Ali Albarghouthi – The Disease and the Cure #25 Sin Degrades Everything in Your Life
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Continuing the consequences and the punishment of sins,
gets into what sins does to a human
being in terms
of elevation and demotion.
So he said,
He says, since they have the capacity
of demoting, meaning bringing down, lowering the status
and the condition
of the 1 who commits it,
after he had been given the capacity
to be among the highest and the elite.
So every human being
has that capacity. Right?
That is within
them, Allah
given them the ability to believe.
Right? And the ability to understand,
and the ability to apply what they understand.
So if they do all of this, where
does that take them? To Allah's mercy. So
that's the capacity
to be among the highest. So everybody has
that capacity in them.
We waste it.
So how do we waste that capacity? We
squander all of those gifts of Allah azza
wa Jal by doing what? We sin.
So we lose the gift of belief, the
belief of the gift of understanding,
and the gift of application. So we get
demoted
because of the choices that we are making.
So he said, Allah
Azzawajal,
He created
or divided humanity into 2.
Those who are the elite,
the top level
dwellers or the top level human beings and
the lower levels.
And he said,
He made which
is the highest levels of Jannah.
That's the home of the elite, the home
of the best, the home of the highest,
that's where they live.
And He says, the lowest of the low
is where the low people go.
Right?
So imagine if you have a high rise,
right,
a very crude example, but imagine if you
have a high rise,
those who are the richest,
where do they stay?
At the top levels.
Alright. And those who are not
made well or inhabit the lowest of levels,
even if they are even allowed into that
building. So he's saying, if a person is,
the best,
he goes higher and higher and higher, and
if not, he is at the lowest of
the low.
He made the people of his obedience the
highest in the dunya and the akhira.
And the people of his sin the lowest
in the dunya and the akhira. Now in
the akhira, that is known.
That's very visible.
So if a person
is of the people of the obedience of
Allah and he is righteous, he goes to
Jannah.
Jannah is at the highest and the better
you are, the more that you climb until
you reach what?
Al highest firdaus. And the highest firdaus is
just beneath what?
Al Arsh, the throne of Allah Azzawajal. So
that's the highest of the high.
And if a person is
a sinner, he goes to the lowest levels
of hellfire and he keeps going low
so much as he had disobeyed Allah Azza
wa Jal.
And Allah says,
The hypocrites are in the lowest levels.
So we understand that that's the case in
the akhilah, but he says in the duniya
as well,
that the people of obedience are the highest
and the people of the disobedience are the
lowest.
Now that's true
morally.
That's true morally, that's true intellectually,
that should be true emotionally and psychologically.
But it's not always true physically,
especially in the beginning of dua.
Yeah, that non disbelievers could have the upper
hand, but that does not last.
So see all the stories of the prophets
of Allah, alayhi musallahu alaihi wasallam in the
beginning, and they are the best,
they were not the highest physically,
but eventually Allah Azawajal came to their aid
and he destroyed their enemy or he gave
them the power to
defeat them.
So if we find in the dunya that
we are not among the highest, what does
that mean?
That we are not of the people of
obedience.
Right?
Otherwise, we are promised to be the highest.
So if we compromise Allah's obedience,
we lose that promise. So we're not among
the highest, not intellectually,
not emotionally, not psychologically, and definitely not physically.
So we're missing something. So the statement of
nukayim is true.
Right? It is that we
who have not met the criteria
to achieve that greatness or that elevation in
the dunya.
He continues,
as
Allah had made
the righteous the most honorable people or most
honorable of his creation, and the sinful
the most demeaned
or insignificant of his creation.
He said and he gave
nobility or honor or dignity
to the righteous.
So the righteous person, he could be
1
or very few, but they will have honor
and they will die with honor.
And he said, and the people of the
sinful, the disobedient,
they have dishonor.
Even if they have power,
you can see dishonor
coming out of their mouths,
from their eyes,
from their speech, and how they behave, they
behave with dishonor and they have shame.
They lie and they know that they're lying.
Right?
They commit sin and they know that what
they're doing is wrong, but they lie and
pretend that. That's not the
case. But they have to carry that guilt
and that shame with them. And he brings
the hadith of the prophet alayhi salatu wassalam
when he said,
Humiliation
and indignity
will be given to who opposes me.
So this is a very
predictive
statement from the prophet, alayhis salatu wasalam, that
it's true then and it's true now.
Anyone who upholds
the sunnah of the prophet alayhis salatu wasalam,
you mean you follow the Quran, you follow
the sunnah, Allah gives you dignity.
Right?
Even if people assault you,
even if people insult you as they did
with Muhammad alaihis salatu wasalam, but as I
said that is what?
That's the beginning of it. But eventually, Allah
changes all of that
and even as they assault, as they insult
within themselves, they know that they're the people
who lack dignity and that they have no
cause to attack you.
So it's kind of embedded in them,
that realization,
but it soon will be external.
So anyone who opposes the Prophet
will receive humiliation.
Sooner or later, but they receive it.
So I reminded that some of the Muslims
have said, as some of the scholars have
reported, that when they would be fighting,
the disbelievers,
right, and it's a stalemate,
and the believers can't advance and disbelievers also
cannot advance, so it's a stalemate.
It says when the disbelievers start taunting Muslims
by maligning and insulting the prophet alaihis salatu
wassalam,
then the Muslims
become,
aware
that the disbelievers are going to be defeated
soon.
Because you cannot oppose Allah in such a
way or oppose the Prophet alaihis salaam in
such a way and your power be sustained.
