Morad Awad – Under the Influence
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Allahu
Akbarullahu
Akbarullahu Akbar
We praise Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And we send our peace and blessings upon
our noble prophet Muhammad alayhis salatu was salam.
I remind myself and yourselves on this blessed
and noble day of Yomul Jumu'ah
to fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. As Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the noble Quran,
after
All you who believe, fear Allah the way
he should be feared and do not die
except in the state of submission to him.
Brothers and sisters,
in
these times that we live in,
we
don't know
how much
influence
or how much we are being
influenced
by the things and the people
and the environment around us.
But before I get into what influences us,
let's talk about another influence.
An influence that we hear about and we
read about in the news.
Somebody driving down the George Bush
Parkway
in their
car
after being
intoxicated
and drinking kamr.
And I seek refuge
from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and ask Allah
to protect all of us from kamr.
After drinking
alcohol
and not having anyone to drive them, they
decide to drive
and they are speeding, going above a 100
miles an hour
on the parkway endangering their lives and the
lives of others.
They get caught by the police.
They pull over,
and once they're found to be drunk,
or in the state of intoxication,
and under the influence,
they get a ticket, their car
gets towed, they get imprisoned,
and they have whatever they have to deal
with after that.
And what they get is called
the driving under the influence, DUI.
But you know, sometimes we we see this
as a very bad sin.
Not only that, not only is it illegal,
it's immoral, it's unethical.
Someone endangering their lives and their lives of
innocent people by driving on the road
and you know, putting everyone around them at
risk. It's a very irresponsible thing to do.
But there's something even more irresponsible than that,
and even an influence
that's even worse than alcohol
on our lives.
And some of us might say, what influence
is worse than that? As kamr is called
the mother of all evils
is alcohol. Because with it,
the person changes and can do any other
sin after that.
That's why it's called the mother of all
evils.
But there is an influence that is more
than this.
And as a matter of fact, dare I
say,
there are people that don't only drive under
the influence,
they live
under the influence.
Let's call it a LUI. Right? Living under
the influence.
And living under the influence
is so dangerous
on our faith, on our iman,
on our livelihood,
and where we go after we die.
When we live under the influence brothers and
sisters, we don't live with kamer,
with alcohol or with with drugs.
We don't live with,
you know,
something that affects our bodies per se,
but we live in an environment
that we choose
to allow to affect us.
Brothers and sisters,
the people
we keep
around us,
our surroundings
without a doubt
have an effect
on the way we think, the way we
perceive life, the way we live our life
and even
decide for us
what we will do with our lives.
Everything we choose
to surround ourselves with
will ultimately
and inevitably
affect our lives
and will influence our lives whether we like
it or not.
The way they influence us is not our
choice at all because
we don't know how it's going to influence
us the same way we don't know how
a particular drug or how a certain type
of alcohol is going to influence us.
Some people think that
they won't be affected that much
but they don't know until they try. And
likewise,
when a person surrounds themselves
with certain toxic friends and people,
When a person
submerges themselves
on certain social media accounts or visit websites
or
binge watch on Netflix or on anything, certain
shows and movies that affect the way they
perceive life, that affect their relationship with their
spouses, that affect their relationship with their kids,
that affect how they conduct themselves in public,
that affect what they perceive as acceptable and
unacceptable in society,
that's a person living under the influence.
Sometimes brothers and sisters, we overestimate
the
abilities that we have to repel evil.
We think because Allah blessed us with a
conscience. We think because
we grew up in a good environment
relative to the one around us, or because
our parents were good and instilled the right
values in us, or because
blessed us to be around a good community.
We think that we are strong
and we think that we can
surround ourselves and expose ourselves to things
not knowing
that they will take
a long term toll on us,
on our faith,
on our iman, on our perception,
And will ultimately lead us to demise.
See brothers and sisters,
in the seerah of the prophet
there are so many examples
of how
influence, good and bad,
can impact the person.
Negative influence,
we have examples. And positive influence, we have
examples.
One of the famous examples of good influence
is the example of
a man by the name of Thumama ibn
Uthal
who later on became Muslim
and became a sahabah.
He was traveling from
Yamama,
which is present day riyadh,
to Makkah to perform his umrah as the
mushrikeen, the idolaters performed the umrah even before
Islam.
