Aqeel Mahmood – Traps of Shaytaan Smoking & Music
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Before a person
can
protect himself from the shaitaan,
he needs to first of all
realize
that shaitaan is his enemy in the first
place.
And from the tricks and from the deceptions
of Shaytan
is that he'll make attractive those things
which are forbidden to us.
And
he'll make us think
that certain things that we're doing,
things that we think are acceptable,
things that we think are the norm,
things that
are so common
and we're surrounded by them that we think
that they're things which are halal.
There's nothing wrong with them. It's normal. Everyone's
doing it.
So the shaitan makes us think and he
tricks us into thinking
that something which is haram,
something which is forbidden is in fact something
which is allowed, and there's nothing wrong with
it. And I want I want to mention
2
vices
which
are common in society today,
things which many people do,
and some even think that is something which
is normal. There's nothing wrong with this. It's
harmless.
It's okay to do.
That's how common it's become in society today.
One of those things
which has become common and the first of
the things I'm going to mention of the
2
is
smoking.
Allah SWT he mentions in the Quran,
he says
don't kill yourselves.
And he says
don't use your own hands to destroy your
own selves.
Many years ago,
40 or 50 years ago
when smoking became common,
the scholars they would say that it was
something which was disliked.
It was Makro.
They never forbade smoking outright.
Why? Because they didn't know the harmful effects
of smoking.
When scientific research came out and people started
to realize
the harms that it has on the body,
the fact that it causes lung cancer, and
many other illnesses, and many of you know
the harmful effects of smoking. You all know
the problems that it causes and the things
that, you know,
are a cause and a reason
for a person when he smokes, the problems
that it has that it has on the
health and other things that that it causes
in in within a person. You all know
these things. It's not something which is a
secret anymore.
And
even though we know this,
certain trends,
certain traditions, certain imports,
we think
that it's okay
because they're coming from specific countries,
because they're coming from Islamic countries.
For example,
shisha,
smoking shisha,
and hookah bars, and hookah lounges.
People think this is something there's nothing wrong
with it.
It's safer than it's it's safer than, you
know, cigarette smoking, it's safer than tobacco.
It's okay. It's something harmless.
We have Muslims doing it in, you know,
Arab countries.
They're wearing thawbs, they're wearing shimals, and they're
smoking this thing. It can't be anything wrong
with this. It must be okay.
But we don't look at the individuals who
are doing this act, rather we look at
what Allah
and the messenger of Allah have
said with regards to these types of things.
Abu Bakr radiaallahu an, when he decided
to fight those who refused to give zakah,
and he declared that he will go to
war with those people who gave zakah, Umar
radiaallahu an, he said to him, how can
you fight people who say la ilaha illallah?
None of the companions were with the mess
were with Abu Bakr radiallahu anhu. None of
them agreed with him at the beginning.
But Abu Bakr radiallahu anhu was in the
right even though he was on his own.
So it shows us that just because
a majority
are doing something doesn't make it something which
is allowed,
doesn't make it something which is justified.
And this illness which has become so commonplace
today,
people smoking shisha,
and shisha is a form of smoking
where the tobacco is mixed with certain
herbs and certain spices,
and
it goes through a
system where it mixes with water.
And you inhale that smoke. And people think
because it's it's we we use the water
as a filtering system that it's something which
is less harm harmful than cigarette smoking, than
tobacco smoking.
Yet if we look at the research,
we'll see
that smoking shisha
is actually worse than smoking cigarettes.
It's actually more harmful than smoking the everyday
cigarettes that we buy from the shops.
They say
a person
who smokes
shisha for 1 hour
is similar to a person
smoking 100 cigarettes,
100 cigarettes, a person who smokes shisha, who
goes to a shisha lounge, and his sister
with his friends, and he's smoking shisha for
1 hour, it's equivalent to someone smoking 100
cigarettes.
So it's not something which is a healthy
alternative,
It's not a good alternative.
It's not a halal alternative to smoking. It's
in fact worse and it's causing more problems
for you and in for for your health.
