Full transcript of “Negative Speaking and Belittling Blessings | Khutbah by Dr. Omar Suleiman”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:00 We begin by praising Allah subhana wa ta'ala and bearing witness that none has the right to be worshiped or unconditionally obeyed except for him. And we bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam 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. Dear brothers and sisters, there's something deeply profound about the way that the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam used to speak about his circumstances. And many times there is a connection between how we speak about things and how we think about things. And if we speak in a negative way, then our
0:45 circumstances will almost always follow, even if they're beautiful. And that's why you could have two people with the exact same set of circumstances and one of them if you ask them how they're doing they will praise the good of their circumstances and another person will speak to you as if they'ream as if they have the worst life in the world and the most difficult uh moments in their lives. two people with the same circumstances. Ibraimisam, the prophet Ibraim when he visited his son is in Mecca. He visited him twice. And the first time visited, he sees a wife of isam and asks her how she's doing and all she pointed to were the negativities, the hardships that they had. And then he
1:31 comes back later on and I'm paraphrasing the story and finds that isam has married a more righteous woman in her place asks about her circumstances and she praises everything that they have even though it is the exact same set of circumstances. So it's not about the circumstances it was about how they were experiencing those circumstances and then speaking about those circumstances and there is a connection between the two. So much so that Allah subhana wa ta says and we often kind of brush over this very quickly as for the blessing of your lord upon you speak of it. Say alhamdulillah for it. Thank Allah for it and be very
2:17 conscious about how you speak about it. You know when you take your sip of water and you say alhamdulillah did you actually just internalize alhamdulillah alhamdulillah for the sip of water thank you Allah for the sip of water there's something very powerful about that that is speaking about the of Allah subhana wa ta'ala there's another hadith that we often quote partially and I wanted to just focus on the last part because it's very profoundly connected to this and get to the person of the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam first and how he dealt with this. The prophet sallall alaihi wasallam said, "Look to those who have less than you, not to those who have more than you." Why? Because that will make you more content with what Allahh has given to you. Stop looking at those who have more than you. Look to those
3:03 that have less than you. And the last word part of that hadith in some narrations is do not belittle the blessings that Allah subhana t has bestowed upon you. Meaning one part of the hadith is what you're looking at. The other part of the hadith is how you're talking about things. Don't belittle. Don't use words that belittle a blessing that Allah subhana t has given to you. And this speaks to the small things in life as well as the large things in life. This speaks to our negative self-talk and positive selft talk. This speaks to how we interact with our families. This speaks to how we interact with our communities. This speaks to optimism and pessimism. This
3:50 speaks to all of those different things. Don't you dare belittle a blessing that Allah subhana t has bestowed upon you. So how does that start with the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam first? I want you to just think about this hadith and sit with it for a bit. The prophet sallall alaihi wasallam never once criticized food that was on his plate. He never criticized a morsel of food that was on his plate. Now if you sit for a moment with that and think about this man ruled how much of the world sallallahu alaihi wasallam power prestige and think about our own lives if you've gone through hard times and good times you get a little bit more
4:36 selective with your blessings selective with your food you rarely find people that eat to to function and eat to live criticizing their food the bread was overcooked today the bread was no no but for us we start you know doing yelp in our heads on every single plate of food that we eat, right? Reviewing everything that we eat. The prophet sallall alaihi wasallam, do you know how amazing that is? That he never once pointed to a flaw in his food. He never once said, "It's too salty. I don't like it. I didn't enjoy this." Not once did he ever criticize his food. Something that sounds so small, but how hard is it to practice? When's the last time you criticized your food? It might
5:22 have been lunch before you got here, right? Think about that. despite his position, whether it was a a a host from the outside of his home or whether it was what his spouse put forward, whether it was someone who was from the poorest of society or someone who was from the elite of society. If you put a garment in front of the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam, if you gave him a shirt or if you put a plate in front of him, he would never point out a flaw in it. He would simply be grateful for it. And subhan Allah, look at the power of how this transforms things. We just finished speaking about and a story that he had with the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam where he said he grabbed me by the hand and he took me to his house so we could eat together and
6:08 all they had in his house were some dried pieces of bread. They dumped them on the ground in front of him and the prophet said is there anything to dip the bread in? They said you know the only the only dip we have is just some vinegar. The prophet said, "What a great dip vinegar is." I mean, just right away. He didn't he didn't belittle it. He didn't say, "Oh, you know, I wish we had some honey." No, I love vinegar. Put the vinegar in front of us. Let's dip the vinegar. And Jabra said, "I started loving vinegar, too." And then from said, "I started loving vinegar, too." And then the narrator from says, "I started loving vinegar, too." Cuz it was a mindset. It was a shift. This is good. Alhamdulillah. Allah put something to dip our bread in. That's a mindset that is to speak of a blessing of Allah.
