Ali Albarghouthi – The Disease and the Cure #23 Sin makes you STUPID
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the concept of sound mind and how it can be attributed to individuals. They explain that sound mind is mirroring behavior and that intelligence is not a physical or monetary feature. The speakers also emphasize the importance of obeying Allah's teachings and suffering from pain to achieve joy and comfort. The speakers stress the importance of healthy behavior and behavior for one's health and well-being. They also discuss the negative impact of negative thoughts on one's health and well-being, including mental health issues and psychological problems. The speakers emphasize the importance of proper behavior and behavior for one's health and well-being.AI: Transcript ©
Thing that is internal, kind of the essence
of the essence.
That you who have minds, have takkou of
Allah
so that you can achieve success.
Now here,
before we continue,
kind of there is
a not so subtle difference here between,
the word aqil
in the Arabic language and the word daki.
So if a person is daki, he's intelligent.
Right? Like you're good good in school.
Smart. Right?
I don't know if English has these shades
of meaning or not. It's possible.
But Aqil is different than that.
Aqil, even if in the vernacular,
the slang that people use,
if a boy is rambunctious,
right, disorderly,
what do they tell
him?
Be aql.
Right. Be aql. Right.
They don't mean be smart.
So it's not it. But we be what?
Wise.
Be reserved.
That's what they mean by
Yani, have aqil and sit down.
Have aqil and settle.
So aqil means the thing that restrains.
That's what that's what it means. The thing
that restrains.
And so the mind was called aqal because
it restrains you from doing things that are
wrong and foolish.
Right?
And as long as it restrains you, you
have akhil.
If it doesn't restrain you, you don't have
akhil. Though you could be very smart.
You could be very, very smart.
But if you do all the wrong things
because the mind is not mature enough to
restrain you, you don't have Aqal
And you could be a person of average
intelligence, average IQ, but
you're very good in avoiding what's wrong and
what is haram and foolishness, then you have
akhl.
So there's this connection between the 2 and
that will be
helpful, Insha'Allah, in answering some questions about how
could you have someone who was so smart,
but at the same time so foolish?
And someone who is not as smart as
him, but he is wiser. This is because
these two things
are not always correlated. They don't come together.
You could be very smart, but you misuse
your mind, and you could be very smart
and very evil at the same time. Right?
So you wouldn't be called the akhil.
So
Ibn al Qayim is
saying sins diminish the mind, and he's gonna
tell you why first religiously.
So he says
So he says, how can a person be
of sound mind? Have akhil, right, while you're
disobeying someone and you're under his dominion,
you're under his power,
you're in his home,
in his house. Again, the same meaning. You
know that he sees you,
and you're under his watch. You can't hide
from him, and you're using his favors to
disobey him.
And every time you're incurring
his curse and his, punishment,
and every time when you sin, you're inviting
the punishment
of one who has power over you and
can do whatever he wants to you.
Right?
And every time you're inviting his curse and
to be dismissed from his presence
and to let go of you
and to let go,
you know, and not protect you from your
enemy
and for you to be denied
his mercy and his love
and to be
comforted next to him, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, and
to win his ultimate paradise
and looking at his face,
in addition to everything else he gives to
those whom he loves, and he protects them
from everything that he hates. So he says,
if you're doing this to yourself while you
are
in his presence
inviting his worship, how could you be called
intelligence?
And he says then adds to it. So
what mind or sound mind could be attributed
to someone who favors
the joy or the comfort of an hour
or a day
in an infinite or semi infinite number of
days or hours
that will pass as if it's a dream
and favor that over of everlasting
comfort in paradise. He says,
how could you be intelligent if you do
this? So two things here he's talking about.
1, you are
opposing Allah Azza wa Jal in front of
him.
And you know what he had promised those
who oppose
him, that he's going to punish them. And
you know, you believe that that is coming
and you continue to oppose him. So he
says, how could this be intelligent?
And how could you be a sound of
mind like somebody who is driving
and he knows that
he's driving so fast, ultimately,
he is crashing. He knows for sure he's
crashing because he can see the end and
he doesn't hit the brakes.
You wouldn't look at that person, and you
say that that person is of sound mind
because you're driving towards your end. You're killing
yourself. He says, this is what is happening.
You know you're killing yourself. You know you're
driving yourself into hellfire,
yet you keep doing it. And he's watching
you, and you know that he is watching
you, and you know that you cannot escape
him. And he sends you from time to
time reminders that what you're doing is wrong,
and you still don't pay attention to it.
Says, how could this be a person of
sound mind?
How could he be called intelligent?
And he says,
Right?
So he said, and if not for the
fact that we know that he has a
sound mind by which he's able to
process and understand the evidence and the proofs
of Allah, azzawajal, by which he becomes
liable and responsible.
Meaning like this person who is disobeying Allah,
azzawajal,
is he culpable before Allah Azzawajal? You say
yes. Why? Because he understands the Quran, understands
the sunnah, understands Allah's evidence. So he's not
insane. Right? You say, yes, he's not insane.
At the same time, he's saying he's acting
in such a way that he should be
an insane person. If not for the fact
that we know that he's intelligent because he
understands,
we would call him insane
for acting this way,
for killing himself,
for
losing or compromising his future.
