Summary: Signs of a hypocrite<br> When there is s serious disease outbreak, warnings are given out. And people are given any means possible and they are reminded over and over again that you need to be careful, this is a dangerous disease. If you have the following symptoms, go see a physician. And there are alerts everywhere. I remember recently, because I used to travel a lot, when the bird flu and swine flu was going around, at airports they had free hand sanitizers and extra alerts and if you are sneezing, don’t travel and this and that. Depending on how serious a disease is, the more panicked a society gets and rightfully so. And if the disease is life threatening then it’s more serious. Sometimes schools are shut down, and people don’t go to work, and even if they don’t have those symptoms/ if they don’t actually have that disease but they have even the most minor instances of that symptom, people start thinking maybe they have it. And they start citing with caution. They get extra careful because I don’t want to take any chances, you know, maybe this is just a cold or maybe this is that crazy deadly disease that they are talking about all the time all over the place. And obviously this is a natural response in any society.<br> I wanted to introduce this khutbah this way because I want to talk to you about a disease and this is a disease believers should be reminded of all the time. And it’s a serious disease.<br> You know in medical terminology like they say some of the most serious conditions you can have is a heart condition. Well, the disease I want to talk to you about is actually a heart disease and the Quranic term for it is “Nifaaq”. You commonly may have heard the term ‘hypocrisy”. Hypocrisy—it’s a disease and it’s a very serious disease.<br> For any disease you have pathology. First of all what are the consequences? So what if somebody has hypocrisy? How bad can it be? What are the consequences of this disease? Well first let’s take a quick look at the consequences.<br> Allah (SWT) tells us in the Quran, “The hypocrites, they are in the lowest pit of Hellfire.”<br> The lower the hellfire gets, the tougher it gets. The lowest pit possible in Hellfire is reserved for al-munaafiqoon—the hypocrites.<br> Then on top of that, how serious this disease is and how if somebody reaches the terminal stages? You know when there are the early stages of a disease you can go get treatment but if it gets to a point of no return, if the disease reaches a point of no return then you can’t be helped. No matter how good the treatment, no matter how expensive the hospital or the doctor or how advanced the equipment this person can’t be helped.<br> A good friend of mine is a physician. He actually works in the ER; he sees a lot of like people close to death. So one time they had this young man who got into a car accident, he belonged to a very wealthy family. Non-Muslims. They came by private jet from all over the country and they are trying to tell them we don’t care how much money it takes, you need to save his life. And he got to a certain point where basically he was practically dead and he said no amount of money can save him now. That’s beyond us now. This is beyond the attempt of human beings. Now I want to bring that parallel back to hypocrisy.<br> What is the cure? What is the remedy? You know one of the great gifts in this Deen is that the Messenger (SAW) would make dua for a person. You know how sometimes you go to the imaam; you ask him could you please make dua for me? Or you go ask the elder could you make dua for me. When somebody is travelling you say could you make dua for me because the dua of the traveler is accepted. When somebody is going to Hajj you make sure you call them and say make sure you make dua for me. And they ask you any special dua you want me to make for you because I am going there?<br> Now imagine if the Messenger (SAW) himself is making dua for someone.
