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Khutbahs
5 Ways to Have A Good Ending | Khutbah by Dr. Omar Suleiman
In Islam, a good ending is not because of chance.
Rather, it is pursued with intention and striving. While "luck" may seem to decide the final moment of a game, our lives operate on an entirely different principle. Allah has given us the means to shape how we live and how we leave this world.
This khutbah explores what it means to strive for a good ending and why that pursuit is one of the most important of our lives.
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
We begin by praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for Him. And we bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is His final messenger. We ask Allah to send His peace and blessings upon him, the prophets and messengers that
came before him, his family and companions that served alongside him and those that follow in his blessed path until the Day of Judgment. And we ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma ameen.
Dear brothers and sisters, when you think about what the world is paying attention to right now, it is the excitement of either the NBA Finals or the World Cup and of course
there's a whole discussion to be had about what this does in terms of what's actually happening in the world and Gaza and Lebanon and Iran and the entire Middle East and that
nothing really takes a pause when world entertainment happens in terms of world events. But it's inevitable that people get excited, that people tune in, that people want to
see this team win or this team win and they're looking for the adrenaline of that final moment of a game. And you often hear someone say that even if I don't like either team, it's the excitement of watching a close game.
And all of us would, watching something like that, find some sort of rush in that last
second tip or that last second goal or what seems to be the impossible effort at the end. And SubhanAllah, I want you to think about this, and it has very little to do with my
khutbah by the way, but I do want you to think about this for a moment that it doesn't matter how many stats you have as an individual player, it doesn't matter what you actually put forth in terms of a body of work as a team, it all comes down to the last few seconds of the
game, that last tip, the last whatever it may be, the last goal, and then everything else is negated. Even if you had the best game in the world, if you messed up at the end, none of it actually counts.
No one remembers the statistics, no one remembers the effort, no one remembers any of that. Now what does this have to do with something that's actually been on my mind, and to be
honest with you it hasn't left my mind, which are the shuhada of San Diego. Brother Ameen, Brother Nadir, Brother Abul Izz, may Allah have mercy on them all, all
three of those men, may Allah reward them and accept them as shuhada, Allahumma ameen, and all of the shuhada around the world. Because there's something that has not left my heart and mind, and to be very honest with
you, the more that I've had the blessing of getting to know these families from afar, and bidhnillahi ta'ala close in the next week or so inshaAllah ta'ala, the more beautiful the stories actually become as you start to peel the layers.
If you listen to each of those three families, they'll all tell you about how it was as if it was plotted perfectly for them. That all three of these men, and I know that we were all captured by Brother Ameen's story
in particular, I mean there isn't anything more poetic than a man who took up that role to be a murabit, to be someone that holds it down after seeing Christchurch, and who
literally has his last post asking Allah for husnul khatima, for a good ending, being martyred in that very spot in a heroic act, and saving hundreds of people, hundreds of kids from being massacred.
But each one of those three men had this trajectory, and subhanAllah, you read that post over and over and over again, where he says that all I want is for my soul to return to Allah as
pure as the day that he brought it to this earth, may Allah grant us husnul khatima, Allahumma ameen. And every time, I'll notice just something else about a word that he said here, a word that he said there, even though it's a very short post.
And so this actually had me thinking about husnul khatima, this idea of a good ending, your lucky last shots, and I'm using lucky in quotations here, because a lot of times when you're thinking about sports, it comes off as pure luck, and of course we don't believe
in that concept as Muslims, but are we gambling with our lives in a very similar way, so you're just hoping for something to happen at the end, to negate everything bad that happened before, and to grant you that entrance into Jannah.
And subhanAllah, I read a text that we studied here a few years ago in the last ten nights of Ramadan, and he has all of these stories of husnul khatima and su'u al-khatima, a good ending and a bad ending.
And it comes down to basically the core of people's lives culminating in a fitting ending, an end that is fitting to how people were living their lives.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala seems to bring it all back at the very end. But on the other hand, he makes the qualifier, which is a very important qualifier, that
husnul khatima is often just a divine gift from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to someone that does feel out of nowhere, that sometimes there's someone that might strike you as a
very ordinary Muslim, and let's be very clear here, that three men, for example, in San Diego that are being lionized, if you were in their community you'd probably see them as very ordinary beings.
And there are people, I have no doubt, that are the equivalent in many ways that are amongst our community that we say salam to and maybe we don't even know each other's names, right?
But Allah 'azzawajal knows of something inside a person and it seems to be bestowed upon them in the last moments. So how do we actually reconcile these two concepts? And this is what I want you to think about.