Right? But they had their own ways to
do it, right? With idols and whatnot.
Right? And it was some of the remnants
of Ibrahim alaihis salam and his teachings
that remained with them.
So on his way down, he was travelling
and he was close to Madinah.
The sahabah, they were scouting around as they
there were, you know, sahabah who patrolled at
night. You know, they were like the border
patrol of Madinah.
And they would look around, they found the
suraq coming from Najd, and they stopped them
and they told them, What are you doing
around here? They said, We're going to perform
umrah. They said, Why are you coming from
Madinah?
You know, you're too close to Madinah. No
one comes through here. They always go through
Ta'if and that side.
They caught him and they brought him. They
didn't know who who he was.
They tied him up and they brought him
and a few men that were with him,
and they brought him to Madinah, and the
prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam went in.
And he told the sahaba jazakumullahqir,
do you know who you cap captured?
They said, we we don't know. They they
said there's some men from Najd.
He said, this is
He is the leader
of all of Najd
and all of Yamama.
This man was
the chieftain
of all of Yamama.
Alhamdulillah, the sahaba said, Oh, subhanahu, we just
thought he's another guy.
So they caught Thumama and the prophet
said, give put Thumama in the masjid,
and tie him up to one of the
pillars of the masjid, and let him see
us. So they did that. They tied him
to the masjid. And the prophet
told them, Take care of him. And whenever
he prepared food for himself,
from his house, he would split it and
tell the sahaba, Send some to a thumbama.
Why? Because is a leader. He's not your
average,
you know, captive.
He's a leader. So the Prophet wanted to
treat him as such, and show him that
respect.
Although he's an idolater,
and he carried animosity towards the Prophet
And if he had a chance, he would
have killed the Prophet
But he didn't he didn't have that chance.
The Prophet tied up to the sariyah, to
the pillar, gave him food. The 1st day
the Prophet said, What do you have to
say, Youthul mama?
He said, Look. You caught the right guy.
If you want money, I'll give you. If
you free me, you'll have backing in the
imama.
Right?
And I'm not somebody you wanna do anything
bad to because you know how many swords
back me.
The prophet
said,
Okay Atulama. And he left. The next day,
he told me, Atulama, what do you say
now? He said the same thing. 3rd day,
he said the same thing.
So he told the sahaba,
Allah's free him. Let him go.
They freed him
and he left. He went to the outskirts
of Madinah. He did of muslimeen.
He changed, he came back and he said,
The power
of influence.
The power of influence brothers and sisters.
Look at what
the prophet
did for him.
Although he put up this front like he
wasn't being impacted,
but he was.
And he made that choice. And subhanallah, later
on, he went and continue to do a
Muslim umrah.
And as a as a matter of fact,
Thumama did the first umrah in the history
of Islam.
Thumama ibn Uthal,
fadilah this is. But look at the power
of influence.
Brothers and sisters,
everything around us impacts us and influences us.
And in a in Sheikh al Islam Ibn
Taymiyirhamu Allah, he has a book called
He talks about the power of influence.
And he said, if you were to grab
a child,
a young boy or a young girl, and
you were to dress that young boy like
a scholar,
find the great scholars, you know, they wear
the cloak
and the turban, they have the nice mask
on, and they smell that, they look and
they're carrying a high quality and you give
it to this child. You put a nice
robe and a garment on.
Look at the way they act.
They feel like they must act like a
scholar
because of the way they dress.
They chose,
you know, who chose, the parent chose or
maybe the child chose to dress like that.
Right? But you dress them that way, they
will dress like.
Dress them like a sports person,
put them in shorts, put them in a
tank top, put them in a t shirt
and bring them to the masjid, And then
you're gonna notice, he's walking around,
he's jumping around. Why? Because he's dressed the
part.
The child acts the way they are dressed.
So it is upon the parent to to
even, you know,
affect or impact or influence
them in this particular way.
But what about our style and the way
we dress?
The way we dress
affects us in many ways.
So even
watch how you, you know, like, carry yourself.
How you smell, what you watch, who you
befriend.
Tell me who you befriend and I'll tell
you who you are. The prophet salallahu alaihi
wa sallam said,
That your religion is not your religion. You
know what the Prophet shalallahu alaihi wa sallam
said?
