The Two Wolves Within Us

Yasir Qadhi

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Channel: Yasir Qadhi

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hamdulillah All praise is due to a loss of Hannah hoysala we praise Him and we seek his help. And we seek refuge in a law from the evil of our souls and the consequences of our actions. Indeed, whomever Allah guides, none can misguide. And whoever Allah misguides none can guide him to the straight path. I bear witness and I testify that there is no deity worthy of worship other than a loss of Hannah Horta, Allah and bear witness and I testify that more Hemis Allahu Allah He was Selim, his final prophet and his most perfect worshipper, as to what follows Allah subhana wa tada reminds us in the Quran to be conscious of him when he says yeah, you Hello Dina Armando topo la

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helper to RT he was to mutanda illa one two Muslim one. Dear Muslims in today's Hooda I wanted to remind us of a very beautiful imagery that our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam gave to warn us about two things that destroy our faith and our religion. In a hadith narrated in the sunit of a tin MIDI and the Muslim Ummah, Muhammad, our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Matthew Burnie Gianni audyssey la fionna Minh that I'm translating here paraphrasing. Imagine if two hungry wolves were to be let loose in a flock of sheep or a flock of goats. A wolf, by the way, is an animal that destroys more than it can eat. Unlike the lion, the wolf destroys more than it can eat. And the wolf

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will cause havoc wherever it goes. every farmer knows this. That's why they have Shepherd dogs to guard against the wolf. Our Prophet said imagine not one but two wolves were to be let loose on an unprotected flock nobody's there to protect. Imagine two wolves against defenseless flocks. How much damage would that cause how many sheep would be left alive after that massacre after that attack, then our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said,

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that image, imagine now a man's eagerness for wealth, and the man's desire to be famous, or more destructive to his Deen than those two wolves to that flock of sheep. This is the imagery that our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam gave, just like those two wolves will wreak havoc in a flock. The Prophet system said we all have two wolves inside of us. We all have two animals, that if we let them go unchecked, they will destroy our Deen not a flock of sheep, not our wealth, our Deen What are those two animalistic desires? Number one head of salaryman, an eagerness to have more and more wealth. And number two, he decided just to be famous or to be in power or to be in the limelight,

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fame and power and money. These are the two things that desires if we don't keep them in check, they shall destroy us worse than a flock of sheep is destroyed when they are defenseless against a pack of wolves. In this Hadith, our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam paints an imagery that is very vivid, and he asks us to be conscious of these two animalistic tendencies. Now these tendencies in and of themselves, they are in all of us. The first one the love of money. Allah says in the Koran, he's describing all of mankind, what to hate bonell mala Shubin jamaa all mankind you love money with a burning desire with an immense desire, the help of man, the love of money is something that

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is ingrained in all of us. But when we allow that love to overpower when we allow that love to go unchecked, it will lead to disaster. How so many things number one, a barrage of comments, that if the only crime of greed, if the only penalty of greed was that it made a person busy in this world, to the point that he neglected the next world, it would be enough of a crime. In other words, even if you earned halaal and spent on halaal. But all you did was earn earn, earn earn instead of just 1520 3040 hours.

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You want to spend 8090. Instead of having enough to live you want to have more and more and more at the cost of your time. Even Rajab said if the pursuit of wealth, the only crime was that it killed up your time, this would be enough of a crime for the pursuit of wealth. Why? Because wealth is only temporary pleasure. How long can we enjoy wealth? How much can we enjoy the wealth that we have? And when we spend our time in the temporary pleasure, it will come at the expense of the permanent which is the hereafter. And that is why our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said in that famous Hadith What do you really have of your money? Oh, son of Adam, what do you really have, except your food

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that when you eat it, you will then go to the restroom and desiccated or the clothes that when you wear them after a while they will wear off, or the good deeds and the charity that you spend fourth, and that is the only thing of your wealth that you will actually have permanently. Think about it. No matter how fancy your palace, no matter how beautiful your sink and your toilet, no matter how great is the food? How long will those pleasures last, in contrast to the pleasures of the hero. So the first problem that happens when we have unchecked desire for wealth, is we end up spending an inordinate amount of time in obtaining wealth, at the expense of spending time in a bar, and in