Is husnul khatima, a good ending, this purely mystical gift from Allah that's disconnected from effort? Or is it this purely mechanical reward that's disconnected from Allah's grace?
Or is it somewhere in between? And there's no doubt that it is somewhere in between. So I wanted to actually simplify this.
If we could boil it down to five things that guarantee a person husnul khatima, may Allah grant us husnul khatima, a good ending, what would it be? And I want you to think about this in terms of your ending.
And the very first thing is al-ikhlas, is sincerity. Sincerity in the beginning. A good end is tied to a sincere beginning. As is everything else, innamal a'malu binniyyah, verily actions are but by intentions.
Do you sincerely want Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to be pleased with you at the moment of your death? Are you sincere in wanting to meet Allah 'azzawajal as pure as the day that you were brought into this world?
Are you sincere in putting the goal of Allah being pleased with you when you meet him above all other worldly goals that you have? Is that really what you want when you think about your death?
When you think about leaving this world, what are the priorities that come to mind? And there's a very important question here, by the way, that has to be answered too. Do you want the appearance of a good ending or an actual good ending? Because those aren't the same thing.
You'll often hear people speak about this as, I want to be remembered in this way. And I want them to say this about me. And whether you're talking about three million people or you're talking about three people, if that's your idea of a good ending, there's actually a problem there. I want to be remembered this way.
I want to be spoken about this way. I want people to say this and this and this about me. It's actually deeply problematic.
So sincerity in the beginning is tied to a good ending with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And of course we know from the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, there's a very famous story,
and I won't spend time with it for the sake of the khutbah, about the man that was in Badr and he's going forth and he's fighting so courageously and bravely and he's on the side of the Muslims. And the Muslims are saying, wallahi, he's a person of Jannah.
And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says, bal huwa min ahli an-nar, he's a person of hellfire. How? He's in the ranks, fighting so courageously, so bravely.
And they found him at the end, having taken his own life, after having fought bravely and courageously. And it's not the him taking his own life part that's emphasized here. It's that the whole time this wasn't about fi sabilillah.
The whole time it was about lionizing himself, about leaving a legacy of being courageous and brave. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says, awwalu man yuqda alayhim yawm al-qiyamah.
The first people that will be brought to accountability on the Day of Judgment, dragged into hellfire, are three people who wanted the appearance of a good ending, not a good ending. The scholar that wanted to be praised for his knowledge, the donor that wanted to be
praised for his generosity, the martyr that wanted to be praised for his courage. And so you separate those two things. Do you want the appearance of a good ending, or do you actually want the experience of a good ending? When you think about your funeral, are you thinking about the angels at your funeral
and how they're dealing with you? Or are you thinking about the people at your funeral and how they're speaking about you? Which really doesn't matter unless it is weighed in accordance with how Allah sees you at that point. And so that's the first thing. Do you want a viral story or do you want a good story?
With Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala at the end. And this actually gives an important qualifier to a hadith that is often misused, and this is why I started with it, in regards to how your ending is.
And that is the hadith where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam mentions that a person will be doing the actions of the people of paradise until he's just a handspan away, and then he does one of the actions of the people of hellfire and he becomes a person of hellfire.
Or a person is doing the actions of the people of hellfire until there's only a handspan between him and hellfire, and then he does one of the actions of the people of paradise so he enters into paradise.
This is the most important clarification to the hadith, because in some of the narrations the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, إِنَّ الرَّجُلَ لَيَعْمَلُ عَمَلَ أَهْلِ الْجَنَّةِ فِيمَا يَبْدُو لِلنَّاسِ
A person is doing the actions of the people of paradise as it appears to people. وَهُوَ مِنْ أَهْلِ النَّارِ But rather he's from the people of hellfire.
So the فِيمَا يَبْدُو لِلنَّاسِ qualifies this in such an important way, and it makes even more sense in a world where putting your life online is prioritized over actually living your life.
And validation is sought through all of the tools of validation that are being developed in real time. Something here that's also important is that as the believer wants a beautiful death because
he wants a beautiful meeting with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, it also brings all of the hadith into harmony. So for example, إِنَّمَا الْأَعْمَالُ بِالنِّيَّةِ Actions are judged by their intentions. And إِنَّمَا الْأَعْمَالُ بِالْخَوَاتِيمِ
Actions are judged by their endings. Sincere beginnings, good endings, coming together. Or the narration يُبْعَثُ النَّاسُ عَلَى نِيَّاتِهِمْ
People will be resurrected on the Day of Judgment in accordance with their intentions. أَوْ يُبْعَثُ كُلُّ عَبْدٍ عَلَى مَا مَاتَ عَلَيْهِ Every servant will be resurrected on the Day of Judgment with the deed that he died upon.
