Protecting Our Hearts From Atheism

Salam Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh

Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah. We begin by choosing Allah and asking Allah to Sandy's Peace and blessings upon the final prophet Mohammed bin Abdullah. So Allahu alayhi wa sallam in all those who follow this way with righteousness until the last day.

In today's talk, I want to discuss a topic which is not often discussed in our masters. And it is a topic that is very crucial to our times.

The title of today's lecture is protecting our hearts from atheism.

Now, you may be wondering, why atheism

What does that got to do with us we are Muslims.

atheism is a major problem in the 21st century. Many of us are under the delusion that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world.

But when you actually read the statistics, Islam is the second fastest growing religion in the world.

atheism has been spreading at a much faster rate.

atheists have gone in the past 100 years, from being less than 1% of humanity to being almost 15 to 20% of humanity.

And many of these people who have become atheists were formerly Muslims.

Christians have become atheists, Hindus have become atheists. And now he has hit the Muslim community as well. Wherever I go in the world, I lead with wisdom or other x Muslims, Buddhists, apostates who have lost faith in God altogether. And we don't believe any longer.

So this topic needs to be addressed. Now generally, when we address it, we talk to the atheists. And we talk from a philosophical or rational or scientific perspective. But that's not what we're going to get into today. Because this talk is not for the atheist, it's for the Muslims. So we're going to talk about what we can do as Muslims, to protect our hearts, the hearts of our families and our friends and our communities from this problem, because it is a problem. It is a problem that will take a person away from Allah away from the deep end towards the hellfire. So it needs to be discussed. And I'm going to talk about four things over the next few minutes. Firstly, why is

atheism spreading? Secondly, I'm going to talk about the importance of us choosing Islam and not just being Muslims by accident. Number three, I'm going to talk about the importance of seeking authentic knowledge. And number four, the importance of having a close connection with Allah subhanho wa Taala. The first is the problem. And the remaining three points are the solution. And I believe anyone who does these three things, inshallah their heart will be protected from atheism. Why do I say heart? Why don't I see the mind or the soul?

Because in Islam, we believe that the heart is the center of emotion.

We're not talking about the physical heart, where our blood comes from. We are talking about the metaphysical heart. When you talk about loving someone, or someone breaking your heart, we're talking about that heart. Right the metaphysical heart, and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam stated that there is a lump of flesh inside of us. If it is corrupt, everything about us becomes corrupt. And if it is pure, everything about us becomes pure. And he pointed to the chest and said, it is the heart.

So understand that belief and disbelief are matters of the heart. doubt about God is a disease of the heart.

These things are the results of a dead heart, a heart that is disconnected from Allah. And so when we preserve the image in our hearts, it has impacted everything else in our life. So why is atheism suddenly spreading? When the bulk of human history the majority of human beings believed in God? He may have been Christians or Hindus or whatever else but they believed in God.

Why is it suddenly in the 20th and 21st century, we now have entire countries and systems of government which are atheistic communism is an atheist concept. Right? It is a the entire system is built around atheism. We have entire concepts revolving around the entire countries. China has the most atheist in the entire world.

Why is this happened?

Number one, because people have lost faith in their religion.

It started with Christians. When people realize that the Bible was contradicting science, they began to lose faith. When people learned that their priests were abusing boys, they lost weight week, when people learnt about the contradictions in the Bible, the Gospels, having nowhere else to turn to many of them became atheists. And this is why when you read many of the brothers and sisters who have converted to Islam, the journey normally goes like this. They were born a Christian, they became an atheist. And then they discovered Islam and became a Muslim.

atheism was part of the journey, because they had lost faith in one religion, but they had not heard about Islam yet. So they had jumped to the conclusion that none of the religions are correct, because they had not yet heard about the true religion of God. And they are dozens of examples. I know personally, even my own teachers, some of them were born Christians, they became communist and atheist and lead to the converted to Islam. But this is something that happened all over. So one of the primary reasons why atheism is failing is that people have lost faith in their religions. And this is happening in Muslim communities as well. When we have Muslim teachers who beat children, in

the name of Islam, many of those children end up leaving Islam altogether. A few years ago, I dealt with a case of a half years of the Quran, who was the leader of his MSc in his university, who in his heart, he was an atheist. And when we tried to find out the root cause of it, he said his entire childhood, the teacher would beat the Quran into him with a stick. That's how he became a hospice. And he said, what kind of a religion beats his book into people? How can this be from God? How can God allow this? So he lost faith in Islam because of the actions of that man and action, which has nothing to do with Islam. If you believe that hitting children to teach him the Quran is part of

Islam, I asked you to bring me a single Hadees to prove it. A single narration where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, or any of the sahaabah ever hit a child to teach the Quran, even one even bring me a weak Hadith you won't even find the weak Hadith on the topic. But it has become such a common part of our communities. It is chasing people away from Islam.