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liquor and in servicing mankind and in accruing the greatest wealth, which is the wealth of the hereafter. Allah says in the Quran, Allah Allah will be known as Xena tolyatti dunya, while burka, Yato Sala how to her urine in the Arabic, wealth and children, they Make life beautiful, but the good deeds that remain forever are more beloved to a law, the good deeds that remain forever, not your wealth. Another problem that happens when we prioritize wealth

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is that in the pursuit of wealth, we start justifying any means to obtain that wealth. And we feel that in order to feed our children, in order to build a bigger palace, we are justified in obtaining wealth through illegal unethical how wrong means. And this is without a doubt one of the worst effects of loving this world, when a person becomes blinded, that they do not care about risk about ethical halaal earnings. This is without a doubt one of the greatest disasters of loving money, because how wrong wealth is one of the most evil things of our religion, how wrong wealth, our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said it is the number one cause of our dogs not being accepted

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to Allah. If we feed our food, our money is how wrong and we're eating how long and we're wearing how long how do we expect a lot to answer our to us hold on wealth. Our Prophet sallallahu Sallam said, as he says didn't even Marja. Any flesh that is nourished by her arm has no right to go to Jenna. Any flesh that is nourished with her arm means your money is her arm, and you're spending it on her arm and you're eating with our arm. Our Profit System said any flesh that is growing from that our arm, Jenna has no right for it. How can gender accept you when Allah says that he only accepts the pure he only accepts that which is good that which is for you. So when we become so

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blind in our love of wealth, that we don't mind cheating, stealing, embezzling lying, defrauding, when we become so blind, that we just want to earn and earn and earn and we don't care about inflicting pain on others, or being unethical or selling out on then we have opened up the door to destruction to ourselves, and that is why the love of how Tom wealth is something that is one of the main causes of destruction. The second point that is mentioned in this video is love of john. And john means fame and power. JOHN means to be in the limelight. JOHN means you want to be known and accepted by people. And this is done by attain obtaining positions of power by doing things so that

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the people know you and talk about you. So our Prophet sallallahu wasallam said one of the two wolves is the desire to be well known the desire to be in the limelight. The true believer understands that being in the limelight is a huge responsibility. It's not something you aim for directly. The true believer understands that stepping up for positions of authority, stepping up to revisit for positions of power is a huge amount. And they are shy. They're hesitant. They have to be coaxed and pushed in. They don't want to jump in and be the ones that are in charge or be the ones in the forefront because they have to answer to all

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Loss of Hannah Montana. But when a person desires to be famous, when a person desires to have power to have control, then this will lead to a very major disaster, typically speaking, and that disaster is your ego becomes more important than the cause you have been entrusted with your ego, your fame, your prestige takes priority over the responsibility that has been handed to you. And we see this time and time again, not just in politicians, we always like to blame politicians, and they have word much to blame. But the fact of the matter dear Muslims, let us be brutally honest, at some level, we all play politics, at some level, in our own corporations, in our own offices, in our own

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extended families, even in our own Islamic organizations shape on coms, and politics gets involved. And we want to be the ones that everybody's speaking about everybody praises everybody puts on a pedestal and our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, when that becomes your goal, when the goal is not the Redeemer, when the goal is not to fulfill the trust when the goal is not to do a good job, but the goal is your ratings and the public view, the goal is what the people will say, well, then you have opened up another door of destruction. And what happens when you prioritize your ego is that you are willing to harm other people in that process. This is what happens with powerful

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people. This is what happens with cutthroat competitive competitors. This is what happens with kings and politicians that when they get to that power, when they get to that level, they become intoxicated. Even if we are not kings and politicians. As I said, Every one of us at some level, we have something that we're in charge of, we have some aspect that we have to intermingle with the others. And if our ego becomes the most important thing, then we will be willing to speak bad about others unjustly, we will be willing to take the rights of others unjustly, we will we will be willing to expose the faults of others or do many other sins. Why? Because we feel by doing that we

