Bilal Assad – Patience & Perseverance
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Today, our topic is about steadfastness,
patience, and perseverance
from the book Riyadu Salihin
by Imam and Nawawi.
And brothers and sisters,
the patience that I'm talking about is not
the typical cliche patience that all of us
honestly think.
A lot of us, when we say patience,
the immediate
thought that comes to our mind is bad
things happening to us like sickness and calamities
or whatever it is,
loss of job, loss of wealth,
things are not going well for you so
we be patient.
This is not the topic
of patience like that.
Please, first of all, listen to the definition
of what patience and
steadfastness in Islam really means and change
your understanding.
Tonight, you're gonna change this understanding
because till now,
people still get it wrong. Even the people
who have
been religious for a while, they still don't
know what it means.
So let us today, inshallah, look at what
perseverance,
steadfastness, patience really means and how to do
it. And inshallah,
I want to address
our young generation
very importantly on this topic.
So my brothers and sisters,
the best definition which our scholars gave about
the meaning of Sabr, the Arabic word is
Sabr.
Sabr.
In English, we don't have an equivalence meaning
equivalent meaning. Even in Hebrew, they don't have
it. They say this is a word that
you Muslims have.
The word means
the definition is like this,
to restrain the self from what should not
be done.
Can you repeat that?
Sabr in Arabic, in Islam,
steadfastness and patience means
to restrain the self from what should not
be done.
That's the meaning of patience in Islam.
Some scholars,
they give you some other different
branches
of what it means but this in all
the different definitions, in all the cases,
no matter what happens,
it means to restrain the self from what
should not be done.
Now let's go into a bit more detail.
And I'm going to
use the
words of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in Surat
Alih Anran verse 200. Allah says,
Allah says, O believers,
be steadfast
be steadfast
and battle
in steadfastness.
Stand firm in your faith and hold Allah
in fear
that
may attain true success.
Therefore, in this verse,
we find
4 main messages.
The first message is that Allah addresses the
believers specifically.
Because
when you have belief and faith in Allah
and you follow the Quran and his prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
then you are ready
to exercise
correct patience, that's the next step.
Then Allah says the second message,
He tells us to be steadfast.
To be steadfast
is the right between you
and Allah.
Be steadfast
in the rights that are between you and
who?
And Allah.
You and Allah.
We're gonna explain that. The 3rd message,
he then says,
and or battle in steadfastness.
What does that mean? It means
any
pressure
or battle
or fight
or attacks from outside against
your faith and your religion and your
steadfastness in what pleases Allah from outsiders.
It can be physical fighting. It can be
in war. It can be in
peer pressure
or it can be
from family or friends
that strive
against you to lead you astray or to
stop what you're doing in goodness
or they threaten you or they blackmail and
so on, Allah says,
battle with that.
Don't let them win.
Don't let them get you.
The the the 4th message here is Allah
is saying,
stand firm in your faith
from the moment you're born or the moment
you reach puberty till you die,
go back and stand firm in your faith.
Don't wither.
Someone might say, what if I my life
is in danger?
We say to you the the the the
the minimum
and the thing which no 1 has control
over you is your heart. So if somebody
is in a life and death situation
and they want you to do something completely
against Allah, you give in to that, but
in your heart you don't believe it. You
stay firm. So that when it's all over,
you return back to what your heart is
already firm on. And that's the example of
Ammar ibn Uyasa radiAllahu anhu,
the companion of the prophet when
he was
tortured and his mother and father were being
killed in front of him for him to
say bad words about the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam and to mention their idols in a
higher power, he did so.
Even though he said it, they killed his
parents and they saved his life. And then
he was crying, Rasulullah said to him, don't
worry. Your parents are the first martyrs. They're
in paradise.
And then he said,
It's not that what I'm crying about. I'm
crying because
I said bad words about you, Rasulullah.
My faith is gone. I'm doomed.
And he said to him, oh, Ammar, what
does your heart feel?
He said, my heart is firm on iman
You Rasulullah.
He said,
If they catch you in the same way
and torture you like that and they want
you to say the same thing, you say
the same thing.
Say the same thing so long as your
heart is firm. This doesn't matter when you
are in life and death situation or in
a situation where there's going to be danger
to you or your property or your life.
So Islam is a fair religion and practical.
However,
the reason I said this runs is just
to answer that question because some people ask
me, being firm on your religion means the
heart and then the actions
that follow. And not just the heart. You
can't say, but my heart is good. No.
Your heart is not good if all you
do in your actions is opposite to what
you claim in your heart. I'm gonna repeat.
Anybody who claims that when they are continuing
their sins and not doing their obligations and
they claim that they love Allah and His
Messenger and they say, my heart is good,
you
are a lying thief,
You are
a soldier of the shaitan.
Because there cannot be a heart that is
good without the actions.
If the heart is good, the actions will
show. And that is why the Prophet peace
be upon him said,
Allah does not look at your shapes, your
figures. And He does not look at the
way you look,
what color you are, whether you're good looking
or not good looking, whether you're tall or
short, whether you got weight or not, Allah
doesn't look at that stuff.
