Recognizing the Tricks of Shaytan - Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed | Islamic Reminder |Jummah Khutbah

Opening Recitation

As-salātu wa-s-salāmu ʿalá Rasūlu-llāh, qāla Allāhu taʿalā, baʿdā an-nāʿutubillāhi minash-shayṭāni r-rajīm, bismillāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīm.

Sadaqallahul-'azīm.

Respected elders, mothers and brothers, students, as-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.

The Battle Between Truth and Falsehood

Almighty Allah is the creator of the heavens and the earth, man, jinn, elders, youngsters, provider, nourisher, the giver of health, the giver of sickness, of that of life and death, and He is the creator of both truth and facilitator of the truth, and He has allowed falsehood also to exist, and He has created for each one of them people, people of falsehood, people of truth, and He has created an abode for each one of them as well, namely paradise and hellfire, jannah and jahannam.

And Allah has allowed this battle to take place from the very get-go between حق and باطل, between truth and falsehood. Allah has created a حزب الله and a حزب الشيطان. Shaytan cannot act without Allah's explicit permission, and all the deceptions that he does, he's done and he continues to do so, and the ability to seduce mankind and to distract mankind from Allah's commandments, all of that is allowed to happen by Allah.

And that makes the test, this place as a test, دار البلاء, a place of a test wherein Allah allows shaytan to act in this manner.

The Party of Shaytan

Allah mentions in the Qur'an that:

Shaytan, he overtakes the human being. He overtakes the human being, some of them, the disbelievers that is, and the sinners, and those who are enemies of Allah. Shaytan completely overtakes them. فأنساهم ذكر الله. And then he makes them forget Allah's remembrance. أولئك حزب الشيطان. Allah says, they are from the party and the army of the devil. ألا, listen, إن حزب الشيطان هم الخاسرون. Indeed, the army and the party of Shaytan are the losers.

And then Allah, after the next following long verses, He says:

Allah has ordained this, Allah has written this, ordained this, لأغلبن. Most definitely, I will succeed, supersede, and overpower. أنا, myself, ورسلي, and my messengers. إن الله قوي عزيز. Why? Of course, because indeed Allah is almost all-powerful, and no one can overpower Him. He reaches the limits in strength and might. He is mighty and He is powerful.

True Believers and Their Loyalty

Then the next long ayah, Allah speaks about the companions of Rasulullah ﷺ, and generally Muslims. That when they make a covenant with Allah:

That the true believers, when they taste belief and iman, then their loyalty is only with Allah. Allah says, you will not find, O Muhammad ﷺ, you will not find true believers that they will have love from the bottom of their heart with those who choose to war with Allah, and choose to war with Rasulullah ﷺ.

The Prophet ﷺ, he had people like that. He had companions, we have converts, mashallah, few in our crowd, and we realize the sacrifices they make. But Rasulullah's ﷺ audience, 100%, is of converts. Every one of them is a convert. Every one of them is coming from a home in which he is the only one, or maybe his spouse is the only other one, or maybe one son, or maybe one parent is a Muslim. And also that happened afterwards, that didn't happen at the beginning. So Rasulullah ﷺ is speaking, and his audience is all new converts.

And Allah is saying, لا تجد قوماً يؤمنون بالله You will never find that group of people who truly believe in Allah and His Prophet ﷺ. يوادون من حاد الله That they will have love from the heart with those people who are at war with Allah and His Rasul. ولو كانوا آباءهم Even if those people are their fathers, أو أبناءهم or their own sons, أو إخوانهم or their brothers, أو عشيرتهم or their close family members.

Meaning, these people, when they say, لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله, the covenant they made with Allah is stronger than everything else. They said, you know, blood being thicker. With this aspect of love with Allah and His Rasul and the commitment to Islam is the strongest bond. Period.

Understanding Self-Interest and True Loyalty

Because my dear brothers and mothers and sisters, we are all out there looking at our own interest, are we not? Every one of us. It always comes down, boils down to our own interest. So when we look at a friend versus a sibling versus a parent, we look at in the long run, who has done so much for me? And who do I need to in the future? We may not verbalize this, but we are internalizing these type of things before we make a decision.