Meaning, know this, that assault on the Prophet
indicates their collapse. They're gonna collapse. And so
eventually it happens
that they get defeated because of the trend,
because of that transgression.
So the prophet alaihi sallallahu alaihi wasallam is
saying, if you oppose the prophet of Allah,
you're going to be demeaned.
So
now Ibn Qayyim gets to the meat of
this and this is important, so kind of
pay attention to this.
He says, so whenever a person commits a
sin, he will descend 1 degree low.
He will go 1 degree lower
and will continue to go down until he'll
be among the lowest,
and whenever he commits a right act of
righteousness, he will climb 1 level higher and
then he'll continue to do this until here
among the highest in Aliyin.
So 1 sin takes you 1 level down,
and if you keep doing that, you reach
the lowest of the low. 1 righteous act
takes you 1 level up, and you continue
to do this, you will be among the
highest of the high.
It says the person during his life
or during the same day or the same
week, he could climb
up from certain levels or from a certain
angle. He could be climbing up
And verse
verses climbing down from another angle.
In the same day, he's going up and
going down.
The same week, he's going up and going
down. So he's saying, whatever
is dominant, he's of its people.
Whatever is dominant, he is of its people.
So a person in the same day,
you commit a sin,
you go 1 level down. Another 1, you
go 1 level down. But then you commit
something good, you go 1 level up.
Then a lot of good things, many levels
up. So you keep going what? Up and
down, up and down, up and down throughout
that day.
Eventually, which 1 is dominant?
Sin or righteousness,
then you are of its people.
That day is a sinful day or a
righteous day depending on where it took you
up or down
the
net movement is what? Up or down.
He said, He says if you climb a
high
100 degrees and you just go down 1,
it's not like the 1 who did the
opposite,
went down 100 degrees and then just climbed
1.
So there's always
mobility,
either up or down.
But which 1 is more? Alright.
And he says, and here some people make
a grave mistake,
meaning they think that all ascension and dissension
is the same. He says no.
He says a servant of a servant or
a person
may descend to such a level
that is
greater in distance between the east and the
west or between heaven and earth.
So even if you climb afterwards a 1000
degrees
or a 1000 levels, it would not be
enough to offset
that descent.
Right? Meaning, a person could do 1 thing
or say 1 thing, I could or be
almost a free fall.
No matter what you do to try to
compensate, unless you repent, of course, but no
matter what you do to try to compensate,
it's never be able to make up for
that descent.
And he brings here the hadith of the
prophet, alayhi salatu wa sallam,
in al Abdalaytaqalamobilkalimatilwahida.
A person could utter
a single sentence or a phrase that he
just pays no attention to it, and he
will fall in hellfire a distance far farther
between east and west.
1 thing that they say
and throws them in hellfire. They descend
into hellfire,
a distance
greater than the distance between east and west.
So he says, then what type of climbing
or ascension
can offset that?
So he's saying, in in another way,
he is saying, don't think that all sins
are the same.
Because,
kind of, maybe a person after listening to
this, he says, okay, I've sinned here, I'll
do something else and we'll be even.
Or I'll say whatever
and then I'll ask for forgiveness and then
we'll be even.
You say don't think that every sin is
equal to every good deed
or every good deed is equal to every
sin. Sometimes when you really go down, it's
so deep, it's really hard to recover from
it.
So don't look down on any sin and
say, oh, that's easy. I'll make it up
later.
That's what he's trying to get to, wallahu
a'lam.
And then he
moves on. And this is another good point
that I want you insha'Allah to pay attention
to. And he says,
He says dissension
is necessary for a human being, but
I'll tell you the conditions, different types of
dissension going down. But what he's saying here
is that going down
is necessary for a human being. You have
to climb you have to go down
because we're not
infallible.
We are forgetful.
So no matter what you try to do,
you're gonna go down.
You're gonna go down 1 level,
1 degree, or 2, or 5. You have
to go down. But he's telling you the
conditions
and the kinds of dissension
and recovery.
So he's talking about
raflah,
which is heedlessness,
lack of awareness, forgetfulness,
and then Mubah,
which is the permitted
and then sin.
123. You're gonna descend
because of them,
But then there is that recovery that follows.
What is that dissension? He says,
some of them they descend because of rafla,
forgetfulness.
They just forget.
They're too busy with their work, with their
studies, with the world.
So they gradually start to forget. And when
you forget, your heart, what, hardens because of
it.
You're distant from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, so
you're not doing as much.
He's not even talking about sin here.
We're not there yet, but you're not doing
as much. You're not as good, you're not
as sincere,
you're not as close to Allah
And then he says,
if he is awakened
from his slumber, from his sleep, from his
forgetfulness,
he could go back to the same degree
or to a higher 1, depending on
his awakening.
So when you forget it's like you're going
to sleep
and then you will wake up. It says,
then you could wake up and go back
to the same degree or wake up to
and go to a degree higher or maybe
even a degree lower.
Right? Depending on how
long you've been away from Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
So that is a descent.
Can someone say I'm not gonna be forgetful?
No.
So it's necessary for a person to dissent,
right,
even if a person say I'll stay in
neutral,
Right? I'm not gonna commit any sin.
Right?
But
no 1 can say in a neutral position.
No 1 can say in a neutral position.
No sin and no good deed
or without moving.
Because if you're not moving forward or moving
higher,
you're wasting the time that Allah had given
to you.
So you're moving backward
or lower.
Didn't Allah azza wa Jal say,
a human being is in loss
every single day,
unless you're a person who did all the
things that Allah talked about.
