Usually a reminder after Fajr is not very well comprehended, but I believe in this country the people insha’Allah are used to going to work and doing their activities. So insha’Allah we will not take a lot of time. Yanni, insha’Allah an hour and a half will be more than enough. I’ll make it short insha’Allah.
Allah azza wa jal has warned us of our fierce enemy, which is ash-Shaytan. Verily he is your enemy; therefore take him as an enemy. It is common knowledge among all Muslims that our enemy is the Shaytan. Yet this knowledge, if not put into practice, it has no value at all. You could be facing, or suffering from, a chronic illness; you know the symptoms and you know the cure. The doctor tells you “avoid the following foods”. You have to go on this diet; otherwise you’re going to die. You know them by heart. Yet you still consume them. Will you ever recover? Never. You know the medication that you have to take every single day. But you never take them. You will never recover. And you will die.
Now, the Shaytan, we have to know everything about him because you cannot fight an enemy that you do not see or you do not know anything about. And that is why Allah azza wa jal explained to us a lot about our enemy: how he was created, when he his enmity started. Before the creation of Adam, it started his enmity with us. And the steps he takes to lure us to his dungeons of sin and of displeasing Allah azza wa jal.
There are so many concepts that we can talk about Shaytan. It is needless to say that he is with us 24/7. It is needless to say that he knows us inside out. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He runs in our veins like blood runs in our veins. To the extent that the Prophet, alaihi wasalatu wasalaam, was walking with his wife Safiyyah. He was doing itikhaaf, she came to visit him in the masjid, and he was walking with her, taking her home, when two men of the Ansaar saw him with a woman covered from head to toes. So they changed their direction. The Prophet said, “Hold on. She is my Safiyyah bint Huyay bint Akhtab, may Allah be pleased with her, my wife”. They said, “O Prophet of Allah, do you think we are going to doubt you?” He said “Shaytan runs in your veins and I was afraid that he may cast something in your heart that may nullify your Islam.” This is how far Shaytan would go.
Never underestimate Shaytan and never overestimate your eman. Look through out the course of history how many people he managed to lure and throw into hell. And if you think that you have a degree, and if you think that you have years of experience on your CV, then think again. Shaytans CV runs from Adam’s time until today. Look at how many people he threw in hell with his seduction and bad deeds. So how can we avoid Shaytan? If you know his steps, with the grace of Allah, you can avoid falling into his traps. And scholars say that there are hurdles for Shaytan. SubhanAllah! He has a number of phases he anticipates he waits for you. The highest for him, which is his top target, is…what is the highest thing that he wants, and other than that, khalas? Shirk! This is the biggest target he has. If he achieves this, he gets his bonus with his soldiers. So he anticipates to the individual.
Now, shirk is associating others with Allah. And this is not the only thing he wants. He wants to nullify your Islam. So weather you become a mushrik, you associate others with Allah. or you become a kafir, a disbeliever, someone who denies anything of Allah’s rulings. Or you become a hypocrite, a munafiq. A real munafiq, not the type of practical nifaq but the type of nifaq that belongs in the heart, which nullifies Islam. Or even if you don’t believe in anything, you become an atheist, all of this is okay with him.
And this goes without saying, Allah forgives all types of sins except this. Whoever comes with something like this on the Day of Judgment, he is doomed in hell for eternity. But how can we fight this hurdle? By believing in Allah azza wa jal. By accepting tawheed ar-ruboobiyah, tawheed ul-uloohiyya, tawheed al asmaa wa as-sifaat. And you all know these types of tawheed. Tawheed ar-roobobiyyah is to worship Allah azza wa jal by believing that He is the creator, the Giver of life and death, that He is The Provider, that He is The Sustainer and The Owner of this universe. So this is ruboobiyah. I am worshipping Allah azza wa jal, believing that what comes from Him, is only from Him. Tawheed ul-uloohiyah is the opposite. It is worshipping Allah azza wa jal with my own acts. So I do not give my own forms of worship whether they are through the heart, through the tongue or through my actions, except to Allah.
So I only pray to Allah, fast to Allah, give zakaat for the sake of Allah, I fear Allah, I hope in what Allah has, I have my trust and confidence in Allah. All of this is part of al-uloohiyah. And tawheed al asmaa wa as-sifaat , to believe and affirm the attributes and beautiful names of Allah azza wa jal as was reported to us in the Qur’an and in the sunnah.