He said,
What Allah looks at, what's important to Him
is what is inside your hearts
and then what your actions do.
Nobody says, I love you and they act
opposite to it, you're gonna say you're a
cheater.
Isn't that right? You're a betrayer.
You're not a true friend. You're not a
true person who loves me.
Nobody says that. But when it comes to
Allah, they say my heart is good. If
your heart is good, follow it up. Otherwise,
there are consequences.
So my brothers and sisters, this aya is
saying stand firm on your faith and hold
Allah in fear. Who who are you fearing?
It is Allah that you should fear.
You're fearing that a friend will leave you
because you're steadfast on your religion?
Is your friend going to save you on
a day of judgment?
Is your friend gonna be there for you
when you fall?
If he or she is a bad friend
who leads you astray, wallahi, they will leave
you when you fall. And if you are
not friends with them and they leave you
wallahi, they'll be the first to slander you
and to expose you.
Take it from me, I've been a teacher
for a very long time and work with
young people. It happens day in day out
all the time. You warn them, they don't
listen. Then they fall into the same mistake
and some people have to learn the hard
way. And some people learn from other people's
mistake. The more intelligent person is the 1
who looks and knows other people's faults and
sees the consequences and learns from it. The
person who is naive is the 1 who
has to fall before they learn. And the
extremely
the extreme loser is the 1 who keeps
falling and then says to themselves, it's okay
if I fall. It's normal and I'll keep
doing it and I'll invite others to it.
They're the most evil people. But everybody can
come back out and repent.
So my brothers and sisters,
I had to start off strongly like that
because the society we live in is a
hypersexualized
society. Social media has be is being used
by 90% of young people in the wrong
way and they are falling into big harm
and making their friends fall into harm and
destroying families and themselves.
Mental illnesses are on the rise, people are
hurting themselves in the name of trying to
justify the Haram and Allah brought the Haram
and said don't go there because it's gonna
harm you. Who do you fear? You fear
people or Allah?
A person fears losing their loved 1, for
example, who claims they love you but all
they want is to to to live in
haram with you.
And you call them a girlfriend or boyfriend,
you think that you think a person who
fears Allah, if you wanna lead a good
life, you do that?
1 person said I always get this all
the time. They say, I have a girlfriend.
I have a boyfriend. We made Istikhara.
Istikhara for what? Istikhara on haram. Istikhara doesn't
work for haram you habibi.
Istikhara, you've already made up your mind to
go the haram
way. Get out of
it. Stop, repent, be sincere with Allah and
be honest to be determined to lead a
good life and watch how Allah will open
your doors. But, wallah, I stay in the
haram.
I'm going against Allah and I wanna use
Allah.
You're you user? You don't wanna use Allah?
Allah cannot be used. We can use people.
We can lie to our parents. We can
lie to our friends. We can lie to
our children. We can lie to our spouses.
We can lie to Allah, Allah which is
everything.
And that is why Allah says also in
the Quran,
They try to hide from people
but they forget to hide from Allah but
they cannot hide from Allah.
And we recited the verse before we say
even
an ant's worth of good deed
will be revealed. An ant's worth of bad
deeds will be revealed on the day of
judgment.
So we are heading to Allah. We have
always belonged to Him, we'll return. So we're
going there. Now, brothers and sisters, let's move
now. Allah says
that therefore you might look and see what
is all this got to do with patience.
This is exactly what it is. It's steadfastness.
From that verse, that is what steadfastness and
patience means. It's not doesn't mean I do
everything wrong and I sit down and say,
I'm suffering, I better just be patient.
Let's explain what it means.
Therefore, in this verse of the Quran, O
you who believe, be steadfast.
This is a statement of command.
It's not if you want to, it's not
an advice,
it's a command.
And remember in past lessons, if Allah commands
something, it means he loves it the most.
It means it is the best for you.
And the example we give is about parents.
If parents love you,
and they will give your life for you,
they will command you
with things that you don't like sometimes.
When you're a child and as you become
a teenager,
as long as they have control and ability
to guide you, they will command you. They
will make rules.
They will prohibit you. They will ground you.
They will confiscate devices from you until
you go straight because they fear for you.
Doesn't mean they hate you, means they love
you.
But the parent who neglects you, doesn't care
what you do, that's not real love.
May Allah guide us all.
So same thing when Allah commands us it
means this is what he loves for us
the most and that is what it means
Arrahman Ar Rahim,
The most merciful,
the especially merciful. This is what Rahma means
brothers and sisters.
Mercy is not that we go and do
everything and rebel and then say, oh Allah,
you're merciful. That's like, that's playing games.
Allah is merciful when he gave us the
guidance and tells us do this, don't do
that because that's where the mercy is. How
else is mercy shown?
How else is mercy shown, brothers and sisters?
Mercy is also shown when you're wronged and
you return back and Allah forgives you and
doesn't and and he pardons you, that's 1
part. The main mercy, the real reason of
mercy
is the guidance of Allah.
Guide me, have mercy. Don't leave me to
go astray. That's what mercy is.
Oh Allah wake me up, don't leave me
to fall, have mercy.