Unless you do the good, you're retreating.
So he's saying here that it's necessary
that we will descend.
If you're aware of this, then you understand
that you need to lift yourself up.
Not cannot let yourself go thinking that I'm
fine,
Right? If you let yourself go,
you will decline.
So you have to bring yourself up, awaken
yourself. So that's the gaflah.
Halawaminhum.
So beyond forgetfulness,
you could also do some mubah, some permissible
things, and that will bring you
a step lower.
What did how does that happen?
He says, and some of them could descend
because of indulging or partaking of a permissible
thing that he does not intend with it,
for that to assist him to obey Allah
azza wa jal.
So it's distracting
and a wasted opportunity.
So compare 2 people,
2 ate the same meal, dinner.
1 intended to obey Allah with it and
1 intended simply to be full.
Who got the best of the 2 times
and the best of the 2 meals?
The 1 who intended to obey Allah azza
wa Jal. So as long as he's aware
that Allah wants him
to do something good with it, he will
also restrain himself.
He will eat from the halal. He'll eat
only what he needs,
so his meal is an act of obedience,
and he uses it in obedience as well,
so he is progressing.
Whereas this person who is eating simply to
fill his belly, what happens is that he
may not be aware that this is for
Allah or that there
are rules associated with it. He could indulge,
he could stuff himself
and the time that he has used to
eat is a wasted time.
So he descended because of it, compared to
the other person.
Right?
Compared to the other person, he descended, he
went down a notch, a level.
The other what? No. He's ahead of him.
So he says that's a mubai.
And of course the mumbaah, if Allah azza
wa Jal,
you're not aware of Allah while you are
doing this mumbaah, not that you have to.
Do you have to, when you eat, to
eat for Allah's sake?
No.
What you have to do is eat halal.
Observe the rules, the commands, the prohibitions,
but you don't have to eat for Allah's
sake. But here he is talking about that
extra level
of the pious of Al Mukaraboon, those who
are close to Allah, who could use that
and every act of halal to be close
to Allah.
So he's saying that's a descent.
So a person who marries or has children
or sleeps and who eats and he walks
and he comes and he studies and he
works for Allah's sake is unlike the other
who does these things for the sake of
the dunya and then he needs to extract
himself from it to remember Allah. Whereas the
first person is always
in Allah's remembrance.
Right? You see the difference between them?
And don't say, well, that is so hard
that I'm gonna dismiss this.
No. Say to yourself, if it's not possible
now,
I ask Allah that it will be possible
tomorrow.
Right? You be aware of it. 1st, you
have to be aware that this is a
possibility,
that this is doable
because if you're not, if you close that
door you will never be a person like
that. But if you say to yourself, yeah,
it's a possibility, I could study for Allah's
sake. Right?
I could decide, you know, okay, we're off
tomorrow and the day after, but on Monday
if you're gonna start work again,
I can work on Monday for Allah's sake.
Right? I could try to make that connection.
As long as you know that that's possible,
you'll try to do it. So
he says, so this person when he goes
back to obedience, that person who has been
distracted by the permissible, when he goes back
to Allah's obedience,
he could go back to the same level
and degree or may not go back to
it, or he could even go higher
because he could go back to Allah's obedience
with a renewed motivation, renewed energy.
He got what he wanted from the Mubah,
from the permissible. Now he comes back to
Allah's obedience,
renewed,
rested, so he could go back
eager to do more, that's a higher degree,
or he could go back weaker.
You eat and you're too tired, right?
Or you're too distracted by the love of
the dunya. It's possible.
So if the mubaha is just simply a
time for you to rest and recharge, you
could go back better to Allah's obedience, or
if it's a time of distraction,
you can go back and you be
weaker. So it's possible.
Right? So we understood rafla, forgetfulness,
then the mumba,
and then
sin.
And then and he says, and there are
those who will descend to sin, either
minor or major.
And this person, if he's gonna come back
to Allah,
he needs a sincere repentance and a truthful
return to Allah, Azzawajal.
Then he said,
and he's gonna here ask a question,
Is it possible
for a person,
after his repentance, to be better than before
his repentance?
So there is this person,
they commit a sin,
then they repent.
Do you go back to the same degree?
Or could you never go back to the
same degree? Or could you go back to
a higher degree than the 1 that you
inhabited before?
Follow me?
And that's an important question. Can I go
bad
or am I forever held back?
So what he's saying here,
he's saying, based on what? Kind of he's
asking the question. He says, based on the
fact that,
on the 1 hand, we know that
repentance will erase a sin,
as if it's not there.
Or maybe also
that
if you repent, yes, it will take punishment
away,
but the degree that you are supposed to
reach,
you are further delayed because of that sin.
He says, you know, to give you an
example or to kind of illustrate,
he says, in the time when you
were sinning,
even if you repent,
that is a time when you would be
able or you would be able to obey
Allah Azza wa Jal during that time.
But you took that time out and you
sent.
So even if you repented,
that time got wasted.
So how can
you get it back?
So he says the example that he gave
is like an example of who 1 who
trades with or, you know, trades with a
principal, money.
So he trades the 1st day, he gets
the profit. He adds it to the principal.
The next day, he trades again with the
principal and the profit. He gets further profit.
The 3rd day, he trades with all of
it. He says, so every single day, what
is he doing? He's adding profit and he's
using that profit to trade even further. If
he stops 1 day
and he doesn't earn anything
and he just trades with what he had,
did he didn't he lose?