So if a believer does this then, I wouldn’t say our friend, but our enemy would move on to hurdle number two. What is the most wanted and sought after shirk for Shaytan? If he skips this hurdle, where would he wait for us and try to make us fall into? <Answering comment from audience:>
Riyaa? Well, riyaa is part of shirk. There are two types of shirk: shirk akbar and shirk asghar. And we won’t go into details. As you know there is nifaaq (hypocrisy) that is major and minor, and there is kufr which is major and minor. All of these things are explained elsewhere insha’Allah. But true riyaa, showing off, boasting, would be considered one of the hurdles but it is with shirk as a whole. But bid’ah (innovation) is true. And a lot of us look or belittles the bid’ah. What’s wrong with carrying something that we count the tasbeeh with? What’s wrong with having prayer beads with one thousand pieces doing “Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah…..” one thousand times?
I have a car in Saudi Arabia and its called GMC Suburban that makes this sound when you turn it on. People say that this special car for mutawwa ! Because its remembers Allah when you turn it on, it says “Allah, Allah, Allah…”! So, one says, what’s wrong with a little innovation here and there? Well innovation is one of the greatest sins after shirk. Why is that? It is enough and sufficient for you to know that the Prophet, alaihi salatu wa salaam, said, “Allah has blocked repentance from every innovator.” He will never repent. Why? What should I repent of? What I’m doing is for the sake of Allah.
I’m innovating for the sake of Allah, so they would never repent. And whoever innovates, he is actually diverting from the straight path and making his new path. That would take him and lead him eventually outside the loop of Islam. And that is why the Muslims, the scholars, the companions, the Prophet, alaihi salatu wasalaam, warned us from innovation, small or big. And he said, alaihi salatu wasalaam, as in the hadith of ‘Aisha may Allah be pleased with her, that whoever innovates in our religion, this is rejected. Anything that you innovate that the Prophet did not do, Allah will not accept it. And those who innovate, whenever you do something new in Islam, then you are one of the two: either you are accusing the Prophet, alaihi wa salatu wasalaam, of not delivering the message of Allah. Because you say, “Yes, I’m doing this. The Prophet did not do it, because he did not give it to us. He concealed it to himself.” This is accusing the Prophet, alaihi salatu wasalaam, of hiding and concealing knowledge. This is blasphemy! Whoever says that the Prophet did not deliver, is a kafir. Or you say, “No, no. The Prophet, alaihi salatu wasalaam, gave us everything he knew, but he didn’t know that this was good for us.” And this is another form of kufr! Because you’re accusing the Prophet of not knowing and you know more than he does, salallahu alaihi wasalaam!
So innovation is very serious stuff. How can we counter attack this? Sunnah! By following the sunnah, the footsteps of the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalaam. Therefore, if a person is a believer, he’s a muwahid, and he worships only Allah azza wa jal, – so this is hurdle one – and he follows the sunnah to the letter, spirit and to the letter, – then this is hurdle number two.
Then Shaytan waits for him in hurdle number three which is major sins. What are the major sins? What’s the definition of a major sin? A major sin is any sin that Allah azza wa jal, put a prescribed punishment for. Such as killing, stealing, fornicating, consuming intoxicants, slandering; these are all major sins. So, there are prescribed punishments for that by the Qur’an and the sunnah. Or Allah warned those that commit this sin with a punishment in fire, or by cursing them or by throwing them away from Allah’s Mercy. Some brothers say, “Ya Akhi, its okay if I hit my mother. Why? It’s not a kabeera, it’s not a major sin! If I hit my mother, is there any prescribed punishment in this dunya?” Chop his finger or take his eye out? No, so it’s okay”. No! It is a major sin because Allah azza wa jal warned us and threatened us that there is a punishment in hell for that. So these are major sins.
Now, the majority of Muslims fall in major sins. Unfortunately whenever you say to someone, “Ya akhi, fear Allah”, what would he say? “I’m afraid of Allah. I don’t kill, I don’t drink alcohol, I don’t fornicate. What else you want me to do?”. And they think that major sins are limited in seven. Ibn Abbas, may Allah pleased with him, says “there are closer to seventy than seven”. There’re even more. So do we make major sins? Do we? Such as ? We are the worshippers, masha’Allah! We are the people of knowledge, we are the people of practicing Islam. We take a lot of our time and effort to attend these, masha’Allah, conferences. We’re the cream of the society, masha’Allah! Do we make major sins? Yes. Such as gheeba! The easiest thing, back biting.
Whenever we don’t have anything to do, we just sit two and three friends, “What do you think of sheikh so and so?” “Oh, astagfurillahil adheem” “Oh, what about our brother, our neighbor, our so and so?” And we start talking left, right and center and whenever someone tells us Ya akhi, fear Allah we say “ya akhi, we’re talking for the welfare of the society, of the community, we’re doing this for the Muslims that’s why we have to slander everybody. And if everybody is not with us, then he’s against us. ” “Who is your perfect example, akhi?” , “Me! I’m the best one! All of you have this and that!” And this is what leads people to hell: their arrogance, their lack of knowledge. Thinking they know more than everybody else.