But most people don't think of it that
way cause the shaitan doesn't let us think
that way.
So it is a command, my dear brothers
and sisters. The first word once again is
Isbiru.
You being patient with Allah's commands,
number 1,
his prohibitions.
Number 2,
and his will.
What he destines that happens to you. 3
things is the meaning of
be steadfast between you and Allah.
The second command, wasabiru,
it has 2 meanings, standing firm against the
enemy in battle and wrestling against the harm
and pressure from outsiders
and the temptations within yourself that provoke you.
This is called mujahada.
Keep wrestling and battling
against the odds from outside that tempt you,
pressure you, fight you
to do the wrong.
Battle with it.
1 of the acts of worship in life
that people have forgotten is patience,
is steadfastness. It is a bada. When Allah
says I created you to worship, this is
part of worship.
But when we say,
waking up for fajr,
it's annoying.
Why doesn't Allah make it easy for me?
You're supposed to battle with that. That is
what worship
is. Don't be a wuss.
Can go to the gym and lift 80
kilos bench press
but can't lift the blanket.
What what's what
muscles is that, You Habibi?
You masculine
man, you. You hunk of a man.
Sorry, I said this but sometimes we need
to wake up the boys. I wouldn't talk
like that to sisters.
But you know, men understand each other.
So even me, I can't lift the blanket
in the morning, I spit on myself. I
say, you hunk of a man, you call
yourself, you're nothing.
You gotta wake yourself up
because time is running out.
I know what's happening. This life is short.
So brothers and sisters, therefore,
repeating and summarizing.
We are commanded
to restrain
ourselves,
to persevere,
and to be steadfast in patience
in 4 matters
in life. Number 1,
religious
and moral duties
and obligations.
Be steadfast in doing your duties, your obligations,
and your moral duties in life
That requires steadfastness and patience. Continue to pray
your 5 daily prayers, continue to fast Ramadan,
continue to pay your zakat,
continue to work towards going hajj, continue to
obey Allah in the obligations, other obligations which
he has told you
throughout your life as Allah says,
Allah said to prophet sallam, worship your Lord
and be steadfast on until death comes to
you.
Number 2,
patience is in temptations and desires against sinful
acts and immoral behavior.
We need steadfastness
against so now we've got steadfastness
for to continue doing our obligations. And now
the second patience is steadfastness
against
temptations and desires which Allah forbid us against.
You have to wrestle with it, brothers and
sisters. It's not easy but Jannah is not
cheap.
You want rewards?
It's not cheap. You have to work towards
it.
It'd be quite
a quite a sight if or quite a
thing if I told you, don't worry, sit
in bed, don't do anything, money will come
to you, hubby, your business will grow. You're
gonna say that's absurd. Come on, man.
Yeah. You'll get knowledgeable without reading. Life will
be good by just
living at lazy and whatever. You're gonna say
it's wrong.
So everything comes with effort. Number 3, it
means in times of hardships and calamities that
happened to you beyond your control.
Most people understand patience only here in this
only in this matter. That when things go
wrong for you and you're suffering in life
and things beyond your control, you think, okay,
this is where I need Allah. That is
true. You need Allah in this time without
a doubt and don't you ever leave Allah
and Allah is always there for you. This
is out of his mercy. But
Lots of our own consequences, lots of the
sufferings that we go through in this life,
a lot of it other than the will
of Allah which he test us with is
our negligence.
Our negligence of our duties,
our
giving into our temptations, this is where most
of the harm comes from brothers and sisters.
Allah did not forbid something unless it is
harmful and bad for us spiritually, mentally or
physically.
Alcohol,
gambling,
usury,
adultery,
fornication,
*,
lying, cheating, stealing, all of this is to
safeguard you my dear brothers and sisters. Wallahi,
I respect every brother and sister who is
steadfast and they are the truly beloveds of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
But Allah doesn't just leave you there. Anything
you leave for the sake of Allah,
Allah will replace it with something better.
Do you remember in Ramadan
when you were fasting
and you decided to stay away from the
haram stuff you were doing before Ramadan
until you went back to it after Ramadan?
But let's just just remember the 1 month.
Remember the month? Just that that little paradise
there.
You were able to be steadfast. Do you
remember that?
Do you remember how you abstain?
Do you remember how you said I'm not
gonna watch this or that? Do you remember
I'm going to cut off my relationship with
that girlfriend or boyfriend? Every Muslim does that
in Ramadan, mashallah.
Let's put on our list.
Ramadan comes, every boyfriend and girlfriend is gonna
learn what haram means. For
the past 11 months, they don't know Ramadan,
they learn haram.
And then,
it's just temporary. After Ramadan,
hanky panky again.
Number 4,
the meaning of patience is battling
and wrestling in patience against the harm
and provocations of others and desires
within yourself
which try to ruin you.
We are commanded brothers and sisters to do
so. However,
there are different circumstances in our life
where patience takes on 5 different rulings.
The 5 different rulings, I'll enumerate them and
discuss them. Number 1.
Patience in general is a must
in all these 4 areas that I just
mentioned.
But then,
there are times where patience
is not allowed.
There is no steadfastness.