Right?
But he said, but the insane are better
than he is,
which is true, by the way, that those
who have lost their minds are better than
that person.
So imagine Allah Azar had given you such
a gift
and you are worse than the people who
were denied that gift.
Why are the insane
better off than this person?
Because they could argue on the day of
judgment. I did not understand a thing. I'm
not responsible.
Right? I'm not responsible.
So Allah Azdrill could test them, Allah could
forgive them,
but they didn't have the mind, the faculty
to understand and to avoid wrong and to
do right.
You have it but you ignore it.
That's worse than the person who
has no intelligence at all. So imagine how
a person
here,
as Allah Azawaj says,
they have changed the name of Allah Azawajal.
They've changed the name of Allah
until he became worse than the people who
does the person who does not have it,
or he become worse than an animal.
Because at least an animal at a basic
level, they know
Allah and an animal also, and they know
danger, they run away from it. But you
know danger and you run towards it, he
says, you cannot be an intelligent person
that way.
So so on a religious level,
you understand how sin diminishes
intelligence because you wouldn't shouldn't be acting this
way.
So this is kind of in one area,
the religious area. This is how sin diminishes
the mind. He He says, he says as
for diminishing or the sin diminishing of the
mind related to worldly affairs.
So as far as religious affairs are concerned,
you understand how and why. Then when it
comes to worldly affairs,
How does it diminish it, or why does
it diminish it? He says,
He says, if not for the fact
that sin is so widespread
sin is so widespread that is so common
among everybody,
the obedient among us would see the difference
and how how they are different from the
disobedient.
The obedient among us will see how diminished
the mind and the intelligence
of the sinful
sinful's mind are. You follow what I'm saying?
So he says, if not for the fact
that
sin is so widespread that
everybody is guilty of it, a lot of
people are guilty of it, if not for
the fact that this is happening,
the obedient will be able to be very
distinct from the disobedient people in intelligence,
even in worldly affairs,
not only in religious, but even in worldly
affairs.
But he says, but
the calamity
is widespread, is common.
And insanity or foolishness
has a variety of paths in it, meaning
people disobey Allah
in so many ways
that all of them have diminished minds.
And that's why you don't see a variety
difference, a clear difference
between
the righteous
having a sound mind and the sinful having
a diminished mind
because they are closer to each other than
should be.
Right?
Now
this answers a question, perhaps.
Okay?
If if what I said is not clear,
the example will help, Insha'Allah.
This answers a question.
If this is true,
how come the Muslims are not smarter than
the non Muslims?
Right?
Because if a person hears this,
the obedient have better minds
than the sinful.
The righteous have better minds than the sinful.
Muslims
are not superior in intelligence
when compared to the non Muslims.
So how do you
reason this out? How do you explain this?
Well, first, Ibn Khayyim, what he's talking about
here, answers it, which is what?
Are the Muslims living today
generally obedient of Allah, Azza wa Jal?
That they should see a stark difference between
their sound mind
and the non believers?
Are they that devout?
He says, no, we're not.
So when you're looking at Muslims, even if
a non Muslim is asking this question or
a Muslim is asking this question, they say
the comparison, if you want a comparison,
compare the best of you to the best
of us.
But today, when you look at Muslims, whether
Muslims in Muslim countries, or Muslim in non
Muslim countries, the practice of Islam is very
light.
How many people pray?
Majority or minority?
Minority.
And that is the most essential thing in
Islam, which is Salah. Now add to this
Zakah,
add to this hajj,
add to this staying away from haram, which
is very common.
And you see what Ibn Qayyim, rahamullah, is
talking about. That is the calamity is so
widespread,
meaning that sin has diminished the mind of
everybody,
that you don't see a stark difference between
the righteous
and the unrighteous.
That's why. But if the righteous were really
righteous,
you will see how sound their judgment is.
You will admire them. You'll admire their decisions.
You will admire their speech.
You'll admire their advice and counsel.
But the reason why you don't see such
a huge difference is because we are closer
to each other than should be.
We have we have
a light
or,
weak practice of Islam,
which diminishes our minds as well. So when
you're talking, I'm talking about an average average
Muslim.
You talk to an average Muslim, he doesn't
sound very different from a non Muslim.
Their basics are there. Right? But in terms
of lifestyle,
in terms of opinions,
in terms
of social cultural
practices,
they're not very different
from a non Muslim. That's why the difference
is not very big.
But you wanna understand what he's talking about,
the transformation
that,
you know, righteousness brings,
look at the sahaba of the prophets,
the prophet, alayhi, sallallahu alaihi, sallallahu alaihi, sallallahu
alaihi, sallallahu alaihi, sallallahu alaihi, sallallahu alaihi, sallallahu
alaihi, sallallahu alaihi, sallallahu alaihi, sallallahu alaihi, sallallahu
alaihi, sallallahu alaihi, sallallahu alaihi, sallallahu alaihi.
The Sahaba
were completely transformed
from people in the beginning that before Islam,
no one paid attention to them.
Right? They had nothing that people wanted.
