From Bad To Better & Good To Great

Good brothers and sisters now just a few days away. What did I learn hems from Rama one? Allah Allah Allah, Allah Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, allow us to live to witness this blessed month, allow us to be forgiven for this blessed month allow us to be elevated in your sights, to be freed from the punishment and entered into your eternal bliss, Allah I mean, so many of us, as we approach this month, are approaching it with with all sorts of goals in mind. And one of the things that we should be approaching it with is some sort of set of resolutions, that something about me has to change. And obviously, you already

know that the last husband Ramadan, or the multiple right after it is, how do you maintain progress. But if you don't already set in motion, what that progress looks like before Ramadan starts, then afterwards, the only thing that progress is going to mean to you is maintaining the feeling of Ramadan, which is a misguided notion because Ramadan, is meant to bring about tequila in our life is meant to bring about God consciousness in our lives, that allows us to sail with the example of the Prophet salallahu. It he was ahead of us, always guiding us throughout the entire year. And we talked last week quite a bit about the tactics of the shavon. And what we can take from that. And of

course, as I said, he's going to be extremely active before the start of Ramadan. We know what the last few days look like before I'm alone all types of deflections, the most wild and bizarre and harsh tactics that you expect from the shell theme right before Ramadan starts as they are about to be chained away. Here's what I want to discuss today in Chatelet to add in that regard. When we talk about the way the shape on comes to a person. Many of us are familiar with the story of Bob cseh, the monk and I've spoken about this narration that comes from the books of tifosi in various iterations of a monk from Benny saw it that was known to be a righteous man. And he was interested

to take care of the young daughter of some man or the younger sister of some men as they went away. And slowly, slowly, the cython crept up on him and got him to commit sin got him to fall into a major sin, though it was something that was unimaginable to him at the time. And in that narration, which I'm not going to go through in detail now. In that narration, if you pay attention, the way that it starts off with is a messaging of care, a messaging of good, she's going to be all alone, you should take care of her, you know you putting the food out there and not talking to her and giving her company is going to be a problem. And all of that up until he falls into that major sin.

So he uses the tactics of goodness, he preys on the man's good sentiments, His goodness that he you know, you should take care of her, you should show her some kindness until he gets him to fall into that. And then you just see that narration take the turn, where the shavon takes him from bad to worse. And that's significantly worse. First it is adultery, then a child's then murder her and murder the child then lie about it to cover up your tracks. And the entire time, you can see the psychology of the shape on and the psychology that the shape on preys upon to take someone from a very bad situation, to a situation of No Return, up until the last part where he goes from being a

lifelong worshipper to Allah to listening to the shape long who says to him, that look, I was the one who got you in this situation. I'm the one who can get you out. And so he curses his Lord, he worships the shape on and he dies in that state with the law. So it starts off with preying on a good sentiments and tricking him trickery. And then it becomes turn a bad situation into a worse situation. When the man have been able to repent from Xena from committing adultery. Of course we know of a woman in the time of the Prophet slice alum whose repentance from Xena cut was was greater than all of the repentance of the people of Medina and the words of the messenger sallallahu. It was

summed up the story of mines will be allowed to an animal. There are so many stories that we see of repentance even from a horrible and major sin. It doesn't take away from the status of the sin. The sin remains as it is. It's a horrible sin, but he could have repented from it. He could have turned back but then the next thing and the next thing followed up with murder, because how can you turn back to Allah after committing that major sin? Then follow it up with lying and follow it up with trickery? And you can see how even though it's an extreme example, the shavonne can play with a person's mind and take them from bad

To worse to where they can even have logic to their horrible actions. And we see that manifests Pamela all the time when the shape on is able to mess with a person like that. And then you see the other side, I think that is actually narrating the body. Another famous story, another man from Venezuela, the man who killed 99 people. We've all heard that story. I can see you shaking your heads already. Then he goes to a monk, he asks the monk, any chance for me to turn back to Allah? I mean, I didn't murder one person. I didn't just commit Zina or steal or lie. I mean, I've killed 99 people. I'm a serial killer. Any chance of turning back to Allah? He tells him, Are you crazy? You

killed 99 people. He doesn't use those words. But that's the sentiment, right? I mean, you killed 99 people, what do you want? I mean, a lot. Now, you should have thought about that after two or three people. What's wrong with you? And so he kills him too.

