Ali Albarghouthi – The Disease and the Cure #22 Sin is an addiction that kills the soul
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the concept of darkness and how it can lead to healing and expansion. They emphasize the importance of protecting oneself from predators and avoiding sinful behavior. The speakers also emphasize the importance of honoring people and maintaining a positive reputation. The speakers stress the need for individuals to be mindful of their actions to avoid becoming captive and to reconcile their actions with others.AI: Transcript ©
Take anything in life.
If I were to convince you to avoid
something, if I list more and greater
damages that it does to you, you will
avoid it.
So he's saying
and he's trying here to convince everybody who
is listening
that
consider all and the full effects of sin.
This and this and this
and hope that if one did not convince
you the next one will
or the next or the next or the
next
until you reach a stage where you have
been
saturated
with the ill effects of sin that you
truly, truly want to avoid it. So he
is
building up an argument
of why sin should be avoided and he's
listing
all the many reasons
why it is damaging.
So he says,
this is from the punishment of sins, from
the consequence of sin.
He said
It says from its effects is that it
blinds the inside of the heart.
That is you could see things with your
eyes. Right?
And also you have a sight that comes
from the heart.
That is the basiyehirah.
That's really the more important of the 2.
That tells you right from wrong,
good from bad,
what you're supposed to do and not. That's
the.
So he says it will, what, blinded
and will extinguish the light of the heart
and block the path of knowledge and the
path of guidance.
So you cannot learn and you cannot be
guided.
So that becomes the obstacle.
It's kind of this darkness
that descends upon the heart and upon the
body, and he'll tell you
how
this
darkness is not limited to the heart. So
he says,
He says, when Malik saw a Shafi'i, when
he met a Shafi'i, and Malik is
the sheikh, the teacher of Al Shafi'i.
And he saw,
or a'atil kal Makhayil.
He saw from Al Shafi'i
glimpses and signs of brilliance
and potential
and
intelligence.
So he saw that from Al Shafi'i.
He said, in the Ara,
Allah
He say as I see that Allah Azzawajal
had
clothed you with a light,
had given you a light,
deposited a light in you.
So don't put it out
with sin.
Meaning I see potential in you.
I see that you could do
things, but the condition for that is what
you have to avoid sins.
If not that light will be taken away
from you. So there's a light that Allah
gives to you,
right? And they vary from 1 to the
other, but there's a light that Allah gives
to you and that is a light that
you could call potential
and a light that you could call fitra
and a light that you could call hidayah.
All of these things light.
So he says, if you don't
guard it and you don't save it, it
will go away from you. You'll become blind.
And he says, and this light will continue
to diminish
and the darkness of sin to strengthen
until the heart becomes like the darkest of
night.
So he says, how many
how many people who had fallen victim to
this?
How many people
fall to their detriment while not knowing that
that's happening to them like a blind man
who goes out at night.
It's a very treacherous
path. He doesn't know what to avoid. He
doesn't know where to walk. He says Faia'izzatas
salamatiwaya Suraatal Atab. He says how incredibly scarce
that he'd be saved.
There's little chance that he will be saved
and
a high chance that he will perish. So
a blind man at night in a very
dangerous path. How do you know what to
avoid?
You won't
know, right?
So he's saying if you lose
the light that Allah had given to you
with sin
and you gradually replace that light with the
darkness of sin, he says it will gradually
increase,
increase, increase,
and it becomes dominant in the heart until
you can't tell right from wrong, up from
down,
good from bad.
Whether in the Akhirah or in the Duniya,
both of them, you can't tell.
So how could you save yourself or save
your family?
You won't be able to because you have
deprived yourself of light.
He said
He says then this darkness
will strengthen
until it migrates from the heart to the
limbs,
and you will see it on the face.
So where does it start?
In the heart.
Right?
That's where
that darkness is deposited. But he says it
does not
stay there.
It migrates to the body
until you could see darkness on the body.
It doesn't mean actual what? A physical skin
pigmentation.
Like when you sin, do you become darker?
Yeah.
No. Right. But what does he mean?
That there is a darkness that comes out
of the face.
You could see it
as there is light that can come out
of the face and you can see it
and it has nothing to do
with skin color,
has to do with something that comes from
the soul and
is reflected on
the face
and the body.
So those who are sinful, who are truly
sinful,
if a person can see, he can see
their sin on their face.
Right.
You can see their sin on their face.
Like a
seasoned criminal. Have you ever seen a really
seasoned criminal
who has spent years years
committing haram
until he is, deserves that term seasoned. When
you look at his face, yeah, you look
that's the face of a killer,
right? You can say, yeah, that's the face
of a killer. That's the face of a
drug dealer.
That's the face of someone who commits Haram
or sells drugs or commits zina. That that's
the face. The face gets transformed.
What transforms the face is the sin that
is acquired, the darkness that it brings, and
so it's reflected on the face itself.
He says,
He says, when it's time of death,
it will be in the barzakh, in the
grave. So that darkness will go with that
person to the grave. And
so the darkness will be, the grave will
be filled with darkness.
