Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Allahumma ja'alna minhum wa minallatheena aamanu wa aamidu al-salihaati wa tawasubilhaqqi wa tawasubilsabr. Wa qad amrana bilhaqq. Wa qala ta'ala ya ayyuha allatheena aaminu taqoo allaha haqqa tuqatihi wa laa tamootunna illa wa antum muslimoon. Ya ayyuha allatheena aaminu taqoo allaha haqqa tuqatihi wa laa tamootunna illa wa antum muslimoon. Ya ayyuha allatheena aaminu taqoo allaha haqqa tuqatihi wa laa tamootunna illa wa antum muslimoon. We begin by praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for him. And we bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam is his final messenger. We ask Allah to send his peace and blessings upon him. The prophets and messengers that came before him. His family and companions that served alongside him. And those that follow in their blessed path until the day of judgment. And we ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahuma ameen. Dear brothers and sisters, often times when we talk about what leads a person down this path of following their desires. And leads them to a path of sin. And leads them to a place of violating the rules of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And leads them to a place of forgetting their purpose. We often address the footsteps of shaytan. The footsteps of the devil. And the whispers of the devil. From a place of a shahwa. From the place of desire. But subhanallah, one thing that's very interesting when you read about the tactics of the shaytan. Of the devil within the Quran.
And how the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam spoke about them. Is that it's often that the shaytan enters into a person's soul from a place of fear. From a place of insecurity. From the place where that person feels most vulnerable. And then takes that and exploits it into a desire to be desirable. A desire to be wealthy. A desire to be secured. A desire to have the places and the access that they felt like they were unworthy of. Should they not compromise on the very principles and purpose that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given to them. What I mean by that is that the shaytan enters from a place of fear. And it's very interesting because if you look at the way that marketing works. Many times it's to exploit an insecurity. Create an insecurity and then exploit an insecurity. People have body image issues. And so there are all types of products that are marketed towards the insecurity of body image. People have issues with social acceptance. And so there are all sorts of products and things that are marketed towards social validation. All of these different things are marketed to feast on and exploit an insecurity. And subhanAllah I want us to actually look through in these few minutes insha'Allah ta'ala. Some of the verses of the Quran and some of the hadith of the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam in this regard. And then think about how this works. The Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam says and this is a hadith from a companion by the name of Sabrah ibn Abi Fakih radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. And subhanAllah I believe it's the only hadith that he narrates. If not one of the only hadith that he narrates. And what a hadith to narrate from the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam. Qara sam'i'tu rasoolallahi salallahu alaihi wasalam yaqul. He said, I heard the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam say. Inna shaytaana qa'da li'ibni adama bi'atruqihi. That verily the shaytaan has sat on every single path. He tries to obstruct every path that the son of Adam, that the child of Adam wishes to take.
Fa qa'da lahu bi'tariqil islam. So he first tries to obstruct his path to Islam. How many people sat in Mecca and believed that the Prophet of Allah salallahu alaihi wasalam was indeed the Prophet of Allah. But they thought about the consequences of embracing that message. Hence they never embraced that message. And they sat back in Mecca and they waited to see what would happen. Many of them probably passing away before they had the opportunity to embrace Islam. This is a highly consequential choice. This is a very difficult choice that you have to make. So think about a person in Mecca and the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam comes. And the shaytaan gets in the way. Notice the shaytaan does not try here to talk about the message of the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam. Because that battle