Sikander Hashmi – Protection Against Shaytan KMA Friday Message
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Respected elders, dear brothers and sisters, my young
friends, Assalamu alaikum,
We begin by praising Allah
the Lord of the universe
who has granted us this blessed and beautiful
day,
and we begin
by sending peace and salutations upon his beloved
messenger,
his final messenger, Muhammad, the son of Abdullah
salallahu alayhi wa salam.
My brothers and sisters, we thank Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala for
granting us the month of Ramadan. We ask
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to grant us acceptance.
We ask Allah azza wa jal to forgive
us for our sins and our shortcomings
that we committed
within
even within the blessed month.
As the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam has told
us my brothers and sisters,
in the month of Ramadan,
the shayateen were chained up. As the prophet
said, was sullilatish shayateen.
So the shayateen, the devils were chained up
in the month of Ramadan.
So as a result,
their influence was weaker in the month of
Ramadan, and they were not able to do
what they normally are able
to do in terms of causing trouble and
leading people astray and leading people away from
Allah
in times other than Ramadan.
Now with Ramadan being over,
the shayateen
are back at full force. Right? You sort
of think of it as it they were
in the penalty box
for Ramadan,
and now
we're back at, you know, they're back at
full man.
You know, they're they're they're back at full
force,
and the advantage is now gone. Right? So
they were shorthanded in Ramadan,
now they're back at full force. Right? We
had the man advantage during Ramadan,
and now that is now gone, and it's
now back to
normal.
Now Allah
has repeatedly warned us about shaitan. You know?
And sometimes you think, okay, as children, you
know, we're warned about shaitan, our parents scare
us, you know, about, you know, shaitan's gonna
do this, shaitan's gonna do that, or don't
let shaitan take over you. You know, sometimes
you think, okay, it's just something that, you
know, we're just,
you know,
told to be afraid of.
But
what exactly is the true nature of shaitan?
So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has repeatedly warned
us about shaitan in the Quran. For example,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
Oh you who believe,
oh believers, do not follow the footsteps of
shaitan.
Do not follow the footsteps of shaitan. It's
interesting. Right? It's not do not follow shaitan.
Do not follow qutuwa to shaitan. Do not
follow in the footsteps of shaitan. So shaitan
leads the way,
shows the way, and leaves, you know, marks
for us, leaves hints for us, leaves, you
know,
droppings for us, and then the people follow.
So
shaitan.
Whoever follows the footsteps of shaitan should know
that what what does he
do? This is one of the or 2
of the characteristics
of shaitan, that he
orders one to commit shameful acts and evil
deeds.
And we've talked about this in detail before.
Shameful acts and evil deeds, and there's explanation
as to, you know, what differentiates the 2.
But nonetheless, generally,
he commands people to commit shameful acts
and evil deeds. That is what he does.
So if you follow in his footsteps,
that is what you're gonna end up with.
Or if you are seeing that, then perhaps
you are following in the footsteps of shaitan.
So be aware of this enemy as Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala also says,
Right. It's interesting here Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is warning us about an enemy that everyone
already knows is an enemy.
Surely shaytan is an enemy to you
so take him as an enemy.
Right? So it's one thing to know. Yes.
Okay. This is harmful for me. Right? It's
like smoking. Right? Everyone knows smoking is harmful.
Has anyone gained anything from smoking in this
universe, in this in this world?
Anybody whose lungs have started to flourish because
they started to smoke?
No. Right? Everybody knows the harm of smoking.
Right? But there's people who still smoke.
So
it's one thing to know that shaitan is
an enemy, but actually take him as an
enemy. Understand, recognize, be alert when you are
worried that someone's gonna attack you. What do
you do?
Just like stand there and and start browsing
on your phone? No. Right? You're worried. You're
alert. You're looking all around. Right? You wanna
make sure that you're paying attention because you
don't wanna get attacked. K.
So take him as an enemy.
He only invites his followers to become inmates
of the blaze. That is the destination. So
if you follow in these footsteps, in these
traces and footsteps of shaitan, he's gonna command
you to do evil deeds. He's gonna command
you to do evil, to do shameful deeds.
And eventually, that is where he is leading
you, that is towards the blaze. And subhanAllah,
you know, you notice when Ramadan is over,
right, the moon is sighted, the announcement is
made for Shawwal. And, subhanAllah,
the the the month of Ramadan at that
moment is gone, and you start noticing the
effects.
You start noticing the effects
of the reemergence of the influence of shaitan.
Right? Whether it is, you know, people who
are no longer inclined to come to them
as shit or now or people who are
restraining themselves from certain sins or certain habits
or addictions that they had, and now
they start going back to them. Right? And
there's a whole bunch of stuff that starts
happening. Right? And, you know, if you're not
paying attention, you haven't noticed it. But if
you pay attention, you will notice
the the effects, you know, the things that
start occurring once the shayateen get back to
full force. May Allah
protect us all. Now one of the basic
things, of course, that they do is to
command us to do the opposite of what
Allah
likes.
Right.
Command us to do
the opposite of what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
likes. Right. And there's actually only 22
groupings. Right.
