Feed the Right Wolf

Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa sallahu wa Sallim wa ashrafi Gambia even mousseline Nabina

Muhammad bin Abdullah Allahu Allah Allah He was happy he of Belo salatu wa tamata slim, Amanda, for in Nepal howdy vikita boo long. Rafael howdy howdy Mohammedan sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was sure well over a month to her wakulla the 13 beta on wakulla be the RT and Allah Allah Walla Walla Walla

Walla Walla Fie, kitabi Hill Aziz.

Amina Shivani, rajim Bismillahi Rahmani Raheem me,

pico de Sami

coup de la, la

La

mazzini tsingy

all praise and thanks to Almighty Allah subhanho wa Taala, who is our Creator sustainer nourish, protect and cure. May the choices of his blessings and salutations be upon our beloved Master Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, his family members, his companions and all those who tread upon his path with utmost sincerity until the day of the AMA, oh slaves of Allah. First and foremost, I admonished myself and then all of you all who are present here to adopt a life of taqwa, the and that is to fear Allah subhana wa tada and to be conscious of him during every single second of our lives, if we wish to attain success in this world, as well as the hereafter. May Allah the

Almighty make us all from the people of taqwa.

My dear respected elders and brothers in Islam. Last night, I was reading a book and I came across a story

which with the help of Allah subhanho wa Taala inspired me to title today's kotoba as feed the right wolf.

The content of today's kotoba insha Allah will be deal with addictions.

To proceed before we delve into the subject of the fourth bar, let me share let me share with you the story that inspired me to title the hotel bar as such.

There was once an old man.

Don't worry, the story is not about the boy who cried wolf. There was once an old man

narrating a story to his grandson.

So he says, My boy, let me tell you of a story, a story of two wolves, a story of two wolves.

He went on to say that in every human being in every human being, there are two wolves within every human being

a good Wolf and an evil wolf tools. And these two wolves are in a constant battle with one another, they are fighting with one another. The good wolf is all of those good qualities within a human being such as love, care, humility, humbleness, patience, compassion, and etc. and the evil role is all of those evil qualities such as anger, hatred, malice, envy, jealousy, etc. So he tells this young boy that these two wolves are in a constant battle within a human being. So after a few moments, the young boy asks his grandfather, so granddad, which of these two worlds when in their battle,

the grandfather very calmly replies, the one that you feel

The one that you feed.

Now moving on to the content of today's kotoba. If you look at addictions, addictions are also very similar. They are even wolves lurking behind each and every individual's mind, evil wolves. And the more we feed those evil wolves, the more we feed those addictions, those wolves become stronger, they become stronger, ending up in there, tearing or ripping an individual into shreds.

So let us define primarily what an addiction is. psychologists say that an addiction is a condition that results when a person ingests substance whatever it may be, such as alcohol, cocaine, nicotine, or if that individual were to engage in an activity, such as gambling, such as gambling, that can be pleasurable to that individual. But the continued use age of which becomes compulsive and interferes with the ordinary life responsibilities with the ordinary life that the individual enjoys with the responsibilities that he is burdened upon, such as work such as family, relationships, etc. And it also interferes in his health. For my dear respected elders and brothers in Islam, what we need to

understand is that our brains, our brains are pleasure seeking machines, our brains are always looking for pleasure. So it is upon us to curb those desires, it is upon us to control our brains in such a way that it realizes it realizes that true pleasure is only in obedience to its maker. true pleasure lies only in the obedience towards Allah subhanho wa Taala.

