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Why is the World Falling Apart? | Khutbah by Dr. Omar Suleiman
What kind of world do you want to live in? In this khutbah, Dr. Omar Suleiman explores how our actions shape society. From personal sins to global consequences, Islam gives us clarity. Learn why the world is the way it is—and how we can change it.
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 (ﷺ) 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, typically when we speak about the idea of our responsibility to the world around us,
about the consequences of our behavior on our brothers and sisters in Palestine, may Allah 'azza wa jal give them patience and perseverance and victory, Allahumma ameen.
Or anywhere else in the world. The framing is very ambiguous. The framing is very broad. And it's very difficult for us to make the connection between our everyday actions and the decisions,
our individual life decisions and the consequences that they have on the world that we want to see, the world that we want to live in, the world that parents want to leave for their children,
the world that communities want the younger generation of those communities to inherit. It's very hard to make the specific connections. But our religion makes very specific connections
about the choices that we make and the world that we live in right now as well as the world that we leave behind after us. And so when you hear an ayah, ظهر الفساد في البر والبحر بما كسبت أيدي الناس
That verily corruption has appeared on the land and on the sea because of what man's hands have earned. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, ليذيقهم بعض الذي عملوا So that they can taste a little bit of what they have done.
لعلهم يرجعون So they can come back to Allah. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala also says, ولنذيقنهم من العذاب الأدنى دون العذاب الأكبر لعلهم يرجعون
We will allow them to taste some of the punishments in lieu of the greater punishments so that they may come back to the Lord. So Allah 'azza wa jal is not mocking humanity.
He's not mocking those who would actually contemplate the words of the Qur'an. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is giving you a stated purpose to say that if you're concerned with how messed up the world is, recognize the role that you are playing in that messed up world
and then come back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala individually and collectively. But the stated goal of bringing you back to Allah is both when the مخاطب, when the one who is being addressed is a tyrant
and the one who is being addressed is a victim of tyranny. That everyone take a step back or someone who is witnessing tyranny, not necessarily the victim of it. Everyone take a step back and say,
well, what role do I play in all of this? Not necessarily in fighting the tyranny because that's an entire khutbah in and of itself. In fact, that is what we have been speaking about for the last two years.
But in actually being introspective about how possibly our actions contribute to tyranny, contribute to negative outcomes in society that maybe we don't address.
And so here's the thing about our Prophet (ﷺ). Every single hadith where the Prophet (ﷺ) warns us of our behavior at an individual level, the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) broadens the consequence.
So for example, a hadith in marriage, very famous hadith, إِذَا أَتَاكُم مَن تَرْضَوْنَ دِينَهُ وَخُلُقَهُ أو إِذَا خَطَبَ إِلَيْكُمْ If someone comes to you proposing
whose religion and character is pleasing. Let's be very clear that the Prophet (ﷺ) is saying whose religion and character is pleasing in lieu of other things that other people usually make as standards of marriage.
Alright? So it's not the same tribe, it's not the same race, it's not the finances, it's not the career. What's actually appealing about that suitor is their character and their religion.
The Prophet (ﷺ) says, فَزَوِّجُوا Then marry that person. Don't turn that person away. If that person meets the necessary bar of religion and character, do not turn that person away.
And the Prophet (ﷺ) says, إِلَّا تَفْعَلُوا تَكُنْ فِتْنَةٌ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَفَسَادٌ عَرِيضٌ If you don't do that, there will be fitna on earth, trial and tribulation on earth, and a widespread corruption.
فَسَادٌ عَرِيضٌ That's the hadith of the Prophet (ﷺ). Now, you look at that and you say, alright, well look, this has nothing to do with the world. This is just me. What does my personal decision about wanting
not just my son, my daughter, or wanting, you know, a marriage to be from the same country, or from the same race, or from the same tribe, and it gets more and more cut out, or, you know, they don't just have to be a doctor,
they gotta be a dermatologist, and they've gotta be this and this and this and that, and this age, and match this particular thing. What does that have to do with fitna on earth? I'm just making these personal decisions for myself.
And the Prophet (ﷺ) is saying, absolutely not. It actually affects more than you. Because the way that you carry yourself as an individual affects your family, the way you carry yourself as a family affects your community, the way you carry yourself as a community affects your ummah,
the way you carry yourself as an ummah affects humanity. It is all interconnected. And so you might just think that all I'm doing is I'm making decisions for myself. But is that the type of world that you want to live in?
When marriage is the most fundamental construct of society, the pillar of a society, the pillar of a community, when you mess the standards up for that, you pave the way for an entire society
built on that which is superficial. Because to you, clearly, it's about race, it's about nationality, it's about wealth, it's about this, it's about that,
it's about all of these standards that are antithetical to Islam, that the Prophet (ﷺ) came to eradicate. And you're like, no, it's not that deep. It actually is that deep. It actually cuts that deep.