Compare this to the per other person, another
person with him who didn't sin or didn't
stop trading, and he kept adding profit and
trading with that profit. Isn't he ahead?
He says
also, He says also he wants to give
you an example of his 2 people
tied both at the same level and both
are climbing a staircase
or a ladder.
Each, it's endless. That ladder or staircase is
endless.
And they each, let's say, climb every day
1 level
up.
1 of those days, 1 person climbed 1
level up and the other person 1 level
down. Then the next day, both of them
continued to go 1 level up. How could
the next person ever catch up with that
first 1? Because he had missed 1 day.
Not only missed it, he went 1 level
down.
So he's saying, if you repent, could you
go back? He says, but you've missed that
time
and everything that you could have done with
it.
So how could you ever go back?
But he says,
He said he had this just judgment
between those 2 different opinions. Yes, you could
go back,
or no, you cannot go back.
He says that among those who repent,
okay, among those who repent,
who will go back to a degree higher
than the degree that he inhabited before,
and among them who will go back to
the same degree, and among them all not
reach that degree
of his.
And he says, and all this depends on
the strength of the repentance
and how good it is.
If the repentance is strong and is deep
and is sincere,
it could take him to a level higher
than the 1 that he had inhabited before.
And he'll tell you why
and what that sin
would have taught him. Right?
He says, and what that sin had
gifted
that person, that sinner, when he repented from
it, of humility
and submission to Allah azza wa Jal and
return to him and caution
and fear of Allah
and
crying
out of the,
out of reverence.
He says these things,
that repentance
or that
feeling that is associated with it, regret and
shame and dependence on Allah
could be so strong
that the repentant will go back to his
degree or higher,
and will be after the tawbah,
after his repentance, better than he was before
it.
And that definitely gives hope, right?
That gives hope.
As they said
about Adam
Adam, after his repentance,
was better than Adam before his sin.
Adam before his sin was something,
but Adam, after his repentance, was better.
So,
walihad,
and this is this is fiqh here, Not
fiqh legal. I don't mean by that legal.
Deep understanding.
So I want you to kind of take
it because you will need it.
Okay?
It says sin for that person could be
mercy.
Right?
But don't let the shaitan play with you
and say, oh, yeah. I'm gonna sin. It's
gonna be mercy for me. That's deception.
You have no clue if that's gonna be
merciful or not.
But he says, for that person who will
truly repent
and you will see what that sin will
give him, he says, that sin will be
for him will be rahma. And you cannot
not you don't really associate sin with rahma.
Right? Sin and mercy, you think, okay, if
he's praying, if he's doing this, and if
he's doing that, great things.
That's not always
a good thing.
Depending on what the heart
and how the heart is interpreting all of
these good things. So he says, sin for
some people sometimes
is mercy.
And it freed him of his reliance on
himself
and trusting his deeds.
And as I was reading it here, I
kind of admired the fact that he used
this thiqatihi bi nafsi. Kinda it freed him
from
him having self confidence.
Because in Islam,
and you kind of have may you may
think about this question.
Can we have self confidence in Islam or
not? They say,
you're confident in what? You're confident in Allah
and His power and His help and His
aid.
But are you confident in yourself?
You're aware of what you have.
Right? Like I can tell you, can you
carry this weight?
And you look at it and you're aware
that you can carry it.
Then you tell me what? Yeah, I can
carry
it. But is your confidence in your body
that you can carry it or is Allah
enabling you to carry it?
In Allah.
So after isti'an,
after relying on Allah,
you go and you try to carry it
and you carry it and you say Bismillah,
but you're not you don't have self confidence,
you have self awareness or use whatever word
you want to use, whatever phrase works.
You're aware of what Allah had given you.
You can talk? Yeah, I can talk. Can
you give a speech? I can give a
speech inshaAllah. Are you confident in yourself? He
says, not in myself.
Because if Allah leaves me to myself,
I won't be able to do a thing.
So I'm not confident in myself.
Who do you rely on then?
You know, we don't rely on ourselves.
So that that idea of self confidence, if
I'm not wrong, is very western.
And it's very western because they don't believe
in a deity or if they believe in
a deity,
they're disconnected from him.
So you're you are your own
kind of creator,
your own boss, right, your own guide.
So that's why you trust yourself. So in
Islam, no, I'm aware of what I can
do or not,
but my confidence is Allah.
So he says here, it freed him from
self confidence,
trusting his deeds. And it's more than trusting
his deeds. He's thinking that his deeds are
so much and so good that I by
that, I deserve a lot.
Right?
If you like when you wanna go and
propose
to someone, what do you have? Well, I
graduated from here and I have this home
and what what are you presenting? Things that
will impress.
Alright. Of course, they'll accept me. I'm a
catch.
So idlalihi bi amalihi means what? Of course,
I am somebody. Look at what I've done.
And then sin comes and does what breaks
you.
Oh, panallah.
I thought I wouldn't. I'm not that type
of person. I would never do these things.
Look,
this is my reality. This is my weakness.
This is this is how low I can
go. I'm nothing without Allah, azerrah. So you
get taught
a reality lesson
about
yourself, who you are.
He says, so it brought him down.
It's like the cheeks of humiliation
or submission
before Allah
or at the door of his creator and
his master, and made him know,
who he truly is,
and made him witness to his own poverty
and how much he need the protection of
his creator and his master, and how much
he needs his forgiveness
and
and also it extracted from his heart the
militancy of obedience.
That
is this attitude that you start to have
when you
think that you are righteous,
and so you become belligerent with righteousness.
