Ali Albarghouthi – The Disease and the Cure #30 Shaytan’s Three Tools for Corrupting the Soul
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AI: Transcript ©
We started last time
talking about that portion
of Ibn al Qayyim's
advice
when he was saying, Rahimahullah,
of how the shaitan will try
to assault the heart
by reconciling
with a nifsul amara,
the part of the soul or the soul
that commands evil,
that seeks it and wants it.
In opposition to nafsul mutma'inna,
That soul or that portion of the soul
that is contented, that is assured,
that loves Allah, azza wajal, and wants to
please him.
So
this soul, right,
if
this was not clear last time,
that nafsul mutma'inna
and
allawama
and then al amara,
these are descriptions
of the same soul but in different states
and conditions.
Or when
you kinda listen to Abnul Khayyim, Rahim Allah,
is talking about,
they could also be referring to a potential
or a part of the soul
that is fighting with other parts as well.
So when you look at nafsul mutma'inna
as a station, as a condition,
then one would migrate from one to the
other. So
a soul could be a.
It commands evil. It loves evil. It seeks
it.
It's comforted when it finds it,
and it dissatisfied when it misses it.
So it's kind of it's baked with evil.
It allowed itself to be immersed in evil,
so it runs after it.
And if it forgets it, if it misses
it, the soul itself or the nafs itself
says, how about more of this?
How about more of this? We miss
it. We want it.
And if it it doesn't really stop at
a particular limit, once you reach that limit,
it tells you I want more of this.
Right?
So there is no stop to that evil
or to that temptation.
I want more and more and more of
it. So it continuously
commands you to do evil. So that's one
station.
If a person's iman
increases
and his proximity to Allah
increases, he comes closer and closer to Allah,
so he migrates then from nafsul amara
all the way to nafsul mutma'inna, the one
that is contented,
the one that is assured, the one is
that is at peace as we said last
time. Tayyib, why is it described as mutma'inna?
And
it's be at peace with comfortable with. Why
is it described
as mutma inna?
So it is mutma inna bima ana anahatma
anaatilallahi
a zodil.
It is comforted by Allah and with Allah.
It's comfortable
with Allah's decrees, and I'm comfortable with Allah's
commands. So it's not fighting them and it's
not resisting them. So it's at peace.
So when it comes to Allah's decrees, it
understands,
and it doesn't understand just by claiming that
it understands
or by theoretically
knowing that it should know there's something that's
a level higher
because you can know
that something is right, but not feel it.
Right?
You know that it's right, but you don't
follow it. That's not what al Mutma'ina
is. Al Mutma'ina knows,
but it doesn't just simply know.
It feels it. It follows it. So it
knows that Allah's decrees, whatever he had decided,
is better than its own choices.
So it surrenders and submits to Allah Azzawal
in its decrees.
It can change whatever Allah allows it to
change,
but submits to the rest.
And by that, it receives assurance from Allah,
azzawajal, and comfort. So it's not fighting
Allah in his decrees.
Whatever Allah decides,
that's for me.
So it's at peace. It's comfortable,
and it goes with Allah's
decisions because Allah's decisions, it believes,
is the best for it. So it adjusts
itself to Allah's decrees,
does not want Allah's decrees to adjust to
it.
You see the difference between them?
That it adjusts itself to Allah's decrees. So,
you Allah, you didn't give me this,
but you gave me that.
So instead of feeling sorry for what I
do not have,
you invest in what you have. You follow
the path that Allah opened,
not cry over the path that Allah closed.
You understand the difference between the 2? Allah
did not give you this. Fine.
If you are comfortable with Allah, pleased with
him, you see, Allah did this for a
reason, for a wisdom
that sometimes I may realize and many times
I may not.
But Allah gave this instead. So you're not
blind to what Allah had given to the
opportunities
that are there
if you just choose to
praise and glorify and thank Allah Azzawajal for
even the little that he that he had
given you. And the little,
if blessed, it's a lot.
So it's comfortable with Allah's decrees, so it's
at peace.
But it's also comfortable with Allah's shari'ah,
Allah's commands, Allah's revelation.
It doesn't resist it.
So something is hard. It doesn't fight Allah
over why this and why not that.
Explain to me why this and why not
that.
So its mind and its heart surrenders to
Allah, so it finds peace with his sharia,
peace with his commands, peace with his worship,
peace with his decisions and decrees,
and it goes
with whatever Allah wants it to do.
So it is pleasing to Allah, so Allah
pleases it.
Right?
And that that formula is important. It pleases
Allah,
so Allah pleases it,
and Allah is pleased with it.
Otherwise,
as they've said, how do you want Allah
to be pleased with you and you are
not pleased with him?
And he's the wise and you are the
foolish.
Right?
How could it be that you want Allah
to be happy with you,
with all of your flaws, with all of
your mistakes?
Yairuya want Allah to welcome you and receive
you,
but
you're not willing
to be happy with Allah.
So al Mutma'ina
understands this,
is I cannot bring a better choice than
Allah's choice,
so why fight him?
Why are you fighting him?
And I cannot have a better guide
than Muhammad alayhis salatu wa sallam. So why
are you fighting him?
And why do you put
somebody else's thought
and philosophy
and lifestyle
before Muhammad, alayhis salatu wasallam. Why would you
do this?
Because your belief
would contradict that choice.
So why are you doing this?
So if you do this, there is no
it'sma inan. You're not comfortable. You're always agitated.
You're always resisting,
and that will demote you from al mutma'inna
into one that is lawwama.
You do a mistake, and then you blame
yourself.
You blame yourself for the good that you
have done or the evil that you have
done.
So you're not really comfortable.
And it could be emoted even further into
nafs that commands the person to do evil.
So
what
Ibn Al Qayyib
is saying here, you have in you, other
than these stations that we talked about,
you have within you the potential.
You have within you nafs that commands evil.