That's the darkness of sin kind of moving
with that person
to the grave. And he said that Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said
He said Alaihi Salatu wasallam that these graves
are full of darkness for the people who
are in it.
It's all dark for the people that are
in it, but Allah will light it with
my Salah for them.
And then he is talking here about Salatul
Janazah when he prayed Janazah,
right?
And for this Hadith you could either say
that this is specific
to the Prophet Alaihi Salatu Wasallam
because his Salah is unlike any other Salah
and his Dua is unlike other Dua.
Or you could say this is also
inclusive of the followers of Muhammad Alaihi Salatu
Wasalam but not in the same portion.
Because the prophet Salah will bring the greatest
light to the grave.
But if people do pray Janazah for someone
and they are sincere,
then that could bring light also to his
grave because they are interceding.
Right? Because they're interceding
and asking Allah azza wa Jal to forgive
that person.
So the grave is dark,
but it is lit
with righteousness.
So if a person does not have it,
then maybe those who are interceding when they
are praying
will bring some of that light. Khalafaydakana yomul
ma'adi wa Hashul Ibad, when it's the day
of judgment and people are resurrected,
He says then the faces will be covered
with that darkness
in a way that everybody can see it.
Until
it becomes dark like
charcoal completely,
devoid of light.
And there's the Ayah in the Quran where
on their way
to Asilat,
to the bridge,
the believers will have light,
but the hypocrites won't
And they will seek to have or seek
to get glimpses of the lights of the
believers, but then there will be a barrier
set up between them and the hypocrites.
So the believers will have light.
The hypocrites won't.
So that's what he's saying,
that the light of righteousness
continues,
and the light of sin
continues and pervades.
So it begins with the heart and it
can grow until you could see it on
the face and until also it goes into
the grave
and follows a person into their,
resurrection.
So he's saying here at the end of
this section, he says,
this is a punishment
that all of the pleasures of this world
is not equivalent to.
Like whatever you're going to gain from the
pleasures of this world is not equivalent to
be
bathed in darkness.
Especially in the grave and when you are
resurrected to meet Allah azza jal.
So so he says
that he's talking about all the pleasures of
this world combined, but of course you don't
get all of them. You get only a
tiny portion of them. And even the tiny
portion he says
even with that
you are munaka sunmunaka dun muta'ah.
You you gain that with,
hardship
and you gain that with discomfort.
You don't you don't get much from this
dunya except with a price that you pay.
Alright?
It's your body. It's your health. It's it's
fatigue. It's worry and all of it. So
you have to pay a price for anything
good that you get from that dunya.
So it's not
exclusively
good.
So he says, how could you compare this
to the loss of the light
that will leave you and the darkness that
will descend upon you? So he says that
is one of the
ills of sin.
And he says, and also
he says,
He says, from the consequence of sin
is that when a person's sin what happens
to their soul, to their nafs,
is that they shrink and shrivel.
They diminish.
It become insignificant.
It lacks nobility.
It lacks dignity.
Right?
And the opposite is true with obedience. What
obedience does is that to namija. It will
grow
the soul,
it
will elevate it
and it will enlarge it.
And that is taken easy because
Allah says the one who does tuskia
of his soul will prosper. He says what's
the meaning of tuskia?
Tazkiyah really means growth and included in it
is purification.
Right? So your word that is close to
this is Zakah.
So when you give Zakah, what happens to
your money?
2 things happen.
One is that you purify it.
The other one is that you
grow it.
So it grows. That's what Zakat does. So
when you do tazkiyah of your soul
and how do you do tazkiyah of the
soul? Through everything that Allah Azzawajal commanded and
staying away from what Allah has prohibited.
So when you do that, the soul grows.
How does it grow? It becomes noble.
It becomes generous.
It becomes forgiving.
It guides people.
It has space
to do a lot of good,
to tolerate a lot
of harm,
to become simply great.
So you can begin as someone who is
average,
but then you obey Allah
and your soul becomes soul of a great
man or soul of a great woman.
All that because of Ibadah.
All that because of Allah Azza wa Jal.
So your soul has been enlarged,
had been made great.
You look not simply at your own self
and your own needs,
your own benefit but the benefit of others
as well.
You don't just simply worry about me
but you worry about other people as well.
So you become a great person who also
can benefit a whole lot of people around.
So that is the greatness that a person
can get from
Ibadah.
The soul grows,
becomes better.
Right?
The opposite is true.
The one who does tedsiyah of the soul,
meaning the one who
allows it to shrink and shrivel.
Or literally the saha is to
hide it in the ground.
So Allah says here
He
just brings another that word in another part
of the Quran or does he bury it
underground?
That does he will he keep that girl,
new girl that he had received
as a as a newborn
or
does he bury her, yadus suh?
So when you bury something,
it's invisible.
It's hidden.
It dies.
So the person who does not cultivate his
soul with Allah's obedience, but you accept sin,
what happens to your soul is that it
starts to shrink.
So instead of being generous, you become what?
Very stingy.
