Maryam Amir – When shaytan whispers
AI: Summary ©
The concept of " women's responsibility" is discussed as a woman who is responsible for the well-being of others, and as the ones who whisp to her by the Shaitan. The importance of forgiveness and acknowledging one's own mistakes is emphasized, along with the struggles of bringing up addictions and avoiding them. The segment also touches on the struggles of bringing up addictions and avoiding them, and the importance of learning to fight Shaytan.
AI: Summary ©
Men are walking to the masjid, when all
of a sudden there is a woman in
the hall.
And she looks at him, and he looks
at her.
She leans at him, and she says, come.
And he looks at the masjid, and then
he follows her.
And they're walking away from the salah.
You can hear in the background that there
is the imamah.
They're still walking away.
You can hear in the background that there
is Allah hu akbar.
They've started the salah.
They're still walking away.
Then they come to a cemetery.
And he's looking around.
And he looks at her, and she beckons
him, and he says, yes.
So he follows her into a cemetery.
Then she opens the door to her supposed
home under the ground.
And he looks around, and he says, yes.
And then he walks in.
And then she takes off her naqab.
And it is shaitan.
But now he's trapped under the ground, and
he's free.
And when I saw this, I thought about
all the messaging, messaging that sometimes we hear
about shaitan and about our roles as men
and women and about salah and the importance
of salah and how easy it is to
be distracted from salah, but you never know
when you're going to die, which is right
now.
And there was so much intensity in the
messaging.
And then I thought, what is the actual
message of the Quran?
Because when we look at the idea of
other religious texts, when it comes to the
story of Adam, when it comes to the
story of Shaitan's role in their interaction, it
is very different from what we see in
the Quran itself.
We have been very affected by many outside
ideologies and Muslim communities, just historically, whether it's
colonialism more recently or when we trace for
many centuries past the ideas of Greek philosophy
and the translation of those texts into Arabic,
speaking into our texts.
And in an important attempt for our scholarship
to be able to understand the difference between
fabricated FIV and authentic FIV, there was a
time period where we have fabricated statements that
are not attributable to the Prophet, peace be
upon him, but were spread for political reasons
during certain times of our history.
And all of those have impacted sometimes the
way that we see ourselves and the way
that we see our religion.
So when we're looking at the actual idea
in this video of a man, we're seeing
someone who is so tempted by the idea
of a woman, not even what she looks
like, which is very degrading and very debasing
for someone to have a woman in this
video in this way.
It's very disgusting.
But the idea that a man is about
to go for salat, he's about to enter
the masjid, Shaitan is the one who whispers
to him because Shaitan came in the form
of a woman.
And then as he's about to realize that
he's in a cemetery, this is really weird,
but a woman's temptation is more important than
the potential of continuing to live.
This speaks to the idea of the biblical
concept of a woman being responsible for Adam,
peace be upon him, downfall.
This is blasphemy in Islam.
But the idea that Hala, our mother, seduced
Adam, peace be upon him, is the same
concept we are seeing playing out here.
This potential Shaitan that took off in Allah
and was calling to the hellfire.
This idea in the Quran of who Adam
and Hala are, peace be upon them, you
all know that both held responsibility.
You all know that both were held accountable,
both made repentance, both were forgiven, and the
role of the Shaitan, whether or not he
played this idea of whispering to them, yes,
he did what was said to them, but
they held accountability in a way that they
equally repented to Allah.
What we also see in their story is
that we actually, in the Quran, Allah SWT
places, if we are to say any form
of blame, Adam, peace be upon him, has
a slight amount of more, not accountability, but
almost blame, maybe it's not the right word,
in the way that the Quran mentions him.
So when we are looking as believers and
looking at our reality and the things that
we are struggling with, some of those things
that I see oftentimes are those related to
self-worth.
That when someone is in some of the
depths of darkness in the way that they
see themselves, they often believe that this is
actually the way that Allah sees them.
They believe that those terrible thoughts they have
about themselves, the things that they think that
Allah doesn't want to forgive me anyway.
Someone told me that she was unfortunately diagnosed
with cancer.
We ask Allah to bless her with a
complete cure and all of our brothers and
sisters at me.
And what her mother told her was that
she was diagnosed with cancer because she didn't
pray regularly.
What do you think is going to happen
to someone who's already diagnosed with something so
terrifying when they're being told by their own
mother, who your parent is your first close
figure to understanding what a relationship with Allah
should look like.
Not that parents are in any way Allah,
of course.
But to a small child who is being
told from the time that they are born,
Allah loves you more than I love you.
And you are sharing so much joy and
so much love with them.
That love of Allah is going to be
connected to the love of that mother for
a time.
So imagine a mother telling her daughter this.
Then she told me she started to pray.
She tried to pray but she wasn't getting
better.
Did that mean Allah did not want to
accept her repentance?
