By Sheikh Salah Al-Budair – 08 Shabaan 1435

His Eminence Sheikh Salah Al-Budair, may Allah preserve him, delivered the Friday khutbah entitled, “A Warning against Heedlessness”, in which he talked about the dangers of heedlessness of acts of obedience to Allah and indulgence in pleasures. He also warned against the conduct of those who are given to heedlessness, since such conduct results in great loss in this life and in the hereafter.

Praise be to Allah, the Bestower of blessings and favours,
And the One Who has created hearing, sight, and speech.
Whoever gives thanks to Allah will receive more favours.
As for the ungrateful, let them remember that many a blessing has turned into a curse.

I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, Who has no partners, a testimony that will save us from heedlessness, hardness of heart, ignorance, doubts, deviance, and misguidance; and I bear witness that our prophet and master, Muhammad, is His servant and messenger. May Allah bestow His bountiful peace and blessings upon him and upon his family and Companions.

O Muslims!
Fear Allah, for fear of Allah is the best of all gains and obedience to Him is the most honourable source of pride.

“O you who believe! Fear Allah (by doing all that He has ordered and by abstaining from all that He has forbidden) as He should be feared. [Obey Him, be thankful to Him, and remember Him always], and die not except in a state of Islam [as Muslims (with complete submission to Allah)].” (Al ‘Imran: 102)

O Muslims!
People with high determination, proud souls, and pure hearts, whom Allah has endowed with good nature and great insight, are always wary of the breeding grounds for heedlessness and seek Allah’s protection from it.

Ar-Raghib Al-Asfahani said, “Heedlessness is a kind of forgetfulness which comes over man on account of his lack of vigilance and alertness.” It has also been said that “heedlessness means responding to whatever desires one’s lower self craves for” and that “heedlessness means deserting the mosque and obeying the corrupt.” Heedlessness has also been described as “wasting one’s time in idleness.”

It is established from the hadith narrated by Anas ibn Malik, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, used to supplicate saying, “O Allah! I seek refuge in You from helplessness and laziness, from miserliness and senility, from hardness of heart and heedlessness, and from humiliation and poverty” (Reported by Ibn Hibban).

Souls only become ruined when whims and lustful desires take the better of them, and hearts only become ruined when heedlessness and hardness overpower them. Allah, Majesty be to Him in His Loftiness, says:

“And remember your Lord by your tongue and within yourself, humbly and with fear without loudness in words in the mornings, and in the afternoons and be not of those who are neglectful.” (Al-A‘raf: 205)

‘Umair ibn Habib Al-Khatmi, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “Faith (iman) increases and decreases.” Someone asked, “How does it increase or decrease?” He replied, “If we remember our Lord and fear Him, this will increase our faith. If we are heedless, forgetful, and neglectful [of remembrance and fear of Allah], this will decrease it.” If the heart is nurtured with remembrance of Allah, watered with meditation, cleansed of corruption, and purified with the Qur’an and the Sunnah, and if it adheres to pure monotheism and avoids the blemishes of shirk (assigning partners to Allah), innovations in religion, and superstitions, it becomes alert to the breeding grounds for heedlessness and overcomes the pitfalls of error.

The more one succumbs to heedlessness and negligence, the more remorseful and regretful one will be. Those who overlook that which should be remembered will waste their chance and let the opportunity slip by. Those who prefer idleness in seasons where profits are made, who do not sow the seeds at the right time, who walk slowly during a race, and who take it lightly in the competition arena will be deprived of all good and will be blamed for their own negligence.

The human self constantly incites one to lustful desires, discourages one from acts of obedience to Allah, leads men – through its tyranny – to humiliation, and cunningly deceives them with vain hopes. If anyone fails to set his lower self right and bring it back to the right course, he will be overwhelmed by its tyranny and fooled by its deception.

“… Verily the (human) self is inclined to evil, except when my Lord bestows His Mercy (upon whom He wills) …” (Yusuf: 53)

People who are given to heedlessness are totally neglectful and inadvertent. They turn away from the good that is meant for their best interests. They do not go to the prayer except in a lazy state, perform it rather sluggishly, delay it well past its due time, and do not offer it in congregation. This is how they act towards prayer, which is the noblest and the best of all good deeds. They also desert the Qur’an, i.e. they neither recite or listen to it nor act on its laws and orders. Allah, Exalted be He, says:

“… And when they stand up for As-Salat (the prayer), they stand with laziness and to be seen of men, and they do not remember Allah but little.” (An-Nisa’: 142)

They turn away from gatherings where Allah is remembered, beneficial knowledge is taught, and preaching and goodness are given; hasten to gatherings of idle talk and amusement and to places of singing, dancing, nudity, and obscenity; and race for places of evil, temptation, and heedlessness. They rush to places of unlawful entertainment, or to places where alcohol and other intoxicants are sold and where cannabis is offered. This only causes a nasty smell in the mouth, ruins one’s well-being, corrupts thinking, makes one unmindful of remembrance of Allah, and makes the healthy sick and the honourable humiliated.

Severe is the slightest of its ills:
Immorality, madness, or dirt.
They fool around and play, commit all kinds of evil, transgress the limits that Allah has set, and search for corruption.
O heedless! Wake up before you die,
Before the sinners are seized by their feet and forelocks.
Tomorrow all people will be staring in terror,
Unable to speak, though neither deaf nor dumb.
Gathered together, all people will be occupied with their own affairs,
And Allah will question them about their good and evil deeds.

Allah, Exalted be He, says: “Draws near for mankind their reckoning, while they turn away in heedlessness.” (Al-Anbiya’: 1)

People are indulged in their heedlessness,
While the mill of death leaves nothing unground.
From the way to death, there is
No fortress for those who seek protection.
O dwellers of palaces!
You will have no abode but your graves.
Today you are piling up riches,
Boasting about your wealth, and wearing elegant attire;
But on the morrow you will be embalmed
And enshrouded in your grave.
Turn to your Lord in repentance,
While that is within your reach.

O Allah! Help us awaken from heedlessness and grant us repentance before death, O All-Hearing, O Ever Near, O Responsive to prayers!