By Imam Murtadha Gusau
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
All praise is due to Allah alone, and so we praise Him, ask Him to assist us, and beg Him to forgive us. We seek refuge with Him from the evils of our own selves and from the evil results of our bad deeds. Whomever Allah guides cannot be led astray by anyone; whomever Allah leaves astray cannot be guided by anyone. I testify openly that no one deserves any worship whatsoever except Allah, who is alone in that right, sharing it with none. I testify openly as well that Muhammad was his worshipful servant and messenger. As for what follows:
Dear believers in Allah! Indeed the Day of Standing (Alkiyamah) is in front of us! The great scales of the Day of Judgment are in front of us! The weighing of the deeds, the weighing of the record books, the account, and even the weighing of the people themselves is directly in front of us! Let each and every one of us fear Allah and prepare for the day when the great scales are laid down and the Justice of Allah rules over the people. Let us fear Allah and know that our scales are in front of us. Allah Almighty has said:
“When we lay down the scales of justice for the Day of Judgment, and no soul will be wronged or oppressed in any way! Even if it were a tiny grain of a mustard seed (meaning: of evil), We bring it on that day (i.e. All of our deeds will be laid bare)! And sufficient We are, in taking [the creation] to account.” [Qur’an, 21:47]
And Allah Almighty has said:
“And the scale and the weight and the measures on that day is the truth, and those who have scales of good records and good deeds that are heavy are the only ones who are successful and triumphant, and whoever’s scale of good deeds is light, then such are those who have lost themselves due to how they used to oppress regarding our verses.” [Qur’an, 7:8-9]
And He the Most High has said:
“And when the horn is blown into, there are no affiliations (no ascriptions or beneficial lineage) on that day, and they shall not be able to ask one another for assistance…” [Qur’an, 23:101]
I beg Allah for His mercy and forgiveness, ameen.
And Allah Almighty has said:
“…It is only those whose scales [of good deeds] are heavy, they are the ones who will be triumphant! And whoever’s scales are light, those are the ones who have lost themselves into Jahannam (the Hellfire) for eternity.” [Qur’an, 23:102]
I beg Allah for His forgiveness, His grace, His bounties and His mercy on that day, the day when our statements will be placed in the scale, and our actions and our deeds will be placed in the scale. The Prophet (Peace be upon him) said:
“There are two phrases that are light (i.e. easy) on the tongue, yet they are heavy in the scales. They are beloved to the Ever Merciful (Allah). They are: Subhanallah Wa Bihamdihi (Exalted is Allah and the praise is His), Subhanallah Al-azim (Exalted is Allah, the Great).“ [Bukhari and Muslim, from the report of Abu Hurairah]
And the Prophet (Peace be upon him) also said:
“Alhamdulillah (saying: All praises are due to Allah) fills the scales…” [Muslim, from the report of Abu Malik al-Ash’ari]
We have our statements on the scales on the Day of Judgment, dear brothers and sisters! And the Prophet (Peace be upon him) explained that even our character, our interactions of every type, will be placed on the scale in a way that we will see, and we ask Allah for His protection! The Prophet (Peace be upon him) said:
“There is nothing heavier in the scales than good character.” [Musnad Imam Ahmad, Sunan Abi Dawud, Jami’ at-Tirmithi, and others, from the report of Abud-Darda’, authenticated by al-Albani]
Good character, dear brothers and sisters, is firstly and foremostly between ourselves and our Lord and Creator, by way of:
- The correct aqidah (creed), the correct beliefs.
- Believing in all His reports.
- Submitting to Him with true, genuine submission and compliance.
- Following His Messenger (Peace be upon him).
Our good manners must also include:
- Love and appreciation of the Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him).
- Love and appreciation of the Companions.
- Supplicating for the Companions and the Imams of the religion.
- Not speaking ill of the Companions.
- Appreciating and rehearsing their virtues and their status with Allah.
All of that is good character! And then our interactions with each other, that we:
- Honour and respect each other.
- Uphold the trusts among one another.
- Speak well to each other.
- Honour our neighbours, elders, and parents.
- Have mercy on our youth and our children.
All of this is good manners, and these are the heaviest things in the scale on the Day of Judgment! I ask Allah to have mercy on us and to bless us, ameen.
And in another authentic Hadith, we learn that the books, the actual record books of our deeds, will also be weighed! The Prophet (Peace be upon him) said:
“A man shall be called forward from among my nation on the Day of Judgment, at the head of creation (in front of everyone). His scrolls shall be laid out, ninety-nine scrolls! Each and every scroll stretches out for as far as the eye can see! Then Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, says: ‘Do you deny any of this? (Do you object to any of these things?)’ He says, ‘No, my Lord!’ ‘Then have My scribes who have written these things about you oppressed you?’ Then he responds, ‘No, O my Lord!’ Then it is said to him, ‘Do you have any excuse? Do you have any good deed?’ The man becomes embarrassed and ashamed, and he says, ‘No.’ Then it is said to him: ‘Nay, but you do indeed have with Us some good deeds!’ And there shall not be any oppression on this day! So then a small piece of paper (like a ticket) is brought out. On that piece of paper is the testimony that: ‘No one deserves worship other than Allah, and that Muhammad is his worshipful servant and messenger.’ So then that man says, ‘O my Lord! What could this little piece of paper do against all of these scrolls?!” Then Allah says to him, ‘You shall not be oppressed!’ Then, all of those scrolls are placed on one side of the scale, and that little piece of paper is placed on the other side of the scale. All of the scrolls pop up (light in weight), and the single piece of paper goes down in the scale, as on that day, the heaviest thing is ‘La Ilaha Illallah‘!” [Musnad of Imam Ahmad, at-Tirmithi, Ibn Majah, and others, from the report of Abdullah Ibn Amr, authenticated by Al-Albani in Silsilat al-Ahadith as-Sahihah]
And on that day the Mercy of Allah overtakes His Anger. I ask Him not to hold us to account by what is just and fair, but rather by His Mercy, for if we are left to the scale alone and to justice alone, we would certainly be destroyed!