And you have within you also nafs that
is comfortable with Allah, azza wa Jal.
So the potential for this is there, and
the potential for that is there, and you
can strengthen this against that or that against
this.
And you feel it sometimes. Right?
So sometimes you find yourself
attracted to more evil,
wanting to see more evil, wanting to be
around more evil. That is enough that is
Al Amara.
Now it's dominant.
And sometimes you find yourself now comfortable
seeking what pleases Allah Azzawajal, so you find
yourself,
I wanna go to the masjid. I do
wanna read Quran.
I wanna listen to this lecture. I wanna
do good. I wanna give sadaqa.
And when you do it, you feel comfortable.
You feel satisfied.
Oh, alhamdulillah. It was just nagging me for
a long time that I wasn't on this
path,
that I wasn't praying, that I wasn't on
the straight path. It was disturbing me now
that I've done it, and you must have
felt this.
You must have felt this. Now once you
do it, once kinda you read the Quran
after a while of not reading it,
you be comfortable with it. Say, alhamdulillah, look.
I I'm back. I've read it. You feel
satisfied.
Or you pray on time after missing the
salah for a while, and you feel satisfied.
That what did where did this satisfaction come
from? That's a glimpse,
a portion
of that
comfort.
You got it.
We may not be at the level we
are more where we are mostly
comfortable,
assured, contented. We may not be yet, but
Allah gives you
taste,
and you allow yourself to taste it.
Perhaps the sweetness of what you taste
motivates you to seek more of it because
this is the feeling that you want to
have.
But the shaitan, as Ibn Qayyim wrote,
he's not going to let you do this.
He knows the potential for this and the
potential for that. So when he says that
your greatest ally
is this nafsul amara, the one that commands
evil, so he says, so support it
and seek its support. It is one of
your greatest soldiers,
and you can wage the greatest battle against
the assured contented self with al Nafsul Amara.
Use this person against himself
because he will listen to you.
Use him against him
because he has this flaw in him. So
says when this nafsul amara is strong
and you keep supplying it with things that
strengthen it,
it will defeat
nafsul mutma'ina, then it will take over the
heart, will command it to do whatever it
wants,
and the the heart will follow.
And it will be your ally.
Ma'anaha lalatukhalifu kumfishainil batahu here. It will never
oppose you. Whatever you suggest to it, it
will do.
So if a person had been conquered by
nafsul Amara,
he is open
to all evil.
Right?
Is there a limit?
No.
And one evil
breeds another,
and you think that humanity has a limit,
and then humanity surprises you, humans surprise you,
then, no, they'll cross this limit and then
the next and then the next and then
the next,
and you will kill 1 person, then you
will kill 10, and then you will kill
a 100, then killing a million
doesn't sound like such a bad thing.
It easily be done, and it doesn't disturb
you.
Like, a person with a life conscience and
with the iman,
if you mistakenly kill an animal,
it will disturb you.
Right?
Undeservedly,
mistakenly, you kill an animal, it disturbs you.
For others, they can kill hundreds of people,
and it doesn't.
So how does this take place?
And what corrupted this self so much?
It gradually
got contaminated,
and the shaitan took over. And you have
to believe that the shaitan is dominant there.
Otherwise, what's what's the explanation,
right, for this?
It
says if you dominate the heart
and you dominate the self,
but now you feel that the heart is
not really comfortable with this.
And it wants to go back
to what it remembers to be that comfortable
state of being with Allah, azza wa Jal.
It's not
happy. The shaitan is not gonna
let that happen. So he says what?
He says, if you feel that he is
being agitated and it is in, like, that
state of sin that he is in, there's
still some life in it, and you want
to be safe from that.
He says let the heart marry
the self, and he means that
the self that is tempted or that is
attracted to the duniya.
Let the heart
marry that type of self
and tell the heart, beautify that that bride,
he says, in his eyes.
And here they will tell him,
taste the sweetness
of that union between you and a self
that enjoys this world. Or if you want
to skip the self,
taste that beautiful union between you and this
world.
Compare this
to the bitterness of the war between you
and the world
because as a heart that is alive,
in order for you to be close to
Allah, Azzawajal, you have to fight temptations. Right?
Constantly.
And is that easy?
No. It isn't easy.
It is bitter,
and sometimes you win, and sometimes you're injured,
and sometimes you're defeated, and you blame yourself
for it, and you try again. So it's
an
uncomfortable
type of
existence.
It's a battle.
Battle is not
attractive.
So he's saying, remember the battle that you
used to wage with this world and its
temptations and the devils and its helpers.
Remember how hard it is. Remember how bitter
all of that is.
Compare this to how sweet
life in this world is
if you just let it take whatever whatever
it wants, if you'll open the doors of
temptations for it. Isn't this nicer?
Do you have to be angry all the
time, bitter all the time,
on edge all the time? Just kinda let
loose and be happy.
Right?
He says he tells him that,
and between the 2,
a self that is tired
will choose what?
The world.
Right? Is this this of course, that's easier.
So what is it that you wanna do?
Do you wanna, like, go to the Masjid
and hear about all the wrong things that
people do and all the things that you're
supposed to do, but you're not doing, and
then you try to push yourself. Do you
wanna do this, or you just wanna go
out and have fun?
And when you have fun, you'll be happy,
and you're gonna get let get let loose
and unburden yourself and forget.
And, subhanAllah,
so that the shaitan will
convince you to do this,
he will sweeten that experience for you.
He will not disturb it.
He'll make it easy and fun and nice.
He may even protect you from any harm
and discomfort
so that when you go out into this
polluted world, you will love it.
Why not? I went out. I had fun
with these friends. I stayed up. I drank
this. I ate that.
This person is interesting. That place is interesting.
I wanna repeat this again and again and
again and again. Compare this to sitting and
reading a book
about Islam, sitting and reading the Quran.