And the Prophet (ﷺ) says, تَكُنْ فِتْنَةٌ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَفَسَادٌ عَرِيضٌ What does it mean? A lot of times we read the translations of these ahadith and they sound extremely similar. What's fitna and what's fasad?
Allah 'azza wa jal, when He mentions فِتْنَةٌ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَفَسَادٌ كَبِيرٌ in the Qur'an, many of the ulama, they look at this and they say that fitna is قوة الكفر. It is the strength of disbelief.
Fasad is ضعف الإسلام, is the weakening of Islam. And you think about what that looks like as a microcosm of a discussion of kufr and Islam. You strengthen and pave the way for ma'siyah,
for the disobedience of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. You strengthen it. You make something like marriage very difficult for the young people in the community. They're trying to do everything right and you make it very difficult by putting all sorts of standards that don't have a basis in the deen.
And what does that do? That strengthens all of the pathways of zina, all of the pathways of adultery and fornication and all of the corruption that comes under that. And as a result of that, you put people to fitna. They start questioning their religion.
They start questioning their moral ethics. They start questioning what they were taught in the masjid. They start questioning what they're reading in the Qur'an. And then what that does is it weakens iman. قوة المعصية ضعف الإيمان It strengthens disobedience.
It weakens obedience. But it has a widespread connotation, right? And you think to yourself, what does this have to do with the ummah? So we complain about parts of the ummah neglecting other parts of the ummah.
Say, what is it with these people that don't see the people of Gaza as their own? That allow them to starve this way? Where are the pathetic leaders? And where are the nations and populations around?
When it comes to your own life, you clearly don't see that brother at the door as part of your ummah. And so you've made distinctions in your life. Why are you mad at the world for making distinctions as well? And judging people based on standards
that are not found within the religion? You think, but Shaykh, that's too deep. It's actually that deep. Everything you do as an individual affects in many ways how your family is going to function.
There's a ripple effect, right? So if you have a family, the way that you are treating the mother of your children is giving an example to the son in the house about how he's supposed to treat one day the mother of his children.
The way you're treating the father of her children is giving an example of how one day she's supposed to treat the father of her children. All of these things have a ripple effect. The decisions you make on an individual level, young brother or young sister,
do you realize, subhanAllah, when you bring your personal fasad, your personal struggles to the house and you are the child that's constantly struggling with your religion and bringing problems to the household that you are depleting the energy of your parents.
You could be taking years off of their life. Literally, their hearts can't take it. It affects more than you. This isn't just your personal fasad. It has an effect on your family. And then every family is a model to another family in good or in bad.
Those ethics are then paved for another person, for another family. And then that becomes community culture. And then it becomes societal standard. You know, you think, hey, this is just my wedding. What's the big deal? Right?
But what if your wedding just paved the way in terms of another person's wedding? Everything affects everyone else and we have to look at it that way because the Prophet (ﷺ) made those connections for us. So don't just say, well, alhamdulillah, I come to the masjid,
I do all these good things. Look, leave me alone in all these other elements of my life. Let me have this cognitive dissonance and the ethics in my life. But here's what we have to pay attention to.
It's a powerful hadith from the Prophet (ﷺ) and I want you to pay attention to every single word and how it affects the world that we want to live in and the community that we want to build. Abdullah ibn Umar (رضي الله عنهما) says
in an authentic hadith in al-Tabarani, Ibn Majah. He said, أَقْبَلَ عَلَيْنَا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ فَقَالَ يَا مَعْشَرَ الْمُهَاجِرِينَ خَمْسٌ إِذَا ابْتُلِيتُمْ بِهِنَّ وَأَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ أَن تُدْرِكُوهُنَّ He said,
O muhajireen, O those who have come from Makkah. So he's talking to the early Muslims. The Prophet (ﷺ) is saying, there are five things that if you are tested with these five things, and I seek refuge in Allah,
that you are tested with these five things. فَقَالَ صَلَى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ لَمْ تَظْهِرِ الْفَاحِشَةِ فِي قَوْمٍ قَطْ حَتَّى يُعْلِنُوا بِهَا إِلَّا فَشَى فِيهِمُ الطَّاعُونُ وَالأَوْجَاعُ الَّتِي لَمْ تَكُنْ مَضَتْ
فِي أَسْلَافِهِمُ الَّذِينَ مَضَوْا Prophet (ﷺ) said, that immorality never spreads amongst the people. And Ibn Abbas (رضي الله عنهما) has a similar narration where he says it's zina in particular, right, and its different forms.
And you can think about all the forms of adultery and fornication that exist in our society. That immorality never spreads amongst the people, unchecked, except that Allah will test them with diseases and plagues
that no nation before them has ever even heard of. Allah will affect their health because they're using their bodily health, they're using what Allah has given them of their bodies for indecency.