They were not invaded.
Right? Like,
empires were not interested in that area. Yes.
It was a difficult area to control, and
they were tribal,
so it is very hard to subjugate that.
Yes. And it doesn't have any resources in
it. Yes, that's true. But also like for
people, people dismissed them. They had nothing.
And the Prophet Alaihi Salatu Wasallam comes to
those people who used to kill their daughters,
used to
make idols with their own hands and then
worship that. And when they get tired of
them, just take them apart.
Right?
They used to kill each other. They used
to behave in a very
stupid and foolish ways.
And the prophet, alayhi salatu wasalam, comes and
they get transformed
into
not only better people, but the best of
people.
And they have what they have now a,
when they come out to humanity,
they have a message.
They have a social program. They have an
economic program.
They have a moral,
complete moral structure with them. When they speak,
their wisdom surpasses the wisdom of the philosophers.
People learn from them. They don't need to
learn from anybody else. How did this all
happen within the span of 20 years or
so? That's it.
It's not their children. It is they who
that had that happen to them. You didn't
have to wait another generation.
Thought how was their mind, how was it,
advanced
to such a degree?
He says it is obeying Allah, azza wajal,
and imbibing and absorbing the wisdom that you
find in the Quran
and then directly from Muhammad, alayhis salatu wa
sallam. That's how they were transformed.
So if a person sends, it's affect their
mind. They become stupider because of it.
Even if you were to admire
a nonbeliever.
Right?
So you suppose that you're listening to a
nonbeliever.
Suppose that they're highly
educated,
with, you know,
this honor and that honor and that recognition
and these papers the the best of the
best the smartest of the smartest
the people who when they speak,
they impress you.
The choice of words and the theories that
they use and what have you.
Listen to them,
but keep listening to them. And especially if
you're armed with wisdom from the Quran and
the Sunnah, listen to them. They'll impress you
in one area. Yes.
But keep listening to them and you'll see
how quickly they fall.
When they start talking about other things,
talk about other fields, talk about especially moral
right and wrong,
how a person is supposed to live.
You will see the difference between what you've
admired
and how quickly they sink into
opinions and in areas you know very well
it's wrong,
but they can't see it. But you can,
and you don't see it because you somehow
are super intelligent.
You see it because you're leaning on the
Quran that is teaching you
and on the sunnah that is teaching you.
And the greater your dependence on the Quran
and the sunnah, the smarter that you become,
and the wiser that you become,
until you become the wisest of the wise.
But if you what? Open yourself to it,
and if you truly obey Allah Azzudal and
you are guided by the light that Allah
Azzudal sends to his servants,
then Allah completes your mind.
Allah completes your mind. So when we're talking
about people who are smart, don't bring me
a non Muslim who's a great mathematician
and a Muslim who's farmer and tell me
that he is smarter than him.
If that Muslim
is
righteous
versus someone who is not
advanced in secular knowledge, but when it comes
to believing in Allah, Azzajal, he denies them.
Comes to believing in the prophets of Allah,
he denies it.
Comes to believing in the afterlife, he denies
it. Comes then to believing in a stable
right and wrong, fixed right and wrong. He's
a relativist.
No, there's nothing stable.
You can you compare this to someone who
believes in Allah and in the prophet and
the last day, and he knows right from
wrong and he's committed to it.
So the mind here is not simply IQ.
The mind here is what Allah had given
you, which is a sound mind that you
use
to stay away from wrong and to do
what is right.
The other things that are gifts from Allah,
a zawajal, you're smart, you're great in
economics, in chemistry,
biology, whatever it is. That's a gift from
Allah, azzawajal. But that does not elevate you
with Allah.
This is just like having a healthier body
or a different skin color.
That does not matter. What matters is how
you use it.
So
if Muslims in Muslim countries and in Muslims
living
in non Muslim countries, if they were closer
to Allah,
you will find that they will be doing
better
individually and collectively. And you will know the
difference between how they think and how the
non believers think. But we are thinking exactly
how the non believers think. And that's why
you don't see a difference between us and
them.
Ibn al Khaim
then continues,
and he said he just wants to contrast
here between
how could you have a sound mind and
favor
this world over the hereafter?
So he says, if the minds were actually
sound,
they know that
the way to attain joy and happiness and
comfort
is
in pleasing the one who gives all of
that to you. Just if you want, and
this is what you are seeking, and this
is what every human being is seeking. What
do you want from life?
I want to be happy
Right. I want to be comfortable. I want
to avoid pain
That's what I want. This is how do
you get all of that?
To who the one who gives it?
To Allah,
So how could you get it except through
him?
So if you think you'll know that you
have to appease Allah
in order for you to be able to
get to get all of that. And that
if you want to avoid pain, who is
the one who controls all of it?
Dispenses all of it?
Pain and punishment when he is angry. Allah
has zwajal. So if you want to avoid
all pain,
then you please Allah and you avoid all
pain then.
And he says
that
in obeying Allah, azza wa Jal,
you will get such comfort
and such happiness,
and your heart will be alive,
and your soul will find joy,
and life will be sweet,
that if you measure this
against, you know, all of the duniya,
all of the duniya will be less than
it.
