You Have To Say ‘No’ 100 Times!

You Have To Say 'No' 100 Times!

Ask the person who cannot pay rent — when somebody comes to them and tempts them with something haram, it's so hard to say no.

This is how the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم drew it. He drew a straight line — خَطَّ خَطًّا — and then he drew many squiggly lines around it — وَخَطَّ خُطُطًا — and he said: this is the Siratul Mustaqeem, and these are all the other paths you could have taken. And every path — عَلَيْهِ دَاعٍ يَدْعُو إِلَيْهِ — somebody is sitting there advertising to you: "Come."

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 4142; also reported by al-Nasa'i, Sunan al-Nasa'i, Hadith 11)

Every path away from the Siratul Mustaqeem — the straight path — the path of sin, the path of immorality, the path of pornography, the path of haram income, the path of disobeying your parents — there are so many other ways to go. Everywhere you look, someone is advertising to you to jump into one of the other paths.

You Have To Say No — Again and Again

You have to say no 100 times. And you know what? When you say no, you have to trust — this was good for me. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will look after me. I might be hungry tonight, but one pound of halal income is better for me than a million pounds of haram income.

The Foundation: Trust in Allah

For that, you need trust. You need to trust Allah. Allah promised you something and it's going to come true — but you need to trust Him. He will give you the patience. You need to trust that when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells you to do something, it's only for your good, for your right outcome. If you don't trust Allah, you will lose your way.