It's harang
To be steadfast
in some particular ways.
That's the second ruling. The third ruling,
at times, being steadfast is better
recommended but not obliged.
Number 4, steadfastness can be disliked.
It's disliked to be steadfast here in this
case
in certain situations. And the last 1
is a neutral 1, optional.
If you're if you're being steadfast, it's good
for you. If you don't, no no big
harm is gonna happen.
Let's go through them.
When is it a must generally to be
steadfast? So we're gonna use the words
so remember, sabr doesn't have a direct meaning
in English or in most other languages. So
we're just gonna say sabr
means steadfastness
to restrain yourself from what you should not
do.
Patience, perseverance, all these meanings together. And we
said, to restrain yourself from things you should
not do. That's really the the definition of
patience.
So,
actually, before I explain it, let me give
you a little picture of what in real
life
that I personally saw when I was in
Lebanon. You know, in Lebanon, there's a cactus
tree and there's everywhere there's cactus trees, but
this one's the prequel pear.
And the prequel pear, if you've ever seen
and you look it up, in Arabic, we
call it sabr,
the sabr tree.
Why?
I'll tell you why. Because anybody who comes
near it, you're going to have thorns all
over your body. And they're so minute they're
microscopic
that no matter what for the next 1
week, you just you've got prickles all over
your body. So this particular pear, prickled pear
has all this. And the way that and
what's inside of it is very tasty and
sweet. And it comes in different colors. If
you are able to have patience and perseverance
and and keep going and not give up
and
so you gotta do the things where avoid
the prickles from hurting you. So you wear
gloves and I don't know what. And then
you gotta be determined to be patient for
the next
few minutes.
Then you gotta be very careful and precisely
cut it.
In the end, Alhamdulillah,
you come out with your reward and that's
the beautiful
nice fruit on the inside.
So in life is the same thing.
I I sort of give the same example.
If you avoid the things that Allah had
forbidden in life, they're the thorns on top
of the prickly pear.
If you are patient and continue to doing
your obligations, they're like cutting it
and slowly doing the right thing.
You will eventually get to the blessing behind
that calamity, the blessing behind that perseverance on
your obligations, and the blessing behind you abstaining
from that which Allah had fibrin. And the
abstaining from that which Allah has forbidden.
And the blessing of you battling against
the odds and the enemies that fight you
within and without.
The first 1 where you must restrain yourself
is the following,
from giving up
on commanded obligations and from giving in
to giving in
to the prohibited matters in Islam.
That's a must, you have no option.
This is called patience upon commands and patience
against Haram. For example,
society
and bad friends.
Bad friends
who pressure you to do haram,
they're the worst you can ever have in
your life.
The prophet said,
The person
is on the way of life
of their friend.
Means way of life.
So be aware
who you take as your close friend.
Not a good friend? Tell them.
If this doesn't stop, and
I would like to cut off my friendship
with you.
And I advise you to also stop what
you're doing because you're not good for me.
No matter what they get upset with, they
guilt trip you, they tell you how bad
you are, you tell you all these things,
this is toxicity, then you know they shouldn't
be your friend.
And invite them to join you. Don't go
in joining them and be manipulated. Be strong.
This is called patience, perseverance. And Allah will
replace that dirty person if you don't want
to repent.
That dirty person was someone better for you
and they will support you all your life.
You will know them. They're the people who
will come to you and say,
this is a safe place. We don't ask
you about your personal life. We will never
blackmail you. We don't want any of your
secrets. And even if you do, it's secret
with us. You can stay, we will support
you. And they mean it and you test
them, they're the good friends.
And when you do wrong, they tell you
you did wrong. They don't sugarcoat it.
That's called Sadiq in Arabic means a trust
an honest friend.
A friend who tells you when you're doing
wrong
is a good friend. Not the 1 who
humiliates you, tells you in secret and says,
look man, how much how long have I
known each other? I am your friend. I'm
gonna be honest with you. This is gonna
make you go astray. And that's a good
friend.
My brothers and sisters, for example,
you must restrain yourself and be patient against
peer pressure.
Another example is when you're commanding good and
prohibit evil, this is very hard for a
lot of the religious people who are sincere.
Our brothers and sisters who really, in their
heart, they want the best for their brothers
and sisters. They try to guide them. They
try to remind them. They try to advise
them. They try to invite them to that
which will save them in this life and
the next and subhanAllah,
these people, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless
them, they are the messengers of Allah on
earth and that is where paradise is. May
Allah keep them steadfast. My brothers and sisters,
if you're 1 of them, may Allah preserve
you because you're gonna have to be patient
and the stronger you are with your deen
and the more that you work in the
path of Allah Subhana Wa Ta'la with wisdom
of course, be aware that your calamities, your
tests are gonna be a little bit more
than others.
You are going to hear more hurtful words
from people than others.
And that is the ranking under the prophets
and messengers.
All the prophets and messengers in their work
were abused, were accused, were sworn at, were,
everything.
Even some of them were killed and tried
to murder them, everything. And Rasulullah
said in
and Ahmed, the same of it. He said
the ones sorry, in Ahmed and Saha'ul albani.