Like all this world and all that it
has to offer,
Measure this or weigh this against the comfort
that you receive from obeying Allah, Azzawajal.
It say the comfort of obeying Allah will
be greater.
So why would you favor a duniya?
That even when it comes to you, it
comes to you mixed with
pain,
whereas the believer avoids that.
So he's saying that
the believer has 2 types of joy.
The religious joy.
No one has it except the believer. Right?
And worldly joy as well because you do
get married and you do have children
and you have money
and you get hired and you eat and
you drink. So Allah did not deprive you
of that.
So you get this,
but he says, but wait a second.
Worldly joy
typically
always comes with pain,
always comes with pain. But as a believer,
you're able to jump over that
because you know that it doesn't last you
and you know that Allah will compensate you
if you lose it.
And You know that if you are patient
with loss Allah rewards you so all the
pain which is built into like it's it's
part of the structure of this world,
whatever it gives you, it says here's some
pain with it.
Whatever it is. You like this big house?
He says, yeah. He says, here it
is and some pain.
Do you want kids?
Having kids is sooner. Right?
I'm not telling you not to. I'm not
scaring you. You want kids? Here are some
kids
and some pain.
You wanna get married? Yes. You should.
Here's a spouse and here's something
has to be.
Okay. So what do I do?
How do I run away from this?
The only way that you can run away
from that pain is through iman.
Then you'll have the religious joy, meaning there
is no greater joy than being close to
Allah
because it just gives you comfort.
It's like somebody coming and telling you after
you make a lot of dua, hey, by
the way, everything's going to be fine.
Don't worry about it.
Because you've given it to Allah, Azza Jel.
Right? So everything is going to be fine.
Don't worry.
But tomorrow may be worse, tomorrow, this and
that. Allah takes care of tomorrow. You don't
worry about it. My kids, what could happen
to them? My money? Allah takes care of
them. Don't worry about it. So
comfort just for being close to Allah, azza
wa jal.
Allah is listening. I'm not alone.
The Quran, when you read it, comforts you.
The sunnah, when you read it, comforts you.
So there's this religious
satisfaction.
And when you come to the dunya, you
have worldly satisfaction,
plus minus,
some or a lot of the pain that
comes with it because
Allah gives you immunity,
protects you from it.
The disbeliever, on the other hand,
doesn't have them.
He doesn't have that religious satisfaction and comfort.
Right?
And when it comes to the dunya, they
suffer because of it.
There is sadness and there's anxiety because you
don't know.
I have it, but it's not gonna continue
to be mine.
What if I lose it?
So the greater
success they achieve, the lonelier they feel.
They'd be isolated,
and there's always the threat of losing whatever
they have.
So that is a question to people who
say, well,
how come I see
the non believers,
the non Muslims,
they have
all of the dunya and they're so happy
And I'm miserable.
Right? Now I cannot speak to your own
misery. Right? I don't know why you are
miserable,
although there's always challenges in living in this
world, but it's the wrong perception when you
look at the non believers and you say
they're happy.
How do you know that they're happy?
Tell me, how do you know?
Social media. Right?
Or, you know, you know, the media has
a piece on some of them and they're,
you know, experiencing a ton of success at
this moment.
How do you know that they're happy? How
do you know that they're not taking something
to be able just to cope with that
anxiety
or feeling of being fake or or undeserving
of what they have or the fact that
they could lose it.
And the fact is that they will lose
it.
Right?
They have to lose it.
So how do you cope
with the fact that
the way that you valued yourself and you
saw yourself is through people's eyes. People know
me and they love me. And now you
have lost their love and attention.
They're not interested in you anymore because you
got older.
Somebody came and they replaced you. Right?
So how do you cope with that?
We've lived off what people's praise and recognition.
Now they're not interested in you anymore when
you're
judge to support that, it will crush you.
Then alcohol,
drugs,
suicide, and all of this. So how could
you look at someone like that and say
he is happier or she's happier?
But maybe that we are not pushing
ourselves enough
to be close to Allah as the wudel
to feel the happiness that Ibn Uqayim is
talking about. Kind of we wave it. We
waver. We're in the middle somehow. We're not
fully committed.
So we lack a lot of the dunya,
and we have a little bit of religion.
A lot of the dunya and a little
bit of religion, and that makes us miserable.
So we have not really surrendered completely to
Allah,
and we're not really have full into the
dunya,
you know, meaning with with detachment from Allah
So if you want
the beauty of this life and the next,
be
a believer and Allah gives you
the joy of this life minus its pain,
or a lot of its pain, not minus,
all of its pain. And Allah, azzarajalayim,
brings this ayah.
He says,
And Allah is speaking here to the believers
in the context of battle
battle, but it applies
to our situation as well. So Allah is
saying, if you are experiencing pain,
they experience pain as you do, but you
expect from Allah what they do not expect.
And that you should consider a principle.
If you're experiencing
any kind of pain, they are experiencing pain,
meaning Allah is talking about the non believers.
They also experience pain as you do. The
difference between you and them is that you
expect from Allah what they don't.
So that should kind of mitigate that pain.