Because the man tells him You have no hope. Then he goes to a scholar. And he asks the scholar, and here's the thing.

You've all heard the story. I think, for the most part, I don't want to focus on the story. I want to focus on a few sentences from the headache. And I'm going to tell you why. Because often, we read these stories, so paraphrased, and they're so extreme in their manifestations that we just don't get it until extreme things happen in our community. And we're like, wow, okay, like some of these things from these that we never thought we'd witness in our lives we're witnessing now. And we don't relate to our behavior, the message that is there. So this story gets quoted to mention the mercy of Allah. There's something so deep and just the next few sentences when he tells the scholar, any hope

for me. I killed 100 people. Will Allah ever forgive me? I'm going to just read the sentences. Call a woman who will obey NACA what Dana tober he said, Who's going to stand between you and your repentance? It's not up to me. It's not up to the last guy you killed. It's not up to the guy that you'll go to if you killed me after. Who's gonna stand between you and Toby, your repentance is between you and Allah. What do you mean do I have hope? Do I have a chance called Oak Ridge middle Korea to Cabeza de la to enter via email Korea to Slovenia Korea Tikka whatever Farrago dropbear, kaffee ha. He said, but you have to leave your bad company, leave this group of filthy people.

And everything that comes with that companionship and go to this town of righteous people and adopt their waves and worship a lot in that place. Now, again, an extreme example, right? I mean, what do we do here? Obviously, hinge is the thing, right? migration for the sake of Allah is a thing. But can't we adopt that in our own lives to realize that look, if you're trying to set new standards for yourself, but you plan on keeping the same company in Ramadan after Ramadan, then it's very likely that the standards of that company if they are lower than the standard set for you by Allah, His Messenger sallallahu, Alayhi Salaam, they're going to pull you right back down. So the man was

smart, Subhana Allah He created, he was wise, he made sure to say, as for the sincerity of your Toba, no one has between you and your Lord, that's between you and Allah. But you really want to make it sincere and not just say a stuff for the law for killing 100 people but stay in the same environment that led you to that until you kill 101 and say, Oh, my God is tough for Allah. No, you got to leave this place. What do we take for that in our own lives, you have to abandon certain company, certain groups, certain people that hold you back and move on. So he goes for Harada you redo Korea to solely

focus on a 3d model mela ketorolac. Now Analytica to Lada. Now, the Hadith says that he died on the way and he was going there to do exactly what the man told him to do. And then the angels of mercy and the angels of wrath came to argue about him. They didn't I mean, his situation is truly perplexing. And guess who shows up in the headache for the very first time he was there all along, but his name shows up for the first time call it a release. Now Stefan speaks the whole time he was operating in his head, operating in the background, pushing him towards certain things right. Now he makes himself known. This is the first time shavon is mentioned in the narration. And what does he

say? He says, No, no, no, no. Oh, lovey. He's mine. He's mine. In the whole lemmya Aslan he sat and cut. He never disobeyed me for a single hour. I had him his whole life. He never disobeyed me for a single hour, not a moment of his life that he not disobeyed me. So Pamela the whole time. This whole idea as we're going through sapin is not mentioned

But now when it's time for him to receive either mercy or punishment Wait, wait, wait. That's my guy. I messed him up and he never wants disobeyed me for a single hour. Karla cosmetica to Rama in hahaha.

But then the angels of mercy said but he went out seeking repentance. And of course we know that the end of this narration Allah forgives the man. Allah says measure the distance between him and the land he left and the lands he was going to. And Allah subhana wa tada shakes the land according to one narration so that he could actually be closer to the land he was going to and Allah forgave him and showed mercy to him. This man could have easily gone from bad to worse, but Assisi killed one and then kill to the baby as well. But cseh killed to this man killed 100 but the outcome is literally the exact opposite. This man ends up in the mercy and forgiveness of Allah, this man but

cseh ends up in the worst state, a murderer and adulterer, a devil worshiper at the end of his life. So Pamela, what is it? It's that he went from bad to worse, whereas this man who killed 100 people was going from bad to better.