Instead of being very forgiving, you become very
vengeful and sour.
Instead of worrying about people, you just simply
worry about yourself.
And also, sin brings with it shame.
So do you hide from people,
and you can't share who you are,
and you can't be proud of what you're
doing. So you shrink and shrink and shrivel
and shrink and shrivel until you
become nothing.
You don't help people.
You're not a source of benefit,
but the opposite, you're a source of harm.
So that's the difference between those two souls.
You're either in a state of teskeah, enlargement,
and growth,
where you're getting closer to Allah Azawajal, or
you become one being minimized
and minimized.
Right.
Says the sinful
buries himself in that sin and he conceals
it and he stays away from creation
because of the evil that he has done.
So he is crushed and defeated
with himself, with Allah Azzawajal and with creation.
He's humiliated.
Even if he pretends not to be.
If even if he boasts about the wrong
things that he is doing. You know what?
How many bad things I've done? You know
how much money I have? All that is
pretense.
When you know when someone is
overcompensating
because on the inside you know that you're
empty so you have to prove
that you're worth something.
So you buy expensive clothes and jewelry and
cars and you surround yourself with women.
Right, and you brag about all the all
the sinful things that you are doing. Because
in yourself you know that you're empty and
you're ashamed of it.
So you prove it by what? By pretending
to be something that you're not. Whereas the
righteous they don't have to pretend and compensate.
In fact they're humble.
Why are you humble? Because you know what,
who you are on the inside. There is
substance,
so you don't need to prove something.
But you find that the arrogant who need
to prove something are the ones who are
empty.
And the humble are the ones who actually
have something, so there is no need
for someone to notice them.
So
he says obedience and bitter unrighteousness
will elevate you
and give you nobility
until you become the greatest of things.
Right. Until you could become, according to some
scholars, better than the angels of Allah Azza
wa
j. Right? So you have that potential
that you could become better than the angels
of Allah Azza wa j
with that soul. That's how great you could
be
or the opposite.
Right.
It can diminish
until you become worse than animals.
Worse than an animal.
Animal has not been given
your ability, your potential,
what you could reach you could become worse
than them. And so it depends on what
you do with that soul.
And he's
saying here is he's emphasizing
something is that yes
your soul will grow with Allah's obedience
but it still will feel next to Allah
Azza wa Jal that it is the smallest
and most insignificant thing.
And it is through that submission to Allah
Azza wa Jal that it becomes honorable.
So when you pray and when you fast
and when you go to Hajj and when
you do all these things you don't become
proud of yourself and what you're doing
because if you do that
then you're running in the opposite direction.
You become what?
Humble and grateful
because you realize that what you're doing is
not because of you,
because of Allah azza wa Jal.
Right?
So if you pray, is it because of
you?
No.
If you fast, is it because of you?
If you read a book, is it because
of you?
If you are here, is it because of
you?
No, it isn't.
Because of Allah Azzawajal.
And that's why
sometimes
Allah Azzajid will let go between you and
sin.
To show you that
on your own you can't stop yourself.
Understand what I'm saying?
He will let go. Right? There's no Isma.
There's no protection.
So you will do it
and
that will humble
you. To know that, oh I thought I
was somebody
when I was praying on time and coming
to the Masjid and doing this or doing
hijab or putting niqab or whatever it is.
I thought I was somebody.
And now I discovered that what I could
easily slip.
And this is not then an opportunity for
you to give up and say, well, you
know, I keep
falling behind. I keep making mistakes. That's not
the cause or shouldn't be a cause for
it, but a cause for you to throw
yourself at Allah Azza wa Jal and say
Allah
save me because I can't save myself.
I can't
pray if you don't allow me to. I
cannot fast if you don't allow me to.
I cannot stay away from that Haram if
you don't allow me to. So you pray
to Allah Azzawajal to give you the strength
knowing that
there is no hawal walahkooah
except with Allah Azzawajal. It's not with you.
So it will enlarge you and glorify you
and
grant you that nobility
in acts
at the same time you realize that I
am nothing
next to Allah Azzawajal. So you combine both
obedience, nobility
and humility at the same time.
Right. And
he says also, Amin al Khubaati also from
its
punishment and consequences
is that the sinful will always be
the captive of his devil, the captive of
Shaytan
in the prison of his desires
and in the shackles and temptations. He's always
in prison. He can't escape that prison.
And he says there is no prisoner,
who's
in a worse condition
than one who has been paid captive by
his worst enemy.
The one who had been
caught by his worst enemy
is the worst
of prisoners
because there is no,
tighter
or smaller prison than the prison of desire.
And there is no
stronger shackles than the shackle of temptation.
So what he's saying here is that
think about everything in life that can actually
imprison you and shackle you and trap you.
The greatest trap is that of shahua,
of temptation,
of your own desire.
That's why you should never look down on
the fact that, oh, this is just
a desire or shahua. Maybe I can do
it and then
forget it
later.
Because
if you are addicted to something,
you are its prisoner.
And you may be so strong in front
of people
and so strong
when doing other things.