And so Allah allows the health that they use to deteriorate collectively as a result. وَقَالَ (ﷺ) وَلَمْ يَنقُصُوا الْمِكْيَالَ وَالْمِيزَانَ
إِلَّا أُخِذُوا بِالسِّنِينَ وَشِدَّةِ الْمَؤُونَةِ وَجَوْرِ السُّلْطَانِ عَلَيْهِمْ The Prophet (ﷺ) said that they do not cheat one another with their weights and with their scales.
They don't start cheating each other financially, except that Allah will strike them with all sorts of famine, with severe calamity, and with the oppression of their authorities upon them.
This is incredible. Why? Because when the Prophet (ﷺ) speaks about the Day of Judgment, he says it's the loss of amanah, it's the loss of trust. And the greatest loss of trust is at the top, no doubt. It's leadership.
When leadership becomes corrupt, there's a loss of trust. But before that happens, the Prophet (ﷺ) is talking about amanah, trust being lost to the point that you can't find trustworthy people amongst the community, except that when you find someone,
they would say, إِنَّ فِي بَنِي فُلَانٍ Or in this place, رَجُلٌ أَمِينٌ There's a trustworthy person that's there. Everyone go to that trustworthy person. Right? Because of how rare it is.
When we cheat each other, then we will be cheated as well. When we start to deal in our businesses and with our finances, cheating, cutting corners, then we're going to have authority that reflects an ecosystem
that we contributed to. And it should be understood that way. That your actions, you might be thinking like, what's the big deal in my business? What's the big deal? You know, subhanAllah, مِكْيَالَ وَالْمِيزَانَ You think about what economics look like
in the time of the Prophet (ﷺ). We live in a time where you press a button, where it's a digit, a digital digit, and it affects thousands if not millions. It's, you know, you think about corporate greed and you think about the economic system
that we exist in today. Like back then you're talking about this person who's in the marketplace with their مِكْيَالَ, they've got their weights and وَيْلٌ لِلْمُطَفِّفِينَ Like really? Is it that big of a deal?
Is it really going to affect my leadership? What I'm just doing with my little business here in the marketplace in Medina? Yes, absolutely. Because there's a collective greed and a collective cheating, a culture of cheating that then overcomes you.
You can't complain about a global system of greed when you practice it in your individual life and say, well, that's the only way to get ahead. It's the only way to keep up in the system that I exist in today.
And then the Prophet (ﷺ) said, وَلَمْ يَمْنَعُوا زَكَاةَ أَمْوَالِهِمْ إِلَّا مُنِعُوا الْقَطْرَ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ وَلَوْلَا الْبَهَائِمُ لَمْ يُمْطَرُوا Prophet (ﷺ) said,
that they do not withhold their zakah, their charity, their mandatory charity, except that Allah would withhold His rain from the skies.
He would withhold the barakah from above. And had it not been for the animals, rain would not fall upon them.
SubhanAllah. So when we withhold from the weak amongst us, Allah puts us all in our place to remind us how weak we all really are. Wait a minute, you're withholding from people in your ranks? Then I will withhold from you as well.
And so when the Prophet (ﷺ) talks about the years before Dajjal, years of shiddah, years of difficulty, years of famine, years of impoverishment.
There's a direct connection between you withholding from the poor amongst you and you being withheld from because أنتم الفقراء إلى الله You are the poor people to Allah. You're the ones who are in need of Allah.
Allah is الغني الحميد. Allah is completely self-sufficient and self-praised. He doesn't need you. You need Him. And the Prophet (ﷺ) said,
وَلَمْ يَنقُضُوا عَهْدَ اللَّهِ وَعَهْدَ رَسُولِهِ (ﷺ) إِلَّا سَلَّطَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ عَدُوًا مِنْ غَيْرِهِمْ فَأَخَذُوا بَعْضَ مَا فِي أَيْدِيهِمْ
The Prophet (ﷺ) said that they do not relinquish the covenant of Allah and the covenant of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) that's been given to them. They don't let that covenant go except that Allah will send an oppressor to take some of what is in their hands.
Start to empty it out for them. SubhanAllah, so profound on so many levels and the time does not allow me to go into the full details of this.
And the Prophet (ﷺ) said, وَمَا لَمْ تَحْكُمْ أَئِمَّتُهُمْ بِكِتَابِ اللَّهِ وَيَتَخَيَّرُوا مِمَّا أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ إِلَّا جَعَلَ اللَّهُ بَأْسَهُمْ بَيْنَهُمْ And then the Prophet (ﷺ) has a warning specifically to the leaders.