That's not as much fun.
That's not very attractive.
So he wants to
promote what is appealing
to the soul and what is light. Remember
before we said that falsehood is very light
and beloved to the soul, whereas the truth
is heavy?
So nobody wants to live a life where
it's heavy,
where he has to take responsibility,
has to sit and read and think
and plan for the future. No. No. Live
for the moment.
So he convinces to do this.
And he'll tell him
that war with with shaitan, that war with
this world
will will rage on for
years years decades decades.
But if you enjoy yourself,
you just you're not missing out, and you
don't have to suffer.
So if a person believes it
by the way, this is,
why some people may ask,
and I don't know if we brought this
up before or not.
Why is it that the disbelievers
or the sinners, let's say, it does not
even have to be a disbeliever,
why is it that the sinner seems to
be happier
than the faithful?
Right? Why is it that the sinners
seem to be happier
than the faithful?
And the first thing is, of course, you
have to understand what the faithful are facing
and what the sinful
are not.
So anyone who is faithful, what does he
face? What is he battling?
You're fighting something.
What are you fighting?
Fighting the shaitan
constantly,
and the helpers of the shaitan constantly.
And you're fighting yourself,
and you're trying to change yourself and change
society. That's not a simple undertaking.
Whereas this person who is a sinner, what
type of life is he living?
Does he wanna change anything?
No. He's being changed. He does not change
anything. He's being changed. He is being molded.
Shaitan doesn't bother him because he listens to
him. Shaitan
guides
him. So, of course, he's not fighting.
So that's the first point to keep in
mind why a sinner may look like, an
underlying may look like,
that he's having more fun
because he's not fighting.
Whereas the faithful is.
Right? And even if you cannot
exit
the religious
comparison
between the religious
and the non religious, or the religious, the
faithful, and the sinners,
Move out of that comparison,
that contrast,
and compare 2 types of people.
Someone who understands fully the society that they're
living in. I'm speaking in worldly terms, not
religious terms. Someone who understands fully the society
that they are living in and its flaws,
and they want to change it.
Okay?
And they could be philosophers. They could be
activists. They could be academics
Versus someone who lives a very superficial life.
The only thing that they're interested in is
what movies they're gonna see, what things that
they're gonna buy, the places that they're gonna
travel to. Which of the 2 is gonna
be quote and quote happier?
The first or the second?
The second.
So the one who is
has deep thoughts
and perceptions about this world, again, not even
in religious terms, that philosopher, that academic,
that activist, that historian, if you meet them,
they'll be angry most of the time
because it's serious.
Everything that they see is serious,
and they understand
that it's an incredible
undertaking to try to change this.
Right?
So that's the first point to keep in
mind, that if you are serious,
if you are
intelligent,
if you know the reality of this world,
you're not gonna be as happy with it
as a superficial person is.
Because if you are really smart,
okay, and I hope that Muslims are smart,
I hope,
but if you're perceptive and smart,
everything that they present to you that is
supposed to make you happy,
you can see beyond the curtain, and it
was gonna make you very sad.
The Olympics will not make you happy.
In fact, if you dissect what you're seeing,
it's gonna make you incredibly sad.
But if you're very superficial,
yeah. It can entertain you. But if you
can see beyond,
a movie will not make you happy.
A song will not make you happy because
you see the manipulation behind it.
So if you're smart,
if you deconstruct it, if you understand the
harm that it's doing, if you understand who's
behind it, if you understand the messages that
are in it, if you're that smart, none
of these things will make you happy.
But if you're a superficial person who is
just incredibly attracted to images,
they just put, you know, people jumping in
front of him and that's enough for him
to
laugh, yeah, he'll be happy.
That's the first thing
of why a sinner may seem like that
they are
happier. But there's another thing. Do you think
a sinner is actually happy,
or it's just a matter of advertisement?
The way that they advertise themselves,
especially on social media,
or people advertise them,
or the shaitan beautifies that in your eyes.
Do you think they're really happy?
A person who is really happy could be
alcoholic
or a drug addict,
can they?
Or gets divorced
or or or or.
So it's not happiness.
It's not happiness.
Right?
But it's an advertisement
of what happiness is,
And the person who is truly,
truly happy is the one who
is close to Allah Azzuja, because he is
the one who makes
He's the one who makes people laugh or
cry.
Happiness is from him subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
So that is the person who's gonna be
happy. That's the person who's gonna be contented.
And
he says,
he's speaking here on the tongue of the
devil where he says,
seek the assistance of 2 contingents of soldiers
against this person.
The contingent of this or the soldiers of
raflah,
inattentiveness and heedlessness,
and that of temptation.
So he's saying about raflah. He says,
block the hearts of the children of Adam
from Allah and
the last day, in whateverin,
whatever possible way. There's nothing that will help
you achieve your goals better than that
because if the heart is distant from Allah,
he's inattentive,
you can tempt it.
And then he says, and then
the soldiers of temptations
beautify that in their hearts and in their
eyes,
and he says, and assault them with these
2 Tafta soldiers.
There's nothing that will help you more than
that.
And then he says, waastaa'inu alal raflahtibishhaawati
wa alashhaawati bil ghaflah.
Seek the assistance of inattentiveness
or ghaflah
to tempt him, and seek the assistance of
temptations
to make him heedless and inattentive.
And here, ibn Qayyim
is telling you that these two things,
they feed
each other.
So the shaitan can reach you. And by
the way, when you're reading Ibn Al Qayyim,
Ibn Al Qayyim is giving you patterns
and categories
and things that are common among humanity.
So you can take this
fact
and apply it to everyone that you see,
including yourself.
This is a strategy, he's telling you. This
is a strategy. So he's saying,
gaflah to shahua and shahua to gaflah.
Hedlessness
To temptation, temptation to heedlessness. They strengthen each
other.
So he says from some people for for
some people,
you will enter through shahua.