But when you come to that thing you're
like a child
because you're a prisoner.
It tells you come and you come.
Tells you go and you go.
So it has it's subjugated
you. It enslaved you.
Can't say no.
And it's hard for a person
to reconcile that with their image of themselves.
Like, I am supposed to be this, but
with that,
I'm so weak.
Can you say no to it?
It's humiliating.
So a person inherits humiliation in himself because
of it,
and he feels he's constantly being imprisoned by
it. He can't let go. How do I
let go of it?
Right.
Unless Allah Azzawajal, right, frees you. So he
says
how could he
move towards Allah Azzawajal and the heart
is captive, is imprisoned.
How could he take one step?
And he says if the heart is imprisoned
like that, is captive like that, harm will
come to it from every direction.
So he says this is like what? He
says this is like a bird.
It is safest when it flies the highest,
But in which flies low,
predators
seek it and they devour it. So he
said this is exactly like a bird. If
you soar high closer to Allah,
meaning you're not captive,
then you're fine.
So this sin tells you, do come come
next to me. He says, no. I'm very
high here. I'm not gonna listen to this.
So you turn away from this,
and you turn away from that sin that
is calling you, and that sin that is
calling you. You're so high they can't reach
you, then you're fine.
You're safe.
But you come low
next to them, one of them will get
you. And if one of them got you
is also possible then the others will get
you as well because they are linked.
So he is telling
you, you have to be very careful
because some sins, they begin small,
they developed into something big, then they become
an addiction and you can't let go of
them. You know how, like, you sometimes could
settle into a very bad routine,
not even something haram,
but just a very bad routine,
eating the bad bad food. You just have
settled into that. You can't break free.
Or,
you miss your sleep one day and you
fall into a bad routine of sleep. You
just can't, you know, come back to the
same rhythm.
That is what being what? Imprisoned by it
until you do something
with some force
to break free.
And then you feel yes, Alhamdulillah I'm out
of this.
I'm free of it.
That does not compare to the grab of
sin.
If it grabs you,
the heart wants it,
the body wants it and the mind wants
it.
The mind is programmed to want this.
So how do you break free?
So it's easy not to be captive of
it
at the onset,
not to go into it,
not to be polluted by it.
But if you allow yourself and you come
close to it, you can't stop. You can't
protect yourself.
And he says wafil hadithi and it's a
weak hadith. The meaning is sound nonetheless.
He says,
that the Shaitan
is the human's wolf
predator
is waiting for you. Right. He says, as
as it is that the sheep that has
no protector
and it is among the wolves will die
quickly
or be devoured soon. So is a servant
of Allah Azzawulif.
He has no protection from Allah, the wolf
will devour him.
Right.
He says and he will have protection from
Allah Azzawajal with taqwa
It
is because it is a protection
and a fortress
between him and his wolf and between him
and the punishment in the dunya and the
akhirah.
So the closer the sheep is to the
shepherd,
it'll be protected from the wolf. If it's
far away,
it's closer to its own demise.
And it is safest when it is closer
to the shepherd
because
the wolf will only devour
the sheep that is
solitary,
that is alone, that is distant from the
shepherd.
So
here is the idea too of
your company
and what you surround yourself with.
So if your company is sound,
you're not likely to
and go astray. Not likely. You still can,
but it's not likely
because everything around you reminds you of Allah
So take that image that he had brought,
which is the image from the hadith.
You
are the prey
and there are predators,
not just one, predators around you.
And each one of them is waiting for
a moment when you
overlook
and blind to them,
close enough to them
and they'll attack.
So the wise thing is for you to
do put enough distance between you and them,
and that is the distance between you and
the Haram,
and a hint of the Haram. So if
the Haram is there and you know that
it's there
and you know that you are by nature
weak or strong,
weak.
You don't step close.
That's the distance.
Because that's the wolf.
So you don't step close.
And you keep yourself
close to the shepherd and close to
your protection. And what is your protection? Your
protection is the house of Allah, a zoodl.
Your protection is the Quran. Your protection is
Taqwa your protection
is good friends Your protection is dua your
protection is zikr Anything that keeps you away
from it. That's your protection
and will keep you strong.
But if you don't do that and you
stray and you slowly stray because you're curious,
just like a curious sheep who wants to
really
discover
what is this old wall wolf thing about.
Right? What is so
mysterious? It's mysterious. So what is so
dangerous about them? Let me just explore. And
you get closer and closer and closer.
Right?
And the mediums of getting closer to the
Haram
are spreading and they're greater today than they
were,
you know, even a few years ago.
So
if you get closer to it, it will
taint you. It will pull you,
and then
your predator had gotten you.
So you really have to know
that somebody is waiting
to attack you. Before you enter your home,
the shaitan is waiting.
Before you eat. The Shaytan is waiting.
When you want to go to bed, the
Shaytan is waiting.
In your sleep, the Shaytan tries to disturb
you.
Right?
