Abdul Nasir Jangda – Tafsir al-Quran #08
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The importance of belief versus disbelief in Islam is widely recognized as the only God who can truly be truly liked. The use of hesitation and subhanurance in religion is essential, and loyalty to Allah's teachings and values is crucial. The concept of "byst temporarily" is used to indicate a belief or belief system, and sh matter is used to indicate a belief or belief system. The importance of protecting oneself from attacks by shaitan, including the use of the Prophet's strength, is emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
Responsibility.
You have been given a gift.
You've been given the gift of Iman, of
faith, of belief, of knowing who Allah is.
That comes with some responsibility.
There are some duties, some obligations that follow
that.
So what are some of those obligations?
What are some of the responsibilities that come
with this gift of faith, of belief?
And Allah will talk to us about that
and then contrast that with Well, those who
do not believe, they do not uphold these
values.
They do not live their lives in accordance
with these principles.
They don't care about right versus wrong and
that is not only manifest within their belief
system, but it also manifests in terms of
how they live their lives and the choices
that they make.
The next layer, which is really interesting and
it really fascinates me and that is Allah
talked about belief versus disbelief and Allah talked
about the case for belief versus disbelief, believing
in Allah and disbelieving in Allah, the case
of it, the case for it.
And it's very clear, right?
Going through the verses that we talked about
where Allah talked about that reflect internally and
how can you reflecting internally about who you
are, where you are, what you are, and
your entire life and your existence, how can
that not lead you to connect with and
to understand that there is one God who
created you and that your life and your
loyalty is due to him.
Secondly, also the case was made that when
you reflect on the external, when you look
at the whole world around you, the entire
universe, everything in existence and how remarkable it
is, how does that not lead you to
recognize that there is a divine power, that
there is a creator, that there is a
sustainer, that there is a provider, that there
is somebody who is maintaining this entire order.
So it's such a powerful case that it
seems undeniable.
Who would not believe in this?
Who could reject this?
Who could argue with this?
And so what these verses will also discuss
and highlight, and this is really fascinating, is
why people don't believe.
If the case for faith is so obvious,
if it's so evident that there's a supreme
power, a divine being that created us and
sustains us and provides for us, then why
don't people believe in that?
Right?
Why is that so hard to believe in?
Allah will, in these verses, highlight what is
it that is preventing people from believing.
And so the very first thing that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala tackles here within these
verses, the very first thing that is addressed
here within these verses, is that one of
the primary reasons why people don't believe is
because of comforts, luxuries, desires, what they want,
what they want to do, how they want
to live their life.
That's one of the primary things that stands
in between a human being and believing in
Allah.
That I want to live my life the
way I want to.
I'd like to live according to my desires.
I want to live however I feel like
living, and I'm used to living this way.
I like living this way, and believing in
this, right, believing in Allah and everything that
comes with that, the Qur'an, the Prophet
ﷺ and his teachings, Islam, this way of
life, it's getting in the way of me
being able to live my life the way
I want.
And it prevents, it's telling me to not
do what I feel like doing.
And one of the very first things that
Allah brings up is something as simple as
what we consume.
What we eat, what we drink, and what
we consume.
You know the old expression, you are what
you eat.
There's many different meanings, right, usually in a
health kind of context.
But there's actually something really profound about that
statement.
You are what you eat, right, because it's
such a direct, and powerful, and immediate, and
observable, and daily reflection of exactly who you
are.
That as sometimes, may Allah forgive us, we
create these weird kind of hang-up, we
have these weird hang-ups, right, that whenever
there's a food item, or you go somewhere
to eat, and how, you know, if somebody
dared to ask, is it halal?
Then we get all upset, we get all
bent out of shape about it.
But think about how actually, and of course
obviously somebody should do it appropriately, and not
obnoxiously, and not do it self-righteously, all
those things are there, not denying any of
that.
Okay, be subtle, be respectful, be intelligent, be
considerate.
But sometimes what we've done is we've also
created a weird, you know, sentiment around somebody
even just inquiring about that, as if that's
a problem.
Otherwise, think about what that actually reflects, right,
that somebody's Islam is so precious to them,
somebody's relationship with Allah matters to them so
much, that they're so particular about it, that
they want to be careful.
They want to be particular about it.