If a brain were to understand this, that individual who owns that brain is bound to achieve success in this world, as well as the hereafter. Now, let us look at a few types of addictions, a few types of addictions, there is a list of addictions to substances and we would also call it substance abuse, such as people have addictions towards alcohol, they become alcoholics. People have addictions towards tobacco, in other words, nicotine, they start smoking cigarettes, like chimneys, packets a day because they are addicted to it. Then we have individuals who are addicted to

substances like morphine, heroin, cocaine, marijuana, etc. We have individuals who are addicted to prescription drugs like antihistamines, sleeping pills, and sedatives, painkillers, this is also a type of an addiction. And also, we have individuals who are addicted to substances such as amphetamine, otherwise known as met, and we even we live in a time in an era where there are TV series that promote usage of meth. It makes it something very common for the youngsters today, so much to the extent that they consider it not even a harmful substance, Allah save us all. Then we have a list of addictions, which are in regard to a person's

a person's control of thinking. It is also known as impulse control disorders, such as, for example, if you were to take kleptomania this is an urge to steal. This is an addiction to stealing things, even though that individual may be a rich person, that individual has no need whatsoever to steal. But this addiction brings about this uncontrollable urge to steal things wherever the individual maybe maybe in a friend's house, maybe in a supermarket, maybe in a grocery store, they have the urge to steal, then another type of an addiction such as Pyromania. This is an addiction where the individual is obsessed with setting things on fire. The person wants to keep setting things on fire.

And then we have individuals who are addicted to gambling, even though they know that they're losing millions and millions of

rupees perhaps they are so addicted, they have to end up in the casinos. May Allah subhanho wa Taala save us all.

Then we have a list of behavioral addictions, such as an addiction towards food, which we will touch very briefly and addiction towards food, they become food addicts or food junkies, they are so addicted to food. And then we have individuals addicted to sex, they're so addicted. They don't they start looking at the opposite gender like predators, they start looking at the opposite gender like carnivores because they are addicted to sex. And then we have individuals addicted to pornography. They are so hooked on to pornography, they want to attain it they want to view it constantly daily. This is another type of addiction which we shall touch briefly inshallah Darla, then we have

individuals who are addicted to social platforms, such as perhaps Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, they spend their whole day. Now what did we say in the beginning and addiction interferes in a in an individual's daily life so much to the extent that he will not have time for his family, he will not have time for his loved ones, it will interfere in his work life so much to the extent that he will start facing financial losses, because he is so addicted. We have individuals who are addicted to Facebook, they keep on checking their newsfeed, they become Narcissus, they start promoting themselves so much to the extent that they cannot remove themselves from the cobwebs of

those social platforms. Then we have individuals who are addicted to video games, especially the youngsters today. Now they don't want to spend time outdoors. They don't want to play a good sport of a game or something like that. Rather, they want to spend their time indoors in front of the television in front of the computer screen or in front of the handheld, playing games throughout the day, resulting in them getting low grades in their school, in their schools, and perhaps even affecting their future careers etc. We have individuals who are addicted to working. It may sound as if it's a good addiction, but then No, they become Workaholics. They become Money Machines. Once

again they will not have time for their family. They did not have time for their loved ones most important, they won't even have time for their beloved creator. They will become so obsessed with their work that work work work only that will matter to them. They become Workaholics. We have individuals who are addicted to exercise working out they become fitness addicts so addicted, that they are so worried about their food that diet they eat around seven to eight meals a day. They want to eat clean.

Islam is a religion that strikes a beautiful balance. We aren't supposed to become junkies, we aren't supposed to become food addicts. No Are we supposed to become fitness addicts so much to the extent that we are so worried about our food that the whole day goes about planning diets and perhaps visiting the gym maybe twice or thrice a day because they have become addicted to fitness.

Then we have individuals who are addicted to pain. They enjoy cutting themselves, they enjoy burning themselves, they enjoy inflicting pain on themselves. So all of these addictions mighty respected elders and brothers in Islam damage an individual's life. Now let us try to understand how these addictions work. See in all of our brains, we all have brains. And in our brains, there is a reward center, there is a reward center in our brains, otherwise known in its scientific term, nucleus accumbens. This is a reward center in each and every one of our brains. Now this reward Center has receptors, you could call it, you know, things that catch signals, and there is this chemical that

is ingested to the reward center in our brains known as dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter a chemical that goes and touches the reward center in our brains. To put it in simple words. That's when we feel happy. That is when we feel happy. When dopamine is released, this chemical is released on the reward center in our brains, we start feeling feelings of pleasure. Now generally feelings of pleasure are good feeling

is good, but too much of pleasure is bad. Too much of pleasure results in an addiction to words that pleasure. Let's take an individual who is addicted to food. I told you we have individuals addicted to foot. Obesity is becoming becoming something common these days, we have individuals addicted to junk food, we have individuals addicted to sugar.