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will have our ego and our prestige and our fame put into the limelight, and we will do so at the expense of others. And this is the door of varum dear brothers and sisters in this beautiful Hadith our Prophet sallallahu Sallam summarize two animalistic tendencies that live within all of us to be extremely eager to obtain wealth, and to be extremely eager to become famous, and the both of them our Prophet sallallahu wasallam compared to hungry wolves, when a wolf is hungry, he will not even act rationally. He compared them to hungry wolves beasts of prey, and he compared a man to beautiful sheep flock beautiful animals, peaceful animals, animals that bring wealth and benefit and hair that

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is your religion. And our prophets have said if you don't keep those two desires in check, they will destroy your deen even worse than how two wolves will destroy a flock of sheep May Allah subhana wa tada bless me and you within through the Koran and may He make us of those who is versus they understand and applies halal and haram throughout our lifespan as scholars forgiveness you as well asking for he is the food and the ramen.

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Alhamdulillah Hilda hadn't had a summit ulladulla merely dwolla mula wollombi akula, who co founder had woba do j Muslims, let no one understand from this, that the mere desiring of wealth, or the desire to do something effective is in and of itself? How wrong or sinful? No. Both of these desires if you channel them and control them, they are permissible, yes, they're dangerous, but in that there's also good our Prophet sallallahu I didn't send him said to Amityville house near Malmo, saw the Hello Rogers salia. How good is pure wealth for the righteous person? How good is pure wealth for the righteous person. And when our profit system would choose somebody to be on a delegation to

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be an ambassador, he would choose the one who was known the fame was there, the prestige was there and the Treaty of Arabia, our profits or some center of mine, I've been a fan because he was the most beloved he had a prestige and he had the pedigree he had the tribe that will be at his backing. So he chose the person whose prestige and whose fame was known and utilized them. And the same goes for every other Ambassador that he sent. So in and of itself, wealth is not evil in and of itself. being famous is not evil, but it is what you do with it, and it is your prioritization of it. That is where the problem comes.

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So dear Muslim, nothing wrong with wanting to be wealthy, but don't make that your overwhelming desire don't make that the end goal wealth is a means to the greater goal and the greater goal robina Arjuna for dunya has an alpha alpha, the center, if that is your goal, you want to live a comfortable life and you want to invest for the Acura and there's nothing wrong with having the goal for money. And if you want to be effective, and you want to do something for the sake of Islam, and you you understand that to do so there must also be a positive reputation. But your Nia is not your ego, your Nia is to benefit the people than in shallow to other this too is permissible. So here is

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where the fine line comes in and of themselves. wealth and fame are neither haraam nor sinful nor evil, they are neutral, but generally speaking wealth and fame corrupt more than they guide so we are being warned, were being cautioned that if you enter this arena, if you're going to be full time businessman, lots of money coming in, or if you're going to be famous or even if it's at a lower level, be careful you monitor your intentions and don't make these desires to become like wolves like animals of prey. If we keep them in check, we can utilize both of these for the sake of the deen. But if we let them go, then they shall destroy us and destroy our religion. In the process. I

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ask Allah subhana wa Tada. make do with me with our hands to our law and ask you on this blessed day that you live know that you leave no sin of ours, except that you have erased it, and no one sicko a lot except that you have cured them and no one who has passed away a lot except that you have forgiven them and no one in detto Allah except that you have repaid them and no one in any suffering of Allah except that you have placed ease on them and no one who is oppressed to a law except that you have aided them with your mercy Yara mano Yara Rahim Allah we ask you to bless Islam and its people and the oma make it safe and peaceful and protected from those who desire for it evil. You

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are the COVID the most powerful, yeah Kareem we ask that you live from us display again disease and bless us instead with comfort and ease acceptance of our good deeds for your the Hakeem and the Majeed servants of Allah. Allah subhana wa Taala has commanded you with a command that he began by implementing himself and then he told the angels to follow it up themselves. And then he commanded all of us to follow it up ourselves for he said in the Koran in the law, Huck woman a cutter you saw Luna nebby yah, yah, Latina amanu sallu alayhi wa sallam Otis Lima Allahumma salli wa sallim wa barik were under him up the cross welcome Hamad wa early he was savage marine everybody's a law in

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the law to Allah Yeah, mobile adley 174 at the port about 100 fracture it was moon carry well belly. Yeah, como la quinta de karoon Kuru la la mia the Kuru come watch Kuru. Yes, Allah come. What are the crew lighter akbar wa Optimus sada

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Yeah.