Meaning,
the one that are
aligned with Allah
and his shaitan. Those that are the party
of the ones who are aligned with
shaitan. Right? It's one or the other. Right?
You're you're either with 1 or the other.
Right. There's no middle ground between the 2.
So you have to choose which one you're
gonna align yourself with.
Right. Where are you gonna align yourself? You're
gonna align yourself with the party of Allah
I'm not talking about political parties of course.
But you align yourself with
the group
that is aligned with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
that is calling towards Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
that is trying to please Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala that is heading in the direction of
the pleasure of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, or
are you gonna be away from that? And
if you're away from that, you're in his
bashayba.
And the way
that the the the the the tricks and
the traps
of shaitan work,
they use different approaches.
Very clever. Right? Iblis, of course, the head
chef.
Very, very clever in using different approaches because
it is known that different things work for
different people.
If you're trying to do something,
right, whether it's marketing, you're doing sales, or
you're, you know, trying to teach people, or
whatever it is that you're doing, you're trying
to get a message across, there's different things.
You learn after some time that there's different
things that work for different people because not
everyone is the same. And shaitan knows that,
and that is why when he was condemned
by Allah and
kicked out from the company of the angels
for disobeying Allah
what did he promise?
I will approach them from their front. He's
talking about us, by the way. Right? I'm
gonna approach them from their front,
from their back, from their right, from their
left, And he promised Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
And you then you will not find most
of then you will find most of them
ungrateful.
Because we learn a few things here. Number
1, the tactics.
Right, the MO is gonna be different. The
tactics are gonna be different for different people.
Okay. If someone is a great avid of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, someone who worships Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala at a very high level,
the way the shaitan is gonna try to
approach them is going to be different. If
someone is, you know, already getting tempted, then
the tactics are going to be different.
Somebody who is,
you know, doing lots of good works, tactics
are going to be different. People who are
united,
tactics are going to be different for them.
Right? Because different things work for different people
in different situations.
And
he's promising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He promised
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that as a result
of his attacks from these different directions, the
ones that you can perceive coming from front
of you, the ones you can't perceive coming
from behind you, the one coming from sides
that you do not expect,
as a consequence of that,
people will become ungrateful. Ungrateful. And we learned
from this
that
ungratefulness
is also from one of the traits of
shaitan. One of the things that he wants
us to do is to be ungrateful.
And most importantly,
what he wants us to do is
to be at the highest level, to be
ungrateful to Allah
Right? So that is why we want to
develop parts
that are
not only constantly remembering Allah
but are also constantly in a state of
gratefulness. Always trying to look at things with
positivity,
always having a good opinion of Allah
and always thanking Allah
even when there may be challenges and when
there may be struggles.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala tells us about shaitan,
Inahu Wa Salam wa sallahu wa sallatu'anunarilna biinaaamunwala
rabbihim yatawakkaloon.
He certainly has no authority
over those who believe
and put their trust in their lord. The
ones who have tawakkul and Allah
and the ones who believe,
he has no authority over them. So we
learn from this that
greater conviction,
stronger yaqeen,
stronger iman
is
or or what does it do? It counteracts
the influence of shaitan. Having strong faith in
tawakkul, in in trust in Allah
counteracts
the influence
of shaitan. So in the Quran, Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala tells us multiple things that, you
know, he tries to do from among his
traits, and we've already discussed, you know, calling
towards immodesty or shameful acts, evil acts, also
causing enmity and rifts between people.
Causing enmity and rifts between people, between spouses,
between parents and children, between siblings, between friends,
between neighbors.
This is from the traits of
of shaydhan. This is what he what he
what he targets.
And how? Through whispering suspicions,
you know, in people's hearts and minds about
others, misgivings
about others, you know, encouraging them to rise
against one another.
And
what else does he do?
He threatens people with poverty.
He threatens people
with poverty.
Right? So it's one thing that, yes, a
person is genuinely in poverty or is struggling
with their well-being, their finances, and so on.
But it's another to simply be afraid,
constantly being afraid that, oh, I might become
poor.
Oh, my level of wealth is going down,
may go down if I become charitable, if
I do kindness towards others,
if I do some works of khait. So
he threatens people with
poverty so they become afraid. And also, especially
for my young friends, intoxicants and gambling,
and also adults as well, of course, are
the filthiest of his tools.
Intoxicants
and gambling
are from the filthiest of his tools to
drive people wedges between people and to drive
people away from Allah
So at this point, my brothers and sisters,
the focus his focus will be on trying
to undo the good that was done in
Ramadan.
Undoing the increase in iman and taqwa that
you experienced in the month of Ramadan
and trying to lower your level of spirituality,
your connection with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
lower the the the state of your salah,
to lessen your connection with the Quran,
to bring back the old bad habits like
using bad language and lying and gossiping and
backbiting.
Right? And various types of sins with the
effort or with the intention, the objective
of causing us
to become,
heedless
of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. To promote heedlessness,
a ghafla,
so that we become
so that we move away from Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala or at least our mindfulness of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala goes
down because Masha'Allah, tabarakAllah, he was at a
at a high in the month of Ramadan.