He said the ones that have the greatest
tests and calamities in life are the prophets,
then the ones closer to them in liking,
then the ones closer to them and so
on. Why? Because Allah makes something greater out
of you.
And this is out of Allah's mercy that
he gives each person a different type of
test according to their state. Not everybody gets
the same. So be careful, those who are
on a straight path, if you wanna know
if it is a test or a punishment,
look at yourself. Are you running a good
straight path in life? Or is it full
of major sins and haram which you are
continuing with? Then Allah's maybe teaching you a
lesson. We're gonna come back to that Insha'Allah.
These people who pressure you brothers and sisters
into leaving, you're gonna have to battle with
them and battle with what's happening. It could
be family, it could be friends,
it could be a school, it could be
a teacher, even a teacher. But normally teachers
don't do it. It could be,
society, it could be social media friends, it
could be any of them.
If you try
to be on nadeen,
these people,
if they're bad friends, they will put you
down, cut you off and even talk about
you badly because you teach people good and
remind them to avoid the bad for their
own sake. Of course, you do it with
wisdom. I'm not talking about those who've got
an ego problem and they wanna control everybody
by using deen. That's just thugs in the
masjid, I call them. But this 1 is
people who are sincere and advised with goodness.
So brothers and sisters, these are the people.
Number 2,
the forbidden
steadfastness.
You might say what? Is it haram to
be patient?
Only in 1 case.
Listen to it carefully, I think this is
the most important part of my whole lecture
today.
Which patience and steadfastness is at haram
to be steadfast on it?
Of course, we already said it is haram
to be steadfast on haram.
Don't continue your haram, we have to be
steadfast against it.
Therefore,
the most important part,
forbidden
restraint
and forbidden
steadfastness,
must not,
is against
moral guilt or sinful guilt?
Moral guilt and sinful
guilt. I'll explain.
Meaning,
you know something is haram
or morally wrong
But you fight against it
in order to keep doing it
and not feel bad about it anymore.
That steadfastness,
courageous, Masha'Allah.
He's a gun.
Allah is strong, bro.
He can go and do haram and doesn't
care. He's a rebel.
I don't wanna say more other words street
language because we're in the Masjid. That's not
my these are not my words. You know?
Fill in the gaps.
The bad boy,
the bad girl, everyone
thinks
anyone of us here can do haram.
Well, is it hard to commit adultery and
fornication and go and steal and go and
do theft and go and bash someone who
is innocent and go and join in gangs
and groups and take drugs? Oh, everyone can
do it.
But the strong person is the 1 who
restrains themselves. That's a strong that is
the hunk of a man.
That is the strong man. That is the
strong woman.
That's what strength and independence means. It means
to be strong and independent of your desires,
strong and independent of depending on your desires
and temptations.
They're all weak.
There is no steadfastness there.
Brothers and sisters, in other words,
patience
in fighting against good things,
That's what haram.
And you keep going with haram things.
This is called forbidden patience. For example, now
comes the examples.
Let's say you feel guilty
about a haram thing
that you are doing.
You feel guilty about it. You say, man,
I shouldn't be doing this. It's a sin.
But you have a bad friend
who has experience in this haram for way
before you now.
And they've learned the tricks of how to
minimize the guilt and enjoy the haram.
So this friend who is from the shaitan
comes and whispers into your ear and the
shaitan friend, human shaitan, is worse than the
jinn shaitan. Because
runs away, comes back. The human shaitan is
say, shaitan, shaitan and shaitan, they say, shut
up, man. What are you talking about?
So here it is.
It says
the example, but this bad friend who is
experienced in that Haram says to you,
don't worry don't worry right now you feel
bad, keep doing it and it becomes okay,
it feels easier, just it's just hard now.
Mashallah, what a friend.
Allah says, Hama asbarahumalanaar.
Oh, how steadfast as they are on the
burning fire.
Whenever you do that, I want you to
imagine,
if you are 1 of them, may Allah
forbid any of you being those who is
that friend who tries to make their
friend who has still got a pure heart,
still feeling guilty about wrong. This is a
good thing to feel guilty about wrong.
That's a good thing.
But you come up to them in the
name of mental health.
And I'm I I know about mental health.
This is not mental health. This is not
cure. And they say let's let's let's help
them
to enjoy their boyfriend girlfriend relationship and sleeping
together by decorating it for them. It feels
bad at the beginning but insha'Allah, it'll get
easier for you.
You'll enjoy it.
What you got, STDs, don't worry.
Just just stay away from me.
Yeah. They'll throw you under the bus. They'll
throw you under the bus.
And when the tough gets going, they say,
well, it's their fault.
They're dirty, they're like this, they're like that.
It's just like the shaitaan. Wallahi like the
shaitaan. Allah mentions the shaitaan in the Quran,
the real jinn, the kareen, the 1 you're
born with.
Allah says in the Quran,
and
says in the Quran, And his is
the shaitan that you're born with which whispers
to you. On the day of judgement, we'll
say, my lord, my lord. He acts like
he's religious,
a little shifty. He says, yeah, my lord,
my lord.
I didn't make him go astray.
He was already
long gone.