For some people, you will enter through haflah.
But once you go get into 1, you
have the next one.
How do they lead to each other? Because
if he can distance you from Allah, azza
wa jal,
so you're not as close,
Could he not tempt you then?
That makes sense. Right?
So he takes you away from Allah. You
don't have that strong connection.
Now he can convince you to sin. Right?
This is right.
So he'll try to do that.
Put obstacles between you and Allah so that
you don't remember him.
So less masjid, less Quran, less dhikr, less
du'a,
less this and that.
And he's not gonna ask you, by the
way, to sin in order to do this.
He'll simply suggest
greater distractions.
Just watch this video before you go and
read the Quran. Why don't you?
On one video
brings another and then brings another, And then
this half hour that you're supposed to have
invested in reading the Quran is gone. You
don't know where it went, but it's just
gone.
Instead of going to the masjid, he'll tell
you, why don't you just do this?
Fix this halal, by the way.
You're not gonna suggest haram. But what is
he doing? He's putting what?
Obstacles.
You know, why don't you stay up a
little bit?
Talk to so and so. You haven't talked
to him for a long time. It's like
he really cares about you, right, or about
them.
But I've been talking to him for a
long time. It'd really be fun to catch
up. You do it. But he knows what?
You stay up what happens.
You're not gonna wake up for fajr.
So it's just halal, just blocks blocks blocks
blocks, and he knows.
And if you actually you're smart enough to
notice,
if you just actually pay attention, you'll know,
okay, I would I'm being manipulated
right now. So if you have a priority,
you'll say no to this.
You say no. No. By 11, by 12,
I need to be asleep. Otherwise, I can't
wake up for Fajr. Done. I'm not gonna
do anything else. So if you said that
for yourself, he knows, okay, I can't
I can't
tamper with this.
So I can how to try something else?
So he'll try this ghafla. Now when you're
distant,
now he can introduce sin.
Otherwise, it's difficult for him because maybe you're
strong.
So he'll weaken you
or the other way around.
Right?
He knows that this is your weakness. This
sin is weakness.
So he goes from that door.
He'll convince you to do it. When you
do it,
you're further removed from Allah Azzawajal. Suhik that
causes Ghafla.
So you have to understand. Right?
If you lose a battle, how you lost
it?
This is how you become a good general,
and you are the general of your life.
Right? You're you're you're that that commander.
So how you have to understand. He defeated
me here.
Okay. Analyze it. How?
So you can counter.
Next time he tries
with the very same
advice,
how do I reply?
And then you will know how the shaitan
is advancing and how you can repel him.
So
he says, so
he says he's used to these things,
with them. And he says,
So he's also there's a third
tactic.
Right?
And that other tactic is what?
Bring
2 inattentive
heedless people together.
Make them friends. Make them companions.
And then use them, those 2, against
a zakir,
the one who remembers Allah.
Right? So now he's using humans.
He says 1 will not defeat 5.
Alright. 1 will not defeat 5 because he
said, I brought 2, and these are
foolish,
in the hands of the devil. And they
have their devils. That makes them 4. And
he has his devil,
the faithful.
So these are 5 against 1. So if
you bring those 5 against him,
you'll be able to achieve something. Right? And
he says if you see a group
that have gone congregated, that are, you know,
sitting together
doing something that harms you, whether it's remembering
Allah or His commands or His prohibitions or
His religion, and you cannot
separate
them
on your own, you cannot separate them,
what do you do?
So seek against them other humans who are
idlers.
Foolish.
They do nothing.
They waste their time as they seek their
assistance.
Right?
He says bring those closer to them and
distract them with them.
So he says here,
use people against people.
Right?
So if you know that somebody is good
and your tactics on their own are insufficient,
bring other humans to help them.
Those who may have been
old friends or those who are acquaintances,
and they say, oh so and so. Why
don't you come out with us?
Because the temptations of the shaitan, the whispers
that the person hears in himself, are insufficient
now.
Now he needs more. So it's those people
who will come and say, why don't you
come out with us? Why don't you come
out and watch this? Come on. Didn't you
have enough of this and that?
Especially difficult when a person has just started
to commit himself to Islam and is trying
to shake off
all the bad habits.
So why don't you play some games with
us? We're gonna go here, we're gonna go
there, and then what you long for, you
miss, you still remember.
Even if it had had been a year
or 2, you still remember
the fun that you used to have, and
you say to yourself, maybe I can try
it. What's the harm? Maybe. And if they
keep persisting and you keep getting weaker and
weaker, they'll drag you.
So this is using humans against humans.
And these humans
may not know that they're being used in
that way,
but you have to realize it. You have
to realize it when a human is being
used that way.
You don't have to call them, oh, you're
the devil.
You're the brother of the devil, but realize
that it's a tactic,
So rebuff them. No. I don't want to
do this.
Because you understand what that is? Taking you
or supposed to take you. So you say
no. And if not, he says, if you
see a group
doing something that
pleases Allah,
first try to separate them.
Right?
If you can try to whisper to some
bad thoughts about the other,
saw between them seeds of
hatred,
friction.
Why is it always that you need to
do this? Why do we always listen to
you if you can use their egos
against each other? A misunderstanding,
if you can let this person backbite the
other,
and then someone will tell him about it,
whatever you can use,
especially if a person is flawed and is
has not dealt with those flaws,
then use it
to break him apart.
So if you're gonna come together, by the
way, remember this,
if you're gonna come together to please Allah
as zuajal
as a group, don't think that the shaitan
is gonna let you
do it
easily and succeed.
He'll attack you,
And he'll attack you internally in the sense
of
he'll try to turn you against each other.
And here is where
the faithful, those who have iman, but those
who have wisdom and those who have good
manners
will prevail
because they'll understand
what the shaylana is trying to do, and
then with their good manners,
they'll defeat them.