And sometimes we even then, to cover up
our own insecurities surrounding a lot of these
topics and subjects, because again, I want to
do what I feel like doing, and now
this person is making me look bad, right,
so sometimes we'll even come up with really
weird, honestly bizarre rhetoric, where we'll be like,
well, that's not, you know, the point of
Islam.
Islam is really about, you know, what's in
your heart, or your character, or something else,
right, but no, that's actually a very powerful
expression of one's Islam, that to be that
particular about Allah forbade this item, whether it
be pork, or it be alcohol, or whatever
it is, you know, when somebody is buying
or purchasing something, and they're really particular about
what's in the ingredients of it, and we
can laugh, we can make fun if we
want, but again, think about, and take an
honest moment to really reflect upon what that
says about that person, and how much they
care about their Iman, and their faith, and
their commitment, and their loyalty to Allah.
Right, loyalty is a very fascinating, loyalty is
a very fascinating, you know, outcome of faith
and Iman.
You know, if I'm, if I'm friends with
someone, and there's somebody that they don't get
along with, or a family member has kind
of an issue with someone, or there's some,
you know, whatever it is, all this kind
of social stuff, people have drama all the
time, but if I have a family member
that has some drama with somebody, or I
have a very close friend that has drama
with someone, think about how particular, is he
gonna be there?
I don't want to make, you know, this
person feel uncomfortable.
I don't want to offend this family member.
That I was socializing with somebody that they
have an issue with.
Right, that's loyalty, and it's appreciated.
But that's the kind of loyalty that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala demands from us, and
even more.
Right, and similarly, so Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala in the very first verse here, He's
saying, يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسِ O Mankind, كُلُوا مِمَّا
فِي الْأَرْضِ Eat from whatever is within the
earth, حَلَالًا طَيِّبًا Number one, as long as
it is permissible, حَلَالًا طَيِّبًا, and that it
is pure, it is good.
All right, and so that is an obligation,
and it's fascinating that that's one of the
very first obligations that Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala mentions here.
Right, you would think that there are so
many other things.
Why didn't He mention prayer?
Why didn't He mention fasting?
Why didn't He mention so many other things?
And those things are mentioned elsewhere, in the
beginning of Surah Al-Baqarah, all of that
is talked about.
But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala starts with
this because this is something that's so tangible,
it's so real, it's an everyday type of
thing.
And it really cuts to that idea of
that loyalty to Allah.
Now, how loyal are you to Allah?
That if this will create an inconvenience in
your life, that you have to drive an
extra couple of miles to go to the
place where the food is permissible, as a
Muslim, are you willing to do that?
That if it will create the kind of
issue that this is something that you really
enjoy or something that you really like, but
now you've learned that it's not allowed, you're
not allowed to eat that as a Muslim,
are you willing to give something up?
Are you willing to give that up for
the sake of Allah?
And contrasting to that, it also highlights, as
silly as it may seem, what gets in
the way for a lot of people to
actually commit to Allah.
Because what gets in the way of them
making that commitment to Allah is, I'm not
willing to give up how I live my
life.
And I'm not willing to forsake that which
I, you know, desire, and that which I'm
comfortable with, and that which I like.
Now, in this particular verse, in the beginning
of this verse, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
uses a couple of words.
First of all, He uses the word halalan,
eat from the earth that which is permissible.
There's so much, for lack of a better
term, there's so much baggage that we have
around this particular topic of halal and haram.
Even though Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the
Prophet ﷺ says, الحلال أُبَيِّن والحرام أُبَيِّن What
is permissible is clear, and what is impermissible
is clear.
It's actually not a very confusing topic and
subject at all.
It's actually been made very, very clear.
Right?
And so we've created, we just have a
lot of baggage around this topic.
And so I wanted to clarify a couple
of things.
We have a principle within our religion, and
that is, الأصل في الأشياء النافعة الإباحة The
default ruling of good things, helpful things, beneficial
things, and food and nourishment would go in
that.
The default ruling of things is that they
are permissible.
The list of items that are impermissible, haram,
is actually a very short list.
It's a very short and concise list.
99% of the things that we're going
to come across in life, unless you're hanging
out at a pig farm, but otherwise 99
% of the things you're going to come
across in life are actually permissible.
But we create this hang-up within our
own heads.
Oh man, everything's haram.
If you're at a bar, it is.
But otherwise, no, it's not.
It's just factually not true.