He was already swimming deep in the ocean,
the sharks already there, he had no hope.
I just told him.
In another verse that
Shiftyqareen
he says, Inya kafallaha rabbalalamin
You see, I fear Allah the Lord of
all the worlds.
In another verse, he says,
Hey, hey, hey, hey, I'm innocent from you,
man. Don't blame it on me. I'm innocent.
You wanna know what's even more than that?
Allah says in the Quran about these bad
friends who made you feel good about your
sin,
who are gonna be the cause of you
entering the fayalaha
if you do not repent and cut them
off.
Allah says in the Quran,
Allah says,
and on that day,
the oppressor, the wrongdoer
who wronged himself or herself
will literally
eat away
at their fingers.
So anxiety, fear, nervousness, fear will eat
at their fingers.
He will say or she will say,
I wish that I had not taken so
and so as my company and friend.
He or she has led me off the
straight path.
And truly the evil Shaitaan, human and jinns
is a betrayer
of his promises
to his friends or to the humans.
So in
another verse Allah says,
Except
the best friends here who used to fear
Allah together.
On the day of judgment, they will be
rejoicing together. They will be celebrating together.
The bad friends
who supported each other in sin,
they'll say,
did you get her, bro?
Did you get her number?
Did you go out?
How far did you go? Share it, share
it, bro.
Come here, boys. He is the best. Let's
celebrate.
That's what they do to you.
Sisters, oh how cute.
She she's got she she got him.
They become boyfriend and girlfriend.
It's haram. Yeah. It's like as if they're
husband and wife.
And then 1 of them looks at someone
else and they go, he cheated on me.
Cheated?
Over what? You guys already you're you're not
even lawful for each other.
It's like I sit in the fire,
and I get burned from that fire and
another fire and another fire, and I say
that's not fair. Habibi,
you're already in the fire. What cheating? You're
cheating on yourself already. You're cheating on that
person. You're cheating on Allah. And I'll tell
you what will happen.
When Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala tells us to
be steadfast against sins,
it is out of his mercy, Allahu
Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu
Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu
Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu
Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu
Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu
Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu Allahu
and you know you know the worst punishment
that a person gets out of doing the
wrong thing, I'll tell you what it is.
It's not just physical.
The worst is mental and emotional.
Because your parents for example can probably help
you physically.
They can probably go and do things to
protect you or to help you along but
they cannot put their hands inside your heart
and change it. They cannot put your hands
inside your mind and make you feel better,
That's you. You're gonna have to suffer with
that.
Every Haram will lead to unless you turn.
Unless you turn. You start step by step.
These people
let's talk about relationships for example.
They follow
the what they see on social media and
this trend of
people having relationships outside of marriage. In Islam,
this is haram and forbidden.
And then after haram happens, Allahu Alem, where
it gets to this, if Allah saves them
from any diseases,
They get married.
And I've seen this happen a few times.
People have come to me with this same
help
that they needed.
And
let's say they they had a haram life
and when you have a haram life, it's
not blessed unless you repent. If both of
you repent to Allah,
move back, stop what you're doing and be
sincere to Allah.
Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala will exchange your sins
into
hasanat
and Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala will bless you
after that. Allah forgives all sins. But we're
talking about those who still justify and enter
it through the Haram.
Those people will never trust each other when
they're married.
Those 2 who started off their relationship and
entered into marriage through Haram means,
they can't trust each other
unless they repent. I'll tell you what happens.
They'll be sitting at a restaurant together.
Let's say it's their
Nice. He wants
to, you know, they had a fight or
something and the husband wants to make it
up to him and goes, let's go to
a restaurant.
They go and sit at a restaurant,
some lady goes past, he looks at her.
She says why do you look at her?
He says, I don't mean it. It's just
whatever. She goes, How do I know?
You're acting all religious now. He goes, haram?
Familiarly gonna haram?
You already did haram with me. How can
I trust you now?
And he'll say, wow, you're not an angel.
You let me do haram with you before
marriage. How can I trust you?
And this is how the shaitan comes in
and separates them and makes it
toxic. If there is no trust, there is
no relationship. They started off on distrust.
The worst is when you get a Muslim,
a Muslim Muslim guy, right? He goes and
befriends a non Muslim girlfriend.
He treats her nice and everything. When it
comes to marriage, he says, you gotta convert
to Islam.
This is haram, it's Ramadan. She doesn't just
know what he do. She doesn't know, you're
supposed to know.
And then now she's looking into Islam trying
to get because she's in love with him,
she wants to get married.
Is that a sincere Islam, is it?
She's just doing it for you, buddy.
No.
I'm halal, I don't.
And that's when she starts finding out that
he's a hypocrite.
How can you say haram all this time
and you never told me? How can I
trust you coming to the marriage? I was
I was a non Muslim. I don't know.
Of course, if you repent to Allah
and you stop what you're doing and you
sincerely make a determination to change your life
for the sake of Allah,
perhaps Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will open your
doors and things can get fixed. Innalla yakhfirudhunubajamiyah
Allah forgives all sins.
Allah says in the Quran about persevering against
haram.