Right?
And we're not gonna have time to go
through this, but with their good manners,
they will understand when they've done a mistake,
and they'll apologize.
They'll understand when it's better to reconcile with
their brother than to follow their own ego.
They'll understand that the benefit of the group
supersedes
your own individual ambitions,
so on and so on and so on.
And their own taqwa will protect them from
the plots of the shaitan.
So if that doesn't happen, he'll send other
humans against you. Right?
We'll send other humans against you.
And he said here,
He says, in general,
prepare
for anything that you wanna do, things that
match it are of its own nature,
things that make it easy for you to
destroy it so
that, again, Ibn Qayyim is telling you
they strategize.
This is a this you want to break
this?
Break it through using 1 or 2 or
3 because these are the most likely things
to break this thing.
This is the most effective way.
You want to assault a human being, assault
him with another human being like him,
a relative,
a close friend,
someone who knows him. Get that person in.
So anything of the nature of what you
wanna destroy, use against them, then you will
destroy it. And he says, and assault
the children of Adam, each one of them
from that point that he likes and from
his desire.
So the
there
is an understanding.
There is an understanding of your nature.
The shaytan understands your nature.
By the way, it's not very difficult.
Kinda your parents, right, they kinda know you.
Right?
Right? Kinda know you. Okay. This is what
he likes. This is what she dislikes. This
is you can push him this way, but
you cannot push him that way. A person
who spends some times around you
will understand you.
They'll know how to talk to you, how
not to talk to you. The shaitan has
always been with you, and also he has
access to you that no other human being
asks
because he can enter
the body. Right? And he can see the
flow of blood. He knows when you're angry,
when you're happy, when you're attracted to something.
He knows that.
So he knows the type of personality
that he is dealing with.
So better you also understand your own personality.
So he will understand if you are impulsive
or hesitant.
Yanim Al Khayim elsewhere, he talks about it.
Every person
had this impulsive force
and kind of hesitant force.
Right?
The gas and the brake.
And some people are very impulsive.
Right?
And some people are very hesitant. They have
to think about things, maybe even overthink.
And some people, they can't don't have time
to think.
They just wanna do it now.
So now he knows
which one of the 2 you are, and
he'll push you.
If you are impulsive, to make your way
too impulsive.
And if you're hesitant, to make your way
too hesitant.
Right? So you'll know where to push.
And again, it it it's important for a
person to understand
themselves.
Right?
You know, you know how we always look
at other people and we try to know
them and understand, but we don't understand ourselves.
It's really important to understand yourself because if
you understand yourself, you'll understand
what you like and how the shaytan is
trying to use it against you.
And he says,
and if Allah had
commanded humanity that they would be patient
against you
and to be more patient than you and
to be stationed on those outposts
to
watch
for your advances,
so you too also be patient with them
and be be more patient with them and
also occupy those stations
so that you will defeat them.
And now Milukhaim is going to present another
kind of,
strategy,
and another common
way where the shaitan is able to attack
the children of Adam. He says, when tahisu
furasa kunfeeimin the shahuati wal khadab. He says,
take advantages
or take advantage
of the time when they are tempted
to do something.
They are
they desire it. So that's the desire, the
pull, or they're angry.
So take advantage
and try to manipulate
and control them when they are
lustful
and when they're angry.
So he's saying you will not be able
to catch the children of Adam with a
net better than
this.
So he says,
wa'alamu.
So here's here,
Hawlul Qayyim is talking about human nature.
Right?
He says, wa'alamo'alaminhums,
know that among them
he will have
greater,
weakness among temptations.
Sultan al Shahuati alahi aqlib.
He's weaker
among temptations or temptations have greater power over
him.
But his anger is not dominant.
So he is weak when it comes to
some temptations,
but he controls his anger.
You know people like that?
Yeah. He doesn't get very angry, can control
it,
but when it comes to certain temptations, he
cannot.
He says, then attack him from the desire
path,
let go of the anger path, because that's
not going to get you anywhere.
Right? He says, you know his weakness, that
temptation going from there.
Don't bother with anger
because he has control over it,
and he says,
but
among them
his anger is dominant. He has no power
over his anger.
Now when he gets angry, he can do
anything. So he says, then use that, but
also don't vacate the path of desire and
lust from his heart.
Because the one who fails to control himself
when he's angry cannot fail
will not be able to control himself when
he is lustful
and filled with desire.
So you say if he cannot control himself
when he's angry,
don't give up on desire. He will also
follow it
because the thing here is what?
This weakness indicates another weakness as well. Right?
So then marry or pair
anger with desire
and mix them with each other, and invite
them to his desire from the path of
anger and to anger from the path of
desire.
That is, make him, when he's angry,
he desires something. He wants to do something,
but it's what?
Still under control.
There are barriers.
Says make him angry enough because he's weak
with his anger. Make him angry enough that
when he's that angry, he'll break that barrier.
He lost control now.
Alright.
So whatever it is whatever it is, like
okay.
He's he's thinking about alcohol,
thinking about drugs,
thinking about this, whatever haram it is, thinking
about it, but
under control.
Make him angry enough
that he'll say, you know what? I'm gonna
do it.
He'll be so angry. He'll leave the house.
She'll leave the house,
and they'll do something stupid.
I want to rebel.
I don't care
anymore.
Right?
And that that rebellion is interesting
because who are you rebelling against?
Right? By by the way, kind of well,
you see the whole culture. I mean, it's
like modern culture or western culture. It's about
rebellion.
Rebel, rebel, rebel, rebel. I mean, and you
see it.
But rebelling against whom? Against nature?
You're rebelling against yourself, really. Yeah. You're right.
You're rebelling against yourself, but you don't see
it. Who are you rebelling against? Can you
rebel against Allah, Azza wa Jal? I don't
care. I'm gonna go and drink. What are
you doing?
Think. What are you doing?