And this is because when the the tobacco
mixes with the water, more smoke
is is made.
And you're inhaling more smoke than you would
inhale with with, you know, cigarette smoking.
There's more smoke that you're inhaling. So it's
actually causing more problems for you.
It's causing more of a health problem.
So brothers and sisters, we really need to
be aware
of these types of illnesses and these types
of diseases and these types of tricks from
the shaitan
when he repackages certain things
and makes them look attractive,
calls them by names which, you know, we
don't normally use to deceive the people, to
make the people think these things are harmless,
there's nothing wrong with it.
And even things which are associated with this,
a person may say, well I go to
hookah lounge, but I don't smoke it.
But even the people you're around, the people
you socialize with,
those kinds of people, they're not going to
be people who are going to bring you
closer to Allah
They're going to be people who are taking
you further and further away from Allah
And we can talk about the harmful effects
of smoking,
and we can talk about its harms and
how it's something which isn't allowed and impermissible.
But a person needs to know how he
can stay away from it, what steps can
he take in order to make sure that
he stops himself from smoking and he quit
smoking,
whatever it whatever it is, whatever type of
smoking it may be.
First of all, the the person, the brother
or the sister needs to realize, 1st and
foremost, that is something which isn't allowed.
Because if someone is saying it's something which
is harmless, it's something which isn't forbidden, it's
something which is okay, he's not going to
make that effort, He's not going to make
that extra effort to stop himself from this
type of disease and from this illness.
He needs to realize what he's doing is
wrong, and they say the first step
for an addict is to realize that he's
addicted to something,
to realize that what he's doing is wrong,
to realize that what he's intaking or what
he's doing to his body is something which
is harmful to him and to recognize this.
And once he recognizes this, he can take
the necessary precautions and the necessary steps.
Also a person needs to be aware of
who he's socializing with, who he's mixing with.
The messenger of Allah he
said,
that man is on the religion of his
friend.
So look at who you become friends with,
look at who you're socializing with, look at
those people
that you're with, your friends. How are they
influencing you? What things are they saying? What
things are they doing?
Are they influencing you in a good way
or are they influencing you in a bad
way?
A person needs to be careful of those
people that he socializes with.
That's the first thing which many people have
fallen into the trap of doing without realizing
that it's something which, you know, isn't allowed.
It's something which is harmful to them. 1st
and foremost,
because of the fact that it's impermissible,
because of the fact that it's something which
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has forbidden. And when
you do something which Allah
has forbidden and you do something which is
haram, then it's going to take you away
from Allah Azzawajal.
It's going to lower your iman.
It's going to take you away
from the happiness and the bliss that you
would want in this world and in the
hereafter.
As Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that
that whoever wants the reward of this world,
whoever wants the good of this world, then
verily with Allah is the
good of this world and the good of
the hereafter.
The second
trick and the second deception of shaitan, and
the second thing
which is something which is so common, people
seem to think it's something which is harmless.
It's no big deal. It's not a problem
anymore.
It's not having an effect on me.
And the second thing
is listening to music.
Something we're surrounded by wherever we go. We
go to the supermarket,
we go shopping and we hear it in
the stores.
We're at home and we watch television
and we hear music.
We're in the masjid
for the salah
and someone
someone's mobile phone goes off and it's music
playing, subhanAllah.
It's something we're surrounded by. It's something which
it's as if, you know, we've become
immune to this problem.
It's like as if this problem doesn't affect
us anymore, and people think it's something which
is harmless. There's nothing wrong with this.
Allah
says in the Quran,
That there are those people
who purchase Lahul Hadith.
Lahul Hadith.
They purchase Lahul Hadith
to misguide
and to take the people away from the
path of Allah
When the companions came to Abdullah ibn Mas'ud
the famous scholar of the Quran,
they asked him what's Lahul Hadith? What does
Lahul Hadith mean?
I don't talk. What does this mean?
What is the meaning of lahu al hadith?
And he replied and he said, wallahi, he
said, by Allah.