is already won. Intellectually you already know this is the truth. That's the point. You've already been convinced that this is the truth. But instead tries to exploit an insecurity. فقال تسلم وتذر دينك ودين آبائك وآبائ عبيك Are you going to become Muslim? And abandon the religion of your parents? And abandon the religion of your forefathers? And their fathers? Meaning are you going to put behind your legacy? And in a deeply tribalistic society, you're giving up on everything that used to give you value. What used to give you value in that society was who is your father? What is your tribe? Are you going to turn your back on all of that? The emotional manipulation. And we know that it was used against the companions. That a parent would say that I will starve myself until you relinquish this faith. And so the shaytaan obstructs the path by preying on that, exploiting that, not even trying to mess with who the Prophet ﷺ is anymore or what the message is. And Rasulullah ﷺ said,
فَعَصَاهُ فَأَسْلَمَ So that person disobeyed that devil and became Muslim anyway. They had the resolve and they had the sincerity and they had the security to say that pleasing Allah and doing the right thing is worth the social consequence here. And I'll do it. And they became Muslim. And then the stakes were raised. You now were forced to flee out of persecution to make hijrah. So the Prophet ﷺ said that the shaytaan comes بِطَرِيقِ الْهِجْرَةِ on the way to the migration just as you're about to leave Mecca and leave behind everything that you've earned, all that you've worked for. And if you're a person who lives in that type of society, you've been everywhere trying to earn your living, buy your first home, have your space in Mecca. And says, تُهَاجِرُ وَتَدَعُ أَرْضَكْ وَسَمَاءَكْ Are you really going to make hijrah? Are you really going to migrate? And leave behind your land and your earth? Everything that you've earned? All of your freedom in your own home? وَإِنَّمَا مَثَلُ الْمُهَاجِرُ كَمَثَلِ الْفَرَصِ فِي الطِّوَلِ And verily the one who migrates, an immigrant, is like someone who is a tethered horse. فِي الطِّوَلِ is the horse's pen. So it's like you're tied to something. You're a tied up horse. Think about the horse with all of its strength and its desire to go free. And you're going to be a tethered horse stuck to a pole in its pen. Operating always within this small space. Because that's not your home. And you'll never feel like you're at home. Are you really willing to give up all of that? That freedom, that property, that space for Islam? And the person, the Prophet ﷺ says, عَصَاهُ فَهَاجَرُ That person disobeys the Shaytan and makes hijrah. ثُمَّ قَعْدَ لَهُ بِطَرِيقِ الْجِهَاتِ
And then that person gets in the way of striving in the path of Allah ﷻ. And of course in the context of the early Muslims this is Badr. Now the same people that caused you to flee are in pursuit of you and you have to go to the battlefield? And on the opposite side of that are all of those people? This is such a difficult choice that you have to make. But look at the way the Shaytan tries to exploit. He doesn't call you a coward. He doesn't try to tell you, you know, well look at their strength and look at yours. In this situation, this Shaytan says that are you really going to go out there and lose yourself and lose your wealth? فَتُقَاتِلُ فَتُقْتَلُ And you will kill and be killed. فَتُنكَحُ الْمَرْءَ And then your wife will marry other than you. وَيُقْسَمُ الْمَالَ And then your wealth will be distributed amongst other than you. You're going to lose your family. You're going to lose everything that is precious to you. He tries to mess with that person's sense of honor, that person's sense of dignity. Are you really going to lose all of that? Don't you know what happens afterwards? Are you really willing to take that risk? And the Prophet ﷺ said فَعَصَاهُ فَجَاهَدُ And that person continued forward. And they fought for the sake of Allah ﷻ. Now Rasulullah ﷺ goes on to say that it doesn't matter what happens with this person at the end of the day. Whether everything materializes to their worst fears or not. كان حقاً على الله That it is a right upon Allah أن يدخله الجنة And Allah ﷻ will enter that person into Jannah. The Prophet ﷺ said whether this person dies in a battlefield or this person falls off of their mount or this person drowns or this person dies of anything else, this person will enter Jannah because they conquered the whispers of the shaitan that preyed on their greatest sense of insecurity, their greatest sense of fear.