Like, if you have if you have your
mind with you, you'll understand that this is
a deception from the shaitan, but I don't
care. They've been telling me not to do
this. I'm going to do it anyway. My
parents can't control me, that my teachers can't
control me, the masjid can't control me, this
can't control. I'm going to do this.
It's like what are you winning when you
do this?
What are you liberating yourself from?
Can you escape Allah Azzawajal?
Allah Azzawajal, when he's telling you not to
do things, it's because Allah wants to limit
you.
He wants to protect you.
I don't care. Maybe your parents have not
explained things well, or maybe they did.
Regardless,
this is between you and Allah Azzurajal right
now if you know that Allah revealed it.
You want to reject it.
You're rejecting Allah Azza wa Jal. Can you
rebel against Allah? Can you escape Allah? Can
you oppose Allah Azza wa Jal?
And, again, go back to what we said
about Al Mutma'ina. Do you think that your
choice is better than Allah's choice
for you?
Do you think that
Allah's decree or Allah's command
is worse than what you decide for yourself?
Think about this rationally,
common sense,
and he understands that that rebellion that they
are promoting
is eventually, by the way, to control you.
It is to control you.
Because if you're not a slave to Allah,
Azzawajal, you're a slave to what?
To the shaytan,
to this world,
and to those who have power in this
world.
So if you're a slave of Allah, Azzawajal,
he liberates you,
and that is the true rebellion then because
you rebel against the shaitan
and everybody else that is trying to help
him
and the world that he has created.
But if you run away from Allah, Azzawajal,
you run to the bosom of those who
wanna destroy you, and they will enslave you.
They'll enslave you with
lust, temptations,
drugs,
alcohol,
commercials,
consumption,
political manipulation,
you'll be a slave.
So,
Ibn Qayyim is saying
lust and anger, anger and lust.
And he'll use both
against you, and he'll marry them together.
And he said, Wa'alamu annahu raiseafi bani adamah,
and he says, and know that
there's
no 2
weapons
that are mightier among the children of Adam
than those 2 weapons,
the weapon of desires and the weapon of
anger. He
says, I've
made their parents
be expelled from Jannah
because of desire.
I took them out of Jannah because of
desire,
and I made their children kill each other
because of anger.
Right?
Because of it, their
families
family times were cut, and their blood were
shed,
and one of the children of Adam killed
the other.
He says, this is how he destroyed them.
And he says, wa'alamu, and he says, know
that anger
is like a hot coal in the child
in the heart of the child of Adam,
like a hot piece of coal
in the heart of the child of Adam.
And desire also is like a fire inflamed
in his heart.
And the thing that puts out fire
is water
and salah
and Allah's remembrance and takbir.
Khalifa I Yakumi says beware
to let them when they're angry or when
they are controlled with desire, do not let
them come close to salah or to wudu
because this will put out the fire
of anger
and the fire of temptation.
And he says,
and
he said their Prophet had commanded them to
do this. Now, I'm going to read these
hadiths, but these hadiths are weak, but nonetheless
they can be used. I'll tell you how.
That hadith saysin Al Gaddaba, he says, the
anger is a hot coal in the heart
of the child of Adam.
Don't you see how his,
face gets red
and his veins bulge?
He says,
if you experience this, make goodu.
And he said,
water puts out fire.
Now,
Waqadawssahu alaykum
bisaabiyyah sala, and he commanded you that they
will seek assistance of subr and salah against
you.
So Ibn Qayb
is trying to tell you how do you
deal with anger. Now these 2 hadiths, as
I said, they are weak, but you could
use them nonetheless.
Use them nonetheless.
Meaning that when you become angry,
use water.
If you were able to go and make,
what does that do?
It moves you or removes you from that
spot of contention or anger and friction. It
takes you away,
and you're making mudu, and mudu is what?
Mudu is Ibadah.
Right?
So this is one thing that you can
do to deal with anger.
If you're a person who struggles with anger
and you say to yourself,
how do I control it?
Now, the prophet, alaihi salatu wassalam, told us
about other things that we can do to
control our anger.
What are they?
So he said, alayhis salatu wassalam,
that if you're angry,
I know that there's a statement that if
you say Allah will take that anger away.
And what is that?
Ahuudabilahi
minash shaitan.
So I seek Allah's protection from the shaitan,
a cursed shaitan.
Now
when you say it,
once you may not
feel an effect.
Keep repeating it,
especially repeating it with an understanding of what
you are saying, because it is
a supplication.
You're asking,
I seek Allah's protection. Yeah, and you Allah
protect me. So remember this as you are
saying it. You Allah protect me from the
Shaytan. You Allah protect me from the Shaytan,
And keep
saying it. Right?
So
that's one thing
that's important to remember.
The other thing that he said, alayhis salatu
wa sallam, that if you get angry and
you are standing,
did you
sit?
And if you are sitting,
die down.
So you're less prone to engage
in an argument,
physical or even verbal,
when you make that movement, when you move
like this.
Standing,
sitting, lying down. Don't you see that the
person who is lying down, if they want
to engage in an argument, what do they
do?
They sit.
And if they're sitting, what do they want
to do? They stand.
Right?
So the prophet, alayhis salatu wasalam, like in
another context when he's talking about the fitna
in general,
Right? He said the one is walking better
than the one who is running and the
one is standing better than
roughly that's the meaning. The one who is
the one who is sitting is better than
the one who is standing. In a fitnah,
the one who is
kind of more eager to engage in it
is worse, and the one who is less
engaged in it is better.
It's the same thing here, less engagement in
it.
So physically, you would do this. Verbally, you
would say that, and you could add to
it that will do you could add with
also what?
Moving yourself away from
that
spot
and not saying a thing,
not saying a thing.
Right?
Until you're calm, and you've thought about what
you want to say.
You really thought about it, and then you
go ahead and you say whatever you want
to say.