That should mitigate that pain is not going
to be as painful.
So a believer who loses a child,
but they know that Allah rewards them and
they will see that child in the next
life is unlike a non believer
who does not expect that there's gonna be
a reunion.
They're not the same because you expect from
Allah what they do
not expect. Right?
So he says,
how diminished is the mind of one who
sells
pearls
and musk for feces?
Like he's comparing this life and what it
has to offer to feces.
And what you're giving up is what pearls
and musk he says, how could you sell
this for that?
And if that happens, how could you be
called a person who has a mind that
you could be proud of? And you let
go of the possibility of be having the
company of the prophets and the shuhada and
musalihin,
and you wanna be the companion of those
whom Allah is angry with.
That the worst of humanity.
So think about the worst of humanity.
Do you want those to be your companions?
Constant eternal companions
like pharaoh and Karun and Abu Jahl and
people on this earth today that you look
at and you say you're the most despicable
of the most despicable.
Right?
And that they're killers and rapists, and
these are the people that you wanna be
with on the day of judgment
and in * fire, and you wanna let
go of the company of the righteous. He
says, how could you be a person of
a sound mind if you decide to do
this to yourself?
Right?
But the problem is that we are being
deceived by
what? Taulul amal,
hope, extended hope, somehow,
And then false wishes.
Oh, yes. Despite everything that I'm doing,
right, nothing will happen to me.
I'm gonna be okay at the end, and
it's all wishful thinking.
And it's the same thing with the bad
practices in this life. Like, you could be
smoking,
and you know how bad smoking is,
but there is a disconnect. There is a
dissonance between what I'm doing and what it
leads to. Like I am exempt and I'm
immune. You You know, I'm not going to
get cancer because I'm smoking.
How? There's no that there's that dissonance. There's
the break in reasoning.
So a person who looks at you, hears
that argument, knows that you're not smart when
you say this.
You're making yourself stupid because of what? Your
own
weakness, your own temptation,
your own desire. It's making you stupid.
So you have to admit that you're stupid.
Nobody wants to admit that, but you have
to admit that you're stupid when you will
reach that conclusion. Yeah. I'm gonna do I'm
gonna drink alcohol, but I'm not gonna become
an alcoholic.
Right?
I'm gonna watch *, but I will not
be addicted to it.
I will sleep around, but but whenever I
want to, I'll stop and I'll find a
righteous spouse.
You will be deserving of a righteous, but
Allah would give you a righteous spouse after
messing up like that.
How do you think?
How is this the right mind?
But how? Why are you thinking so stupidly
and acting so stupidly?
So what is affecting you? What is infecting
you? It's that's sin.
Otherwise, you'll be much wiser than that. So
if you want, if Allah
had given you a good
mind, a good head on your shoulders,
don't waste it.
By disobeying Allah,
then he's gonna take that mind away from
you. But in fact, perfect it
by obeying him
and being a good Muslim and reading the
Quran and understanding it and reading the sunnah
and understanding it. And then you will see
how your mind will flourish
until it will be better
than the minds of those who were perhaps
born smarter than you.
Right?
That's how,
just like you exercise your body and you
become stronger, and you exercise your mind and
you become stronger as well.
And he says, and also from the punishment
of sin is that
He says we'll disconnect a person from
And when a person is disconnected, meaning there's
a severance
between him and Allah
the causes
of everything good will diminish or stop
and causes of all evil
will be connected to him.
So if you are away from Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala all the good that is supposed
to come to you will cease and all
the evil that was supposed to be away
from you will come your way. Because this
is your position then, when you are separate
from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
He says, so what prosperity and what hope
a person could have if the connection between
him
and his creator is severed?
The one that you cannot live without for
a blink of an eye.
The one that you cannot live without for
a blink of an eye. You must have
him, and there is no substitute for him.
Right?
Now, physically, this is very evident
and it's important to understand it physically
to be able to appreciate it spiritually.
So if Allah
decides for a minute that he's going to
let go of you, what happens to you?
You end,
right? You completely end. You don't exist anymore.
So you only exist, not only breathe.
Of course, you breathe and you're alive and
you can see because Allah
maintains it every fraction of second.
Right? And when he decides that stop, you're
not gonna live anymore, you die.
If he decides that you're not gonna eat,
you're not gonna eat anymore. If you decide
that you're not going to drink, you're not
going to drink anymore. Even though it's there,
you can't process it.
You can't digest it.
So if Allah
lets go of you,
you perish, you end. You're a non existent
thing anymore. You're not a thing.
So how often do you need Allah Azza
wa Jal?
Permanently
without interruption.
Okay.
Spiritually, how often do you need Allah azza
wa Jal?
The same way
permanently.
Because if not, your heart dies.
If you're, if not, then evil connects to
you.
So Allah has to protect you all the
time.
Otherwise the Shaitan will take over as he
will say now, the Shaitan will take over.
So Allah has to protect you all the
time.
And for you, for your heart to be
alive,
it needs to be fed.
Right?
Like the heart itself, as long as I
mean, as long as you're not asleep,
when you wake up, what do you do?
You start searching for things to do, to
consume.