That I have my mother saying something, I have some random person saying something. I have my sibling saying something, I have a business partner saying something. Now we look, who have we benefited more? Who do we stand to benefit from now at this moment? And in the future, who will I turn to? We may not verbalize this, but when a person sides with someone besides his own relative, he is primarily saying, besides his own family member, brother, sister, mom and dad, and he chooses to go against them and break their heart in order to keep someone else happy, it's because he feels, maybe erroneously probably, that my parents, my relatives haven't done much for me. And this friend of mine is everything. And in the future too, he is probably the only one who is going to listen to me.

A Modern Example: Marriage Choices

You see, unfortunately many times in our community, young men and women who want to get married, and this is very common, we see that they feel that they found the perfect fit for themselves. And their parents are not happy with that. And they say, No, we don't think this is the right fit. And very quickly the person flips back and says, You don't know what I want. My parents don't know what I want. My parents, why are they getting involved in this? They've done their share and they need to move on. I have chosen this person and this is something I'm willing to.

We have girls saying this. I'm willing to be kicked out of my home. I'm willing to leave my parents for this man. Just get us married. But the door is going to close, no problem. This is the daughter of today saying this. I don't have a problem finding my parents closing my door on me and burning all bridges as long as I get married to this person.

So he or she is erroneously thinking that 25 years of service that my parents have given to me really isn't much compared to this few months of romance that I'm enjoying from this individual. So that's internally what's happening in the person's mind. Because if they weighed it properly and they thought about it, without this emotional feelings, they would have realized that yes, this is really good. But subhanAllah, I owe it to my parents who raised me and done everything for me all my life. And in the future too, if I have a divorce or I have a problem with my spouse, I'm going to run back to this house and this only house is going to be open. It's not that if I run away from someone else, my ex-husband or ex-wife is going to be willing to take me in. That's not the case.

The Source of All Love: Allah

So where is a mistake being made? When a person makes this mistake in judgment, they don't realize that who is truly out there for your interest. So at the end, every human being is looking out for his own personal interest. So now let's look at the grand scheme of things. You have parents, you have spouse, you have children, you have business partners, you have all of these people who we have relationships with and we benefit from back and forth. And then you have Allah.

And Allah is the very being who put our love into our mother's heart. Who put our love into our father's heart. The father that struggles three shifts and three jobs for his children, if you tell him to sit down and relax enough, you're working enough, you don't need to do that. He will say, No, I will continue to do this for my kids. And you try to convince him out of it, and he will say, No, I'm not. And it's as though he's saying, I am forced into this. And you say, Who is forcing you? No one is putting a gun to your head. And he says, No, I can't see my son wearing not the best shoes. I cannot see my son or daughter not going to the best private school. I have to.

But who said he has to go to the most expensive private school? You made this. That is the love that Allah has put of his son and daughter into the parent's heart that makes the parent do the unthinkable. Makes the parent do the unthinkable. I mean you have many many instances where parents have given their lives in order to protect their children. So many incidents of that sort even now you hear about in the news. Where is that coming from? I think that love is coming from Allah.

We are indebted to Allah who raised us in our mother's womb. Our mother had absolutely no share in us being born healthy. Besides the fact that she didn't intoxicate herself and the obvious things that hopefully she didn't do because of what she remained healthy. But internally from a genetic perspective, all the millions and billions of things that go right for us to be where we are today. And that if even one of those things were to mess up, we would be born without our sight, born without our ability to understand, born with a deficiency in some organ or some limb of ours. Who had a role in that? Allah and only Allah. And only Allah had a role in that.

So hence we realize that our biggest muhsin and the one who is the most benevolent and the one who cares for us the most is who? Is Allah. More than our own siblings, more than our parents. When a person understands this concept that Allah has always been there for me. And that anyone who looks at me with love, anyone who gives me and lends me money at the time of need is doing so because Allah has softened their heart towards me. And if Allah had chosen to make these people harsh and hard-hearted and unsympathetic towards me, then no one would be willing to help.

The Reality of Changing Hearts

A perfect example is a separation or divorce. When people spend 100, 200, 300 thousand dollars at the union. At the union of two families, the union of a couple. And they are, as they say, madly in love and they are spending millions and thousands, rather thousands, and hundreds and thousands of dollars. And unfortunately, as we've seen a rise of this in our communities, a year goes by, a few years go by, and sometimes even months go by. Things go sour. And all of that falls apart. And now thousands are being spent at the lawyers and in courts in order to dissolve the marriage.