The facts, the evidences, the Qur'an, the
Sunnah, the statistics, are contrary to that sentiment
that we have that everything's haram.
No, actually, everything's haram.
Most things are permissible.
Very few things are made impermissible.
And even for something to be impermissible, and
I'm going a little bit into technicality here,
what we call usul, in order for something
to be impermissible, I can't just willy-nilly
sit here and just tell you, oh, yeah,
by the way, that's haram.
And that's going to come up actually in
the verse.
Doing that in and of itself is a
major sin.
But in order for something to be declared
impermissible, it requires conclusive, irrefutable evidence, what we
call a dalil al-qata'i.
It requires clear proof and evidence that is
absolutely authentically established.
You need a verse of the Qur'an.
You need like not only one, but you
either need like a very widely reported narration
or multiple narrations in order for something to
be haram.
So actually, most things are permissible.
And so that's number one.
The other thing that Allah, the next word
that Allah uses here is the word tayyib.
Now the word tayyib can be translated a
couple of different ways.
Number one, the word tayyib in its root,
in its origin, it means goodness, something that
is good.
That's why the Prophet ﷺ called Medina tayyiba.
He called it tayyiba.
It's beautiful.
Medina is beautiful.
Medina is good.
Medina is pleasant.
Medina is nice.
The Prophet ﷺ used that word to describe
people.
When Ammar ibn Yasir radiAllahu ta'ala anhuma
made the hijrah and arrived into al-Madinah
al-Munawwara, and the Prophet ﷺ was overjoyed
to see him, and he had a lot
of love for Ammar radiAllahu ta'ala anhuma,
especially because of what he had been through,
the Prophet ﷺ welcomed him, and he said,
marhaban bi tayyib al-mutayyib.
Welcome, welcome to the beautiful person.
Whom Allah has made even more beautiful.
So that word tayyib is a really beautiful
word, and it has this very positive connotation.
Now, but how do we translate it here
in this verse?
So, the thing is, the word tayyib is
also used synonymously to the word halal.
In some places in the Qur'an, it's
another word for something being halal and permissible,
but here, being mentioned by the side of
the word halal, it's a further complement to
something being halal by saying, halal, eat from
the earth that which is halal, that is
permissible, declared to be permissible by God, and
by the way, that's what's good for you.
What the ayah is communicating is, that which
is halal is actually what is good for
you.
All right, some have commented that the word
tayyib here is further adding a layer above
even halal.
That something could be halal, it could be
permissible, but it's not of good quality.
What Allah is saying in this verse is,
eat that which is permissible and of a
higher quality.
While that meaning is not wrong or bad,
but there's not a lot of evidence to
support the fact that another higher standard above
halal is being commanded here in the Qur
'an.
There's not a lot of evidence supporting that.
But more so, it's complementing the concept of
halal, that that which is halal is what
is good for you.
Similarly, on the flip side, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala talks about haram.
Haram means something that is forbidden, impermissible.
Okay.
The word that Allah uses synonymously to haram
and to further elaborate on something being haram
is the word khabith.
Al-khubthu in the Arabic language means that
something is detestable.
It is ugly, it is detestable, it is
disgusting.
And so again, the Qur'an is not
saying don't eat things that are haram and
furthermore also then, you know, don't eat things
that are disgusting.
No, what it's doing is it's saying that
the things that Allah has made impermissible are,
should actually be disgusting to you.
And that's why Allah says, قُلْ لَا يَسْتَوِي
الْخَبِيثُ وَالطَّيِّبُ That which is bad, evil, and
disgusting can never be the same as that
which is good and pure and righteous and
permissible.
So Allah ﷻ here in the ayah tells
us, eat from that that Allah has provided
all throughout the earth, everything in existence that
is permissible and it's good for you.
وَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا خُطُوَاتِ الشَّيْطَانِ That's a fascinating thing,
right?
Allah is elaborating on that.
Why would somebody not eat that which is
permissible?
Oh, and by the way, that's also what's
good for you, is by following in the
footsteps of Shaitan.
Because that which Allah has made impermissible, it
makes so little sense to consume it that
you have to be deluded somehow to engage
in it, to indulge in it.
And how does a human being become so
deluded that they would indulge in something that
is bad for them, is that they are
deluded by Shaitan.
That Shaitan persuades them and dissuades them and
confuses them, does waswasah to them, whispers to
them, messes with their head, gets into their
head, and confuses them.