See, heart is always consuming something, thinking about
something, processing images,
sounds,
talking to someone,
listening to them, walking some there's always something
that you're processing.
So the heart always needs something.
And if what the heart is consuming is
evil, is bad, just like bad food, it
turns out to be bad as well. You'll
find that your heart is tight.
It's very tight.
And it continues to be like this until
you, you know, you lash out, you scream
at people, you can't tolerate anything. Then you
get into all those mental health issues or
what have you. Because the heart is what?
Unsustained.
But if you feed your heart well,
it'll be
a wholesome,
healthy heart.
So what feeds it? What's the only food
that can feed it
so it can be such a heart? It's
the remembrance of Allah, Azza wa Jal. That's
the only thing. The heart is created for
that.
And it's not your spouse. It's not your
children. Although they could elevate your mood, but
it's not they that feed the heart. Allah
Azadul is the one who feeds it.
So if you are disconnected from Allah, Azzajal,
then you're disconnected from everything that is good.
And you need Allah to sustain you physically
and spiritually to protect you, to guide you,
and to protect you from all evil.
So
if you're severed,
it will bring pain
and agony
and distress,
and you may not be able to
name it.
You may not be able sometimes to detect
its source,
but that's the source.
It's a disconnect from Allah
So he said,
Alaba'adu Salaf, he's a summoner of Salaf have
said, I see that the servant of Allah,
Azza wa Jal, meaning any human being,
is between Allah and the shaitan. Meaning somehow
in the middle between Allah Azawajal and the
shaitan. If Allah Azawajal turns away from him,
the shaitan overtakes him.
And if Allah Azarul
is his ally, comes close to him, the
Shaytan cannot defeat him.
He won't be able to get close to
him. So you're like in between.
So if Allah turns away from you
or you want to flip that you say
you turn away from Allah Azawajal
because then what are you running towards?
There's one direction only, the Shaytan. So if
you turn away from Allah, you want to
run away from this,
you're running towards the Shaytan.
And if the Shaytan catches you, what will
the Shaytan do to you?
Destroys you.
You'll become miserable
Like he is and he'll he'll say, he
is your enemy.
So you're running towards your enemy. So if
your enemy gets you
or the enemy hates you,
what will the enemy do to you?
Torture you.
Slowly torture you, right? So that's what the
shaitan will do, torture you, right?
You start seeing
nightmares.
You start seeing
evil thoughts and whispers into your head.
Things just don't go
right. Have no patience, no tolerance,
no good character.
You don't know how to deal with people
they don't even know how to deal with
you. Everything's wrong. Everything is wrong.
Because you ran towards the shaitan, and the
shaitan now is in control. But if you
run towards Allah Azazul, he protects you from
the shaitan.
So, Ibn Al Qayyim,
he brings this ayah,
insulat Al Kafi, he says, with,
when we said to the angels prostrate to
Adam, they prostrated
except for Iblis. He was from the jinn
and so he departed or he
fled from the obedience of Allah, Azav Jir,
from the command of Allah. So Allah is
saying, so do you take him and his
progeny as allies instead of me, and they
are your enemies?
Are they do you do you take Iblis
and his progeny as your allies and they
are your enemy?
So Allah, he says, Ibn Qayyim explaining it.
He says,
Allah Azarijal,
in effect, he's telling his servants.
He says, I honored your father and I
elevated him. And I asked the angels to
prostrate to him, and they did, and they
obeyed me.
But my enemy and your enemy
refused,
and he disobeyed me, and he exited from
my obedience.
So how, after all of this,
how is it possible for you to take
him and his progeny as allies instead of
me? So you obey him and you disobey
me. And you ally him to be against
me. And he is your worst enemy. So
you took him, your enemy, as a friend,
and I commanded you,
your enemy as a friend and I commanded
you
to be enemies of his.
And
he
said,
he
says, if you take the
enemies of the king as your friends,
then
your the king is also your enemy.
Right? Is it not possible that if you
love that king or you love anyone,
love anyone
and they have an enemy and that enemy
is your friend, well, it says something about
your feelings towards that person, then.
They can't both be your friends.
So the King
has an enemy
and you know that he is his enemy
and you love the King,
how could you ally yourself with the enemies
of the king? Right?
He says his love and obedience is incomplete
until you take as enemy
the enemy of your beloved
and you take as ally
the allies of your beloved. Meaning you love
someone.
You love the ones that they love and
you hate the ones that they hate. That's
when love is complete.
But love is incomplete when you say I
love him,
but I'm neutral about his enemies
and I'm neutral about his friends. He said
that's an incomplete type of love.
That's not real love, especially when it comes
to Allah Azzawajal.
So he says, if that's true,
add to it, too, that this, the enemy
of the king is also your enemy. It's
not just an enemy of the king. He's
also your enemy as well. And the enmity
between you and him is greater than the
enmity between the sheep and the wolf.
Right? So
how
could an intelligent person, a smart person,
do this to himself?
So what is he saying? He's saying that
the shaitan is the enemy of Allah azza
wa Jal and also is your enemy.
How could he become your ally? How would
you listen to him? Right?