When you want to enter the bathroom, the
Shaitan is waiting. When you want to be
intimate with your
spouse, the Shaitan is waiting. You understand? He's
waiting and waiting and waiting
and he knows you inside and out. He
knows what motivates you and what doesn't, what
excites you and what doesn't. So he can
whisper and he keeps whispering.
So you must know that you have an
enemy who's bent on destroying you. And if
you get closer,
then you will be devoured.
And, of course, as he said in the
beginning,
that you'll be imprisoned by it and it's
hard to break free.
It's really hard to break free.
Just ask ask someone
if you know someone.
Ask someone
who used to drink.
Right?
And they tried to stop
or smoke and they tried to stop. Just
like these are just easy things.
Right? Because external. Right? You could you could
tell
somebody
used to smoke,
but now he wants to stop. Ask him
how easy that is or used to drink
and they want to stop. Ask them how
easy that is. Ask them, do they struggle
with this every single day or not?
Every single week or not? How they mark
the progress
with weeks, sometimes with days, sometimes with weeks,
sometimes with months. Oh, I've been sober for
such and such many weeks, such and such
many,
months.
And it's an accomplishment when they do this.
To tell you that it's not easy.
So if you did not pollute yourself and
did not imprison yourself with that, you shouldn't.
And he continues. He says, the
origin of all of this is that,
when the heart is far away from Allah,
a zawajal harm
runs to it.
And when it is close to Allah, a
zawajal harm runs away from it.
And that's a beautiful thing, by the way.
Because it does tell tell tell you something
about the heart, not just simply the body,
but the heart.
Because you could be
away from sin physically,
but not mentally,
not with heart.
Like, I'm not there,
but I'm thinking about it.
Then that means you're closer to it.
So the distance that you want to maintain
between you and your sin is too physical,
but not only physical, but mental.
Mental and spiritual. Don't think about it.
Don't fantasize about it.
Don't believe all the glamour
that is claimed about it. It it's not
true. Right?
He
says, and distance from Allah Azza wa Jal
are degrees or levels.
Some of them are greater than others. So
al ghafla, heedlessness,
will distance you from Allah, azza wa jal,
meaning you just simply
forget.
Just forget.
Right? So you're busy with your work, busy
with your studies, busy with sports, busy with
TV. You just simply, like, forget for prolonged
periods of time. You don't think about Allah
Azzawajal.
When you go into obedience, you go in
and out. Salah, in and out.
So it doesn't leave an impact. So prolonged
hours of the day are not about Allah
Azzawdal. You don't think about him. That
leads to ghaflah, heedlessness,
lack of awareness. So so that
distance you from Allah, azza wa Jal. And
the distance of sin is greater
than heedlessness.
And the sin of bida is greater than
the sin of than than the distance of
sin.
And the distance of hypocrisy and shirk is
greater than all of that. So they've given
you here degrees.
There's rafla,
and there is sin, and there is bid'ah
innovation, and there is hypocrisy and shirk.
So that's the greatest sin with hypocrisy and
shirk, but it's also what related to the
ones that come before it. Right? Because no
one
goes into hypocrisy and shirk unless they pass
through the other levels as well, if they
start at the level of iman.
Right?
And he says and also from its
consequences.
He says that
last loss of status,
last loss of reputation
and honor,
with Allah Azawajal and with his creation.
Meaning you have a reputation.
Right? You have a particular status.
You like to be respected.
Right? You like you would love that Allah
Azawajal
would esteem you.
Look at you with some esteem. You would
love also that creation
would look at you with some esteem.
Respect.
Right?
So he says
sin
deprives you of all of that because the
most honorable
of creation with Allah Azzawal is the one
who has the greatest taqwa. And the one
who is closest to him is the one
who is most obedient to him. And in
proportion or to the degree that you obey
him, the closer you will be to him.
If you obey him more, you're then closer
to Allah, azza wa jal. And if you
obey him more, you're more honorable with Allah,
azza wa jal. But if you disobey him,
then
Allah is Allah will look at you with
less regard
or would you lose all regard with Allah
a zuja.
Allah does not respect you.
Right?
And people also will not respect you.
And he says if that happens
and
no one respects you and you are humiliated,
it will bring you bring you misery in
this dunya.
Now what he's trying to to say here
is not that any one of us or
that we should seek
recognition. He's not talking about recognition and fame.
Well, I want everybody to recognize me, and
I want everybody to praise me, and I
want everybody to
respect me because they know about me and
how worthy of respect I am. He's not
talking about recognition.
He's simply talking about
being respected on those who know you,
having dignity among those who know you. Meaning
if they were to remember you alive or
dead, they will say, may Allah have mercy
on so and so. He used to be
a good person or he is a good
person.
That's the thing that he is talking about.
He comes to the Masjid. He is beneficial.
He helps.
He's kind. He is,
righteous.
That's how they know you.
And we'll understand why that is important. That's
how they know you. So he says if
you lose that
and you lose all dignity,
then you lost the cause of happiness in
this life and you will live humiliated,
very sad and very depressed and very alone.
So you want to maintain that dignity.