That the leaders, unless the leaders rule according to the book of Allah and the goodness of divine guidance, Allah will continue to cause dissension in the ranks. بَأْسَهُمْ بَيْنَهُمْ
The dissension will continue amongst their ranks. The point is that you have to ask yourself, what type of world am I contributing to? What type of system am I contributing to? What am I buying into?
What have I become complacent with? What have I accepted as a norm in my life? And this has widespread consequences and circumstances. Look, I bring it, and I spoke about this in my khutbah last week, obviously in my masjid in Dallas.
But just think about this idea of how quick the Muslims give up on a boycott. It doesn't last long. We get tired so quick.
Everyone gets excited about boycotting a company, and then two months later, what's in their hands? You stop asking questions. The app disappears on your phone. You stop searching.
You don't want to know that things are boycotted because at the end of the day, everything is made by them. Everything is made by them. Really? Everything is made by them? That's your best excuse? I can't do anything anymore about it. خَلَاص I give up.
What type of world are you contributing to, dear brother or sister? How are you going against the grain? And here's the positive side of this that I want to bring forth, inshaAllah, to the conclusion of this khutbah.
You might be thinking, alright, so our bad at a micro level really affects more than we might have thought before. This is what's being told to us by Allah and the Messenger (ﷺ).
But there's another side to this as well, which is that your good also affects in a way that maybe you're not paying attention.
That the thing that you're doing at a very small level can be shaping somebody else's consciousness that will one day have the tools that you don't have.
That the small thing that you're doing could be inspiring something so great, even if you don't see it in this life. You're doing it for your ajr with Allah. The small protest, the small act of charity, the small act of good.
That sense of integrity that you're not going to engage in certain practices that have become normalized in society.
You don't know who you are touching or what effort you are inspiring or what mind you are shaping or what heart you are cultivating that's going to go on to do incredible things.
So I bring it back to the household, to the parents. Your kids are watching you. And subhanAllah, you don't know.
That small act of charity that you used to do, that goodness that you used to show, those things that you used to do that will make them reflect.
Perhaps Allah opens up the doors for them and they have incredible capacity at some point and they will become world contributors because of you. Because they remembered you. SubhanAllah, I always talk about this.
I was talking to my father, may Allah preserve him, just yesterday. And you know, mashAllah, he's into his 80s and I'm like, you remember that small thing that you used to do? He's like, really?
Like he made a comment once about my mother, may Allah have mercy on her, that she was like a taxi for the refugees and for those people when she could still drive. That shaped my consciousness. Small things.
So you're doing things in your house that you might be thinking, yeah, what's the point? You don't know what you're inspiring. You're going out there and you're protesting, you're doing these small things on your college campuses.
You're putting forth these efforts that seem to be crumbling and failing at every, you know, in the face of this craziness that we are in right now. The system seems overwhelming.
Allah might put barakah in your effort and grow it in your lifetime and it might be something that changes the world in your lifetime. Or someone else is watching you. Someone else is being affected.
Someone else is being shaped. Something else is being shaped.
And so just like maybe we minimize the impact of the things that we do that are negative at an individual level, perhaps we do the same as well when it comes to the good things that we do.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to be purified from the sins, the minor and the major, that cause for things to come upon our ummah that are of distress.
Allahumma naqina minath dhunubi wal khataya lati takbisu du'a, wa naqina minath dhunubi wal khataya lati tanzilu albala.
May Allah purify us from all of those sins and may Allah 'azza wa jal guide us to the good deeds that benefit our ummah, that benefit our world, that will benefit us on the day of judgment. Allahumma ameen. As salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
Al-Ahya'i minhum wal amwat. Innaka sami'un qareebun mujeebu da'awat. Allahumma ighfir lana warhamna wa a'fu anna wa la tu'adhibna. Rabbana zalamna anfusana wa in lam taghfir lana wa tarhamna. Lanakunanna minal khasireen. Allahumma innaka afuwwun. Kareemun tuhibbu al-afwa fa'afu anna.
Allahumma ighfir liwalidina. Rabbirhamhumma kamarabbayani saghira. Rabbana hab lana min azwajina wa dhurriyatina qurrata a'yun. Wa ja'alna lilmuttaqina imama. Allahumma ansur ikhwanal mustadha'afeen fi filastin. Wa fil sudan wa fi kulli makan. Allahumma alayka bi a'daika a'da ad-din.
Allahumma ahliki al-zalimeena bil-zalimeen. Wa akhrijna wa ikhwanna min baynim salimeen. Ibadallah inna Allaha ya'muru bil-adli wal-ihsan wa ita'i dhil-qurba wa yanha 'anil-fahsha'i wal-munkari wal-baghi. Ya'izukum la'allakum tadhakkarun. Fadhkuru Allaha yadhkurkum washkuruhu 'ala ni'amihi yazidkum. Wala dhikru Allahi akbar.
Wallahu ya'lamu ma tasna'un. Wa alaikum as-salam.