And that's how they would engage in something
so bad.
So do not follow in the footsteps of
Shaitan.
إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَدُومٌ مُّبِينٌ He does not have
your best interest at heart.
He does not want what's good for you.
Shaitan is your clear, open enemy.
Now, I wanted to comment a little bit
about this, that as we talked about, one
of the greatest manifestations of Iman, and similarly,
one of the most obvious manifestations of not
believing, is seen very apparently in what a
person eats, how a person earns their money,
and what a person indulges in.
If a person is particular God-fearing in
what they consume, how they earn, and what
they indulge and engage in, that's a sign
of their faith.
That is living faith.
And if a person does not believe in
Allah, then they will not care about what
they consume, how they earn, what they earn,
and what they engage and indulge in.
Now here's a scary thought.
And I say this to admonish myself.
Here's a scary thought.
That if I do actually believe deep down
inside, I believe in Allah, I know I
should believe in Allah, and I do think
I believe in Allah, but then I don't
care about what I put into my body,
I don't care about what I eat, I
don't care about how and where and what
I earn, and I don't care about what
I indulge in, I'm not particular about that,
what does that say about the validity of
my faith?
What does that say about the weakness of
my Iman?
That is a scary place to be in.
My Iman is so weak and so frail
that it can't stop me from doing the
things that I know that are wrong.
And that's where it's a wake-up call.
May Allah protect us all.
And on the flip side, there's a fascinating
kind of observation that you will see.
It's not completely always true, but there's an
interesting observation that people who have a little
bit of a sense of being more sensible
about what they consume, they have a sense
of values and ethics and morals in what
they earn and how they earn, and they
are a little more particular and ethical about
what they engage and indulge in, it's actually
a very fascinating observation that you will see
more often than not, Allah guides those types
of people to Iman.
Somebody, a friend of mine, a classmate, we
studied together for 10 years, sat next to
each other in class.
He accepted Islam at the age of like
18, 19.
Then he came overseas to study and we
were classmates for a decade.
And I remember him telling me the story.
That he actually said that he, when he
was exploring and researching into religion, he wasn't
raised with any kind of religion.
And so when he became curious about that,
and he started exploring it, and said, I
need something, I feel a void in my
life, and he started looking into different religions,
and he came to Islam, and it started
making a lot of sense to him.
He said for a whole year, before he
took his shahada, before he accepted Islam, he
basically lived as a Muslim.
And kind of after the fact, retrospectively, he
was saying that he feels like that's the
thing that actually led him to accepting Islam.
That as he said he gave up certain
things, as he started to be more particular
about certain things, stop going certain places, stop
doing certain things.
He felt that he kind of, he organically,
naturally, felt like the Iman was kind of
growing in his heart.
He was nurturing it.
And that tells you something.
That the initial stages of it might be
difficult or challenging.
I'm not the ideal person to give this
analogy, but it's the obvious analogy.
It's working out, right?
And you start working out, it sucks.
But the more you do it, the more
you start to realize and recognize the benefits
of it.
And so same way, as I talked about
that predicament that many of us might find
ourselves in, may Allah help us all, may
Allah strengthen our Iman.
We might find ourselves in where it's like
I call myself a Muslim.
I say la ilaha illallah Muhammadur Rasulullah.
I know the Quran is the truth.
I believe in this.
But I'm not living in accordance with it.
You have to just go.
You have to start.
Start somewhere, start with anything.
It can literally start with saying, I'm going
to stop eating this one thing.
I'm going to stop drinking that one thing.
I'm going to stop going to that one
place.
I'm going to stop engaging in this one
thing.
And what will happen is that growth will
start to occur.
I believe the term is gains, right?
And from there, that growth will start to
occur, and that will lead you to the
next step, right?
That will lead.
Opportunity begets opportunity.
Good deeds beget good deeds.
Righteousness begets righteousness.
One good thing will lead to another.
One step in front of the other.
And that's the power.
That's the eloquence of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala saying, do not follow in the footsteps
of shaitan, but start stepping in the other
direction.
You have to turn around and start walking
the other way.
I can't stand there and just yell and
scream and cry.
I don't want to live my life this
way.
Words only carry so much weight.
You have to put your money where your
mouth is.
You have to walk the talk.
I have to start walking in the opposite
direction.