So if a person abides by tawheed, and if he follows the sunnah, and if he has the fear of Allah inside of him, this is the remedy for the major sins. What stops you from doing haram? The fear of Allah azza wa jal. Yusuf , why don’t you attend, why don’t you accept the invitation of the wife of the aziz “ ma ‘aa dhaAllahi innahu rabbi ahsana math waay” (“I seek the refuge of Allah . Indeed, he is my master, who has made good my residence” Surah Yusuf : 23) . He’s afraid! Of whom? Allah azza wa jal. This is what makes honey taste like crap! The fear of Allah azza wa jal, it changes the taste of things so that you can taste them as they are. When Shaytan tries to make things look differently, taste differently, until he changes your nature. Tawheed, sunnah, fear of Allah. If he could not get you in the major sins he tries to get you in the minor sins.
And minor sins, it goes without saying, people have a thousand and one excuses to legitimize their fall in minor sins. Among them: “Ya akhi, prayer to prayer, Ramadan to Ramadan, Umrah to Umrah, they expiate what’s between them. So alhamdulillah we pray five times a day, so it’s okay!” And these minor sins are the gateway to major sins. And these are the steps of Shaytan. Shaytan would never come to you and say, “listen how about taking a shot of heroin?” Astagfurillah, are you crazy? You’re Shaytan but I didn’t think you’re crazy! I wouldn’t go to that! So, he would never go to this stage, he would come to you and say, “have a smoke or as you say here, have a fag”. And if you go a little bit further he goes to hashish, he goes to marijuana. He goes a little bit further, a slip of cocaine, maybe some crack. If you go a little bit further you take the shot. This is how he works. He never tells you to fornicate, but he tells you to mix with women. “It’s work, it’s halal! I have to work”. He tells you to listen to music and you find people, masha’Allah, putting these ipods and walking in the streets doing this (Sheikh bob’s head up and down) : “Salaam alaikum! This is ibn Uthaymeen! (Motioning to ear plugs)”. Ah, I doubt myself but I believe you for what you say. He comes to you through what you see and these are the passages of Shaytan: your hearing, your sight, what you take, your intake. This is how he controls your heart. And then he makes you fall into sin.
So if you abide by tawheed, if you follow the sunnah, if you have the righteousness in your heart to overcome the major and the minor sins where would he come after that? Hurdle number five: al makroohat, things that are not recommended. And what are the dangers of the things that are not recommended? We know that if we do them, we are not sinful. But if we do not, we are rewarded. Like the preferred thing, if we do them we are rewarded and if we do not, we are not sinful. So, it’s not a big deal? Yes, it’s not a big deal to normal people, not to you. Because doing the things that are not recommended is part of not following the sunnah. So what you are actually doing is not following the sunnah, and what does this mean? “Ya akhi, I pray, I do what I have to do and I’m avoiding major sins, I’m avoiding minor sins. What’s wrong with not following the sunnah one hundred percent?”
Well this feeling of not following the sunnah one hundred percent is one of the steps of Shaytan. The minute you feel that ‘Yes I can evade a sunnah, I can escape it. It’s okay, it’s not that big of an issue’, you start to dislike some of the sunnahs, without feeling it, without knowing it. And by time, Shaytan would cook you on light fire until you are medium rare. A little bit medium, and then it’s well done. So you have to be careful not do the things that Shaytan tells you, ya akhi, it’s not recommended to do. And you find people entering the masjid with their left foot. “Ya akhi, right foot is the Sunnah”, “Its okay! Left foot, right foot, who cares? “You find people growing the beard, masha’Allah, for example, because it’s external. But if you look inside you will find disasters. So many times I go to the gym, for example, the brothers take off their shirts to change a sweaty t-shirt and underneath the hood you see problems. Jungles under their arms! All that’s missing is some monkeys, chimpanzees, jumping! “What is this, O Shaykh??? Don’t you know the Sunnah is to pluck your armpit hair?” “Ya sheikh, come on, this is the most important thing (Sheikh motions to beard)”.
Is it?? This shows you the double standards we have. You have to follow the sunnah inside out not only in how you appear, but also in how you treat people, in how you treat yourself, in your night prayer, in your voluntary fasting, in this and that. Following the footsteps of the Prophet, alaihi salatu wasalaam, avoiding the things that are not recommended. This is hurdle number five.