And who are we as human beings? We look for a sense of safety. We look for a sense of stability. Allah ﷻ even mentions this as a favor to Quraysh. الَّذِي أَطْعَمَهُم مِّن جُوعٍ وَآمَنَهُم مِّن خَوْفٍ Allah is the one who fed you when you were hungry, provided for you. And the one who granted you a sense of security when you were afraid. But shaitan knows that these are things that he can exploit in a human being. That he can look towards and cause a great sense of fear. Now subhanAllah, why is this so important when we're talking about the tactics of shaitan particularly when it comes to exploiting our insecurities? Because if you look into the depth of the literature from the ulema in this regard, the ulema when they speak about تَسْكِيَةُ النَّفْسِ the purification of the soul. They try to get you to dig as deep as possible into where you found yourself first inclining towards certain things. As Imam Ibn al-Jawzi r.a says, if you fall, if you get tripped up, you want to go back to the place that tripped you up. Find the object that tripped you up. Find where your garment got caught on. Don't just rip it and keep moving forward. And a lot of times, before a person had a desire to be more beautiful, they had a fear of undesirability. Before a person got into this level of trying to have more and more wealth, they had a fear of the implications of poverty. And when you actually seek to identify where you used to get your sense of validation from, where you used to get your sense of meaning from, and then the desires that came after that, you'll find that there might be an insecurity there that you have as a human being. Because every single one of us has something there. A fear. And I'm not saying you go back and you yell at your parents and you say that, you used to do this to me and that's why I now, you know, I'm always seeking approval from people because you used to talk to me this way, or I grew up in this environment and it was because of this. I'm not saying make it an excuse. I'm saying find what caused you these insecurities
and don't even let the shaitan in there. Solve the insecurities themselves. Because the desires will come after. Why is it that people crave attention? Well, what was the deficit before that led them to crave attention? Why is it that a person assigns their dignity and their sense of validation in certain things? Well, what was the deficit before that shaitan might be preying upon? And subhanAllah, I want to end here with something very profound in the Qur'an. Allah Azza wa Jal talks about the fear factor of the shaitan to try to stop you from moving towards the right direction because of fears that he will manipulate and also the desires that he will embellish that feast upon your greatest insecurities. But he also talks about the centrality of tawhid, the centrality of monotheism in all of this. What is the greatest sense of validation? What is the way that you overcome these insecurities? There are individual pathways that you look to them and you start to interrupt and say, I need to solve this problem and stop this leak that the shaitan is preying upon, that the devil is preying upon. But then there is a connection to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that gives you a new sense of validation. What do I mean by that? فَلَا تَخَافُوهُمْ وَخَافُونِي Don't be afraid of them, be afraid of me. فَلَا تَخْشَوهُمْ وَخْشَوْنِي Subhanallah, in this ayah in particular, and honestly I heard it in Salatul Fajr and I was thinking about this particular ayah. فَلَا تَخْشَوْهُمْ وَخْشَوْنِي Don't fear them, but fear me. It's interesting here because that ayah came down when Allah changed the qiblah from Jerusalem to Mecca. And you know what they said to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, some of the people of the book? They said, اشتاق الرجل إلى قومه وإلى دين قومه The man must have missed his people and missed the religion of his people. To suggest that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam
was going to incline towards paganism by facing Mecca and not facing Jerusalem anymore. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says فَلَا تَخْشَوْهُمْ وَخْشَوْنِي Don't worry about them. Don't worry about what they say. Don't worry about the comments they're going to throw your way. It doesn't matter if they excommunicate you. It doesn't matter if they say you're not a prophet of Allah. It doesn't matter. Seek your validation from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And the highest level that Allah mentions of the believers وَلَا يَخَافُونَ لَوْمَ تَلَأْنُ They don't fear the blame of the blamer. Because they start to assign a sense of self-worth through their relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The hadith of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَنظُرُ إِلَىٰ سُورِكُمْ وَلَا إِلَىٰ أَرْسَادِكُمْ Allah does not look at your physical beings. He doesn't look at your strength. He doesn't look at your physical attraction. That's not what Allah is interested in. You know, subhanAllah, we talk about Islam emphasizing fitness. Islam doesn't emphasize fitness so that other people could look at you and admire your muscle tone. Islam doesn't emphasize fitness so that you could look the part. It emphasizes it because of the amanah of the body to do better for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So when the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam says, Allah doesn't look at that. But Allah looks at your hearts. And Allah looks at your deeds. إِلَىٰ قُلُوبِكُمْ وَإِلَىٰ أَعْمَالِكُمْ That's what Allah looks at. And so you start to find your sense of validation in, how beautiful is my heart to Allah? How beautiful are my deeds to Allah? What is it that I'm seeking from Him? How much better is His reward than the reward and the compensation of anything else in this world that someone else can promise me? And you solve the insecurities in the general sense, always by coming back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. By finding security in His approval. By finding security in His protection. By finding security in His pleasure.