Allah says in Surat Al Israa chapter 17
verse 32, and do not come near adultery
for it is an outrageous act in an
evil way,
an evil pathway. Listen, brothers and sisters to
the words that Allah is saying. He's saying,
don't come near
adultery and fornication, who can tell me what
that means? What is the difference between saying
don't do adultery
or fornication and don't come near
adultery and fornication. Same with the other verses.
Don't come near
alcohol and wine, and don't come near
gambling and usury. What is the difference when
saying don't do it and don't come near
it?
Is there a difference?
Who?
Temptation. Yeah. Let me elaborate a little bit
more. What does it mean don't come near?
Therefore, it's a physical act. Temptation is still
in here. You are not held accountable for
your temptation until you act on your temptation.
And some temptations are good, some temptations are
bad. Husband and wife who are married, their
temptation for each other is amazing.
They're rewarded for
it. But the temptation in non haram relationship
then, you don't get sin for until you
act upon it. So what does it mean?
It's an action. You're close. So basically, what
does it mean?
Go near it physically. Go near it physically.
Don't take steps towards it.
And if for example,
on social media, I download,
Snapchat or Instagram or whatever. But I download
it
in order to meet up
with someone. I heard from my friends let's
do an example. I heard from my friends
that this that if you go on there,
there are some lovely girls on there that
we can talk to. Let's say teenagers are
saying that among each other. And then what
do they do? How old are you? I'm
14, 15. Oh, sweet, sweet.
Sweet for what? And Marita ready for haram,
ready for haram mingling.
And then from there, that's getting closer.
Talk,
set up a date,
next, next, next, next, next.
And the shaitan comes and tells you you
haven't done anything bad yet.
It's not like you slept with each other,
you're still halal.
SubhanAllah,
this is exactly how things get from bad
to worse.
And once you are alone with the opposite
* in 1 closed room, brothers and sisters,
no matter how righteous even if you were
a prophet. Yeah. Any prophets,
far fetched, but any human being.
Because physically, what happens is that your prefrontal
cortex right here, it it literally kinda block
blocks off.
And the fear factor goes down a little
bit, the embarrassment factor goes down a bit,
the rational factors kind of go goes down
a bit, the shame factor goes down a
bit, and then you start getting excited before
you know it, oh my god, what have
I done?
That's if you still have any any any
ounce of shame left, yeah, that is.
And that's how the shaitan pulls you.
So it's time to repent.
So don't come close to adultery or fornication,
its pathway is terrible.
And if I were to go physical
about it, I would say not only just
heartbreaks, we can say
you all know,
STIs,
STDs.
In the past, in the eighties, there was
h s HIV. I was gonna say HSV,
the cars.
HIV.
HSVs were used for HIV,
by the way. And then AIDS, god forbid.
And
in certain parts of the world, over 3,
000, 000 babies were born
with HIV and AIDS in the nineties.
That's because their mothers had it. And so
the babies, they get it. What's their crime?
You wanna marry someone, you might have, god
forbid, STD. And some of this doesn't show
until after 6 weeks. Some of them don't
show up to 6 months. You think you're
okay.
And then it's transmitted.
Depends on what kind of STD it is,
of course. There are bacterial and viral 1,
but we're not gonna talk science now.
But anyway, the point is that anything that
Allah has forbidden, there is either spiritual,
mental, or physical harm to you, so avoid
it. And that is the mercy of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And Allah has given you
alternative halals.
Go for the alternative and have fun with
it.
He said to 1 of his young companions,
you,
there is nothing
that if you were to leave it
just for the sake of Allah
the most high, the most honorable,
except
every time that Allah will replace you with
that which you left with something equal
like it or better
in a beneficial way. So Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala does not leave you. Everything you give
up for the sake of Allah, Allah replaces
you. He repays you something better. He's not
just gonna leave you there. But if you
leave it for the sake of
some worldly benefit, maybe, maybe not. For example,
if if if I am doing something haram
and I left it because I wanna keep
my job,
that's not really for the sake of Allah.
I may get benefit, I may not. If
if a person wants to leave that haram
relationship
because they got caught and their parents
are about to chuck a hoo about it,
and they left and they said, doesn't matter.
And then he finds another girlfriend says, oh,
Allah gave me a better place. That's not.
It's from the shaytan.
That's more harm. You're being dug even deeper
and you don't even know it. So leave
something for the sake of Allah, bad influential
friends are the number 1 factor
and misuse of social media. And I say
90% of young people misuse social media and
this is 1 of the pathways these days
of how I say to parents, my parents,
dear parents,
for us, it is so hard.
This day and age, we have a very
new challenge. Back in the eighties, you and
I, you
know, we didn't have social media. We didn't
have phones. You know? And this day and
age, it's like a double edged sword.
You prevent it, you got problems. You let
them go all out, you got bigger problems.
Until something calamity happens, and then you have
to go into damage control. Yeah? And we
are all prone to it from me to
you to everybody.
We are all subjected to these calamities and
alhamdulillah Allah
assist us and help us, but you have
to place rules.
Even if your children get upset but also
show them love.
Give them an alternative just like Allah says,
if you leave something for the sake of
Allah He will give you and replace it.