He says and with the greater namaz of
Allah azzawajal is that Allah would elevate his
mention among people,
meaning that they respect him and they like
him.
And that's why he said that Allah, azzawajal,
had
endowed his prophets and messengers
with that feature that did not belong to
that degree to anybody else but them. He
brings a couple of aya.
He says, Allah
says,
and mention our servants, Ibrahim and Ishaq and
Yaqoob,
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Those who had strength
and insight.
We had endowed them with something special to
them, and that is the remembrance
of the hereafter.
Another interpretation
of that ayah, which Ibn al Qayim here,
cites, and this is why he brings this
ayah, is that we've given them good mention.
Whenever they are mentioned, they are respected.
Whenever they are mentioned,
even in later generations,
they are respected.
So he says we gave them that
as a gift.
But the
kind of more dominant explanation of this ayah
is that what we endowed them with is
what? Remembering the hereafter.
The qraddar is to remember and work for
the hereafter.
That is the gift that they were given.
But there is another ayat, a couple of
ayat
that do
support what Ibn al Qayyim is saying. He
says this is lisan al sutq,
the truthful tongue
that Ibrahim alayhis salam asked Allah Azadul for
what he said, Wajaa'aleelisana
siddhqimfil
akhirin grant me a truthful tongue
in or among latter generations.
Truthful tongue means truthful or honest praise.
Make me praised among the latter generations. Now
you wonder why? I'll tell you why.
And he also said
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala said about the
children of Ibrahim Alaihi Salaam about him and
his children. He says, we've
given them from our rahma mercy.
We've given we've given them,
an elevated
honor
and mention
among later generation as well whenever they are
mentioned.
And he said about Muhammad Alaihi Salatu Wasallam
or Rafa Analaka Dikraq We've elevated your mention.
Right?
So why did Ibrahim alayhis salam ask for
this?
Now, Ibrahim did not ask for fame
because he understand from kind of the major
thrust of the Quran and the sunnah
is not it's not
recommended that you should ask ask for fame.
And Ibrahim did not say y'all make me
famous.
So what do you get when you're famous?
Because there are a lot of people who
are famous today that you'd look at and
you say, I know that they are not
righteous or pleasing to Allah, azza wa j.
So their fame is not
a privilege or an advantage.
Right?
It actually is pushing them in the opposite
direction. Their fame
is causing them to veer away from Allah
azerod and that
is typically what fame does unless
you are protected and you protect yourself.
So he's not asking for fame.
And if you're famous, that doesn't
necessarily help you with Allah, aza ji. So
what is he asking for?
He's asking to be a model
and an example.
And when someone considers you to be a
model and an example and they follow you
because of what you've done, you get rewarded
for it.
Right?
So that's what he's asking. Wajal alaihi sallam
al sukham that when I'm when I'm mentioned,
they
Be like Ibrahim Alaihi Salaam.
So he gets rewarded for it as an
inspiration, as a role model
And so is everybody else who is
rewarded as a role model. If people do
because they're inspired by you, Allah rewards you
for it. So you want that. You
want
That honorable mention among creation that
when they mention you, you say may Allah
have mercy on him. They don't curse you.
They say may
Allah have mercy on him. He was this
and that. So they make dua for you
and they try to follow your example. So
he says the followers of the messengers
have a portion similar to that in proportion
to how much
they follow, Muhammad alayhi salatu wa sallam and
obey him. And everyone who disobeys them will
miss
a portion of that into to the degree
that they don't follow Muhammad alayhis salatu wasalam.
So meaning that
if Allah, azzawajal, right,
likes you
and you follow the Rasool Allah, a salallahu
alayhi wasallam in his sunnah, he'll give you
some of what he had given him, which
is a good mention
while you're alive and when you die,
not fame.
Right?
Because maybe if we were to inspect today
or were to ask Allah azza today, Allah
tell us about the very most pious person
on Earth today, maybe most of us will
not know that person.
Right? Will be unknown to most of humanity,
where I whereas if I were to ask
you about that specific entertainer,
you'd go to the smallest village and they'll
know about him or her.
Right? Oh, this person who's touring and doing
this and doing yeah. I know about her.
So everybody knows about them, but not about
that person. So it's not fame. That's not
how you decide.
Right?
But it is what an honorable,
respectful
mention
among the pious. So when they mention you,
they make dua for you and they you
are they're motivated by you. So he says
sin will deprive you of all of that.
So Allah, azza wa jal, you will lose
any regard with Allah, lose any regard with
his creation. So he says, do you want
that?
Okay.
Let me see.
Okay.
And he says also, and from its consequences
is that they deprive.
It says they will strip you
of honorable titles and names
and will give you
humiliating and dishonorable titles and names.
So names like Al Mu'min,
Al Barra al Muhsin al Mutaqi, the righteous,
the obedient to Allah Azzawajal,
the worshiper,
the repentant,
the good person. All these
names or titles, right, adjectives.
He says you will you will lose all
of them.
Right. And in fact you will get what
the names of the disobedient Al Fajr, Al
Asi, Al Munafiq, the Hypocrite,
Al Khabeef,
the Fornicator,
the thief, the killer, the liar.