Consider the messaging we give to one another
when we have a serious issue that happens
in our community that happened recently.
I'm going to speak in the third person
because I didn't realize there would be younger
ages here so we'll just keep it very
general.
And in that general concept, many conversations that
recently took place, I heard amongst my friends,
amongst people in my community were Shaytan is
very strong.
Shaytan whispers to any of us, even Qur
'an teachers.
Shaytan can come at any time.
Yes, that is true.
Of course, that is true.
Shaytan can come to any of us at
any time.
But did Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala place
the blame on Shaytan in the Qur'an?
Yes, Allah described Shaytan's role in the whisper.
But the accountability and the repentance was firmly
on Adam and Eve.
And that forgiveness was firmly on Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala who forgave them.
So when we're talking about our own community
and accountability, when we talk about Shaytan as
an almost scapegoat for our mistakes, what we
don't do is acknowledge one, the way we
can fight Shaytan, the way we have the
power and the ability by Allah's teaching us
how to fight the whispers of Shaytan.
And number two, what we do is we
don't address actual risk factors in our community
for how we can prevent addictions or protect
or recover from addictions or forms of abuse
or even forms of self-hate because we're
not talking about other causes that can be
a form of fueling those very real issues.
Instead, we're talking about the reality that Shaytan
is just so powerful.
Yes, Shaytan is powerful, but Allah has given
us more power in his words to protect
ourselves from him.
Yes, Shaytan whispers, but we know from our
own great-grandparents that we can take Tawbah,
we can hold accountability, and we can repent.
And one of the forms of that repentance,
one of the most important forms of that
repentance is the Qur'an.
One of the most important forms of seeking
that connection is the Qur'an.
And one of the stories of our Salaf
that holds so much emotion for me is
that of Madik ibn Dinan, Raki Muhammadullah.
Who has heard of Madik ibn Dinan before?
We have a few hands.
Maybe you've heard it from me.
Madik ibn Dinan, or Raki Muhammadullah, was a
scholar in our history.
He was a great, great scholar of our
past.
And Madik ibn Dinan, before he became a
scholar, he was known as someone who would
drink alcohol.
He would drink, and he would drink, and
he would drink.
And he was also known as someone that's
kind of like a police guy.
So he was involved in things that were
not the most just with other people in
the community.
And then one day, he had a baby
girl.
He had that baby girl, and he fell
in love with her.
And she would sit on his lap, and
she would * the bottle.
She would * away the bottle from his
mouth.
And while he had her, he stopped drinking
the way he used to.
And he would sit with her until she
was three or four years old, and she
would stroke his beard and say, yeah, that's
me, oh, my dad, my beloved dad, my
dear, dear dad.
And then one day, she suddenly passed away.
And the loss of that child, the shock
of his losing her, his baby, what do
you think he turned to in that moment?
Did he turn to salah?
He did not turn to salah.
He did not turn to Quran.
He turned to alcohol.
And he drank and he drank and he
drank until he passed out unconscious.
When he passed out unconscious, he had a
dream.
And in this dream, he is standing, and
there is a massive snake, a huge, enormous
snake.
It is the Day of Judgment.
And this snake starts chasing him.
It just starts chasing him.
And he's running and running and running until
he comes to a very elderly man.
When he comes to that elderly man, he
says, help me, help me.
Can't you see this huge snake?
And that elderly man says, look at me.
I can't help you.
That snake is about to bite me.
Look at me.
I'm too frail to help you.
Go that way.
So he starts running.
He keeps running.
And then suddenly he gets to a cliff.
And when he gets to that cliff, he
gets to a stop because what's behind that
cliff?
It's hellfire.
And he hears a sound, a voice.
And that voice says, you are not from
amongst these people.
Turn.
So he turns back around.
He's running again.
He sees the elderly, frail man.
And he stops and he says, help me.
Don't you see this snake?
And the man says, look at me.
You know, look at me.
Go in that direction.
So he keeps going.
And as he's going, who do you think
he suddenly sees?
His daughter.
He suddenly sees his daughter.
And the snake falls away.
You know, in dreams, things just change.
So he's just sitting with her on his
lap again.
Oh, my father in heaven, see my dear,
dear, beloved father.
And he says, tell me about that snake.
What was that snake?
And she says, don't you know that on
the day of judgment, all of your sins
will come in the form of something physical.
And those were your bad deeds.
They were trying to meet you.
That snake was your bad deeds and your
good deeds.
Your good deeds was that frail, frail man
who didn't have the physical capacity to help
you at all.
And if it hadn't been for the loss
of his daughter, if it hadn't been for
the loss of his daughter, because pain and
difficulty and trial are also forms of raising
ranks and forgiveness and being close to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
We would never, ever, ever tell a parent
who has lost their child, may Allah protect
them all, may Allah protect them all.
We would never say this is a means
of your forgiveness.