The minute the individual becomes addicted, he starts looking at sweet perhaps donuts and candy chocolate junk food, maybe a burger from McDonald's, he starts looking at these foods. And these foods start,

you know,

kicking off a chain reaction in his brain where dopamine is released and the pleasure center is rewarded. Now each time he looks at food, dopamine is released huge quantities of dopamine. If it were to be little quantities, it is not going to harm an individual. But now huge quantities and so much to the extent that even if he were to consume that food, let it be a bar of chocolate, he is still not satisfied, because he looks for more pleasure, and then more pleasure. And each time he feeds that addiction that addiction becomes stronger, that addiction starts requiring more fuel to run. And then he starts eating Moe and more food, more and more junk food more and more sweets,

resulting in him becoming obese, resulting in him becoming fat, unhealthy, and so many other sicknesses.

It is just because we find it difficult to curb addictions. If you were to take smokers for example.

The content in a cigarette. The chemical known as nicotine is what brings about the addiction. Nicotine, the minute you have a drag of a cigarette, nicotine runs through the blood and sends signals to the dopamine center to start releasing dopamine on to the reward center of the brain. And then the individual starts feeling pleasure, he starts feeling pleasure. So say it starts off with one cigarette. Now the brain becomes immune to that pleasure, it wants more pleasure, it becomes two cigarettes 345678 910 and then goes on to a packet, a packet a day even our save us all. We start puffing away like chimneys, like chimneys, and this urge is insurmountable, we will never be able to

satisfy that urge my dear respected elders and brothers in Islam. And the scary part is that we become so addicted to that pleasure that we become blind to the ill effects of smoking in regard to our health, in regard to our family, in regard to our loved ones, our children, etc. Smoking affects every single part of our bodies. From our brains onwards, our face, we are liable to be afflicted with mouth oral cancer, throat cancer, lung cancer, our blood becomes thick and murky, so much to the extent that the heart has to pump harder to move that thick blood around our body resulting in us being you know, we stand the chance of falling ill in terms of cardiac arrests and etc.

Our teeth become stained gum diseases, there are so many other things blindness, it even affects our hearing. It even affects our hearing our taste all of our senses. And then if we were to live a life, a married life, we are going to affect the innocent lady that we bring into that marriage. Our children are going to become weak because it has become it is it is proven that smoking even messes up with your DNA, your DNA, it affects your DNA, and that is going to result in you perhaps are suffering from erectile dysfunction, erectile dysfunction, and then it will mess up the sperm count resulting in weaker children. You are destroying yourself gradually because of this evil addiction.

If you were to take pornography the other day, I was reading a book into the mind of a porn addict. You see these are things maybe scholars don't touch on it. But it is upon us that we have to because the youngsters today are drifting away. pyrrha parents need to be more cautious. They need to be more careful. They need to keep tabs on their children.

Statistics

That the highest number of porn users are aged from age 10 to 20, age 10 till 20. I'll give you statistics which will make your hair stand on an end. But let me come to the book which I was talking about, I read into the mind of a porn addict. And that book discusses that that individual who is addicted to pornography, he becomes or his mind becomes like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Many of you all might be aware of the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. But for those who aren't, let me give you a synopsis of that story. Dr. Jekyll was a good man, a good man who was a scientist, he was a researcher. And he believed that it is possible that it is possible to

do to divide or to separate the good sight of a human being from the evil side of a human being. He believed in that and he was working researching in regard to that, he came up with a potion if you will, to separate the good side of a human being from the evil side, and he himself consumed the potion to test it. But that potion, this is a story, but that potion had a drastic side effect on him, resulting in his good side being permanently separated from his evil side. So basically, he was suffering from multiple personality disorder. So his good side was known as Dr. jackin. And his evil side became Mr. High. So in the mornings, he used to be Dr. Jekyll, this kind nice old man who used