You will earn all of that.
And he says these are
the
sinful names that Allah Azzajal Isma'ul Fussuk when
Allah Azzajal said in Surat Al Hurdurad.
What a worse replacement
for you to be to acquire or to
give the names of sinful names
after
the names or the adjectives of Iman. And
this is whether you give this to somebody
else or you acquire it yourself. So a
person is a believer
and you call him a Munafiq
and he doesn't deserve it. Then Allah Azar
tells you that's the worst replacement to give
to him because he's a believer
and you substituted that with
Nifaq or hypocrisy
or any other sinful name. So he says
that's a
bad replacement.
You're not allowed to do this.
Or whether you deserve it through your actions.
So you are a believer, Mu'min.
And then through your actions you become what
Afasik. He says what a worst name you've
given yourself.
After being a believer, you lose it and
you become a
munafiq or a fasik or a fornicator or
a gambler or a killer
or a thief or a liar. Is this
the name that you want to give to
yourself?
Because these names will lead a person
to the anger of Allah as they will
enter into hellfire.
And he says, if it's if there is
no sin for obi disobedience
except deserving these names,
then an intelligent person of sound mind
would wanna stay away from them.
And if only the benefit of obedience is
that you will win these names and what
they lead
to you, it's enough for you
to love obeying Allah Azza wa Jal.
So So if you want to think about
it, right, just to emphasize what he has
said Rahimahullah.
You are basically, we basically
live our lives in search
and to earn those titles
whether we are aware of it or not.
So you want to acquire and we do
acquire
these titles.
So you wanna be called smart,
not stupid,
right?
Intelligent,
creative.
You wanna be called,
generous,
forgiving.
You wanna be called, if you go into
any professional field,
the title in that field, to designate that
you know what you're doing and you belong
to that professional
entity
that you know what you're doing.
And you don't wanna be called stupid,
dumb.
Right? A liar, a thief. So throughout your
life, what you're trying to do is run
away from those titles, the bad ones. And
if somebody calls you any of these things,
you will fight with them
because you consider yourself above them.
Even if you do commit some of these
things, but you do consider yourself above them
or you should be above them. So you
run away from that title
and you try to acquire as many good
titles as possible.
You want to be father. You want to
be mother.
You want to be the good son,
the good grandparent.
You wanna be a good person. So you're
trying to get as many of them as
possible, and that's what gives you satisfaction, that
reflection, that, yes,
people realize
that as I'm as good as what I'm
thinking what I think I am. That's the
validation that you think. Here he's saying that
these titles are coming from whom?
Not from humanity
but from whom?
Allah Azzawajal.
Allah is the one who's giving you these
titles.
So
how devastating would it be if you think
that you're something but Allah thinks that you're
nothing?
If in the eyes of Allah Azza Jall
as it says in the hadith
says the person will continue to lie and
seek lying
until he is written with Allah as a
liar.
So consider if Allah
Allah's name for you is liar.
See how devastating that is because you can't
fight that.
That's it.
If Allah's name for you is the cheat
or the fornicator
or the gambler
or the stingy albakheel
or the one who misses the salah
or the one who doesn't pay the zakah
or the one who does not remember me
or or or or. So all these titles,
all these all these negative images, right? That
you're trying names that you're trying to run
away from.
You've given yourself by disobeying Allah, Azza Jall.
Nobody else gave them to you. You gave
them to yourself.
And then because of that, you've lost
again, going back to what he had said
recently. You lost any respect that you had
with Allah Azzawajal
and when that is lost humanity does not
respect you as well.
And who's doing this to you? Not your
enemy.
Who's doing this to you?
Yourself.
And that's why they say the worst enemy
that you have is whom?
Yourself. Because your enemy did not, will not
be able to harm you as much as
you harm yourself.
Your army your enemy can harm you on
the outside
physically,
and you could be rewarded for that harm.
Your
enemy cannot harm you.
You're the one who can harm himself
the most.
So if you want the most honorable of
names and titles, what is that?
It's through Allah's obedience and you have it
within means
with an ability, right? You could acquire that.
You could be the person who is better,
right?
But if Allah Azza wa Jal does not
think of you as such then you're not.
So then tell yourself who you want to
commit a sin
and when you want to disobey Allah, Azza
wa Jal ask yourself, do you want to
be that person
or do you think that you are better
than that?
And if you think that you're better than
that, let Allah see that you're better than
that and ask him
that you'd be better than this.
Because as we said, you do have that
potential
to be better
and never ever, and that'd be the last
thing we say InshaAllah, never ever, whenever you
commit, whatever that sin may be,
never say to yourself that that sin defines
me
because you could immediately
repent and you should immediately repent,
turn a new leaf,
and become a better person immediately.
Not the person who had been now
subjugated by that sin, but the person who
had now decided never to be subjugated by
that sin again. Immediately.
And that is the beauty of repentance that
you can become a new person
immediately.
And you can become a new person today,
now.
And you can become a better person
every day.