It changes the equation every single time. So that all of those natural human fears melt in the love of the Divine. They melt in that relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to resolve whatever those insecurities are that the Shaytan will exploit and protect us from transgressing and protect us from harming ourselves to please others that will never be pleased with us. And allow us to seek His pleasure and to seek His reward and His paradise. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive us when we are led astray by whatever fears and whatever desires that we have. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to have good endings and allow us to be amongst those that enter the highest level of paradise, Al-Firdaws Al-A'ala, with our beloved Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Allahumma ameen. أقول قلبي هذا وأستغفر الله لي ولكم ورسالة المسلمين فاستغفروا إنه الغفور الرحيم الحمد لله والصلاة والسلام وعلى رسول الله وعلى آله وصحبه ومن ولا Dear brothers and sisters, in that hadith from the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, not everyone in Mecca feared the same things in the exact same ways. Meaning the consequence of one person embracing Islam and what tribal implications that was going to have were different for some people. Not everyone had the same sacrifice in terms of wealth. Abdurrahman ibn Auf radiAllahu anhu is giving up a lot more in Mecca to go to Medina to become that migrant than many other people. Not everyone had to worry about families that they would leave behind and not everyone was as jealous as everyone else. Not everyone had the same sense of ghira where the shaitan will be able to play on that type of fear and that type of insecurity. When you see people around you that embrace Islam today in this climate, I want you to realize that it's not only a miracle from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and a blessing for you, but I want you to also recognize that it's a sign
that whatever it is that we have that holds us back, we have no excuses for ourselves. There are three separate people here embracing Islam today. All three of them came from different distances. We have one sister that flew from Washington to take her shahadah here today. Subhanallah, I want you to look at these and not just say Allahu akbar and how amazing. I want you to look at that and say that's a hujjah. That's a proof against me as well and for me as well. That whatever the obstacle, Allah is worth that obstacle. So may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless our new brothers and sisters today and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless us with that yaqeen, with that certainty as well to conquer anything in our lives. Allahumma khafir al-mu'mineena wa-l-mu'minat wa-l-muslimeena wa-l-muslimat al-ahya'i minhum wa-l-amwat innaka samee'un qareebun mujeebu al-da'wat Allahumma khafir lana wa-rahabna wa-a'fu a'na wa-la tu'adhibna Rabbana dhalamna anfusana wa-in lam takhfir lana wa-tarhamna la nakoonnana min al-khasireen Allahumma innaka a'fuun tuhibbu al-afwa fa-a'fu a'na Allahumma khafir li-walideena Rabbir rahamuhumma kama rabbona sigara Rabbana hab lana min azwajina wa-dhuriyatina qurra ta'ayun wa-ja'anna lil-muttaqina imama Allahumma ansur ikhwana al-mustada'afina fee masharik al-ardi wa-magharibiha Allahumma i'izzal al-Islam wa-al-muslimeen wa-adillal shirk wa-al-kathibeen wa-dammir a'daa al-deen Allahumma ahlik al-dhalimeen wa-bi-dhalimeen wa-akhrijna wa-ikhwana wa-bainim salimeen Ibadullah inna Allah ya'mur bil-adli wa-al-ihsan wa-ita'idil-qurba wa-yanha'an al-fahsha'i wa-al-munkari wa-al-baghi ya'idhukum la'al lakum tadhakkaroon fathkuru Allah yadhkurukum wa-shkuruhu a'an al-ni'ma yadhid lakum wa-la dhikru Allahi akbar wa-Allahu ya'lamun ma tasna'oon wa-aqeem al-salam
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