Now that love that you see, what happened? That heart that was so focused and attached to the other person that they were willing to spend more than they have and take on credit and loans from the bank in order to spend on their beloved spouse. Today all of that has changed. Now just naming that spouse or bringing the name of that person enrages this individual. He says, I don't want to hear her name. I don't want to hear his name. I don't want to meet them without a lawyer. I don't want to sit in a room without a lawyer. What happens?

You realize that:

(Sunan at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2140)

That the heart of the son of Adam are between the fingers of Allah. He turns them in any direction he wants. That love that was there initially was from Allah. The love that's been taken away now is also been taken away by Allah.

Our Ultimate Loyalty to Allah

So our ultimate loyalty - and hence if we have the selfish attitude, we all have the selfish attitude of I need to protect myself from harm. It's hardwired within us. That selfish attitude of I need to protect myself from harm should make us say that my allegiance and loyalty lies first and foremost with Allah. Because Allah has always been there, is there and shall be there for me. I am benefiting from Him the most. And I stand to harm myself immensely if I anger Him.

So the only logical, ethical, moral way forward is for me to ensure that in every decision that I take, my Lord, my Allah should be happy with me first and foremost than everyone else. Because we are all hardwired to benefit ourselves. And it's in my interest to ensure that Allah is happy with me. Maybe it's not in your interest. You want me to involve and indulge in this business dealing which is haram because you want a nice cut out of this and I know how to do this business so you're asking me to join with you. But hey, it may benefit you and you're a good friend of mine but a better friend of mine, the best friend of mine is Allah. And Allah has not allowed this type of business. Hence, I will forego this business deal and say no to you in order to keep Him happy. That is the most logical reason and the most logical way forward.

The Two Parties: Hizb Allah and Hizb Shaytan

Allah announced, again I repeat these verses, Allah after speaking about the Hizbullah, the army of Allah, who will succeed. He says, after speaking about the army of Shaytan, the army of Shaytan is those people who Shaytan is literally, as we say, Shaytan is sitting on top of their head, controlling them, whispering, telling them, go here, go there. Like a person who drives, rides a horse and puts blinders over the horse and guides the horse right or left. Similarly, these people have been put blinders by Shaytan. They can't see what's mom saying, what's dad saying, what Allah is saying, what my ustad is saying, nothing. Shaytan has made them so focused on fulfilling their desire, their goal, which Shaytan has fed into their mind. And he is guiding them at every step. Allah says, they are party of Shaytan and listen, the end is that the party of Shaytan will fail.

And then Allah tells, don't, you should, if you are, if an individual is party of Shaytan, he should not think that today I am winning the race, hence I will always win the race. Don't think like that.

Allah has already ordained that Allah will succeed. Eventually Allah will have the last say. And not only Allah, وَرُسُلِي and my messengers. And by reference, by inference we can say, anyone who follows in the path of the messengers as well. Right? Not only is Allah pleased with the prophets, but by the companions, and whoever follows their footsteps as well.

True Believers and Their Loyalty

Then Allah says that, O Rasulullah ﷺ, you will never find a true group of believers who will wish to continue to have alliances and love from their heart. Such people who are against Allah and His Rasul and war against Allah and His Rasul, even if it means that they are own spouses, siblings, parents, or relatives.

Now you ask yourself, how did you do that? How do you give preference to Allah and His Rasul over your own blood relatives? How are you able to remain firm on your faith? And say, my relations with you are in its place. I will not break my ties with you. I will not oppress you. I will go out of my way to fulfill your rights. But my loyalty still belongs to Allah. And I am fulfilling my rights with you because my Lord has asked me to do so. So in my fulfillment of rights of non-Muslim relatives and friends, that is also because my Lord has asked me to do so.

You ask yourself, where did you get the strength? How are you able to achieve? How are you able to do this? We see so many times we end up breaking the major orders of Allah because one of our spouse asks us to do something else. Because our children ask us to do something else. And we don't have the, as they say, the heart to say no. We don't have the heart to say no to a smiling daughter, son, or our wife, or our husband. And we say, no, this is, yes, with all due respect, you know, Allah is there, but I have to please. So where did the strength come for you to do this? To stand up to your own relatives?