Because you should repent every day.
Repentance every day because the prophet, alaihis salatu
wasalam he said when he said he was
sitting
I repent.
I ask Allah for forgiveness and repent
70 times
a day or a 100 a day.
So that repentance is daily
from everything that you find. Oh,
I shouldn't have looked at that. Astaghfirullah from
that repent.
I shouldn't have said that. Something small. Astaghfirullah
Repent.
I shouldn't have walked there.
I shouldn't have bought this, Staghfirullah,
Repent and so on and so on and
so on. So repentance becomes something that is
very dynamic that deals with everything that is
happening throughout the day.
And that's what allows you after repentance to
be actually,
substantial, to stick.
We'll stop here, Insha'Allah.
And if you have
questions, Insha'Allah, let me know.
So reconcile I understand that part. What's reconciled
with what what other part?
We'll have a good reputation versus them.
Yeah. Yeah.
No.
So I I think the question of the
brother is that,
if we know that the person who
is righteous will have a good reputation
and the one who is,
unrighteous will have an
an unrighteous reputation, a bad reputation.
He says at the same time, you see
today that,
things are opposite of that. So those who
are,
those who are what's the word? Those those
who are wicked, the criminals
are valorized and respected
and
advanced to speak, whereas the opposite is true
for those who are worthy of speaking,
who are righteous, who are saying the right
things. They are suppressed and marginalized.
So he says, how how do you reconcile
that?
Well, I mean, first of all, you know,
the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam, said
that it will be Sanawatul Khaddaa, deceitful years,
where the trustworthy
will be considered
untrustworthy and the untrustworthy
will be considered trustworthy.
So he had predicted, alaihis salaam, that there
will be such years that he called deceitful.
And they come because of what? Because of
departure from Allah's book
and the sun of his messenger, alayhis salatu
wassalam, that things are very muddy.
Things are very muddy. If we were to
be righteous, like predominantly
righteous, there would be no space
for the wicked to speak. Right? And if
they were to speak, people will recognize them
if the majority is righteous because there's just
no space for them.
But because we lack that, it's easy for
the wicked to pass as righteous and for
the righteous to be labeled as unrighteous.
So that's
1. Meaning, these deceitful years that indicate a,
predominance of ignorance.
The the other thing also to keep in
mind is that
the righteous
or the pious will recognize the difference,
Even with the lies,
if they have both kind of religious
insights and also some worldly knowledge,
They'll recognize the difference between
those who speak the truth and those who
lie.
Because they're seeing with Allah's light.
They're seeing and they're
checking what they are hearing against the book
of Allah and against what the prophet
said. So they know right from wrong, halal
from Haram. They know.
So then they will not They will not,
be swayed.
But those who like that, of course, they
will not know
top from bottom.
Do you hear something and it seems equally
valid as the opposite and you don't know
where to go. So that kind of confusion
that we're living in today
is kind of deserved in a sense because
you move away from Allah Azza wa Jal
and then ignorance spreads. So you don't know
what to believe and how to believe it.
But there's a way to come back and
the way to come back is that the
closer that you
obey Allah Azza
wa Jal.
Right. If you have to go of Allah
Azzajal Allah will give you a criteria and
a separator between right and wrong. You'll begin
to see
whether it is directly from the Quran and
the Sunnah
or even if not directly, Allah Azza Jabj
just will guide you that this is wrong.
He sounds like a liar. Do not follow
him. And this is wrong.
He's right. He's authentic
because of how he sounds. Even if you
may not at times have direct proof of
it. But Allah
does guide the believers.
So that's that's that's the issue, that the
reputation is there, but the
righteous will see it. But if someone is
not, they will not see a thing. Right?
Yeah. Yeah.
Oh, so you're saying
what the iz meant to shah?
Molkhan, you want to say that Molk and
Izzah according to the Ayah they could be
separate. So you could have Molk
and also you could have Izzah. Right. I
mean so the believer could have Izzah even
if he does not have physical power.
Right.
Right. Sure. So that person could have Izzah,
could have honor even though they could be
physically weak. Right? And they have no political
clout at all. But they know that what
they're doing is right. People around them know
what they're doing is right, so they have
that Izzah. They could be killed, but they
still have Izzah. Right? Whereas a person could
have mulk, but he could be what? Humiliated
through that mulk, right? So people tell him
what to do. He has power, but he's
told what to do. Like a lot of,
like think about it SubhanAllah today, like which
word leader you could look at today and
you say he is Aziz,
like honorable.
Even with the one that they call the
most powerful man
on earth. Right? Is that it? The most
powerful man on earth. Right?
Yeah.
Is is he honorable?
He gets people tell him what to do.
He knows. Right? He knows like there there's
there are because he uses red lines all
the time. Right? There are red lines that
he knows he cannot cross.
So he can he cannot do whatever he
wants to do. So honor is not always,
you know, joined with Izzah.
Okay, Insha'Allah.
Last last question if anyone has a question.
No. Right? Clear inshallah. We'll see you inshallah
next week at the same time.
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