Sincere beginning, tied to sincere ending. And so I'm going to give you an equation, a very simple equation. إِخْلَاصَ at the beginning, sincerity at the beginning. اِسْتِقَامَةَ
Firmness, steadfastness throughout. تَوْفِيقَ Allah guiding you or granting you a good ending at the end. إِخْلَاصَ is your sincerity in the beginning. اِسْتِقَامَةَ is throughout the process.
You trying to hold on to that sincerity, both in terms of intention and action. And تَوْفِيقَ, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala granting you that ending at the end. So the first thing is sincerity.
The second thing is your deeds, your عَمَل. الْأَعْمَالُ بِالنِّيَّةِ So first comes نِيَّة, then comes عَمَل. And when it comes to your deeds and your words having to match your actions,
the عُلَمَاء boil it down into different ways when the words don't match the actions. So someone says, I want a good ending. I want to meet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala up here. I want to meet Allah 'azza wa jal while He's pleased with me. But the actions don't match the words.
And they break it down then into a few categories. The words might be insincere. And that's نِفَاق, that's hypocrisy. I really don't mean it or my deeds don't actually match what I'm saying.
So I'm saying I'd love to die in sujud. Who wouldn't love to die in sujud? I'd love to die in Medina. I'd love to die a shaheed. I'd love to do this. I'd love to do that. But the deeds have absolutely no correlation to the words that are being spoken.
So there's نِفَاق. There's a نِفَاق element, a hypocrisy element. Or there is an عَجْز and كَسَل element, a laziness element,
which is when the drive is lacking. So you're not necessarily contradicting. The words are not necessarily contradicting the deeds.
But you're saying something, but you're not doing enough towards those words. So there's a layer of hypocrisy, نِفَاق. There's a layer of عَجْز and كَسَل, which
is laziness. And the last one, the 'ulama say, is there's a misunderstanding of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's grace, which is عَقَائِد, which is a creedal problem. To suggest that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives a good ending after أَمَل and not عَمَل. أَمَل is hope. عَمَل is deed. What does that mean? تَوْفِيق from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
Allah granting you something, comes after the presentation of deeds to Allah and Allah unlocking it. Not after a hope that is simply thought or expressed. And that's an عَقَائِد
problem. That's a creedal problem. That's misunderstanding who Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is at the fundamental level. As if Allah 'azza wa jal just grants because I wish. No, that's not
how this works. You do in a way that you wish and Allah 'azza wa jal fills in the gap. So there's a نِفَاق element with the words not matching the deeds or there's a كَسَل عَجْز
element, a laziness element where I'm not doing enough to meet the deeds. Or third, there's a misunderstanding of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's grace altogether which is an عَقَائِد, a creedal problem at the end. There's another subtle point that the عُلَمَاء mentioned here
that there's a difference between someone who does the deeds of سُوء الْخَاتِمَةِ, of a bad ending, expecting a good ending, and someone who's not doing enough of the deeds
of a good ending. It's really interesting here. Think of a worldly equivalent to this. It's one thing to not want to fail. It's another thing to want to succeed. Like when you think of your death,
do you just not want to die in a horrible way, right? Or be caught by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in your worst moments in the middle of committing a sin or in a sinful environment that you frequent or saying something or doing something that you usually do. Is that like
the fear? Is that what's driving you? Or is it that you have a lofty goal of حُسْن الْخَاتِمَةِ, like I really want to die with my last words being لا إله إلا الله. I really want to die in a place of sujud. I want to die in the midst of a good deed or going to do
a good deed on my way to the masjid or on my way to hajj or on my way to 'umrah or in some capacity striving for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Or perhaps, yes, even martyred because of who I am in terms of my deen. Is it a great death that you're seeking
or is it that you just don't want to die a really evil death? And so the 'ulama actually then categorize in these books of الْخَاتِمَةِ, the ending, the difference between someone who doesn't want سُوء الْخَاتِمَةِ and someone who wants حُسْن الْخَاتِمَةِ.