And then he
continues and he said,
He says and also kind of embedded
in this
speech of Allah Azzawajal
is kind of a soft gentle blame.
There's a blame, but it's soft and gentle.
And he says what? What is what? He
says, I've taken Iblis as if Allah is
saying,
I've taken Iblis as an enemy
because he did not prostrate to your father,
Adam,
with the angels.
So I took him as an enemy because
of you. So the consequence of that is
that you consider him a friend
after he has done what he has done
to you and me.
Right?
Meaning Iblis, he's saying as if Iblis was
so high
up there
and I asked him to prostrate to your
father, but he refused. And because he refused
to honor your father, I dismissed him from
Jannah. I did this for you.
And if I did this for you, the
consequence of my act is for you to
go back and consider the enemy of your
father.
Who wants your destruction? Your enemy, your friend?
Can I is this how you're supposed to
repay me
for what I did? So there's kind of
a tab, he says, kind of a soft
plain,
that this all was done for you.
You should be grateful for it and not
turn towards the shaytan.
So
if a person is
disconnected from
Allah Azzawajal, he should expect
that he should find less and less good
in his life
in proportion to how disconnected he is from
Allah Hazawajal and
great and greater evil in his life that
grows
with the place that he gives to the
shaitan in his life.
So Al Kati'atoo
the severance between
the servant of Allah, Azzawajal and his creator
cannot be maintained.
If a person wants to live a life
that is pleasing and that is comfortable,
and if he wants to be protected from
the shaitan, it cannot be maintained.
So a person, whenever he notices a disconnect
between him and Allah, Azzawajal, he bridges that
as best as he can.
And that distance could be a distance of
sin or the distance of ghaflah, negligence, meaning
I just forgot.
I just delayed my salah.
I just forgot to remember Allah, azza wa
Jal.
I kinda
unintentionally or intentionally did a little bit of
Haram here and there. That's a disconnect. So
you bridge it by coming to Allah, Azza
wa Jal, to experience the comfort and serenity
of being next to him.
Otherwise, it keeps growing and growing, and the
shaitan will have greater and greater hold on
you
until you discover after some time that his
hold is so great, it's hard to escape.
It's really hard to escape. You need just
like a person who does not treat
or notice the early signs of an illness,
and you let it grow until it
becomes hard, not impossible,
but hard to treat.
So there's a lot that needs to be
done to be old in order to treat
it. So that's why the disconnection of Allah,
azza wa jal, whenever you notice it,
bridge it and come back to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
So let me stop here with Nila Azzawajal
and see if you have questions.
And next week, insha'Allah, as we've decided,
we'll be the halakha will be just for
next week at 7:30, insha'Allah.
Right? So before Maghrib, and then we'll give
you, inshallah, some time in order, inshallah, if
you wanna make dua as well.
Let me see if you have questions. Let
me know.
Ma'am, so you said indulgence in what? I'm
sorry.
In in all sorts of questions.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Exactly.
So, the the question is that when you
look at the world today, you see such
indulgence in in sin, all types of sin,
and that somehow
could be connected to
an increased,
suffering of reporting of mental health issues.
So are they connected? Meaning this
overwhelming,
an abundance of sin, the practice of it,
that it is easily accessible
versus people
having such discomfort
internally, or even though they have all the
means
of comfort.
Like, physically, we're much more comfortable today than
we were before.
We don't worry as much as people before
about the next meal.
So we have less of a reason to
worry or to be sad,
but it seems like you have more instances
of dissatisfaction.
Even in the richest
countries in the world, people complain about money
and lack of money. The richest. Right? It's
not like they are the poorest.
And the western countries where
they have,
any among the greatest GDPs in the world,
people still complain about not having enough money.
So you could add that to it. Is
this connected to sin? And we say it
must be. It must be a reflection of
that. Because if a person
is close to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, even
if they don't have a lot
around them,
they'll be in place be content on the
inside
and they'll be patient
and they rely on Allah azza wa jal.
And these are the tools of
serenity
and being at ease
and in peace.
But when you
delve into this sin and that sin, by
the way, they are by nature
unsatisfying.
Right? They're by nature unsatisfying.
So if you
consume one type of haram,
after some time you get bored with it.
Right?
It's not enough
because it doesn't excite you anymore.
So you moved into something else, something stronger,
and and then the next thing and then
the next thing.
And so on. And ibn al Khayim before
talked about it. He says,
with the haram now, you're drowning your sorrows.
So you start to drink or take drugs,
not just for you enjoying them now because
you don't wanna drown your sorrows.
You wanna stop thinking.
And so bad breeds,
of course, an act to it, of course,
act to it that the shaitan now is
saying, well, I'm going to be seated to
your right and to your left and in
front of you and back.
I'm everywhere.
So he's inside your head
and he's inside your mind and inside your
body.
So,
of course, a person will experience
greater anxiety
and greater sadness
and greater friction and greater
anger and
much more intense whispers in their mind.
And so that is the dominion of the
shaitan.
That is the dominion of the shaitan, whereas
the believer
has less and less of that.
It doesn't mean that the Shaitan does not
come to whisper
for the believer.
Does he whisper?
But you have the tools.
You know what to do with it.