6:57 Don't belittle it. Don't be like, "Oh man, this is dry. It's old. It's this. It's that." No. Alhamdulillah. It's a blessing and I'm pleased with it. Alhamdulillah. And if that's with the small things, what about the big things? Right? What about the people in our lives? What about the circumstances in our lives that are far more consequential than the bites of food that we have? The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said speaking about marriage since everyone likes to quote uh the other person's hadits on them husbands and wives there's actually an implementation of this hadith for both and it's almost identical. Subhan Allah. The hadith in Muslim
7:43 the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam said let not a believing man despise a believing woman meaning his wife don't talk your wife down if he doesn't like something about her a quality that she has she might have a certain thing that he doesn't like about her then he likes something else about her speak about that thing Don't speak about the thing you don't like. Focus on what you like and extol it. No one's perfect and you're not perfect either. And the prophet sallallaihi wasallam said about women to men. He said sallallahu alaihi wasallam that they show ingratitude when a husband makes one mistake and she says I never once saw anything good from you.
8:29 You've never done anything good. So she denies everything and focuses on the fault. Now, Subhan Allah, like I've never done anything good. Fine, I'm not going to do anything. Then the attitude shuts off both sides, right? Well, you're never going to be happy and you're never going to be happy. So why even try now trying to live up to anything because your standards are impossible. Both sides are operating from the same spiritual disease. By the way, you're belittling a blessing of Allah subhana wa ta'ala. Allah blessed you with a quality. Allah blessed you with an action in that other person. You failed to extol it and you extol the bad quality. The bad quality dominates them and you're stuck with it. Who suffers? You do. When do you see the prophet
9:15 sallall alaihi wasallam belittling? When do you see him belittling before that? Where do you see him doing that? He didn't used to do that. Don't look at the thing that's wrong and extol it. No, extol the blessing. Extol the good thing and Allah subhana t will make it more dominant in your life even just through your perspective through your perception. And what made the prophet sallallaihi wasallam so amazing in this regard is that even in the most bleak circumstances he had something positive to say sallallahu alaihi wasallam could be they're literally facing a potential massacre and sends
10:01 who becomes Muslim later on and a great companion. But at that time he was a chief negotiator and the Sahabah see him and go oh God. And the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam smiles and he says his name is sued which means easy. Allah just made our affairs easy for us. Something is good something good is going to come out of this. Just look at his name. His name is Suede. His name is easy. So Allah subh surely is giving us a sign that he's about to send ease our way. That's a that's looking at things and trying to see something to praise Allah subhana wa ta'ala for. Finding the good and praising it. That's not being naive. That's not being reckless. The prophet sallallaihi wasallam said, "Oh, no more no need to do anything else." No, that's seeing something good and saying "Alhamdulillah there's
10:47 something there. Alhamdulillah. There's something in the small morsel of food. There's something in the major tragedy. something there I can find and praise. When you constantly have that negative lens, you're only messing it up for yourself and you're going to mess it up for people around you as well because negativity is contagious. And subhan Allah, what we find often is how that translates generationally. By the way, you know, the next generation is listening to their parents constantly putting down the blessings of Allah upon them. Then you give your six-year-old an iPhone 10. I don't know why, but you choose to give your six-year-old an iPhone 10. And the six-year-old, you know, say, "Oh, you got an iPhone 10?" "Well, you know, yeah, but my friend has a 12." They immediately go to that.
11:35 You're belittling a blessing Allah subhana t bestowed to you. Don't do that. And that transitions transitions from generation to generation because it becomes contagious. with the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. Look how contagious his gratitude was. Because if he's grateful for that, who am I to not be grateful for it? If he's grateful for that vinegar, who am I not to be grateful for it? Because he deserves more than I ever deserved sallallahu alaihi wasallam. And if he's pleased, I too am pleased. Do not belittle a blessing that Allah subhana wa ta'ala has bestowed upon you. Speak, reflect on the blessings of Allah in your life with yourself and with the
12:21 people around you and make that contagious that we say alhamdulillah and do not point out flaws. Make it a habit. Make it a habit. You know a lot of people say well this is behavior. I've I've been like this. I always go to the negative. I immediately resort to the negative. It's not something that can change overnight. That's true. But you know when the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam says to us to even focus on the small things the the daily things slowly that change can come inshall slowly that change can come where you even adjust yourself to say alhamdulillah for something that is very very very small and something that other people would be little so catch yourself and try to adjust yourself in that way to always say alhamdulillah for the small good that you can find even if it doesn't
13:07 seem that great at the moment and Allah subhana wa ta might change that good to great and that might then color the other circumstances and allow for other things to be granted to you. If you are grateful, I will increase you. May Allah subhana t increase us first and foremost in iman. May Allah increase us in faith. May Allah increase us in certainty. May Allah subhana t increase us in perspective. May Allah subhana t increase us in our ability to see blessing so that when he blesses us it becomes a blessing for us in the hereafter as well. May Allah subhana wa ta make us from the grateful and the patient. May Allah subhana wa ta'ala make us from the thankful. May Allah subhana wa ta'ala forgive us when we belittle any that he has given to us especially the of al-Islam. May Allah
13:54 subhana wa ta never make us amongst those that belittle the blessing of faith that he has given to us. May Allah never allow us to look at someone who has a blessing of this dunya and envy them while he has given us the greatest blessing of this dean. And may Allahh keep us on that of until the moment that he takes us. Alhamdulillah. form