to help out the neighbors do good stuff, but in the night used to become this monster, a monster known as Mr. Hyde, going around causing corruption, killing people, murdering people, all kinds of mischief. morning comes he becomes Dr. Jekyll again. So the author of that book, was saying that the mind of a porn addict becomes like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Because this porn addict in front of his friends, he's a nice man. He's a nice man, he keeps it hidden. He keeps this evil addiction of his hidden from his family from his loved ones from his friends. He may have terabytes of wild girls vulgar material stone in his private computer, but he hides it away from his loved ones. He shows them a different picture, but the minute he resorts to the privacy of his room or his home, Mr. Hyde takes over and he becomes this evil per word, who is clicking away on the World Wide Web, clicking URL after URL downloading video after video observing all of that, walger, obscene material, and the minute, he becomes caught in the minute, the minute

he gets caught to perhaps his wife or his parents, he becomes angry, he wants to hide his mistake, he wants to hide this addiction of his. He generally takes a lot of precaution, such as perhaps clearing his browsing history, deleting all of his cookies, and perhaps browsing on private mode or incognito mode so that nobody finds out about this evil addiction of his butt say by chance, he gets caught to his wife or his parents. Now he becomes angry. He tries to put up excuses Mr. Hyde comes about again, Dr. Jacqueline is Hayden he wants to hide his faults. He wants to try and justify what he was doing. These are the evil ill effects of these addictions, my dear respected elders and

brothers in Islam, talking about statistics.

pornography is a $13 billion industry. It is the most profitable industry in the world today. The United States is the world wide king of porn. 60% of all pawn pages are hosted from the United States. These statistics are generally not put out officially because this is such a thriving industry. All the superpowers want to support this industry. They want to promote this addiction and destroy humanity. But we being Muslims, we being Muslims, we fear Allah subhanho wa Taala we bring in taqwa. How, how on earth can we think that we wish to hide all of those evil addictions from our loved ones from our family members by deleting the browser history and the cookies, but Allah

subhanho wa Taala, who gave over a billion in human beings the site to see do we

That Allah is blind. Can we hide those URLs that we clicked away from Allah subhanho wa Taala? How ashamed must we feel to observe that obscene and vulgar material whilst we know that our Creator is looking at us, Allahu Akbar, that has to come into our hearts media respected elders and brothers in Islam.

going on with the statistics, every other search on Google is related to pornography, every other search, almost 40% of the internet traffic is in relation to pornography, the largest porn site on the internet gets a 4.4 billion number of pageviews per month, per month, 4.4 billion pageviews

and 350 million unique visitors 350 million unique visitors. And when I say unique, what we mean is unique IP addresses not the same individual coming back in again, that may happen so many millions of times 350 million unique visitors from all around the world. Allah save us all. The largest porn site transfers 29 petabytes, petabytes of data per month data in the sense porn content 29 petabytes and you know how much is one petabyte computer experts, the cloud would know one petabyte equals 1000 terabytes. I think you're a common with terabytes. Now one petabyte is equal and 2000 terabytes or to be more precise, precise, 1024 terabytes so 29 petabytes of vulgar,

obscene material is put up new material every single month. Look at this industry, my dear respected elders and brothers in Islam it is basically the horns of the devil, the horns of the devil, it is in every house, Allah save us all. It is upon us as parents to keep tabs on our children. And it is upon the sons of Islam to understand how evil this addiction is, and to stay away from it completely. Because scholars say My dear respected elders and brothers in Islam,

that if an individual is hooked on to pornography, even marriage is not a solution for him.

Even marriage is not a solution for a porn addict. Because if he were to marry, he would be putting the life of an innocent girl into an abyss into a pit.

Even marriage is not a solution for a porn addict. They are there are rehabilitation centers, there are rehabilitation centers, counseling centers, to help people who are hooked on to pornography. May Allah subhanho wa Taala. Save us all. In the few minutes that I've got remaining, let me very swiftly touch on a few steps on how to break an addiction.