And that's what Allah azza wa jal calls you to call Yeah, either the alladhina asafo and unfussy him that tukana told me Rahmatullah in Allah if he doesn't obey me in a hula hula Rahim say, oh my servants who have transgressed against themselves do not despair from the mercy of Allah. Allah forgives all sins. Allah is most forgiving, Most Merciful. But then the second part that's By the way, this idea is in the first part of the advice the scholar gave to this man.

The second is what enable ilaro become honestly moolah, turn back to your Lord and submit yourself to Him is the second sentence. The second idea matches the second sentence that came from the scholars mouth to this man after he found himself in a hopeless situation. shape on traffic's and despair and shape on traffic's and delusion. despair, when he finds you there, he takes your situation from bad to worse, if you continue to listen to him a lot as though it takes you from your deepest pits of despair, and gives you a chance. But you have to develop the resolve, and you have to develop the roadmap or rather follow the roadmap that's already set out there for you. And aim

for the mercy of Allah subhana wa Tada. So that's one set of people, dear brothers and sisters, as we go into Ramadan, that importance of setting that resolution to quit abandoned company, follow the roadmap towards good. The other set of resolutions is in regards to what is already good and making that great putting a son into it. And in some ways, in some ways, you find a person that is neglectful of their prayers all together. And you find a person that prays kind of five times a day, kind of five times a day, right? Sometimes they miss sometimes they prayed much later, but kind of that person who is neglectful of prayer altogether, right? might find that spark, and because they

recognize the sense of urgency turned back to Allah subhana wa tada and start to pray all five prayers in the right way. Whereas that person says, Yeah, I pray, I count myself amongst the muslin need some how Allah sometimes you find people that are half fulfilling obligations, go through the obligations of the dean have fulfilling obligations, and they settle in that place, and they stay in that place for the rest of their lives. Whereas you see someone who's not fulfilling obligations at all, and they make a complete switch in their lives. And so they adopt those ways. And so yes, even if we count ourselves amongst those who fulfill the obligations, how do you better those

obligations? Are you satisfied with your Salah? Are you satisfied with your obligations? Are you satisfied with where you are at with them? Or do you bring in the quality that makes it a son, that you embellish them with those voluntary deeds and put out a plan for yourself right now the resolution for yourself right now to adopt that bid, enlighten and run alone and beyond? And finally, dear brothers and sisters, we have Ramadan resolutions, but we have timeless standards. We have timeless standards. We cannot lose sight of the clear guidelines in them how long a vegan would have been. The prophets lie Selim says that what is prohibited is clear and what is permitted is

clear what they know whom out what to shabby hearts and you have the doubtful areas between them that we abandon the guidelines are there. The good has been made clear. The bad has been made clear. Let's say that you start Ramadan and you start struggling with your resolutions. Do you just give them up? No. There's there is

such thing as Toba in show us too. There's such thing as tober and there'll be an hour there's tober there's repentance throughout the year. This however is a time where we get to make those resolutions within 90 Tada, while the Most Merciful is inviting to His mercy in a way that what a failure a person would be if they miss out on the mercy of Allah in the month of mercy. That's the one that Jubilee Ronnie his Salaam says kabo hustle. That's that's a fail, that you would miss out on mercy even in the month of mercy, where the gates of Paradise have been flung open the gates of Hellfire shots and the shale theme change away. Make those resolutions do brothers and sisters and

make them concrete don't leave them abstract concrete resolutions for yourself Bismillah heeta Allah to make changes in Ramadan May Allah subhanho wa Taala allow us to go from what is bad to what is better from what is good to what is great. May Allah azza wa jal make us the people of taqwa a people of ehsaan a people that often oscillate between Estefan seeking a less forgiveness and tests be glorifying a less perfection and acknowledging our own imperfections always alumni I mean who probably have their stuff alone recommended. I'm assuming first off we don't want to hold off for hamdulillah salatu salam ala rasulillah and Ernie he will suck me he will Manuela a lot more filters

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