And one of the ways you protect yourself from not dying an evil death is to drive yourself towards a great ending. Like the higher your standard, if you fall lower to that standard,
then at least you won't fall too far. And so this is one subtlety that the 'ulama mention under deed as well. And of course they also mention that there's a difference between
committing sins while struggling and building your life around a sin, building your life around a disobedience which is almost certain to end in some sort of سُوء الْخَاتِمَةِ. May Allah protect us, some sort of evil ending. All of us will continue to commit sin even
in our most sincere moments. We're still going to fall. Are we threatening ourselves with سُوء الْخَاتِمَةِ because of the sins that we fall into? Or are we threatening ourselves with سُوء الْخَاتِمَةِ, an evil ending because of the sins that we actively
cater to, that we build our lifestyles around, that we build trajectories to, that we shape our hearts in accordance with? The third thing that the 'ulama mention is repetition. And this is actually, when I was looking at the literature on حُسْن الْخَاتِمَةِ,
this is the most emphasized one, repetition. Why? Because the Prophet ﷺ taught us this maxim, مَنْ عَاشَ عَلَى شَيْءٍ مَاتَ عَلَيْهِ وَمَنْ مَاتَ عَلَى شَيْءٍ بُعِثَ عَلَيْهِ. This is the maxim that's derived from the
ahadith. Whoever lives in accordance with something will die upon that thing, and whoever dies upon something will be resurrected upon that thing. I'm going to say it again: whoever lives in accordance with something will die upon that thing, and whoever dies upon something
will be resurrected upon that thing. And this is sort of where you think about again the game analogy, right, like how many repetitions, how many thousands of repetitions do you
have of that same shot over and over and over and over and over again, hoping that if you find yourself in the last two seconds of a game, you can act upon that shot. How many times do you relive the game time situation, even though it might never come, but it's
repetition over and over and over and over again. And so in the same way that glorious moments begin with thousands of repetitions, a glorious ending begins with thousands of
repetitions. How often have you thought about your death? How often have you thought about what you're going to do when death comes to you? What's the first thing that happens when
your body starts feeling a little bit funny? Do you curse? You're probably not going to say لا إله إلا الله when you die then, right? Or your car, you know, you get into a fender bender. What do you do, right? Or you get some sort of disastrous news, like, what's
your first reaction? What's your instinct, right? So repetition is actually the greatest key to husn al-khatimah in word and in deed. I want to die in the masjid, but I come to
the masjid for Jumu'ah only. Good luck with that. Luck, in air quotes again, right? What are you doing? You want to die in your sujud, but you're barely making your fara'id. What
are you doing, right? It's not matching, right? So repetition, building an identity around certain good deeds is what Ibn al-Qayyim says is the greatest way to assure yourself
of that ending. I built a reputation in supporting people and being, you know, in the service of people. May Allah grant me a death in the service of people for His sake. I built a
reputation in sadaqah. May Allah take my life in the midst of sadaqah or doing some sort of charitable act. I built a reputation with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, an identity around prayer, salah, tahajjud. May Allah take me at the time of that tahajjud, right? You got
to build a repetition that matches what you're actually trying to have here. And that's something that you should think about every single day because you should think about death every day. So if you're not thinking about death every day, that's the fundamental problem:
you're not thinking about how you're going to die every single day. The fourth thing, ad-du'a, ad-du'a. And this is actually subhan'Allah something that I want you to think about that's a little different. Most of us have heard the narration of 'Umar al-Khattab, radiallahu ta'ala 'anhu, where he would say,
Allahumma rzukni shahadan fi sabīlika, wa j'al mawti fi baladi nabiyyika. That's one narration. Or fi baladi rasūlika. Multiple narrations of the same concept. Oh Allah, I ask you to die a shaheed in Your cause, and I ask you to die in the city of Your Prophet.
A martyr in Medina. And Hafsa, radiallahu 'anha, says, Inna yakoonu dhalika? How could that happen? Wars don't happen in Medina, they happen outside of Medina. But 'Umar, radiallahu 'anhu, is saying, if Allah wants it to happen, it'll happen. And indeed he was martyred
leading salah in the masjid of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and then buried Allah anhu is saying, if Allah wants it to happen, it'll happen. And indeed he was martyred leading salah in the masjid of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and then buried
next to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Sidq al-niyyah, right? Fi ad-du'a, sidq al-du'a, the truthfulness in du'a. But here's something I want you to think about, which is an important
point here. Did Umar radiya Allah anhu think highly of himself? He actually used to question
himself on the lowest of qualities. Yattahimu nafsahu bin nifaq. Accusing himself of hypocrisy. Fearing hellfire more than any companion. So he is fearing the lowest ending while asking
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for the most audacious highest ending. Which is actually extremely beautiful. Because you might feel embarrassed to ask Allah 'azawajal for this glorious ending,
for a good ending with Allah because you're like, well who am I? Who am I? No one used to think "who am I" like Umar radiya Allah anhu but look at his du'a. And this is the perfect combination of the balance of the believer to have this immense hope in Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala while having very little confidence in your own deeds, right? And so hope produces boldness in du'a, fear produces humility in action. Umar radiya Allah anhu is presenting
his deeds to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as if he's done nothing. But he's asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as if he deserves everything. Something beautiful about that. So ask Allah every day, including your du'a, every single day. I guarantee you, brother, Ameen, and I've
heard this from his own family, every single day he was making du'a for the type of death that he had. Every day. Every day ask Allah 'azawajal for a good ending. And be audacious.