Alright? So,
oh, you know, I don't know. You read
Quran and you say, I mean, look at
look at Muslims today and how they can
even read 1 page a day, and what
type of Muslims are they? It's different from
being critical. It's both being
self admiring
and also looking at people with what?
With contempt.
And so you belligerent them, belligerent them, or
you become belligerent with your attitude
and with your advice.
So here it extracts from me the heart
what that militancy.
So you cannot speak with such confidence or
belligerence.
You'll understand people are weak. Yes. You I
want everybody to be better. You'll understand weak,
the weakness of everybody because you understand your
own weakness. You couldn't maintain even this.
So you stop. So Allah, azzadul, saves you
from it because of that.
And it broke his nose.
Literally. It broke his nose. He cannot be
proud and arrogant
and he cannot see himself better than anybody
else. And he made him stand before Allah,
azza wa jal, like a sinful person, lowering
his head,
ashamed of himself,
afraid of Allah
looking down
on looking down on everything good that he
has done.
He knows and understands from himself
that he is faulty,
that he is filled with shortcomings and Allah
azzawajal is the 1 who is perfect.
He says, as the poet had said, Allah
azza wa Jal deserves all praise and all
all fidelity or all loyalty,
but,
blame belongs to man.
Alright.
And this is also
kind of beautiful and you need to underlie
it.
If you if you are at that level,
at that stage, with that recognition, everything we
talked about,
It says so whatever favor he receives from
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, he will consider it
to be too much for him and he
sees himself beneath it and he's not worthy
of it.
If you recognize yourself to be this sinful,
faulty,
shortcoming
person, or fulfilled with shortcomings,
then if Allah, azza wa jal, gives you
anything, you say that's too much. I don't
deserve it.
Right?
And that's the attitude that should take place.
That everybody, if they know themselves,
and say, Allah made me healthy. I don't
even deserve that. Alhamdulillah.
Why? Because you're self aware
that if Allah were to treat you and
he talks about it now, we'll talk about
it soon, if Allah were to treat you
in accordance with what you have done, he
would take these things from you.
Right?
So if there is a king and that
you've angered this king
and then he gives you money and what
you are so pleased
with it and at the same time you
know that it was given because of his
generosity, not because you deserve it.
So whatever niyama you have, you say, I
don't deserve it.
It's beyond
my station,
beyond my
whatever anything that I could have earned.
He says, on any misfortune or affliction
that comes his way, he sees himself worthy
of something greater than it and he knew
or knows that his master had been benevolent
with him because he did not punish him
in accordance to his crime, not even half
of it, not even the smallest part of
it.
Because if Allah azzawajal were to punish him,
the great mountains would not be able to
hold that punishment.
So if anything that comes
his way, he'll say what?
In fact, I deserve more. Alhamdulillah.
Then Allah stop there.
Now you see the attitude of most humans
and we are not excluded from that is
the complete opposite.
If we receive any misfortune, you say, where
did this come from?
As if we are what?
Innocent
and righteous and worthy of every good thing
and not
a single test.
And if we don't receive good things or
the good things that we receive are modest,
they say, why not more?
I'm worthy of more.
Whereas the believer is the complete opposite, but
that comes from
what? Comes from iman.
And when we say iman, iman, what is
it? What does that mean even? Comes from
iman.
It comes from knowing who Allah is and
knowing yourself.
Knowing what you have done and did not
do.
And if you know that, you say, well,
by what do I deserve
to have all these gifts? What did I
do?
If Allah gives me something, he's more than
generous
because he gave them to me. And if
something bad happens to me, it happens because
of bad things I've done. I know
I know all the bad things I've done
and I earned a lot.
So that's why it doesn't make sense
for a person if their iman at that
time of affliction is strong and that awareness
is present is for them to ask is
Allah punishing me or testing me?
Well, aren't you aware of the fact that
we all deserve punishment?
We do.
So go back and ask Allah for forgiveness.
Who are we to ask Allah? Oya Allah
are you testing me? We're not, we're not
prophets.
Is it Allah just wants to elevate me?
You hope so, you want that
and your reaction to that affliction will tell
you whether you are being elevated or demoted.
You have the power to decide,
right? If you are patient and thankful,
then you're going where?
Up.
If you are resentful
and rebellious, where are you going? Down.
The same the same test.
You either go up or you go down.
But there was no submit. We're not so
self righteous that I'm being tested,
Or
why am I being punished?
Why?
Don't you know?
Don't you know? And if not, shouldn't you
inspect for you to understand?
So
he wants to tell you here something that
a person will say, I did sins, but
some people have done greater things and how
come they're happy and
I'm not. And that that comparison is a
killer
because you don't you don't understand if the
other person is happy or not.
And you don't understand if if what is
waiting for them is much worse.
Right?
And it's just it's about to happen, and
Allah is testing both of you
to see your iman and to say to
see their reaction.
But he's telling you here that the sin,
wa insahura, even if it's small,
when you do it to affront or to
anger
the greatest who is Allah Azzawajal
becomes the greatest sin.
Meaning if you're challenging, if rebelling against Allah,
even if the sin is small, it becomes
big because of it. Right?
Right.
No. And he says,
and as if not that the mercy of
Allah
preceded his anger
and forgiveness,
his punishment,
the earth and everybody on it would be
destroyed.
Because of what the accumulation of all of
these sins. Meaning he's talking about it collectively
and individually.
If collectively
Allah azzawajal were to say, I'm gonna be
just with you, he will destroy this earth.