By Allah the one whom none has the
right to be worshipped except him. This means
music and singing. He swore by Allah
one of the greatest companions of the Messenger
of Allah
And he said this is music and singing,
something which takes the people away from the
path of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So first and foremost,
before anything else,
music in and of itself is something which
takes a person away from the path of
Allah. It takes a person away from the
remembrance of Allah
And if a person is being taken away
from the remembrance of Allah Azzawajal,
then
he's not going to live a happy life.
Allah
says in the Quran,
Whoever turns away
from My remembrance
then he will have a constricted life, a
very difficult life, a hard life. It's not
going to be easy for him. He's going
to have problems, he's going to be depressed,
he's going to be sad.
And on the day of judgment we'll raise
him up and he'll be blind. He won't
even be able to see. Allah will take
his eyesight away from him on the greatest
day, on the most frightening day that he
will ever live.
Imagine if one of us woke up
in the safety and security of our own
homes,
surrounded by our family,
totally secure,
and we wake up and we open our
eyes, yet there's still darkness, we can't see
anything.
We become blind. How afraid would we feel?
How scared would we become?
How much would we panic?
And this is in our own homes, in
the comfort of our own homes with people
who we know. Imagine on the day of
judgment brothers and sisters,
being raised up blind, not being able to
know what's going on around you, not knowing
where your family is, not knowing what's happening
with all the sounds that you're hearing.
And he will say,
Why have you made me someone who is
blind? And
I was someone who could see in this
world. Why can't I see now?
And Allah
will say,
This is because
just like in this world when Ayat came
to you, when verses came to you, when
our proofs came to you, you refused them.
You forgot about them. You neglected them.
And today you will be forgotten about.
You won't be remembered.
So first and foremost,
this is something which isn't allowed in Islam.
It's not allowed for us to listen to
music.
And many people think it's something which is
harmless.
It's okay. It's just sounds.
It's not having an effect on my iman.
It's not having a problem,
you know, with me spiritually.
Brothers and sisters,
not only is music having an effect on
you spiritually and with regards to your Iman,
it's having an effect on you mentally
and it's having an effect on you
emotionally,
and it's having an effect on you even
physically.
It changes the way you move.
It changes the way you walk.
With regards to a person's emotion,
when music is played,
it plays with a person's emotion.
How many times have we seen a person
who listens to a specific type of music
and because of that music that he's listening
to he starts to cry?
He starts to become sad.
He starts to become upset because of the
music that he's listening to.
And how many times have you heard music
being played and that individual who listens to
that music becomes happy as a result of
him listening to this type of music?
So it's having an effect on him emotionally.
It's changing the way his mood is, the
way his character is, the way he's the
way he's feeling.
Your emotions are being dictated by the music
that you're listening to.
And not only that,
but also mentally
it changes a person.
Scientists say that when a person
listens to music,
it has an effect on his body and
the
windpipes they widen
and the heartbeat increases when he listens to
music.
And if he listens to harder music, if
he listens to hard rap for example or
another type of music which is harder and
it has a faster beat, then his heart
starts to beat even faster.
And when his heart starts to beat even
faster
and he has these changes in the body,
what does he want to do?
He wants to move around.
This is why when you go to gyms
for example, they play music.
They play music in gyms, gets a person
going,
you know, increases the heartbeat, he wants to
do things.
And this is why in night clubs for
example,
you see people dancing
with the music.
So you're being controlled
by the music that you're listening to. Your
movements are being dictated
by what you're listening to with the music
that that you hear.
It's having an effect on you physically.
You see people in nightclubs and they're dancing
not because, you know, they're not hearing anything,
it's because of the music that they're dancing.
It's the music that causes them to move
in certain ways.
And that's why when the music stops all
of a sudden, there's a power outage. The
music cuts off. What happens?
Everyone stops dancing.
No one carries on dancing and they all
start complaining. What happened to the music? Where
did the music go?
And then when the music starts again, they
start dancing again.
And if it's hard music, their movements become
more erratic.