If the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam taught us to be audacious when we make worldly asks, then what about when we make asks for the hereafter, when we make asks for good, the
last thing. A good expectation of Allah. To have a good assumption of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And when does that come in specific? Right? Subhanallah, Jabir radiya Allah ta'ala
anhu, he says, "Sami'tu an-nabiyya salallahu alayhi wa sallam, qabla mawtihi bithalathi yaqool." I heard the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam three days before he died say, "La
yamutanna ahadukum illa wa huwa yuhsinu dhanna billah." Let not one of you die except with a good expectation of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It's actually one of the last public instructions of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam before he died. Three days before he died.
So while he is dying, he's saying to the companions, when you find yourself in this state, make sure you don't leave this world except with a good expectation of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
How do we bring that husn al-dhanna billah to this all? You know, go back to the game. The last moments before that shot, before the kick, you gotta tell yourself, I can make it.
Right? There's a mental programming here. For the believer, not in the last seconds of the game, but in the last moments of life, because we will all find ourselves in the last moments of life. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us all a good ending. Allahumma
ameen. Not, "I can do this, I can do this, I can do this. I can enter Jannah. No. Allah can forgive me. Allah can accept me despite all I've done. Allah is more merciful than
my shortcomings." The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is saying, when you find yourself on your way out, at that point, you can't do a'mal anymore. You really can't do deeds anymore. You need to channel all of that into a trust in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and in his goodness despite your shortcomings. And the last thing I'll say here is that, you know, in sports, you have the cruel irony or that bad luck that happens, where the person
that did everything right, repeated the shot over and over and over again, falls short in the last moments. Like it just rolls out of the rim or something happens at the last moment and it's the bad luck, the cruel irony. So sometimes the best team doesn't win. Sometimes
the best player doesn't win. Sometimes the inferior competitor wins because of those last few seconds. And you say, what a cruel and miserable fate. Is there an equivalent to that when it comes to our khatimah, the end of our lives? Absolutely not. Why? Because
وَمَا كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيُضِيْعَ إِيمَانَكُمْ Allah will not let your faith go to waste. إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُضِيْعُ أَجْرَ الْمُحْسِنِينَ Allah does not let the good deeds of the good doer go to waste. So long as you were seeking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's forgiveness and his mercy, Allah
'azawajal will not abandon the sincere believer at the end of his life. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us all husn al-khatimah and allow us to be joined with the nabiyeen and the shuhada. Allahumma ameen.
الحمد لله والصلاة والسلام على رسول الله وعلى آله وصحبه
ومن ولاه ربنا لا تؤاخذنا إن نسينا أو أخطأنا ربنا ولا تحمل علينا إصرا كما حملته على الذين من قبلنا ربنا ولا تحملنا ما لا طاقة لنا به واعف عنا واغفر لنا وارحمنا أنت مولانا
فانصرنا على القوم الكافرين عباد الله الله يأمر بالعدل والإحسان وإيتاء ذي القربى وينهى عن الفحشاء والمنكر والبغي يعظكم لعلكم تذكرون فاذكروا الله يذكركم واشكروه على النعماء يزدكم ولذكر الله أكبر والله يعلم ما تصنعون وأقيموا الصلاة



































































































































































































































































