Earth. And look just just collectively, I'm not
talking about it individually, I'm talking about Muslims
and non Muslims.
Look at everything that humans are doing today,
look at it. And if you wanna be
just, you wanna be just, would you keep
people alive
or do you say they deserve punishment?
I mean, you could be merciful, but I'm
just saying just.
You say, no, look at how much
corruption is being spread. There's more evil than
good.
Then I judge
you, then I will destroy you.
And if you look at Muslims,
what would the judgment be? And then when
you look at individuals, what would the judgment
be?
But he say if not that Allah Azawajal
is more merciful than vengeful,
Allah is not vengeful, he's more merciful
and he is more forgiving,
he would destroy it all.
If not for his forbearance and forgiveness,
the earth and that may mean the earth
and the heavens would kind of fall apart.
Because
Allah says Allah Azzajal Allah Azzajal holds the
heavens and the earth in place so they
don't move, they stay in place.
He says if they were to be moved
or they would fall, no 1 could keep
them in place after Allah azza wa jin.
If Allah lets go of them, they'd fall.
Nobody could put them back in place.
Allah is forbearing and forgiving. So he says,
notice how in this ayah Allah concludes it
with 2 of his names that he is
Halim, forbearing Ghafoor, forgiving.
To tell you that if not for that
they would not stay in place.
That these 2 names and 2 2 attributes
of Allah sustain
the heavens and the earth.
And if not, they will be
destroyed.
And he said also Allah
said in response to the disbelief of some
of his creation, he said
He said, the heavens are about to break
apart and so is the earth and the
mountains collapse
because of that sin, because of disbelief,
like physically.
Right? That's not figurative. Physically, takadu, they're about
to, but Allah holds them back. But they're
about to what? Break apart. What is the
thing that is breaking them apart?
Is that this humanity's disbelief,
which tells you that that's the greatest pollutant
by the way.
The greatest pollutant, the greatest corruption
is humanity's disbelief.
Then all the other crimes that they do
commit against nature, against animals, against other human
beings. But the disbelief
is the greatest destruction.
And he said,
Rahimahullah,
and know that Allah removed
our parents from heaven because of 1 sin.
1 thing that he told them to do
and they
disobeyed him. And he
cursed Iblis
and chased him or removed him from heaven
because of 1 sin.
And we the fools,
right, we the fools behave
similar to this,
poem.
Nasayludunuba
iladunobiwanartajeeidarakaljinailadanayniladanaimilkhalidid.
The translation of it is that what? We
do 1 sin after another. We link 1
sin to another,
and then we hope that we will reach
the higher levels of paradise.
And we know that Allah, azza wa jill,
have taken our parents out because of 1
single sin.
Like they did 1 wrong thing
and they got out of heaven. And you
do 1 sin, link it to another and
another and another and your wish is that
I'm gonna be in the highest levels.
She said that does not make sense
and you should be afraid at times if
it's just it took 1 sense for Adam
and Hawa,
Adam and his wife Hawa to be removed
from heaven.
For it were to be that drastic, that
serious,
it could be 1 of those sins that
could be the undoing or my undoing.
1.
Is it this or is it this or
is it that you don't know? That's why
that every sin has to terrify you. And
if a sin happens, you really need to
repent from it. You can't just let it
go.
Can't let it go.
And he said and he says, he says,
the
kind
of the intent
of this discussion so far is to say
that,
a person could be better after repentance
than he was and he could reach a
higher degree.
Or the khatiya, the sin,
could weaken his resolve
and his enthusiasm,
and it could
sicken his heart, meaning it could make his
heart diseased. So he could go not go
back to the same level that he inhabited
before.
And that is a very real possibility
because that's the effect of sin, that it
does make you sin,
it makes you sick,
and it weakens that resolve that you have.
So that's why you find that you have
to drag yourself back to doing the right
things that you used to do before after
a period of forgetfulness or sin.
Right?
Just like what?
Be regular in your exercise
then pause for a week or 2 or
a month. Get back to it. What do
you find? It's really hard to do that.
You have to struggle in the first few
days, and then you'll go back to the
same routine and rhythm and maybe that same
enthusiasm that you had. But that initial phase,
that's really difficult. So you let yourself go
and you disobey Allah, azza wajal. The body
becomes sick. The heart becomes sick. How do
you drag it back to this to obey
Allah?
That's the difficult part.
That's a very difficult return. So he says,
yes, some people will be infected. They cannot
go back.
Wakad Yazoolul Murad, and maybe he will be,
healthy again
or be treated again
and will go back to doing what he
used to do to the same station and
level that he
used to do.
This is if he descends
to,
disobedience, a sin. But if his descent
into a matter
that
impairs
or damages the foundation of his iman,
like doubt,
like doubt and hypocrisy.
So there's that type of dissent. It's very
hard for a person to go back and
ascend again unless he renews his Islam.
So that's the final type of dissension,
right,
of being lowered to the lowest of levels.
There is the minor sin. There is the
major sin. And if you remember what we
said before that these 2 lead to what?
They lead to hypocrisy, and they lead to
doubt, and they lead to disbelief.
So a person could commit,
and that kind of there is this progression.
A person could become so forgetful,
then they become sinful.
And in sin, they could move from the
minor sins into the very major sins, into
the very very serious sins, until they start
having doubts.
And where do doubts come from?
Right? You just note the evolution of that
person
or devolution of me. What's the opposite of
evolution?
I don't know. Somebody help me. What's the
opposite?