And when you do that, you say to
yourself
you say to yourself,
I can say whatever
whenever,
but once it's out, you can't take it
back.
So better you think about it before you
regret it.
And how many people divorced their wives, left
their husbands,
destroyed their families,
did things that they regretted because they decided
in the moment that they want to talk?
Right?
And of course, you have to remember that
whenever you decide to talk
in the heat of the moment, who's right
next to you?
The Shaytan. He says, I play with them
at that moment.
They're like a ball in my hand. I
play with them in that moment.
So if you want to close that door,
you be quiet,
and then you can talk later.
And I remember someone saying once,
I mean, for all of us who say
that we cannot control our anger.
Right?
He said, but there are times when you
actually do control your anger.
What happens when your boss yells at you?
Do you punch him back,
or do you take it?
Yes, boss. Yes, sir.
Right?
I'm not saying you're submissive like that. I'm
just saying I'm exaggerating.
Why do you take it?
Because you know that there's a hierarchy. Right?
And if I do this, if I say
anything, the cost is
too high.
It's too high.
So
can you control your anger?
Yeah.
You can.
So why is it that you can't control
your anger with somebody else?
Because then
the cost is not high and you have
power over them. You're not afraid.
But the fact remains, you can when you
want to.
All of us, by the way, we can
if we want to. It's just we cannot
let allow ourselves
to progress
and listen
to the shaitan when we're angry in some
places, but not in other places. But if
you always think about
anger having a cost, and you're supposed to
think about it and,
model yourself after the prophet, alayhis salatu wasalam,
and how he was, they didn't understand that.
You could be a better person, and you
could conquer this anger. So there's no excuse
for someone to say,
I'm just angry. I'm just angry.
No. And he says, he continues,
he says that the strongest weapon that they
have,
as strong as it was you have against
them is, as he said, in attentiveness, rafla
and following desire,
and their and their strongest weapons against you
is the
Disobeying their desire and their members of Allah.
He says that is the greatest weapon that
they have against you.
So now you have a weapon.
You know about it, but it's good to
remember.
Dhikrullahi a Zojin.
Dhikrullahi. If you remember Allah and you stay
away from your desire, you'll be strong. He
says, if you see a person who disobeys
his desire,
run away from his shadow.
He says, run away from his shadow. Don't
even come close to him.
So he still wanted want to tell you
that they'll be aware of who is strong
and who is weak. And there's the strong,
they'll be afraid.
To an extent, they'll be afraid, fearful of
him. And he says, and and kind of
the summary or what I want to get
at is that sins
are
or is the weapon
and the supply that you give to your
enemy,
and with that you assist them against yourself.
So they fight you with your own weapon,
and you supply them with things that defeat
you.
And that is really an
kind of a
eloquent way of putting it. It's like, here's
your enemy,
and you're saying, here's the weapon.
Fight me. Here's this weapon. Fight me. And
who's the one who's giving it? You to
them to fight you.
You're opening the door. Right? The enemy is,
you know, camping outside
and it's a fortress, and all the doors
are closed. And then you open the door,
and you say, come in.
Who's letting them in? He says, you're letting
them in. You're supplying them.
You're giving them a map
of
the, the territory for them to enter and
then to take control of it. You're the
one who's supplying all of it. He
says this is extreme ignorance, and then he
said,
he says
enemies will not be able to harm an
ignorant person as much as an ignorant person
is able to harm himself.
Right? No one can harm you more than
you harm yourself,
and you are the one who lets your
enemies
in.
And he says,
and maybe I'll just kind of translate this
and come back to it later,
So just leave time for some questions.
It says, and it's wonderous how a person
will
do his best to humiliate himself, and he
while claiming that he is trying to make
it noble.
Like, what he's doing, he thinks I'm trying
to make it noble and to
garner and bring respect to it and to
elevate it. And but what he's doing is
he's demeaning himself,
and he's belittling himself,
and he's diminishing himself
through his acts. You think you're helping yourself
and you're harming yourself. You're elevating you're elevating
yourself, and actually you are demoting yourself
by disobeying Allah
and listening to the shaitan. You think you're
doing yourself a service and in fact you
are working against yourself.
The same thing.
Perhaps a person is humiliating himself,
but while claiming that he is elevating it
and he is honoring it,
and he humiliates himself while thinking that he's
bringing nobility to it, and diminishes himself while
thinking that he's making it great, and he's
wasting himself while thinking that he is taking
care of it.
Hajib, subhanallah, is incredible.
You will not meet a person who says,
yes, I'm working against myself.
Everything that any person does, he says, is
for my own advantage. Right?
Every penny you you spend is for my
own advantage,
but the perception is missing. The wisdom is
missing. You're spending money against yourself.
Ajib. Right?
You're spending time, like you have time, you
spend it against yourself.
You pay to harm yourself.
But if we are a person to ask
you, you said, no. No. Of course, I'm
taking care of myself, but you're not
because the wisdom is absent, absolutely absent. You're
not being guided by Allah, azza wa jal.
You're listening to someone else, to yourself, and
you're listening to the shaitan.
Aluakafabimmar
ijahlandsunaf
ignorance for the person for a person to
be with his enemy against himself
does more harm to it than any enemy
can do to it.
So that's what Ibn Khayim
wanted to say
about how the shaitan kind of takes advantages
of
what we already have and turns us against
ourselves, and he uses here rafla
and shahwa
and also uses ghadab anger
and shahwa with them and how he manipulates
us with all of that.
Inshallah. Let me know inshallah if you have
questions.
I'll be happy to answer them inshallah before
salatah.
No. That's for me. I'm not do I
don't give it to him. That's for me.
And the religious happy, not happy? That's my
comment. Blame me for it.
Okay. Challenge.
Challenge. Go ahead.
No.
Alhamdulillah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Uh-huh.
Keep drinking.
Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.
That's a high agree with you.
No.
So I need the comment is that,
that,
sinners are not actually happy. Right?
But,
they're always
struggling with the sin that they are doing,
and that's that's
true.
I was trying to address a perception
that some people have. Right? Why is it
that? But
but in reality, as I hope that I
was able to convey that it's not real.
Right?
Just quick question. Is marijuana makruh or haram?
What do you think? I mean,
it's haram. Anything
that makes you high,
anything that makes you high conceals your brain,
takes it away from you. That is what
is haram.
Okay?
Whatever is kind of to block the brain.
So whatever does that,
you know, even if when it's a lot,
even a little bit of it is haram.
So marijuana is supposed to be haram, and
we said before, you know, when we talked
about it that
it does lead to
serious consequences,
right? Yeah
Now, Zagal Akhir. So he's saying, you know,
why would Ibn Khayr,
include a hadith
that is daaif in his book,
even though he is,
knowledgeable in hadith?
So there
are several reasons why that may happen.
First of all, an imam may consider
a hadith to be authentic
according to his research,
but another doesn't.
So
that is always a possibility,
right, that this imam considered it to be
authentic based on his research or the criteria
that he applied,
but according to another imam, it isn't. Right?
So that's always a possibility. That's why you
find kind of discrepancy
between what they code and how they code
it. The second is,
they do see some benefit in some of
the weak hadith.
So as long as that hadith is not
incredibly weak,
as long as it carries in it a
meaning that they consider to be sound that
can be used,
They they say, okay, this can reinforce what
I'm saying, and it doesn't oppose it.
So if a person can use, as I
said, like I said, it is weak, but
you can still use it because it does
bring some benefit to you.
So even if it turns out that this
is not the statement of the prophet alaihi
salatu wassalam, but a recommendation from the some
of the sahaba, let's say,
You'd say, okay, if there's still some benefit
in it, so they would put it there
to kind of bring
all everything and everything that is useful,
and they say, here.
They will not, of course, put anything that
is fabricated, maldur.
They will not put anything that is extremely
weak. They'll not put anything that may be
weak, but has,
wrong advice or wrong information in it, then
they will exclude all of that. Or if
they put it, they'll tell you
with that warning that, by the way, this
is what is wrong with it. But otherwise,
since there is benefit in it, they may
still include it.
Yeah.
It would fall under that because this is
not a kam
of how to pray and how to fast
and how to give zakah, so there's some
benefit in it.
They could be used.
So the
Yes.
And then another time he's pairing the shahaw
with, with the.
Yes.
No. So the question is, and I don't
know if I can answer it now, insha'Allah,
but at the at least the question is
that,
Sheikh Rahim Allah is has paired,
Shawwa with rafla and also shahwa with ghadab,
with anger,
but not the third the you said not?
But he always keeping But he always keeping
shahwa. The shahwa So why is it that
common element between them?
And it is, wallahu a'alam, the common element
because of its dominance,
but everybody
everybody has this shahua.
And this shahua is multifaceted, so it's not
you're not attracted to one thing, you're attracted
to multiple things.
So since it is very dominant,
it is
that link that is able to bring other
elements, wallahu a'alam,
Allah, other destructive elements, whether it is rafla,
to stray away from Allah Azzawajal, or anger,
or anything else it may bring. So that
is its dominance
and its prevalence, and because it has multiple
areas in it, I think that's the reason
why he sees in it a link between
those various ghafla
and then ghadab at the same time.
I think that's that's the dominance. But
if I think of something else I'll let
you know
that I am not sure of.
Right?
And does shaitan have access to our hearts,
or to our thoughts, to what we're thinking
about?
He may have.
He may have,
but at this point, I'm not sure.
Or he may have partial
or he may have indications
like with pulsing,
blood
or,
changes in your hormones and changes in your
bodies.
And so he may be aware of changes,
biological
changes in you that can indicate certain things.
So, you know, the only thing that comes
to mind at this moment
is
Yani when,
rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam, he was suspecting whether
ibn al Sayed was at Dajjal or not
and he said, to him,
He says I've hidden something for you, and
Ibn Sayed said, adduch.
Right? And the prophet had hidden adduchan,
and he was able to get that only,
adduch.
So he said, ikhsafalanta adduhuqadrach, you'll be humiliated,
you will not exceed your station.
So that is something the Prophet hid for
him, yet through the shaitan he was able
to get
some, but not all. So the only thing
that comes to mind, but I'm not sure.
So at this point, I don't know a
lot.
Last question, so I don't wanna take,
Yeah, inshallah.
So
I think your
second one is a question. The first one
was a comment, right? So the first is
there so the question is is there a
place where or places where shaitan is less
dominant?
And other places where the shaitan is more
dominant and the answer is definitely true.
Yes.
So a place, you could talk about a
country, you could talk about a city, you
could talk about a location that has greater
sins and more sins,
will have
that dominion of the shaitan. The shaitan will
have more power and you will feel
less comfortable
in it. You're more agitated,
more disturbed
because you're in it. Whereas if you compare
it to a place that is blessed
or a place that people
are more obedient to Allah Azza wa Jal
and you find that there is greater Sakina
and tranquility
and peace in it. You will feel it
when you enter. It is just a feeling.
You cannot describe it, but it's a feeling
that you will get, and there is less
agitation, less discomfort, you're more at peace.
So the houses of Allah Azzawal are supposed
to be like that,
and Mecca and Medina are supposed to be
like
that. They're not inhabited by angels. When you
go to visit the Mecca and Medina, you're
not entering Jannah. You'll find things that will
upset you,
but at the same time, it's better than
many, many other places. Right? Actually better than
anything any other place on earth. So there
are places like that. And when you sense
it, alhamdulillah, praise Allah, Azarillah, Allah
walk on you so that you will be
able to receive that.
We'll stop here insha'Allah.