So if abide by the tawheed, and if you abide by the sunnah, and if you abide by the virtues and the fear of Allah azza wa jal to avoid major and minor sins, and you also follow the sunnah in staying away from things that are makrooh or not recommended, he waits for you in hurdle number 6 which is, we call it in Arabic faadil al mafdool, which is the best deeds and the deeds below those. So now masha’Allah you are a perfect person, you think. “I don’t do anything! No major sins, no minor sins, no bid’ah, I’m on the sunnah. Where can he get me?” And you don’t know. He comes to you in choosing and prioritizing your deeds. So you come, you have two deeds to choose, you choose the lesser one in benefit to you. He’s (Shaytan) satisfied. It’s ok with him. Arabs usually, I think you all do the same, when we go into transactions we shoot for the glory. So if we’re selling or buying we will put a margin of profit of 50%.
So if we have a deal of 5% profit, its waste of time. Shaytan is not like that, he’s a bit smarter. He’s happy with 1%. If he manages, instead of getting you a hundred good deeds, to get you ninety, for now it’s good. And you can see this among us. For example, on the twenty-seventh of Ramadan it’s after ‘ishaa, its time for night prayer and there’s a big possibility it’s laylatul qadr. And the brother came all the way from Britain to make ‘umrah and to make ‘itikhaaf. And after ‘ishaa when its time for qiyaam he tells his friends I’m going to visit my uncle. Why? This is connecting to the next of kin, seelat ar-rahim, “I’d like to see my uncle.”, “Ya akhi, see him tomorrow morning! See him after Ramadan, you’re still in the country!” “No, no. I have to, this is one of the good deeds, it’s a form of worship that I’m offering to Allah. He makes him waste this glorious night in visiting his uncle. Though visiting his uncle is a good deed, but it is not the right time to do it. Your mother wants you to take her to the hospital and you say, “I have a dars. Malish mom, you can die another day. But tonight I have to take the dars. All the brothers and the shayookh, I have to be with them!”
Ya akhi, your mother is a priority! This is what is a must for you, the rest is not. So this is the hurdle number six. The last hurdle, khalas! There is nothing, masha’Allah if you do everything by the book: no major sins, no minor sins, no innovation, no shirk, no makrooh, always choosing the best over the thing that is lesser, her comes to you in the last hurdle which is, al mubaha, the permissible things.
Permissible things? Yes! He makes you indulge in permissible things. He drowns you in permissible things. So whatever is permissible, do we have any hesitation in doing it? No. You want to eat food? Yeah, food’s good! You eat and eat and eat, ah! Alhamdulillah, I’m full! You like desserts? Desserts are good! And you eat, and you eat and you eat. Halal! I’m not stuffing myself, I’m not killing myself, it’s halal. So through this, you’ll find a lot of the good things you can do you will not do. That is why if you eat late at night, you cannot do night prayer.
“Ya sheikh, I do night prayer! 5 minutes, alhamdulillah, I make witr and I sleep. Every ‘ishaa!” This is night prayer for a student of knowledge?! You recite the Qur’an? You memorize the Qur’an and revise it while in night prayer? “Well I can’t” Why? “I’m too full!” Mubahat (permissible things). People work in business” good! Making money, good! But they work twenty hours a day. “Ya sheikh, just to put food on the table” Well, you’re not putting food on the table, you’re putting food and dessert and jewelry and so many things! So he (Shaytan) consumes your thinking, he consumes your time, through permissible things. Once you are saturated with the love of the dunya, with the love of these permissible things, he goes on to phase six, five, four, three and the countdown goes on.
Some scholars say that there is a last hurdle that no one escapes, even if you’ve escaped the permissible hurdle, there is one hurdle that you will never, ever escape. Not even the prophets and messengers of Allah escaped that, to that extent! The hurdle of Shaytan that not even the messengers nor prophets of Allah could escape them. And which hurdle is this? The hurdle of the enemy of mankind, whether from the jinn or from the humans. Even if you manage to escape the seven hurdles, he will always wait for you and he will always put someone among the humans to give trouble to you, to make life miserable for you. You cannot escape this!
Can you have a nice wife? I wish you can, you may have. But eventually your wife, some of these days, would be a little bit annoyed of you and you would see hell incarnation in your house. So now you say akhi, SubhanAllah, I have tawheed, I’m avoiding shirk, I’m avoiding bid’ah, I’m avoiding the permissible things, everything is by the book! Yes, but this is one of his hurdles that Allah tests your eman with. So, in short, we are surrounded by this enemy of ours. We know his tactics , we know how he works, we know his working hours, we know that he doesn’t take holidays and he doesn’t take no for an answer. If we abide by Allah and if we abide by the sunnah, if we have our trust in Allah azza wa jal, and if we’re always fearful of his traps and trying to avoid them by following the sunnah, by the Grace of Allah we will be saved. And I pray to Allah azza wa jal that He gives us a refuge from our fierce enemy and that He grants us power over him to overtake him, and Allah knows best.