To devolve, right? So you devolve
and when you devolve,
you go from
a person with iman who prays and fasts,
and then a person who kind of misses
some of these things, and a person who
doesn't want to do these things, then a
person but you still but I have iman.
I'm still Muslim. I'm still this.
Until then you say it what? Well, I'm
not sure about this. I'm not sure about
the Quran. I'm not sure about sunnah. I'm
not sure about this. So where does this
come from? It's a
progression. So it's important here
to catch yourself
and keep trying to be going up, not
going down.
Let me stop here,
because if I go into the next section
insha Allah, it's just we will not have
time for it. Let me know insha Allah
if you have questions.
Okay.
So,
in some, versions of the book,
Ibn al Qayyim only quotes that last part.
He doesn't bring the whole hadith.
Right?
InshaAllah, I'll explain it. So that's why I've
just restricted myself to the last part.
But the beginning of that hadith,
I was sent with the sword before the
day of judgment.
Right?
So what does it what does it mean,
I was sent with the sword before the
day of judgment?
If you know the history of the prophets
of Allah alayhi wa sallam,
the vast majority of them were not allowed
to fight.
Right? So,
Adam
take Nuh, a very good example. He was
not allowed to fight back.
Ibrahim, not allowed to fight back.
Isa, not allowed to fight back. The only
exception that you have is that you begin
to have with the Israelites
with Usha Ab Nunun.
So Musa was there was no fighting with
Musa, alayhis salam. Yusha Abnun and then other
following prophets,
they are allowed to fight back.
But their message was limited
and it was local.
So the Prophet alaihis salatu wasalam was the
only prophet who was sent and he's the
last
with permission to use
the sword
to defend
Islam.
Right? So now as they've said, they said
that Allah Azzawajal before,
and they even mark it as Musa alayhis
salam, but allahu 'alam. They say
from the time of Musa alayhis salam and
before Allah Azadul would destroy the enemies of
the prophets, he
will do it like he did with Musa
and Nuh and so on.
Afterwards, as he had legislated the use of
the sword, it is the believers
who will punish the disbelievers.
So now nothing is going to descend, right?
As we are the Ummah Muhammad
to punish the disbelievers
in totality.
We can destroy all of them. That's not
going to happen. But what happens is that
it's on the hands,
You fight them, Allah will punish them on
your hands or through your hands. So that's
what it says. I was allowed to use
the sword that is before the day of
judgment.
Let me know. I'll give you, Insha'Allah,
a couple of minutes.
Mhmm.
No.
No. You become too obsessed, right, with all
of your actions.
So how to achieve your so your question
is how to achieve a balance since we
already so we know the stages of how
ghafla and then the permissible acts and then
sins and then eventually leading to disbelief
and how they could lead to each other
and how,
on the 1 hand, we don't trivialize, as
you said,
sins.
And at the same time, we don't become
so obsessed as everything I need to do,
I need to be careful with because it
could lead to this and could lead to
that.
Of course,
the intent of this, his intent, and the
intent of the sharia, of course, is not
to create obsessed beings where
they have to
be constantly afraid and constantly worried about every
small thing that they do, but rather that
they know that they have a forgiving God
who wants them
to be saved and he wants to be
merciful with them. And he is there to
accept their dua and to accept their repentance.
And to know that
Allah
will not demand from you at this particular
stage what is beyond your ability
and beyond your knowledge.
So with what knowledge you have and what
ability you have, do you say to yourself,
I wanna be better? I wanna move higher?
So you don't need to obsess.
You'll reach a level where you'll be able
to catch yourself
more frequently doing wrong things, and then you'll
be able, what, be ready then to know
that they are wrong and to
stop.
But maybe at this level right now, the
only thing that you need to do is
catch 1 thing,
catch 2 things.
So progression, you can't move from where you
are right now to perfection.
Right?
You cannot. That is not gonna happen like
this. You say you say to yourself, okay,
I'm gonna make my sleep now for Allah's
sake. And when I wake up I'm gonna
be iftar breakfast for Allah's sake, and I'm
gonna speak only for Allah's sake. We won't
be able to do this.
Right? Because we're not there.
Just like, for instance, I wanna give you
an example. I tell you, okay, some it
was said that some of the,
righteous people, they used to finish the Quran
every single day.
Not that that is recommended, I'm just giving
you as an example. The recommended is no
less than 3 days.
But suppose that I tell you every single
day, go and do it.
Will you be able
to? There's no.
So why? Because you need to build up
to it.
Right?
So it's the same thing. You can't worry
about every permissible intent behind the mubah, the
permissible right now.
Cause we're not at the level where we
have would be able to do this. What
you only wanna care about is what? Sin.
The clear visible sin.
Stop doing this.
And then if you can kind of be
more connected to Allah, so there is less
rafla, not no rafla.
Can't be no ghafla,
but less of it.
You minimize it, right? And then when you
do some permissible things, you remember
we mentioned, let me do some of more
of that for Allah's sake. So if you
cannot transition into this,
then you'll have the strength, insha Allah, to
do more and then more and then more.
And then you will reach an equilibrium.
Alright?
A balanced state,
where you know what you can do
and what you can't do.
And then that's where you will settle. And
you'll try to push yourself harder here and
harder there, but you know that's what is
it that I can do. But definitely,
definitely 1,
no obsession over every single act and every
single word, and this is reserved for those
who have reached highest levels of iman,
where they can watch all of these things.
And second, it doesn't matter
if you
make mistakes
because you all can always come back and
that's what we talked about.
If you are regretful,
if you are pleading with Allah Azzawdil, if
you trying to be close every time you
fall,
then you always can come back.