I ask Allah to forgive us and to make us from those people who come with La Ilaha Illallah on that day, not violated, not compromised, but purely practiced and implemented La ilaha Illallah! Ameen.
Dear brothers and sisters! The strangest of events of that day is not only that scrolls are being weighed, the record books, our actions, our statements and words are all being weighed on that scale, but the people themselves will be weighed! The individual himself goes into the scale in a way that will be known to the people on the Day of Judgment! That is known through the statement of the Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him):
“Verily, a big, heavy man comes on the Day of Judgment (i.e. a man of great importance, high status and recognition in this life), yet he does not even weigh with Allah the weight of a mosquito’s wing!” [Bukhari and Muslim, from the report of Abu Hurairah]
The Prophet (Peace be upon him) said this as an explanation to the Qur’anic verse:
“So We shall not establish for them any weight on the Day of Judgment.” [Qur’an, 18:105]
Someone of great status and importance, respected by everyone, loved and cherished and adored, can be fuel for the hellfire in the Hereafter and weigh nothing in those scales of justice!
I ask Allah for safety! Ameen.
Furthermore, Ali Ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) mentioned that Ibn Mas’ud was being observed by the companions one day, and they remarked about how skinny his legs were. So the Prophet (Peace be upon him) said:
“What are you laughing at?” They said, “We are laughing at how skinny his legs are!”
The Prophet (Peace be upon him) said:
“I swear by Him in Whose Hand is my soul! They are indeed heavier in the scale than Uhud (a great mountain in Madinah)!” [Musnad of Imam Ahmad, authenticated by al-Albani in Silsilat al-Ahadith as-Sahihah]
The thin legs of Ibn Mas’ud, skinny human legs, on the Day of Judgment, when it comes to the real weight of that of which Allah loves, shall weigh more than the mountain of Uhud!
Respected brothers and sisters! We have a day coming with a big weigh-in! Some people are on diets; some people try to lose weight, and they have a goal. They have a date they need to lose weight by. There is a day with a big weigh-in in front of them: “By such-and-such date, I need to lose 200,000 Naira or 300,000 Naira …” And he struggles, and deprives himself of food, and he pushes himself with exercise and various actions to prepare for that day. Other people have the same challenge, but they eat terrible food, and they do not really adjust their eating habits. Do you know which one of them is really preparing for the weigh-in? You know which one is honest in how he is worried about the date of weigh-in by his actions, not by his claims! The one eating ice cream and fried foods, saying, “I’m really hoping to lose a lot of weight by the weigh-in date!”, such a person is only fooling himself!
More importantly than that, dear brothers and sisters, the big weigh-in on the Day of Judgment is coming! The people themselves are really placed on the scale! What are we doing to prepare for that day? Do we have good, positive, beneficial speech upon our tongues, guidance and advice, invitations to good, censoring and forbidding evil? Or do we have frivolity upon our tongues? Do we have gossip, backbiting, and slandering upon our tongues, things which will destroy us when our statements are laid upon the scale?! Do we have prayers in their proper times? Are we taking care of our duty to offer the five daily prayers in their times? Are we fasting with sincerity in the month of Ramadan? Are we planning to make Hajj to the house of Allah? Saving our money and preparing properly, like genuine and honest people preparing for their honest goals? Or are we deceitful with our own selves? Are we cheating our own selves and putting off what Allah has made us an obligation upon us?
Are we violating the limits of Allah in our speech, manners, and interactions with our brothers and sisters? Or are we living like people who know that the scale is right in front of us? The scale is in front of us, and there is no relationship to any person that will help us!
May Allah help us in preparation for the day we stand in front of those scales!
May Allah grant our hearts the fear of that day that moves us to righteous actions, something that will truly help us to prepare for that day!
May Allah forgive us on that day! May Allah take us to account with an easy account and forgive us!
May Allah enter us into His gardens and have mercy on us!
May Allah overlook our evil deeds and forgive us! Ameen.
The time is now, dear brothers and sisters, with these fresh reminders and this real concern about the scale in front of you! It is easier than a person with a weight loss goal! He has months and maybe even years of hard work to do! You can free yourself of that baggage and that extra weight that will harm you when it reaches the scale on the Day of Judgment! Those evil deeds that you do not want to represent you on the Day of Judgment, you can free yourself of them right now, by simply repenting to Allah! You can relieve yourself of their burdens today, by abandoning those evil deeds! You can truly prepare for that weigh-in by abandoning the neglect of your obligations right now, with true and sincere repentance to Allah! And right now on this day you can be forgiven! On this day, right now, today, Allah can accept your repentance!
I ask Allah to guide us to true, genuine repentance, and to make our affairs easy in the Hereafter. Ameen.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. May the peace, blessings and salutations of Allah be upon our noble Messenger, Muhammad (Peace be upon him), and upon his family, his Companions and his true followers.
Murtadha Muhammad Gusau is the Chief Imam of: Nagazi-Uvete Jumu’ah Mosque; and Late Alhaji Abdur-Rahman Okene Mosque, Okene, Kogi State, Nigeria. He can be reached via: gusauimam@gmail.com; or +2348038289761.
This Friday sermon (Jumu’ah Khutbah) was prepared for delivery today Friday, 22 Dhul-Hijjah, 1445 AH (June 28, 2024).