We have people who had traumatic experiences in the masjid when they were children. They went to the masjid and somebody else will make a noise and Uncle walks up and slaps them in front of everyone. That child grows up hating the mustard, and they grew up hating Islam. Our actions are causing people to lose faith in Islam. And we'll talk a bit more about that in my second point.

So these are the problems that are leading people away from their religion. Our actions are causing people to run away from Islam. Allah subhanho wa Taala speaks about this in the Quran. He tells the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. It is Allah blessing upon you that you are merciful to them. If you were to them, they will run away from you. If you

were harsh to the Sahaba they would have run away from Islam.

The greatest of Muslims would have run away from Islam if it was presented a fashion

show today. What do you think is going to be the result when we are presenting Islam passion to other people?

What do we think is going to happen? When Allah subhanho wa Taala sent Prophet Musa Ali Salaam to the field own the worst human being in the history of this world. Allah told Moosa and Harun

speak to him gently speak to him nicely. Speak to him in a polite way, say he may think about what you're saying.

So understand that our harshness is chasing people away. So this is one of the reasons why atheism is spreading. Another reason why atheism is failing is because the modern world is focused on fulfilling the nafs and fulfilling the desires. When people find that their religion is getting in the way of those desires. They choose their desires over the religion.

And so you actually meet people who will say things like I left Islam because Islam doesn't let me fornicate. Really, you leave the religion of truth because it doesn't let you follow your laughs How would you justify that when you die?

You see that this this, this and this comes from from the lifestyles that we live in this in this Western world, in these countries that we live in. Our media around us is all about desire.

People's entire identities today is based on their desires. This was unheard of in human history, where people identify themselves by what their desires are.

Now in our nuts becomes more important than Allah. Just when people have spoken enough about the problem, I don't want this whole talk to be just problems, problems, the problems, let's get into the solution.

I propose three steps, that if each of us applied these three things to our lives, our hearts and the hearts of our families will be protected from the specter of atheism. Step number one, we need to move away from being Muslims by chance, and we need to become Muslim by choice. What do I mean by this?

For the majority of Muslims, many of us are Muslims, just because our parents were Muslims. If our parents were Hindus, we'd be Hindus, devout Christians, will be Christians. And when your Islam is based only on this only on culture only on following your forefathers, then it's not a matter of true belief. It's not a matter of I'm a Muslim, because I believe in the Quran being the word of Allah.

That's a different concept altogether. Many, many people the problem why they are unable to take Islam Seriously, why are they unable to practice Islam, while you're unable to find the love of Allah is because they haven't actively chosen Islam yet. It's just the culture.

So the first step to solving our problem is to stop making Islam our culture and to fully embrace Islam as a way of life.

to completely and wholeheartedly embrace Islam as a way of life. And this comes from seeking knowledge. And I myself know so many people, myself included, who, when we were younger, we were Muslims, because we have one or two Muslim families. But when we began to study the different religions, talk to people from other backgrounds, read the Quranic understanding, read the books or read the lives of the pious predecessors, we came to the conclusion that this is the only true religion of God. And at that moment, our mind switch from just being a Muslim by chance to being a Muslim out of conviction. And when the switch takes place, you have taken the first step to

protecting yourself from leaving the religion.

And I say this, because every case I have dealt with somebody left Islam, they were people who are just Muslims, culturally, he will Muslims, based on true faith. So my brothers and sisters if we do not have true faith, yet if we are just Muslim, because that's what we are born into. Today's the day you start reading the Quran and understanding Today's the day you start reading the books of Hades today, the day you start studying Islam and reflecting and making dua to Allah and asking Allah for guidance, and you will come to the conclusion you will come to your in you will come to conviction that this is the true religion of Allah. And when that conviction comes, then you

experience true faith. And this is why Allah subhanho wa Taala says is

that the Arab sea, we believe, tell them don't say you believe, say we become Muslims, because you haven't experienced true belief yet. saying you're a Muslim is not enough, you have to experience true belief. And that comes from understanding the religion and its place in the world.

The second point

is that we need to seek authentic knowledge, the kind of knowledge that helps us to separate

cultural practices that have nothing to do with Islam from real Islam. Each of us have an obligation to seek that knowledge. Very often when people leave Islam because of the practices of Muslims. Those practices actually have nothing to do with Islam. I'll give you a very common example that has happened 1000s of times across the globe, a Muslim woman leaves Islam and becomes a radical feminist. Why? Because Muslim men beat their wives, Muslims forced their daughters into marrying men. They don't want to marry a Muslim ban the woman from the masjid. He know what these three points have in common. All of these things are harder.

But Muslims do it and the immediate part of Islam even though the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said do not stop women from going to the masjid. Those were his exact words, a prohibition Haram.

