The Fifty-Dollar Coupon

People are not interested in hearing about religion in general; people want to hear about how to make money. If an announcement is made to non-Muslims that there is going to be a lecture about Islam, people are not going to show up, or if they do show up, there is not really a huge response. But if the announcement is that everybody who shows up will get fifty dollars, a coupon for fifty dollars, people are going to flood the hall, and there will not be enough seats for them. Why? Because they are being offered fifty dollars. This is not only with non-Muslims. Even with Muslims, people do not show up for Ṣalāt al-Fajr. The masjid is packed for Jumuʿah, but for Ṣalāt al-Fajr there is a fraction of those — let us say ten per cent. However, if an announcement were made that anybody who shows up for Fajr will get a twenty-dollar bill, everybody would come. The neighbours would show up, everybody would come, people from far away would show up, and they would crowd the masjid. Why? Because they are being offered twenty dollars.

So people are not interested in hearing about religion. That is why, when the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) first made his announcement in Makkah that he was a prophet, he gathered the people of Quraysh and made it seem very urgent — and it is urgent. He was calling wā ṣabāḥāh; this is the call. It is like dialling 911: it is an emergency. That was how the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) … a severe punishment from Allah. What did Abū Lahab say? Tabban laka, a-li-hādhā jamaʿtanā — "May evil befall you! Is this why you gathered us?" (al-Bukhārī 4770). Abū Lahab was upset because he had closed his shop and come to listen to Muḥammad (peace be upon him), and he thought it was something serious, according to him, and it turned out to be preaching about religion, and he was very upset about it. That is when the āyāt were revealed: tabbat yadā abī lahabin wa tabb. And then Allah says: mā aghnā ʿanhu māluhu wa mā kasab — what will his wealth do for him? This wealth, which was keeping him away from Islam, which was preventing him from listening to the message, which made him upset because the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had gathered them — this wealth, what will it do for him on the Day of Judgement? Nothing. In fact, it will be the reason for his demise.