And that's what keeps giving you hope.
And some of these things, they will take
time.
They will take time. Some reminders, you hear
them 10 times, a 100 times, and only
after a 100
will it actually resonate with you.
Some of these things you will try to
do and it will take you months or
maybe even few years and then eventually you'll
be able to get it. So
at law as long as you keep trying,
that's the intent of it. And as long
as you have that awareness
of what could attack you and how it
attacks you and how it can
destabilize your iman, then you know,
and then what follows is just the ability
to follow through,
apply
and then ask Allah for forgiveness for whatever
mistakes we do.
No. I'm quality. I bought the quality of
the typo.
No. He is saying that because he he's
referring, first of all, to a discussion that
some scholars have. Can you go back to
the same level, lower level, higher level? But
I think he does agree eventually with you
that it's about the quality of the tawba,
because this 1 single tawba could give you
back to a higher levels than the 1
that you actually were,
inhabiting
even before that sin. So he's saying that
the quality of the Tawbah is what matters.
So,
what I think I understand maybe from the
beginning of your question is that,
he could be making it a little hard.
Right? He's making it especially with reference to
the muba
being such a trap.
And of course, what he means by all
of that is to kind of be exhaustive
and to talk to the
lower levels all the way to the highest
of the highest levels.
So he's saying, okay,
there is this rafla and it could take
you away. The permissible could take you away.
He's not saying don't
don't take the permissible. Don't partake of the
perm permissible.
But notice how it could have sometimes a
counterproductive
effect.
Just be aware of it because he's trying
to push people to a higher level where
even that mubah
is ibadah.
And it's not always
easy. Right? It's not
easy. And that's why I said,
when you want to focus, focus not from
where he started about ghaflah
and then the mubah, but go to the
bottom
and try to climb higher.
And if a person reaches that higher level,
then he'll be watch full of what he
says and what he does and
but it takes effort.
But at least what we not what we
want is awareness,
awareness of it.
It's question here. If sin lowers our levels,
how do we avoid a free fall to
rock bottom?
By asking Allah, azza wajal, to save you
by being aware,
right, of what you say, especially if it
upsets Allah, azza wajal, so you refrain from
it.
Or if you're doubtful of it,
then you ask Allah Azza wa Jal to
forgive you
by refraining from things that upset Allah, subhanahu
wa ta'ala, in deeds. And if you catch
yourself,
you repent from it and you ask Allah
for forgiveness
by doing a lot of good to compensate
for the bad that we may do, but
we are unaware of or we forgot.
So you keep doing this and Allah Azza
wa Jal will give you power
over yourself and over your enemy.
So
if we do this, then we will survive
it, bi'innillah a zawjan, and with Allah's help.
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam taught
us so that we don't fall into the
traps
of that free fall that you described.
So
asking Allah
and being more watchful of what we say
and what we do
It says when we are faced with a
test, it could be because we are being
punished for our sins.
Like,
we we all know that we are sinful
people. Right?
So when something bad happens to us,
it's in part happening because of a thing,
bad thing that we've done. It has to.
Right?
Now, but the question here is the intent
here. Is Allah
angry with me and that's why that thing
is happening?
Or Allah wants to remind me and wake
me up and elevate me.
Alright.
So there is no kind of difference or
contradiction
between,
oh, that is happening because of bad things
that I've done. At the same time, it's
happening for my own good and because Allah
loves me.
You understand what I'm trying to say?
Yeah. No. I so I did 1 bad
thing. Because of it, I deserve,
some misfortune coming my way, but it's not
happening to me because Allah hates me.
It's happening to me because Allah wants to
forgive that thing.
Allah wants to teach me something. Allah wants
to wake me up.
So the net result of it is that
Allah loves you and that's why he's testing
you.
Or Allah loves you and that's why he's
punishing you.
There's no contradiction between the 2.
That makes sense?
So, you know, I brought before a hadith
in the khutbah that idharad Allahu bi'abdihi khairanajalalahuwbatafid
dunya. If Allah wants good for his servant,
he hastens his punishment in the dunya.
See? He hastens. He brings his punishment for
him in the dunya. So he's being punished
and Allah loves
him. That's why he's punishing him.
And if Allah
if Allah loves the people, he tests them.
And that Ibtillahum also could be, you know,
translated as he punishes them.
But punishes them for what
or why?
Because he likes them. Because he loves them
because he wants to remove those sins and
teach them a lot of things about themselves
and about the reality of the dunya and
will not be be able to happen unless
they are punished and that punishment is also
a test and that test is a punishment.
Am I confusing you?
It's clear, I hope, insha Allah. So don't
worry about so much as
why this is happening.
Okay?
Worry about your reaction to it
because all have done
tons of bad things
and any 1 of these things
could be the candidate of why these bad
things are happening to me.
So don't worry about that. Worry about, okay,
what am I gonna do as a reaction
to this misfortune that is happening to me?
And if your reaction is good, it was
good that that thing happened to
you. And if your reaction is terrible, it
was terrible that this happened to you. But
again, who decided?
You.
You have the power with Allah's help and
permission. You have the power.
It's your reaction determines it.
But people are asking about what?
Tell me why Allah did this.
Taeib, you tell me how you're acting and
reacting to it, and I'll tell you.
Right? Then you'll know. Okay?
So you have the power. So just
believe the best about your creator
and react the best and this thing will
be better
than if you were not tested or not
punished.
Let me stop here insha'Allah and we'll see
next week at the same time.