The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said

about the men who beat their wives, he said, those are not the best of you. We need that that's not something a good Muslim does. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said about a man who forces his daughter to marry someone she does not like he said that that message is not even valid. not valid. doesn't even count the baggage of Islam but

Muslims do these things. And then people seeing this without clear knowledge that this is not part of Islam, they end up rejecting Islam. But if we seek proper knowledge, we begin to differentiate Hold on, Muslims may be doing this, but this is not Islam, should we reject the wrong practice, but our mind in Islam doesn't just remain strong, it grows stronger.

This is why it's so important to have the right knowledge to be able to separate between truth and falsehood to be able to separate between what Muslims are doing that is wrong, and what Islam actually teaches. And every one of us is obligated to learn this knowledge and to teach it to our batteries.

I'll give you another example.

There are many Muslims across the globe in many different cultures, and many different countries who are extremely superstitious. Believe in all types of good luck and bad luck. No, don't need that tangled upside down. You heard heard things like that? No, don't leave the hot water running.

In tell someone your child is cute. Why do you think my child is putting bad luck on him?

This, this attitude is not from Islam. This is superstition.

And when it comes to good luck charms, right, you put the bracelet around the child's hand, you know, you want to rub some edge in his face and blow on it. He comes the warding off for bad luck. Brothers and sisters, this is not Islam. These are practices we've taken from everywhere else. Now when someone who does not know the difference between what Islam teaches and what is just cultural practices, when they see this, they either embrace it thinking with Islam, or they may reject the religion itself taking that as a superstitious religion. And this is why authentic knowledge is so important. So what is authentic knowledge, learn the Quran, learn the life of Rasulullah sallallahu

alayhi wasallam and the Sahaba learn the Hadees. For me, the one thing that protected me and see me when I was younger for falling into wrong understandings of Islam was the lives of the Sahaba. From the time we were little kids, our parents taught us the lives of the Sahaba. So when Muslims came to us and told us do this, we will think but the Sahaba never did that. They will come and say this is what Islam says. Then you see, believe me the Sahaba doing the opposite.

You see the sun the lives of the Sahaba shows us the real understanding of Islam. We look at the example of banning women from the masjid in the time of Omar Abdullah photography Allahu anhu. One of his sons did not want to let his wife go to the masjid you know, talking about all woman, his wife, Abdullah, even over one of his brothers did not want to let his wife go to the masjid. His father reminded him of the Hadees do not stop the female servant of Allah from going to the masjid. And he said if you go against this Hadees of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, if you stop your wife of going to the masjid, I'm not gonna speak to you anymore. Because you heard the word of

Allah the word of Rasulullah Islam and you went directly against it.

This was the attitude of the Sahaba This is how strict they were on the Hadees. But today we don't even though the homies don't even know what Rasulullah saw some teachers. So authentic knowledge is a barrier between us and doubts about our religion.

And I come to the final point

of residence This is the final point. If you want to protect your heart from doubt and disbelief, develop a strong relationship with your Creator. Through quality a bada is a quality Avada praise Allah with understanding and concentration plus the month of Ramadan understanding the objectives of fasting and fasting in order to improve

wake up at night and three the DR Molina de tahajjud with conviction and understanding and connection with Allah. Make do us sincerely from your heart. Don't just raise your hands and bite your nails and say I'm enough to Lima Raise your hands and cry to Allah and ask Allah from the bottom of your heart for what you want.

When we do a bother in this way, when our ibadah is revealed in our bother has quality, we will experience a closeness to Allah we will experience the sweetness of Mr. And someone who experiences that has no chance of just believing because by law you have experienced the beauty of the hug, the sweetness of

the happiness that comes from you You are being answered. The reality of a dream that comes true. You have a dream at night and comes through in in reality. If you've experienced anything like this, you are never going to doubt the existence of Allah.

And so true belief

comes from practicing the dean. Let us not just be Muslims only preach Omar does not just be Muslims who are Muslim because our parents were Muslims. Let us be Muslim to understand our religion and practice it. And through that practice, we develop a strong outlook a strong relationship with our Creator. It is only when we do that, that we will experience the sweetness of Mr. And when we experience the sweetness of a man, we will never even consider doubting the publisher.

So to summarize,

we spoke today about the problem facing the world of atheism. And we said there are three things that Muslims can do to protect their hearts from doubts about their religion. Number one is to make a mental shift from being a Muslim, by chance to being a Muslim by choice, a Muslim to conviction. Number two is to seek authentic knowledge and through that knowledge to separate Islam from false practices that have nothing to do with Islam. And number three, number three is to develop a close relationship with Allah through quality Avada to worshiping Allah as we deserve to be worship. If we do these three things then insha Allah insha Allah, we will remain steadfast upon our Deen for our

life, and we will be a means of guidance for other people as well. We are asking Allah to protect all of our hearts of atheism and from disbelief and doubts about the religion and deviation in all its forms. We ask Allah to grant us conviction to help us all experience the sweetness of Eman to help us all experience joy and happiness in Nevada and to make us from those who are closest to him will offer the 100 Elijah mean