You do not ever say that someone has
lost their child.
But what we can take in wisdom from
his dream is that this is a reminder
that in every test, in every trial, is
a means of closeness to Allah and a
means of reward in the hereafter and barakah
in his life.
And that's a comfort for someone who has
told that they have cancer.
That's a comfort for someone who hates themselves.
That in every moment of anguish that you
have, the prophets told Allah Almighty when someone
told us that even if a thorn pricks
your finger, even if you have a moment
of anxiety, it's a means of your forgiveness
and it's a reward.
So why don't we have that lens when
we look at who Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala is?
The way that we see who Allah is
is not necessarily the way Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala sees us.
If you are looking at yourself and you're
thinking Allah doesn't even want to hear my
prayer.
I did this and I did that.
I didn't pray in a way that I
should have prayed.
Oh, my mom's so mad at me.
Allah doesn't even want to hear me.
Those are your thoughts.
You are telling yourself those thoughts.
That is not waking from Allah.
You are not receiving revelation from Allah.
And catching those thoughts in the moment and
telling yourself Shaytan is coming at me right
now because he knows how much you're struggling
with yourself.
How much you're struggling with your trauma.
How much you're struggling with everything you've been
told.
That point is not Allah's voice.
Maybe it's the voice of a loved one
who tried to help in their way of
helping but was actually super harsh and they
became the biggest critic of your life which
is the voice in your head.
Maybe it's society's messages.
Maybe it's something within the community.
Maybe it's the way you've been taught about
Shaytan or I've been taught about Shaytan.
But that's not Allah.
What we see from Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala when you want to hear Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala talking to you go to
the Quran.
Because what is navigating in the
Quran
and what is Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala doing in the Quran and
what is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala doing
in the Quran doing in the Quran Is
it not time?
Is it not time for the believers for
their hearts to be so affected by the
words of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Is
it not time?
He wakes up screaming Yes, it's time.
Yes, it's time.
He goes to the masjid.
And I want you to think only Allah
knows when the last time navigating the Allah
went to the masjid was.
He gets ready.
He goes to the masjid.
They're all ready praying Salatul Fajr.
They're all ready praying Salatul Fajr.
And he walks into the masjid.
And the ayah that the imam is reciting
is أَلَمْ يَعْمِلِ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَن تَغْشَعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ
لِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ The very same ayah that his
daughter recited Is it not time for the
believers for their hearts to be so affected
by the remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala That framing the Quranic framing that you
always have Allah Madikah bin Jinnah went from
someone who used to drink to someone who
would stand in the night He would cry
to Allah and he would say Oh Allah
You are the one who knows those who
are in Heaven You are the one who
knows those who are in Heaven So whichever
of the two I am make me of
the ones in Heaven One time he was
praying He had nothing in his house He
didn't have a rich property Someone broke into
his home He didn't have light He didn't
have electricity He was in the dark He
was praying The robber didn't realize someone was
praying He walks into a home with nothing
in it And then he sees someone praying
to him and then he says Come, come
He tells him You came to steal something
from me I'm coming to steal something from
you What is it that he stole?
He stole the bad character of this man
He helped him completely repent and change his
life And then this man was the one
who was clinging to the Kaaba Allahu Akbar
Every single person has history We just do
Unless you are masha'Allah the younger kids
in this room may Allah preserve and protect
you all But we all have accountability too
Yes, shaytan has a role in our lives
Yes But the Qur'an is a reminder
that you have so much more power than
the one who said that he's not going
to make Sajdah, why?
Because he is better than who?
Adam The one who is our great great
great grandfather who Allah chose to create from
different colors of clay And the very first
moment of his arrogant racism And every moment
that he chose to be better than the
one who was chosen with prophethood who was
put into paradise Anytime we fall into a
similar trap of arrogance or racism or any
form of sin Yes, we are following in
shaytan's footsteps But we also have from Allah's
gift two things One that even shaytan may
draw to Allah and Allah answered So in
any moment that you're thinking Allah doesn't want
to answer me remind yourself that your actual
enemy did and Allah answered anyway So what
about you who is trying who is struggling
who wants to come close to Allah but
thinks you're not good enough And number two
Allah revealed in the Quran and yes it
was to the prophet But it was also
to every single one of us And if
you are in this room in this conference
most likely it's because you're a Muslim And
if you're not Muslim but you're still here
Maybe this is a moment of invitation to
you There's a reason why Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala chose for you to honor Ashadu
an la ilaha illallah wa ashadu anna muhammadan
rasool Allah Allah has chosen your voice your
lips for that statement the statement that recites
the Quran that mountains turn to dust because
of your heart encapsulates the Quran So how
much more so does Allah see you as
worthy as someone who is powerful enough in
the humility to Allah and your worship to
him but to carry that trust Subhanallah wa
rahmatullahi wa barakatuh