There's no better way to repel that evil
and the effects of shaitan than to just
start walking the other way.
Turn your back on him and all the
evil that we might be suffering under.
And so, halalan tayyiba, wa la tattabi'oo
khutuwati shaitan.
There's a very fascinating, you know, Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala then told us don't follow
in the footsteps of shaitan, because shaitan is
your clear open enemy.
This is something that Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala talks about throughout the Qur'an.
That how this is shaitan's goal and objective.
I've talked about this previously as well.
A believer does not go to sleep at
night and wake up in the morning and
say, you know what, this religion doesn't make
sense to me.
No one prayed Salatul Isha and went to
sleep and woke up at Fajr time and
said, I reject Islam.
That's not how it works.
But there's a slow erosion.
And that's shaitan's goal to start chipping away
at one's deen.
And a lot of times the daily things
are things that we might overlook.
The Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam actually talked about
this during Hajjatul Wida.
When some of the people who had come
to do Hajj, the companions who had come
to do Hajj with the Prophet shallallahu alaihi
wasallam, some of them were departing before the
Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam.
And they gathered before they departed on the
12th of Dhul Hijjah.
And they asked the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam,
please give us some parting advice.
And the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam one of
the pieces of advice that he gave them
was, إِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ قَدْ يَئِسَ أَنْ يُعْبَدَ فِى
أَرْضِكُمْ هَذِهِ Shaitan has lost hope that he
will ever be worshipped in this land ever
again.
Meaning, shirk will not happen here.
Shirk will no longer happen here.
The future generations of Muslims, one of my
teachers used to say this that, you could
walk up to a Muslim as he is
engaging in sin.
You could have a glass full of wine
in one hand and be gambling with the
other hand.
He's just literally involved in multiple major sins
in that moment.
And you could walk up to him in
that moment and say, hey, do shirk.
And he'll fight you.
He'll fight you.
Absolutely.
A Muslim who has like something haram, you
know, a bottle of wine sitting right there
on his counter, on his kitchen counter, if
you walked up and you took an idol,
like a small idol, and you went and
you placed it there on his counter, he'll
throw it at you.
He'll throw it and you out of his
house.
How dare you?
Shirk?
You lost your mind?
Right?
So there's that sense of imam.
And that's what the Prophet ﷺ was saying
that, the future generations of Muslims will not
do shirk.
That's not the problem.
But the way shaitan will get you is,
فيما تحتقيرون من أعمالكم He'll get you in
the things that you will easily overlook.
Whatever, brother.
It's all good.
Bismillah.
A little bit never hurt nobody.
Everybody has faults.
Who doesn't have faults?
And then that's it.
And that's how shaitan will chip away at
you.
That's how he will erode your deen and
your religion.
And so that's the trap of shaitan.
And that's what Allah ﷻ talks to us
about all throughout the Qur'an.
Allah ﷻ says, الشيطان يعيدكم الفقر Shaytan will
scare you of poverty.
Compromise in how you earn your money.
Brother, I gotta make a living.
You know how hard it is?
Inflation.
Things are expensive.
Life is tough.
The job market is difficult.
I gotta do what I gotta do.
الشيطان يعيدكم الفقر ويأمركم بالفحشة He'll incite you
to engage in shameless behavior.
ويريد الشيطان أن يضل لهم ضلالا بعيدا Shaytan
wants you.
His end goal is for you to be
very far from the deen.
But he'll get you there step by step.
That's why the Qur'an says خطوات If
I wanna get from here to the door,
I can't jump from here to the door.
I don't transport myself from here to the
door.
I won't fly there.
I have to walk there step by step.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with
one step.
Shaytan wants you to end up all the
way there, but he'll start with one step
at a time.
إِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌ فَاتَّخِذُهُ عَدُوًّا He is
your enemy.
He declared that a very very long time
ago.
And so he's on his mission and that's
why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that
you need to recognize him as your enemy
as well.
Imam al-Razi رحمه الله تعالى He says
that Shaytan, he has seven tactics.
He has seven tactics that Allah lays out
in the Quran.
إِلْتَزَمَ أُمُورًا سَبْعًا فِي الْعَدَاوَةِ There are seven
tactics that he has in his animosity against
a human being and misguiding the human being.
Number one, وَلَأُضِلَّنَّهُمْ He'll confuse you, lead you
astray.