But the non believer, what does he do
with the whispers of the shaitan? They have
no clue that it's a whisper, by the
way. They don't believe in him. Right?
But you know what to say and you
know what to do and you know how
to stop it. And if not, you can
ask
And so you can contain his effect,
or you can kinda dismiss him completely.
But for the nonbeliever, it's very difficult. So
the prevalence of
social problems and psychological
problems is in a large part due to
this, which is the prevalence of sin.
And when Allah
says, so the one who turns away from
my remembrance will give him a difficult life.
That difficult life could mean a difficult life
in the grave.
And also could mean a difficult life in
this life. When you turn away from Allah,
Azrael, in his remembrance, you'll have a difficult
life in this life,
and you will have a sweeter or easier
life when Allah is beside you.
So the difficulty of that life is because
your life is always incomplete unless Allah is
next to you. And as Allah
is assuring you
and is giving you the answers to the
questions that you need.
But take Allah
away.
The simple question of
what's gonna happen to me tomorrow and who
will take care of me?
What's the answer?
I have money, but what what if I
lose all my money tomorrow? What's the answer?
I have a job, right? What if I
lose your job tomorrow? Which is possible, right?
What if you lose your job tomorrow? How
will you pay your bills?
What's the answer?
Now, when the Shaytan comes to you with
that
as a believer,
what do you say? If you remember
There is no living thing on this earth
except that its provision is
Pan Allah Azzajal
You see then Allah, azzajal,
has promised that he has provisions for me.
Allah is okay. That's fine. Hamdulillah. You could
be fine then. But a person who does
not have that answer, what do they do?
They keep thinking and thinking and thinking until
they make themselves sick.
So there is no answer.
And then the shaitan comes and says yes
yes yes indeed yes yes. He feeds it.
He feeds it. He amplifies it, and he
feeds it. So he becomes sicker because of
it because of
it. So, yes, you're right. The prevalence of
mental health issues and psychological problems is due,
in in our opinion,
as people who believe in Allah azza wa
Jal, is due to lack of belief in
Allah. Yeah.
Yeah.
No. I mean,
that could relate what you're talking about because
you're talking about,
I think the the question will become apparent
through the answer, Insha'Allah.
So you're talking about kind of the non
believers
happy with whatever portion of life that they
have. Right?
That could be related to the diminishment of
mind
that we're talking about.
So those who disbelieve, they are enjoying this
life and they eat just like animals do.
So their intelligence has diminished to a level
where they're simply satisfied with that. As long
as we have fun
and as long as we eat, we're happy.
So it's more of animalistic
existence, even though I still consider it to
be unfair to the animals because the animals
still know Allah Azzawajal. Right? It's really they
know Allah Azza wa Jal, but these people
don't. They don't really care,
although they have access to all that information.
So
their minds is just what had been,
had been really diminished, had been, weakened to
the extent of as long as I can
eat and drink and party,
that's fine. That's it. I don't need anything
else. They're not deep thinkers.
So a lot of non Muslims are like
that, and that's why you find them to
be happy because they're just simply focused on
that,
kind of the body, just the joy of
the body.
But with all of that, what we said
is true, with all the happiness that they
bring, there must come a lot of pain
with it, a lot of worry with it.
You can't you can't simply think that sleeping
with someone, Zina,
is so exhilarating,
is so fascinating,
and do it, and once you're done, think
it's not going to affect you.
It's not gonna leave you with a lot
of pain, a lot of regret, a lot
of shame.
It has to happen.
And and also eventually, physically, it also will
catch up with you. There has to be
something that is gonna be left with you,
a disease of some sort, right, or a
psychological issue of some sort that stays with
you because you are disobeying
Allah like that. So they've been diminished
intellectually,
and that's why they could live like that.
But if a person is a deep thinker,
they say, okay, why am I doing all
of this and I'm gonna die anyway?
What is the value of life if someone
can end my life tomorrow? So why am
I doing all of this? If they are
a deep thinker, they will be deeply troubled
because of all of these questions.
And they will be exhausted
and
debilitated
because there is no answer unless they believe
in Allah,
he's the only answer.
So this is why believing in Allah
kind of
improves your mind, but also improves your spirit.
Whereas if you decide not to believe, you'll
be dumber and dumber as long as you
take worse and worse choices.
Allah. What is the other part?
Nah.
Nah.
So that one
No. You're right. I mean, you will find
in several hadith of the prophet, alayhis salatu
wasalam, as if the prophet is redirecting the
Sahaba
to focus less on worldly joy
and more more on other worldly joy.
So, Yani, there's a hadith that kind of
sums it.
Is if that hereafter
is your concerns, that what you're worried about,
Allah takes care of your worldly concerns.
But if your word
your concern is the worldly concern,
then whatever you're worried about would be scattered
in front of you, and you will have
to toil,
strive,
struggle to be able to get it. And
even when you do that, the only thing
that you will get is what Allah had
destined for you. So your life will be
difficult because of it. Whereas if your concern
is the hereafter, Allah brings it to you,
the dunya to
you. I think inshaAllah we'll stop here.
We'll meet you 7:30 inshallah next week.
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