He said, Your religion is your friend's religion.
You know what this means?
The Prophet
is implicitly telling us that when you choose
to have a friend,
you make sure that this is someone you're
comfortable enough to stand in front of Allah
on the day of judgment and say, You
Allah,
if you don't judge my religion for my
religion,
I don't mind being judged for my friend's
religion
because
he's better than me
or she's better than me.
That's my friend.
That's how comfortable you need to be with
the people that surround you. Always surround yourself
with people that are better than you.
And the moment
the people around you are negatively
influencing you, the moment you come to the
conclusion or to the realization
that they are making you worse and worse,
that's when you drop them,
before they drop you,
before you slip up and drop into jahannam.
The choice is now in this world.
The choice is now to drop them first.
And this is the only choice you have.
That's it.
We ask Allah
to surround us with righteous people. We ask
Allah
to make us from the amongst the righteous,
and to not allow any negative influence upon
us. We ask Allah subhanahu ta'ala to guide
us and to forgive us.
Brothers and sisters, fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Fear Allah in who you befriend.
Fear Allah in what you watch.
Fear Allah in the way you dress.
Fear Allah in who you associate yourself with.
Fear
Allah in who you do business with.
Fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as our days
are numbered.
Our lives are merely seconds, and minutes, and
hours, and weeks, and months.
So when a minute goes by, a part
of us goes by.
And when a day disappears,
a part of who we are disappears
because we are but merely days.
So watch who you spend your days with,
and watch who you spend your hours with,
and what you spend your time doing
because
is your life, is your existence
worth what you're doing at that time?
Does what you're spending your time doing, is
it worth your purpose in life?
Is it worth it?
This is a question we need to ask
ourselves.
And who we befriend
is a huge impact
on us brothers and sisters. And I'll end
with the hadith. The prophet alaihis salatu wa
sallam said,
Do not befriend except the believer.
Do not take as a close ally and
a close friend except someone who's a believer.
So the Prophet
divided people
into categories.
Imagine a circle with a core and then
the outer circle and then the the the
circle furthest out.
The furthest out is the colleagues, the classmates,
classmates,
acquaintances, and people that we know. And they
can be many.
And then there's a circle inside.
The people who
perhaps we follow
on our social media.
The people who we call and check up
on, the people who we like to hang
out or hang out with, the people who
we want to listen to
and ask advice from,
and share ideas and thoughts, and open up
a little bit too.
The Prophet said, These
they have to be believers.
Then he said,
the furthest in it is You
know the food that you make for yourself?
The food like you don't basically
invite anyone into your house, your haven unless
you
trust their iman.
You don't bring and introduce to your wife,
or to your mom, or to your siblings,
or to your children, except someone who you
know
would make dua for you. Someone who you
know would say, would carry themselves the right
way. Someone who you know when they eat,
they're not gonna be jealous of you or
give you evil eye, or someone who's not
gonna pray for you, or someone who's not
gonna be grateful or appreciative
of bringing them close. No. The
the God fearing person is the one you
feed your food to.
And these are the categories the prophet
gave us. Why? Because this is how
he wanted us to be influenced, right? By
the best.
So it's time right now. Wallahi brothers and
sisters, it's time
to drop them before they drop you. It's
time to unfollow, unfriend, unsubscribe to
any other, you know,
program or some something whatever on TV, you
know. Just cancel it out.
Cancel it out. If it's having a bad
influence, if it's making me understand life the
wrong way, then just block it off and
cancel it out because wallahi, it's not worth
it. Life is too short. Life is too
short to be negatively influenced.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
to clear
our relationships from anyone who will negatively influence
us. We ask Allah
to protect us from those who want to
drag us down to the * fire. We
ask Allah
not to surround us with anyone except for
those who will intercede for
and we will enjoy the bliss of their
surrounding in jannatul firdaus. We ask Allah to
forgive us. We ask Allah to forgive our
parents. We ask Allah to forgive our children.
We ask Allah to forgive our families and
our spouses. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
to guide us to the straight path, to
unite us upon khair, to protect our communities
from all evil. We ask Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala to forgive us.
Still still what I do?
After after Jumah, we're gonna do
because
would be 2 minutes after, and then we
would pray