وَلَأُمَنِّيَنَّهُمْ He will make you engage in wishful
thinking.
Tomorrow, next month, Ramadan's around the corner, Inshallah,
Ramadan.
Ramadan's gonna be great.
But for now, business as usual.
That's Shaytan's tactic.
وَلَأَمُرَنَّهُمْ And he'll actually tell you to engage
in sin.
وَلَأَمُرَنَّهُمْ فَلَيُغَيِّرُنَّ خَلْقَ اللَّهِ It's a very specific
kind of reference, but he'll even make you
engage in things that defy the very nature
of human beings.
Unnatural behavior.
And immorality is unnatural.
And then in another verse, وَلَأَقْعُدَنَّ لَهُمْ صِرَاطَكَ
الْمُسْتَقِيمُ Shaytan specifically will erect obstructions on the
pathway to good.
You ever notice like whenever you decide to
do something good, then there's like multiple things
that pop up.
You decide to go to the masjid, and
then right at that time, it's like, oh,
I gotta take out the trash.
You know?
Oh, I gotta run to the masjid.
Then it's like, oh, they said it's gonna
be freezing temperatures tonight.
I gotta go like take the water hose
off and put the little cover thingy on,
right?
I gotta find it in the garage.
It's Texas.
I don't remember where I put it.
Right?
Just at that time.
Why are you remembering it at that time?
And you're gonna go do it at 8
p.m.? It's already dark outside, brother.
What's the difference between doing it at 8
p.m. and doing it at 10 p
.m.? Ain't no difference.
The difference is shaytan wants you to do
it right now.
Because by the time you're like, oh, it'll
just take two minutes.
By the time you do it, then you
look at your watch and you're like, oh,
it's already like 8, 12.
I'm not gonna make it in time.
Alright, next time, inshallah.
And next time, and next time, and next
time.
وَلَا أَقْعُدَنَّ لَهُمْ سَرَاطَكَ الْمُسْتَقِيمُ Like a roadblock.
It's a pothole on the road to righteousness.
ثُمَّ لَآتِيَنَّهُمْ مِنْ بَيْنِ أَيْدِهِمْ وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِمْ وَعَنَ
إِيمَانِهِمْ وَعَن شَمَائِلِهِمْ And he'll come at you
from all sides.
From in front of you, from behind you,
from the right of you, from the left
of you.
He'll hit you from all sides.
From all angles, from all sides.
وَلَا تَجِدُ أَكْثَرَهُمْ شَاكِرِينَ وَلَا تَجِدُ أَكْثَرَهُمْ شَاكِرِينَ
To be grateful.
He will make you ungrateful.
He'll make you complain about something.
Upset about something.
Always there's something.
I'm always upset about something.
I'm always frustrated by something.
I'm always complaining about something.
I'm always mad or angry or upset or
sad about something.
Because you're saying الحمد لله That's what shaitan
doesn't want you to do.
So this is the way that shaitan comes.
And this is detailed out within the Qur
'an.
There's a beautiful hadith from Abu Malik al
-Ash'ari رضي الله تعالى عنه in the
book of al-Tirmidhi.
He says, the Prophet ﷺ said وَآمُرُكُمْ أَن
تَذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ وَآمُرُكُمْ أَن تَذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ The Prophet
ﷺ said I'm telling you to remember Allah.
He says why?
فَإِنَّ مِثْرَ ذَلِكَ كَمَثَلِ رَجُلٍ خَرَجَ الْعَدُوُ فِي
أَثْرِهِ سِرَاعًا حَتَّى إِذَا أَتَى عَلَى حِسْنٍ حَصِينٍ
فَأَحْرَزَ نَفْسَهُ مِنْهُمْ The Prophet ﷺ said let
me give you an example.
Somebody came out of their home.
When they came out of their home, they
were out and about doing something.
An enemy started tracking them and started pursuing
them.
An enemy or somebody who wishes them harm
is coming after them and pursuing them.
They keep on pursuing that person until that
person finds like a fortress, a big wall,
a gate and they go inside of it
and lock the gate behind them and they
protect themselves inside of that gate.
Okay?
He says كَذَلِكَ الْعَبْدُ لَا يَحْرِزُ نَفْسَهُ مِنَ
الشَّيْطَانِ إِلَّا بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ The human being, the
only way you can guard yourself against the
attack of shaitan and by the way, shaitan
is always tailing you.