So I want to undo all of that
because if you can cause distraction
and get us to forget Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala even for brief periods of time, that
creates an opening then for encouraging us and
tempting us to commit sins.
Whereas if a person is regularly engaged in
the zikr of Allah Subhanahu
is regularly thinking of Allah
is mindful of Allah
then it becomes very hard to distract that
person and get them
to, to, to to do the things that
he wants them to do. So in terms
of the antidote,
first of all, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells
us in the Quran.
And if you are tempted by shaitan,
then seek refuge with Allah
Indeed, he alone is all hearing and all
knowing. So first of all, if you even
if you realize that you are being tempted
by shaitaan, then you say
You seek protection with
against the shaitan. But think about this.
Allah says,
If you are tempted by shaitan,
how are you gonna know you've been tempted
by shaitan?
So you already need a level of awareness
to recognize that you're being tempted
by shaytan.
So this is
at the high level. Those who are conscious,
and they realize, okay. I'm getting into a
situation, and most likely shaytan is tempting me
here. Right? Whether it's something that he's trying
to tell me to look at or something
is is whispering into me that I should
say or respond to someone in a certain
way or engage in a type of conversation
that I shouldn't be engaged in. So this
comes with taqwa, and because this is a
level of mindfulness where a person is aware
of what they're getting themselves
into. Also, the prophet
has talked about the virtues of,
you know, the the 2 quz, at the
end of the Quran.
Also very powerful for protection against various types
of evil and, of course, including the evils
of the shayateen.
The remembrance of Allah
I mentioned briefly already.
The the remembrance of Allah
in the month of Ramadan was very high.
So first of all, the influence of the
shayatreen was already restrained. Right? It was already
constrained. Like it was they already were not
able to to influence people the way they
they are used to doing. So that was
already there. On top of that, masha'Allah, the
increase in the remembrance of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala, that is an antidote to the influence
of the Shaykh al Taym. So now because
the first part we have no control over,
that is they have influence full influence now
as before Ramadan.
One of the ways we can continue to
repel,
the shayateen
is by trying to keep a very high
level of the remembrance of Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala. It is mentioned in the hadith that
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala commanded Sayyidina Yahya alayhi
salam to enjoin 5 things upon the Bani
Israel.
And one of them, one of which was
that I command you to remember Allah. And
he went on to say, a man cannot
save himself from his enemy except by means
of zikr.
Right? So if you can keep yourself engaged
in the remembrance of Allah
even if you are not actively remembering Allah
at a certain point, if there is a
whisper, a temptation from shaitan,
that
that that protection
will awaken,
and
you will remember to say,
You will remember to say, Allah, and that
temptation will dissipate. That whisper will get extinguished.
The recitation of Quran, the prophet
told us told us especially with regards to
Surah Al Baqarah, the house in, in which
Surah Al Baqarah is recited.
The house in which Surat Al Baqarah is
recited is not approached by shaitan.
And we also find the virtues of Ayatul
Kursi, which is a part of Suratul Baqarah
against with regards to protection against shaitan as
well. And finally, my brothers and sisters, wanna
mention,
the act of sticking together with the muminin,
with the believers.
Because the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam, said that,
that
adhere to the main body of the Muslims.
The entire hadith is from Al Khurrada main
kum baaba hajannah.
Whoever amongst you wants to attain
the best part of Jannah should adhere to
the jama'ah, to the main body of the
Muslims. And then he said, for the shaitan
is with the one who is alone
and further away from 2.
Can't be any clearer than that. Shaitan
is with the one who is alone
and and further away from
2. So stick together, be in the company
of others, especially those who are good people,
and you will find that it will be
harder for shaitan to influence you and
to tempt you into doing things which are
disliked to Allah,
disliked by Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
And finally, following the teachings of Allah, his
messenger, sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
in as much detail as possible. Because every
time you do that, you're working against
shaitan.
And every time
you go against the teachings of Allah and
his messenger, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, you are
following in the footsteps of shaitan.
Relates
from the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
That when the son of Adam, when the
child of Adam recites a verse of prostration
in the Quran and prostrates.
So when there's a ayah in which there
is a sajdutulawah
and a person prostrates as a result, the
shaitan withdraws weeping
saying,
That woe to me, the child of Adam
was commanded to prostrate
and he prostrated so Jannah will be his.
I was commanded to prostrate, and I disobeyed,
so the * will be mine. So when
we obey the command of Allah
we are actively doing something to defeat shaitan.
So shaitan will try to get you in
the moment. We'll try to get you to
act on impulse and temptation.
So the key here, my brothers and sisters,
apart from the things that we have discussed,
is to increase the level of mindfulness of
Allah
to try to continue to increase the level
of taqwa
and think before doing anything.
Think about it just takes a few seconds
before acting on impulse, before acting on temptation,
before saying something, doing something impulsively.
Just take a few moments to think, to
reflect upon the effect, the implications,
the consequences.
Is it really
worth it? May Allah
grant us protection from shaitan and, from the
disobedience of Allah
Ask Allah
to accept our meager deeds. We ask Allah
to guide us to become serve better servants
of his and to grant us better people
around us, and we ask Allah
to grant us his love and forgiveness and
mercy.
Hello?