You also. Don't just make rules of don't
do this, don't do that, but also replace
it with something else and that's the art
of parenting.
Don't be afraid don't be upset and don't
feel guilty when they guilt trip you because
you've taken a device or whatever, but monitor,
and that's another topic Insha'Allah.
Finally,
with those
friends, let's say that you know something bad
about someone
and they went astray.
Instead
of making it worse by talking about them
and spreading
rumors about them or even if it's not
a rumor, you say something about them whether
directly or indirectly or passively.
Don't do that.
Because anybody who hears you, you may be
teaching them
to feel better about their sin when you
expose others.
Or you will help that person to continue
in their sin, or it'll come to haunt
you as well. Listen to what the prophet
said,
Whoever
covers up
a
shortcoming or a sin of their brother or
sister, Allah will cover up a shortcoming or
a sin of theirs on the day of
judgment.
And some and other scholars like Nurul Qayyen
said even in this life.
Muslim
and whoever exposes the shortcoming or sin
of their Muslim brother or sister,
Allah will expose his or her own shortcomings
and sins
to the point that he will expose him
or her even if they were inside their
house. Trying to hide from everyone, he'll expose
them.
So don't expose people my dear and sisters.
Guide them, make dua for them. You can
warn
others that you know
if they are subjected at risk with them.
If they're lying to them and they're gonna
take them somewhere bad and you that person
go up to them and say, brother, sister,
I'll give you advice and I warn you.
This person does 1, 2, 3.
Doesn't matter what they say, this is you
are commanded and if you are able to
save your brother and sister, save them, insha'Allah.
The last, ways that we are patient
are 3 and they're just quickly.
There are times when it is better to
be patient recommended but not obliged. And that
is patience
with,
recommended acts like the 12 sunnahs after your
prayers. Some people find it hard to continue
them, be consistent on them. Well, you require
steadfastness to continue with them. But even if
you don't, you're not sinned. But if you
do, it's recommended. Number 4,
where patience is disliked or steadfastness
is disliked.
So when is that? It is when there
are things that are disliked, disliked acts in
Islam or things that morally
are not so good, but not so serious.
And convincing yourself it's okay,
right, is disliked. So things that are maqru,
disliked in Islam but not very serious, it's
also
dislike to convince yourself that it's okay to
do.
We discussed and had a talk on,
sins in 1 of my lectures on YouTube
about,
dislike things and halal and haram. You can
look at what dislike things are. And finally,
the last 1 of these 5
is
steadfastness
on things that are neutral.
Whether you're steadfast on them, good for you.
Whether you're not, there's no harm. And usually,
they are worldly or material benefits in life
such as,
being steadfast in making business profit. Obviously, you
need to have patience and steadfastness,
worldly education,
studying and all that, trying to get back
a debt that you lent to someone and
you're steadfast and you continue to try and
hold yourself back and so on. All these
are worldly material things that what we call
amubah.
Being steadfast in them is neutral. You're not
rewarded by Allah if you are steadfast in
making profit. You're not rewarded by Allah if
you are steadfast in asking for your right
back unless
there is something attached to religion in it.
So for example, if I am being steadfast
in my business to make a profit
and part of my intention to make a
profit is in order to feed my family
or people who are dependent on me so
that they don't need anyone else or to
give sadaqa and zakat,
then I hit 2 birds with 1 stone
in that patience.
So my dear brothers and sisters, today, we
spoke about
1 aspect
of steadfastness,
and we didn't focus too much
on the calamities and hardships that you go
through.
However, I will just recite and conclude with
1,
passage of the Quran
in relation to the hardships
and calamities that are beyond our control that
happened to you. And I think this, yeah,
this verse in the Quran will suffice.
Allah
says,
In Surat Al Baqarah
chapter 2 verses 155
to 157, Allah says,
we shall certainly
without any doubt
test you
by afflicting
you with
a few things
every now and then.
By afflicting you with a little bit
of fear sometimes,
hunger
sometimes,
loss of properties
sometimes,
and lives
sometimes,
and fruits
sometimes.
Give good news then
to those who remain patient.
Those who when any affliction smites them, they
say
and they act upon the following words,
indeed,
we belong to Allah
and it is to him that we are
destined to return.
Upon them
will be the blessings and mercy of their
lord,
and it is they
who are rightly guided.
May Allah
grant us the strength of patience
in times of calamity and hardships,
in times of suffering,
and to reward us and replace us with
the suffering and pain
with a relief and an opening
afterwards.
For with every hardship, there are many easies,
and after every perseverance,
there is strength and growth.
And Allah does not demot you except to
promote you. He does not harm you except
to benefit you. And Allah does not take
away from you something except because he's going
to give you. So stay steadfast and assume
well of Allah and know that Allah does
not ask you or burden you to do
more than what you can.
And may Allah make us and help us
to be strong in steadfastness with our obligations
and to help us in being steadfast
against our temptations and desires of sin,
and to assist us in battling
against the pressures
of outside people and enemies and those within.
Ameen You Rabbil Alamin. May Allah bless your
brothers and sisters, WassaAllahuanabina
Muhammad