They become more physical in the way they
they move. And if it's softer music, their
movements change. SubhanAllah.
Our bodies are being controlled by the music
that we listen to.
And even people who listen to music while
they're sitting down or even in their cars
for example,
it has an effect on their body.
They're moving certain parts of the body. You
go down a road for example, you go
down Adamrock Road
at night and you'll see people,
okay, in their cars with the music blaring
and parts of their body are moving.
They're listening to music and their heads are
moving up and down with the music that
they're listening to. Maybe they're tapping their hands
against the steering wheel
by what they're hearing, by the music that
they're hearing.
So the music that a person listens to
has an effect on him,
not just emotionally,
but also physically.
And we can see these types of effects
on the body that music has brothers and
sisters. It's not something which is harmful. It's
not something which is harmless.
It's not something which doesn't have an effect
on the body.
A person needs to take
precautions with regards to this. He needs to
realize its dangers
and the problem surrounding this,
and the fact that
with music
it takes him away from the remembrance of
Allah. When a person listens to music
he doesn't think to himself, you know, I'm
going to do a good deed today. I'm
going to go and be good to my
parents. I'm going to go and give charity.
I'm going to go and read some Quran.
I'm going to go and start praying to
Allah Azzawajal.
He never says this when he listens to
music.
It doesn't have that effect on him.
It doesn't have that effect on him.
It has the opposite effect.
It takes the person away from the remembrance
of Allah and from the worship of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So now that we realize and we recognize
the harms of listening to music, we need
to know and understand and take those necessary
steps to stay away from this. What can
we do to make sure that we stop
listening to music? Knowing that it's causing,
you know, an effect and it's having a
harmful effect
on not just our iman,
not just our Islam, but also
on our physical,
emotional, and mental state?
What steps can we take? What things can
we do?
1st and foremost,
a person
should read and listen to the book of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Read the Quran.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
verily by the remembrance of Allah
will the hearts find true find true tranquility
and peace.
Only with the remembrance of Allah. A person
who listens to music thinks he's happy,
thinks he's happy when he hears the music,
but when the music stops
he becomes sad.
And before you know it he's someone who
is addicted to music. He can't stop listening
to music. He doesn't feel happy, he doesn't
feel satisfied
until he listens to music, And this is
an illness that he has.
It's an addiction that he that he has.
The fact that he won't feel happiness until
he listens to music. And he ends up
listening to music day and night before he
goes to sleep, before he when he wakes
up in the morning.
He has to listen to music.
It's like a fix for him.
He can't achieve happiness except without this.
So a person needs to listen to the
Quran, needs to recite the Quran, be surrounded
by the book of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And the scholars they say when a person
listens to the Quran
and when he has Quran in his heart
then
music can't enter into that heart.
And the same is true of the opposite.
You can't have music and Quran in the
same heart,
it's not possible.
That's why some people when they hear the
Quran and we ask Allah that we're not
from those people, when they hear the Quran
they tend to have a dislike for the
Quran. They don't want to listen to the
Quran because they're not used to listening to
Quran because they're too busy listening to music.
They have a dislike for the Quran, they
have dislike for the Book of Allah
And a person who listens to the Quran
a lot,
he listens to the book of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala
and he doesn't listen to music,
then when he hears music he has a
dislike for music.
He doesn't like listening to music,
he doesn't enjoy it
because he has this attachment to the Quran.
He has an attachment to the book of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So a person needs to surround himself with
the book of Allah, with the Quran
wherever he is,
on his mobile phone, get rid of any
music you may have,
put some Quran on there and alhamdulillah nowadays
there's many different reciters,
many different reciters who recite many different surahs
of the Quran. So much variety, there's so
much opportunity for a person to listen to
the book of Allah, to listen to the
Quran.
Get rid of it in your cars.
Don't have any music in your cars anymore.
Every time a person gets the urge to
listen to music, he should put the Quran
on.
Put some Quran on, put the put the
the the words of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
so that they may penetrate your heart.
Put these CDs on.
