Jannah Gems #38 – The Four Great Evils

I just, you know, did a talk recently at a Masjid and I asked the question, I said, What is the greatest enemy, and there were some youth mixed in with adults. And I heard the first two or three answers will shake on. And so a lot of us are conditioned from a very early age to know that indeed, shavonne is our great mortal enemy until we die, we know he believes is there. But then we don't know quite that there are other evils as well, that we are going to be tested with. So we have to understand what those are, and how our daily interactions with these all four really do affect our ability to guard that heart, right. And so the first one here is the material world, the dunya is

often you know, interchanged with the world, and so people think what the whole world is, you know, is bad? No, of course not. There's beautiful aspects of the world. And then there are parts of the world that are low, because the word you know dunia comes from, you know, this, this meaning of low place, it's a lonely place. And so what is lowly about the dounia, it's the things that distract us from the remembrance of Allah subhana wa, Tada. And, you know, there are many other aspects of it. But here's just a short list of things that take us away from the remembrance of Allah, of ways that we are tested by the evils of the dunya. And we have to be aware of them so that we know how to

avoid them, if we're not even aware, then clearly, we are going to be affected and fall into those traps. And so the next evil that we should be aware of, is, has to do with our whims and desires, right, or our house. And it's really individual, it's very subjective. So a person some, some people might have interests or desires or temptations in one area, another person may another, or you may change based on circumstances or based on age based on experience. But however, is something that is constantly, you know, going up and down and can push us one way, or push us another way. And if we don't learn how to regulate it, have it under control, then we can fall victim to it, and a lot of

people, they won't realize that it's their Hawa, that's, that's compelling them to act, but they will be diluted by their own ego to think that it's something worthy, it's something good when in fact, it is actually a whim or a desire. So we have to pay attention to our own individual inclinations. And those things that tempt us those things that call us away from the remembrance of Allah subhana wa tada and see them for what they are, they are absolute enemies, and they're things that will we can easily, you know, succumb to if we're not aware of them. And then we have the next one is the most obvious one, which we, we all know.

But I think just to again, remember how he operates because there is this notion and this

almost, you know, tendency to absolve oneself of responsibility, by scapegoating everything on shade on and we have to know what is truly something that was, you know,

that we were incited by shade on and something that came from our own self. And then to also know that once we are habituated to a sin when we start doing something we shouldn't be doing.

The next time we do it, if we're repeat offenders, we keep doing it, we can't, again, blame shame on for that, you know, we are responsible for our own actions so shaytani can whisper to us, he can push us in a certain way. But ultimately we are responsible for following those whisperings or you know, for following through with action are you who believe you shall embrace total submission, do not follow the steps as if they don't raise your most ardent enemy, so aren't an enemy is also really important. He will chase us basically until our last breath, he will be there to destroy us and He will, he doesn't rest it, this is a 24 hour job for him. And so make sure we're very aware of

how he operates. Last one is in fact the one that is the most destructive of all of the evils and it makes sense if you think about it, because the knifes is within us, it occupies our mental space, right? It feels that that inner voice that we have is is filled with nevski thoughts and inspirations and inclinations and ideas. And so it's always present. The neffs wants to indulge all the time in whatever it wants. It's lazy it procrastinates it doesn't want to worship Allah subhana wa Tada, right. It wants to eat and drink and have fun and you know, given

into all of those base desires, it also gives into emotions. So anger, enough's will cause us to just, you know, basically say whatever we want without any, you know, restraint or or or you know, think it consideration about what we're saying. so impulsive behavior and self serving behavior so anything that where we manipulate people lie, deceit, all of those, you know, vices and terrible qualities that people take character flaws come from the knifes because the neffs is always thinking about itself. And so we have to know how it operates and make sure that you are are holding yourself accountable, accountable.