He's always watching.
He's always following you.
He's always tracking you.
He's always tailing you.
All the time.
He's always coming after you.
And the only way that you can protect
and guard yourself against shaitan is through the
dhikr of Allah.
That's why the Qur'an teaches us فَاسْتَعِذْ
بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ The Prophet ﷺ told
us to regularly say أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ
الرَّجِيمِ And in general make the dhikr of
Allah and that will protect you from the
attacks of shaitan.
And I'll end and conclude with this reflection
that we talked about one of the first
attacks of shaitan, how shaitan will start to
chip away at your deen, at your religion,
at your relationship with Allah is by coming
at you in terms of just your daily
activity.
Particularly what you consume, what you eat, how
you earn, how you make a living, what
you engage in, indulge in.
That's how he'll chip away at you.
Sahih bin Abdullah he says النجاة في ثلاثة
Salvation, success can be achieved by focusing on
three things.
Number one, أكل الحلال Make sure that whatever
you consume is permissible.
Be a little more particular about that, be
a little bit more, you know what I
was talking about earlier, sometimes we have a
weird kind of like culture and a weird
vibe around that being particular about what you
eat, whatever you want to call it, being
weird, being really nitpicky, being particular, whatever it
is that people call it.
He's saying do that.
Be particular about what you eat.
Number two أداء الفرائد Fulfill your obligations.
Your Salah, your Siyah, your Zakat, your Hajj,
just take care of your فرائد.
And number three, والاقتداء بنبي صلى الله عليه
وسلم And everyday try to be a little
bit more like the Prophet صلى الله عليه
وسلم.
If you just do those three things, I'm
not going to eat anything حرام, I'm going
to take care of my فرض, and everyday
I'm going to try to be a little
bit more like the Prophet صلى الله عليه
وسلم, my character, you will attain success.
أبو عبد الله الساجي He says خمس خصال
بها تمام العلم There are five characteristics that
are the peak and the pinnacle of being
a knowledgeable practitioner of your religion.
They are معرفة الله عز و جل Knowing
who Allah is معرفة الحق Knowing the truth
إخلاش العمل للابسنسير in your deeds for Allah
Number four العمل على السنة Number five أكل
الحلال Eat that which is halal meaning abstain
from that which is haram فإن فقدت واحدة
لم يرفع على عمله If you lose any
of these five things then your deeds will
no longer be acceptable to Allah سهل سيل
لا يصح أكل الحلال إلا بالعلم By the
way how do I know what's permissible and
what's not?
I will have to educate myself And I've
talked about this before Think about how much
useless information we have in our heads How
much time and energy we invest into things
that are useless Educating ourselves about what is
permissible versus what is not permissible is the
least we can do It's very important We're
never going to be able to live a
righteous life until we're willing to educate ourselves
on what is permissible ولا يكون المال حلال
حتى يسوى من ست خصال And our wealth
will not be clean permissible until we remove
six things الرباع Obviously things that are haram
like we talked about before, pork, wine alcohol,
etc والسحط سحط refers to corruption bribery and
things like that والغلول, cheating people Right?
Fudging the numbers cheating people والمكروه Right?
Forcefully taking things that don't belong to us
والشبح And if you're not sure about something
if something makes you uncomfortable, stay away from
it If something doesn't feel right, seem right
stay away from it Allah has created plenty
of alternatives for us in the dunya The
world is more vast than we realize You'll
always find something beneficial So Allah is telling
us in these verses يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ قُلُوم
مَّا فِي الْأَرْضِ Consume whatever you want in
God's green earth حَلَالًا طَيِّبًا Just make sure
that it's good It's permissible وَلَا تَتَبِعُوا خُطُوَاتِ
الشَّيْطَانِ Do not follow in the footsteps of
shaitan إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَدُومٌ مُّبِينٌ And indeed, shaitan
is your clear open enemy He wants what's
harmful to you He wants what's bad for
you He wants to pull you away from
that which is good for you May Allah
protect us all So I know I recited
two verses but we only did one verse
But quality over quantity is what I tell
myself Jazakum Allah khairan May Allah give us
the ability to practice everything we've said and
heard سبحان الله و بحمده سبحانك اللهم و
بحمدك لا إله إلا أنت أستغفرك وأنتم إليك