al-Raghib al-Isfahani #58 – The Level of Misguidance

After the level of ignorance the next level and even worse than that is the level of misguidance. Okay, so this has to do with seeing the false as true and seeing the true as false. And this is where the heart starts to harden at this level. So we've got some people in the Muslim community, they look at the niqab, and they are filled with hatred, and they start backbiting somebody look at her, whether she thinks she's doing this is Arab culture, or this is ignorance, or this isn't from a snap, right? Or somebody a family, this is something that happens to a family that doesn't pray, or a culture that doesn't pray, someone starts praying, don't be so extreme. What are you doing? This

is wrong, they're looking at the thing that Allah subhanaw taala gave us and they're saying that's wrong. And then if you do something else, person drinks alcohol, like in Turkey, like Raka, right as the popular drink or whatever, or I'm sure every country has their own sort of like, you know, cultural things that are that seem like okay to them, they look at it, and like what's wrong with this? This is part of my culture. This is when Allah subhanaw taala is very, very, very clear. This is the work of the devil, you have to stay away from this, especially any boo, and they look at it, and they say, what's wrong with it? This is the more dangerous than laziness more dangerous than

stupidity more dangerous than ignorance. This is misguidance person looks at the halal, and I think it's bad. They look at the haram. And I think it's good. And it's a very, very dangerous place to be, how do you get out of it, you get out of it through influence of other people, mentors, people who are good influences, which is why it's important for Muslims to be to establish some sort of pole in society where we have gravity towards our norms, right? Where it's very, very difficult to be Muslim, that's alone in a particular community, or in a particular land. If you're able to have a critical mass Muslims living next to each other, even just a few blocks in a city, then you can have

a little like, almost like a greenhouse, like where this is got a certain culture and certain norms and certain expectations, even if it's different from everything around it, but people know. And so there's less of an excuse, and then trying to show people the harmful consequences. Sometimes Sometimes we're able to do this, right? This is a big tool for Dawa in the West, like in North America, okay, you look at what has sexual freedom done. Look at all the broken hearts, look at all the venereal disease and the STDs, look at all of the consequences on on, you know, people waste their lives, how many women are in their late 30s, trying to find a good husband in a bar talking

about non Muslims, because they spent their 20s and early 30s just messing around, it's not working for them. And if it's not working for them, then that's actually a data opportunity where you can step in and say, Look, this is not the right way. Look at what it's doing to you, right, abusing alcohol, abusing substances, sleeping around all these sorts of things. What is it really doing for you, it might be fun for five years might be fun for 10 years, but it's not going to be fun forever. And sooner or later, it's going to catch up with you. So this is how to get out. If you're in the stage or you know, somebody who's in the stage where the good looks bad and the bad looks good. They

need influence and the positive influences if they're going to ever turn it around.