Graduate To Jannah!

This last Friday, I gave khutbah at a local Islamic School in Memphis, Tennessee. It was the students’ last day of school, and I had to come up with a topic that would be 1)appetizing to 5-13 year olds  2)short enough that they’d listen and 3)easily understood by elementary/middle school brains.  I sat on Friday morning, a few hours before jumuah, staring at a blank page on my laptop’s screen. What would be a good way to encourage these kids towards piety?

I figured the best way to motivate the kids to use their summer vacation in a productive, wholesome way would be to talk about jannah. But how? Should I just describe it to them, citing Qur’an and hadith as my sources? Should I use an analogy to compare jannah to something they already knew? I decided to do both.

During the school year, long weekends, breaks and vacations are like cold water to a thirsty person – they’re so amazing! Summer vacation is the big kahuna, the top of the top of all school vacations. It’s most students’ goal during the year, so getting to it is a big deal. I used that Friday, their last hour during their last day of school, to make an analogy that I hope hit home with them.

“Remember all of the days during this school year? Waking up at 7am to go to school, sitting through classes, having homework to do when you got home, and having to go bed early the next day to do it all over again. Remember studying for tests and taking them, only to find out that you have a test in a different subject the next week? Remember how hard you all worked this entire year?”

I began by establishing an image, something that’s important to me when I give khutbah. I try not to speak in a vacuum – that is, without a context. I always try to start it off and bring it home with something they can relate to.”

“Think about how long you’ve waited, the entire year, for this day: May 15th, the last day of school. In less than an hour, you will walk out of those doors and be free boys and girls for the entire summer. Almost all of the school rules that you had to follow and things you had to do to get ready for school will not matter anymore. Your time will belong to you, and you can do whatever you want.”

Next, I tried to butter them up in terms of getting them excited about leaving school. I tried to evoke a distinct feeling of euphoric happiness, the kind that makes you smile to the point where you can’t not smile, even if you consciously attempt to hold it in. Many of the kids’ eyes lit up, smiles were spread wide across their cheeks.

“But, something I know you all hate is that summer vacation eventually does end, and you eventually have to go back to school. It stinks, but it’s how life is. Wouldn’t it be amazing if there were a place where vacation would never end? Where you never had to do chores, go to school and take tests, do homework, clean the dishes, even go to the bathroom?!”

Spark their curiosity – check. My next step was to describe things to them that seemed unreal. Never having to do chores, or even go to the toilet? What kind of place would that be?

“In jannah, you’ll never have to do any of those things! In jannah, we can eat whatever we want, we stay up however late we want, we can hang out whenever we want, we can do whatever we want! In jannah, we’ll all be looking GQ and supermodelish, and we’ll all be happy as can be, insha Allah! But the most important gift of all is that we get to meet Allah [swt]. We get to meet the Lord who created us, the One who we do all of the things we do for! We pray to Him, we’re nice to people for Him, we stay away from bad things for Him…we finally get to meet Him insha Allah!”

Completing the analogy is an important step. Connecting their happiness in summer vacation with jannah would, hopefully, make them want jannah more than they wanted their vacation all year long. To tie it all together with a sentimental bow, the inspirational emotional call towards goodness:

“Now, you might be thinking to yourself: why is this big white dude talking to us about summer vacation and jannah?? Well, the reason I came here from Chicago to talk to you about this is because I want to remind you guys, and remind myself, how awesome it’ll be if we’ll all be there together. Just like you guys all worked hard this school year with homework and tests, we need to work hard to be good Muslims so that we can get the ultimate vacation, a vacation in jannah. Insha Allah, I’m excited for all of us to be there, but in order to get there, we need to work hard. So, this summer, remind yourself that you need do lots of good deeds. They don’t have to be huge, even! Just keep doing them. Maybe read one hadith a day with your parents, or start praying with your mom or dad all of the five prayers during the day. Pick some good deeds, and try to do them as much as possible, and insha Allah we’ll all be on our way to jannah!”

Closing off with action items, especially with youth, is important. Too often before I’ve spoken in the abstract without giving tangible advices. Now, I try to accompany at least one major action item at the end of every talk or khutbah for people to do. I try to make it attainable and realistic, but still challenging.

Insha Allah my khutbah will have had an effect on the kids. I ask you to make du’aa that they’re motivated to become better, and that I am motivated to attain the same goal of jannah that I enticed them with. Hopefully anyone reading this post found some motivation and khayr as well! If you have any comments, suggestions, or stories yourself, please do share below in the comments section.