Because when a person
goes into the habit
of listening to music,
the more he listens to it the harder
it will become for him.
And a person needs to cut off from
this illness that he has.
Also from the ways
of
staying away from this illness of listening to
music is by looking at who he socializes
with as we have mentioned.
Looking at who he becomes friends with. The
people who he surrounds himself with, are they
people who listen to music? If they are,
then he needs to stay away from them.
Advise them 1st and foremost in a good
way,
in a nice way.
And if they refuse,
then you need to look out for your
own self.
Save yourself and then your families from the
hellfire.
Be concerned about your own selves
and avoid those people who are going to
make you listen
to that music. Because when a person listens
to music,
when a person listens to a song, he
might have heard a song 10 years ago
and it might have been 10 years before
he heard it again, but when he hears
that song again,
he'll remember those lyrics.
Even though it's been such a long time,
he still remembers those lyrics. And that's why
it's said that the the
music and singing is the Quran of the
Shaitan.
Because once a person hears a song and
once a person learns those lyrics of that
song, it never goes away.
It's always with him.
From the benefits of listening to the book
of Allah,
listening to the Quran
is that as a result of this
he will receive the mercy of Allah azza
wa jal. If a person listens to Quran
in his home, on his mobile phone, while
he's in his car,
this
deed
will cause Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
to show his mercy on you.
And how many of us would want the
mercy of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala upon us?
When our friends show mercy to us, when
our brothers show mercy to us, our fathers,
our mothers, our sisters,
when they show mercy to us, when we
make a mistake and they forgive us, how
grateful do we feel? How happy do we
become?
Now how happy would we become if we
knew that Allah's mercy was coming upon us,
that Allah was being merciful to us because
we were doing this deed? If a person
stays away from listening to music and listens
to the Quran, listens to the book of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, we will have the
mercy of Allah.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
When the Quran is being recited
then
listen to it
and keep quiet
so that mercy may be shown to you,
so that the mercy of Allah
will be will be given to you.
We ask Allah
that he protects us from these vices of
the shaitan.
From
the tricks and deceptions of the shaitan is
that he'll try to target
those people who are weak and those people
who are vulnerable.
And those people for example who may be
isolated,
and they don't have,
good people that they're surrounded by.
And many of our youth, those of us
who are in college, those of us who
are in universities,
they tend to be in a certain crowd
where it weakens their Iman. And they may
have certain problems and certain issues.
For example with regard to their Muslim identity,
with regard to taking people as their role
models, certain celebrities,
singers, actors, you know footballers,
you know sports people.
And they'll have other issues
with regards to Islamic finance,
student loans,
these types of problems.
And they have it has an effect on
their self esteem.
They don't have high aspirations, they have inferiority
complex.
And so this is why
the brothers at the Masjid,
they've decided to hold an event this Sunday
called Winners and Sinners
for students aged 16 to 24,
focusing on this age group, focusing on the
issues that they have to deal with day
in and day out, because it's a time
when a person might leave his home and
he might go to another city or another
area to study, and he's away from home.
He might be away from his Muslim brothers
and sisters, and so his iman is low.
He's being faced with other with all kinds
of, you know, troubles and dilemmas.
And so this event that's taking place this
Sunday insha'Allah
here in the Masjid, winners and sinners,
I advise all those people, all of you
who are aged between this age or you
know someone who is being affected,
you know, because of the the the the
people that he's surrounded by, the area that
he is in, Maybe he was someone who
was a good brother, maybe he was a
practicing brother, but when he left and he
went to a college or university,
then, you know, his iman decreased. His Islam
wasn't as strong as it used to be.
So this event is for those people,
and I really advise brothers to try and
come to this event. If they want to
register, they can register after the salah,
by the by the entrance of the masjid
or they can register in the in the
office. We ask Allah
that he makes
our youth the leader the future leaders of
this Ummah.
Soulsfulfirm,
straighten your rose.
Straightening the roses from the perfection of the
prayer, so make sure your rose is straight.
Please turn off your mobile phones.