Number one, it is upon us to acknowledge that what we are doing is wrong. Many of us try to hide our addictions. Like I said, many of us try to justify our addictions, perhaps our smoking habits, perhaps our drinking habits, or perhaps the cravings that we have for food. This unrealistic cravings that we have for food, or that pornography addiction of ours, we try to justify, or even if you don't do it public, we try to do it with our minds. Even if we want to try to quit smoking, we always keep one packet of cigarettes for a rainy day, we say you know, you know maybe I might need it. You want to quit smoking, you need to check all of those cigarettes out of the window and quit

smoking then and just go cold turkey. You have to quit it just like that. They say you set up a quit date. Our quit date should be now right now. Because none of us can guarantee that we can even walk out of the mistake. molecule mouse may come visit us any moment any time. So how can we think okay, let me quit, perhaps in 2020 How can we assure that we live that long?

We need to start work right now and eradicate all of those evil addictions of ours. Number one, we need to acknowledge what we're doing is wrong. If we are in an addiction, we need to acknowledge it. Acknowledge the sin, that it is wrong and work towards eradicating that addiction number one, the step number one is to understand to identify what we're doing is wrong. Number two, use alternative coping skills. In other words, people do not completely eradicate bad habits. Say you have the bad habit of smoking. You can't

Just because time does not permit but then you have withdrawal symptoms, etc. You'll be depressed you will be you'll you'll feel frustrated, you will feel angry because the dopamine in the sense the reward center needs to be pleasured all the time suddenly you stop that dosage of pleasure to the reward center, your brain is going to go haywire. It needs that usual dosage of pleasure. So you start suffering withdrawal symptoms. So how do you replace? In other words, how do you eradicate a bad habit? It is by replacing that bad habit with a good habit. You replace the bad habit with a good habit. say if you're if one of us were to be a porn addict, we are not supposed to be alone.

Because generally that is what triggers this thing in our brain to to resort to a welcome material, we should try and keep ourselves occupied all the time in something good. Perhaps read a good book, perhaps come to the masjid participate in something that is good in something that is charitable, something that would benefit us either in this world or the hereafter. Because an idle mind is a devil's workshop. an idle mind is the devil's workshop. So we should try to keep our mind occupied.

Third step is to identify danger zones and triggers like danger zones or like say you have bad company bad friends, friends who smoke don't go and hang out with those friends, because it's once again that is just going to trigger that bad habit of yours. Stay away from them. Stay away from environments that promote sin and things that are haram May Allah subhanho wa Taala save us all we know of the story of the man who killed 99 men, and then he goes on to kill another to make it 100 What was the advice given to him leave this land of yours because this is an evil land. This is the land that you committed so many murders you assassinate native, so many people leave this land and

go to another land and start off a new chapter there. That is a fresh leaves for you in regard to your life, make tomato sauce behind Mr. Tyler and start off fresh. So it is upon us to stay away from all of those sinful environments. And finally, mature, respected elders and brothers in Islam. The two main steps is to take account of ourselves like oh my god, a long line who is reported to have said has he go on to second COVID-19 hasta boo. take account of yourselves before you are taken into account. audit your books before your books will be audited for you. take account of yourselves very frequent, so you understand where you're going wrong and correct yourself. And finally,

bringing in taqwa software, the fear and the consciousness of Almighty Allah subhanho wa Taala is that main ingredient that would save you from all of these sins, all of these Weiss and all of these evil addictions May Allah subhanho wa Taala save us all. And remember, as a closing note, my dear respected elders and brothers in Islam, don't ever think that a complete change will happen or will take place overnight. A complete change don't think that it will take place overnight, just as how every tiny little grain of sand in an oyster gradually becomes a pearl. A tiny grain of sand in an oyster becomes a pearl. Do not ever underestimate your tiny good deeds, because all of those tiny

good deeds would result in you changing to the better and becoming a better person in front of us behind them what Allah May Allah the Almighty forgive all of our sins, and may He the almighty accept all of our good deeds, and may He help us eradicate all of those bad addictions that we are in. May he help us stay away from all evil men he help us to turn to him before it is too late. And may He forgive all of our sins and accept our deeds and may He unite us in the gardens of Jenna with our beloved prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Well after that Allah and hamdu Lillahi Rabbil aalameen