved it for people who don't want to gain a superiority in this earth.

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They don't want to feel superior to others in this life. They don't want to make other people feel inferior in this life. That is not what their life is about. law you read una oluwo and Phil.

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And by the way, when you create a culture and a society in which some people feel inferior, some people are made to feel superior. And this culture perpetuates, you know what happens, then everybody at the bottom is always trying to be like everybody at the top. You have people that are not making any money, they're poor, they're living in subpar housing, or whatever, and their dreams of living in a mansion. And you know, the kind of car and the kind of fancy ride or whatever. This is facade, that class society that's created where one group is constantly vying for the dignity of another group. That is facade. That is exactly what happened in the case of qarun. That's why this

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ayah comes at the end of the story of qarun when Carmen had all of his wealth, and everybody else in the Israelite community was poor, they said, Yeah, let Elena Miss lama oduya qarun. If only we had what qarun has, we'd be doing great if I had what he had man. So sweet. I wish what he had, I wish I had what he had this is this is corruption at its core. This is corruption inside of the hearts. And it makes people want to earn money by any means possible, then they no longer care about what's helpful and what's wrong, then they just say so long as it's a good job, I'll do it. So long as it makes good money, I'll do it. The distinction about the good earning the halaal earning, though the

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the legitimate earning with the work of your own hand goes away. And so now as I conclude, I want to share with you the final part of that ayah in which though Darlene sama spoke to him and told him to work on the iron and to make sure he perfects his craft. First of all, in that ayah Allah azza wa jal highlighted specifics that you didn't have to, you could have just said to Tao that Allah could have just told us about Islam, to work on the metal to craft. But he even goes cut their facility. Make sure every single link in the chain that you make is perfectly calculated. When you do a job do it perfectly. That's what he told him and telling him that and by the way, it's not just about those

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on Instagram, the IR ns marylu solly. Han in Nabi Mata, Amma Luna, bossy, all of you be good, do good. I'm watching what all of you do. Halfway through the story of diodati salam, Allah transitions, he doesn't what's called an lt fart, he transitions. And he talks to you and me and says, By the way, I'm not just telling you the story of download, you better be great at your jobs too. And you better do right by your jobs, too. It doesn't matter if you're a high power executive, it doesn't matter if you're a janitor, it doesn't matter if you're a clerk somewhere, doesn't matter what your job is, you better be the best at it. And you better be earning every penny that you're

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given, you better not be the one sleeping on your job. Your your work should be defined by son. You know, there are people who have jobs who hate their job. They hate their job, the only reason they're in their job is because of the paycheck. That's it, you know, and there's like, you know, there are people I've seen like that in the not to pick on the people in the post office. But a lot of times, there are people just sitting there at the Department of Motor Vehicles, you know, the guy just doesn't want to help you. They just they're not interested. They just they're looking at the when is lunch, you know, and when they see more people are walking in their life.

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Number 56.

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You know, they're so depressed to see you. If you whatever job you have, whatever job you have, you must now feel that you have to bring your son to it. You have to bring excellence to it, your very best to it. Just because this is a fever from a lot to you. If this job wasn't there, if that work wasn't there, you would be asking people, you would be asking to borrow money from them to take a fever from them to pay the electricity bill to pay for the groceries at home to pay your children's food. We don't want to ever be in that position where we have to ask somebody else. So gradually step number one in us. the dignity of a person is that they don't feel me in need of other people. I

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the fact that I'm independent that I drive my own car.

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That I can live in my own, you know, housing, that I can pay for my own clothes in my own food. That's part of my dignity, having to ask someone is humiliating and embarrassing. So whatever job you have you and I can have complaints about our job, that's fine, that's fine. But if we forget that every single job you and I have is actually a fumble of Allah is actually a favor of Allah, by means of which he allowed us to provide this for ourselves to give those to our families. And that because it's a favor of Allah, we have to take care of that favor, we have to do right by our jobs, we can't be sleeping on the job. We can't be just getting by because our managers not watching us 24

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seven, you can't just walk into late, late into your office or into your job anytime you feel like it, because there's nobody checking on you.

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Online still checking on you, you still owe him that. That's part of the sand that we bring, you know, Larissa will tell us a little bit more who would fulfill all contracts fulfill covenants, when you make an agreement and there's an expectation, you fulfill that expectation to the very best of your ability. And so melissani can do right, this is what I conclude with now.

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Not only must we earn Helen, but we must do good with the work that we do, we must make sure that the jobs that we have are a means by which good is produced in the world. We cannot be part of corrupt industries, we cannot be part of a machinery or corporate machinery that creates more corruption in the world. We have to you can't just earn your keep your your money, and not worry about what this is a part of, you know, you can't. This is why you can't just go get a job at a brewery that makes beer, you know, or a weapons manufacturer or something. These people produce evil in the world. They cause destruction and death in the world. We have to not we have to be morally

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conscious that what we're doing is going to do good in the world. It's going to serve some better purpose in the world. And so we have to be conscious about that in the workplace and the thing that we're contributing towards Emmylou Sally Han. And then finally Alice has whatever you do, I'm carefully watching. Your boss may not be watching, nobody else may be watching, but Allah certainly is May Allah azza wa jal make us conscious of our work and realize that we can make give all of us the ability to earn holidays, and to spend it in the best possible way. May Allah azzawajal continue to favor us with his father for ourselves and our families and give us the best of risk in dystonia.

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And in the era barakallahu li walakum chorionic Hakim, when a funny word er can be it was decreed Hakeem

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al hamdu lillahi wa kafa wa salatu wa salam O Allah Eva de la Vina Safa ko Susana Allah of Bali him waha tamina bien, Mohamed el amin, ala alihi wa sahbihi adjumani yaku la hora de delfy Kitab al Karim vida Nakula rubella homina shaytani r Rajim in De La Hoya mela ketahui soluna lnav Yeah, you have Latina amanu sallu alayhi wa sallam Ooh, Taslima Allahumma salli. ala Muhammad Anwar Allah Allah Muhammad kamasan. Later Allah Ebrahim le Ibrahima filarial amin in Dhaka homido Majeed Allahumma barik ala Muhammad Anwar Allah Allah Mohammed Kama Baraka Ibrahim Ali Ibrahim al al amin in the Camino Majeed Eva de la rahima como la takala in the La Jolla San Juan Ito is in Korba when

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her annual fashion you will mooncup what are the crew Allahu Akbar? Allahu la medicina own Optimus Sala. In LA salata Karnataka mini Nikita makuta