Allah has written in their hearts Iman. Allah has stamped Iman in their hearts. Allah has stamped Iman in their hearts. وَأَيَّدَهُمْ بِرُوحٍ مِّنْهُ And then Allah has strengthened them with a special taqah and quwah. A special power Allah has embodied them with. Because of which they're able to stand up to these challenges and clearly say to those who are around them that my loyalty is with Allah.

وَيُدْخِلُهُمْ جَنَّاتٍ And Allah then says, these people whose loyalty is with Allah and they don't become phased no matter who amongst the relatives says otherwise Allah says, وَيُدْخِلُهُمْ جَنَّاتٍ Allah will grant them beautiful gardens of paradise under which rivers will flow which they will reside in there forever.

And then he ends this ayah which is the last ayah of Surah Al-Mujadalah. أُولَٰئِكَ حِزْبُ اللَّهِ Listen, this is the party of Allah. These are the men of Allah. These are the women of Allah. This is the foot soldiers of Allah who have genuine dedication and love to Allah in every aspect of their life. أَلَا إِنَّ حِزْبَ اللَّهِ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ Listen, the army of Allah indeed will remain successful.

Although it may not remain, it seems to us like that, that I am being outcast from my family for standing firm, for taking a strong lead, that I will not indulge in haram in order to please my family. I will not indulge in haram investments, in haram loans, and in missing my prayers, etc. All those type of things. I will choose what is right. Allah says, these are the people who are part of the army of Allah and they will succeed.

The Challenge of End Times

So my brothers, my mothers and sisters, my elders, these are the two parties that continue from all generations. Party of Shaytan, party of Allah. One is allegiance to batil, one is allegiance to haq, one is allegiance to falsehood, one is allegiance to the truth. And as we move forward towards the end of times, the difference between truth and falsehood becomes even murkier day by day. The line becomes even more blurred. The gray area increases. The clear black, clear white doesn't seem to be as obvious as it used to be.

So now you have this shady gray area that continues to increase where a person says, I don't know who I should have my allegiance with. Are these the people of the truth or are these the people of the truth? Because they all look like the people of the truth. And are these people speaking the haq Are these people correctly interpreting the Quran or are those people correctly interpreting the Quran? Where do I stand? A person becomes very confused. And that's part of the fitnah, that's part of the trials of the end of times which our Prophet ﷺ has already mentioned to us.

The Lanterns in Darkness

In many narrations and the companions have also narrated these athar, that towards the end of times, the torches, the lanterns through which, you know you have certain lights that will show you, certain rays that will show you different things. So when you have that little light that will show you the hidden markers on a $100 bill, for example. And they put it in the machine and they'll see if this is legit or not. Okay? So you have this light, special light, that tells you this is truth, this is falsehood. Isn't that amazing if we had something like that?

That's called firasa. That's called farsightedness. That's called an output of taqwa, fear of Allah. That's called the lantern that true ulama rabbaniyoon, those scholars who fear Allah and who are in the true deen, they have that lantern. And they use that lantern to guide themselves and guide others. Masabih al-dujar. The Prophet ﷺ called those sincere people, the lanterns in the days of darkness.

Tatajalla anhum kull fitnah - Every fitnah, like an icebreaker, boat cuts through the ice. The way you have complete darkness and you put one light, the entire hall is dark, super dark. And you put on one ray of light, one thin pen light. And right in front of that pen light, you will see light. Going for the next 50 feet, 10 feet, however strong the light is. To my right, to my left, darkness. But in front, it cuts through that darkness like no tomorrow, like a laser beam.

These are the mukhlis, sincere people, many of them who are scholars of every era, who will, their mere presence is like that lantern. That fitnah and trials and confusion, when they are present amidst us, that confusion just is removed. And people automatically feel content. That this is haq, this is falsehood. That I need to follow the truth. I need to follow that deen which Rasulullah ﷺ left behind.

The Departure of the Righteous

So now Rasulullah ﷺ already mentioned that as the times come to an end, and before the hour, Allah will start rolling these people back. These lanterns, and those who hold these lanterns will be called back in. And you will start seeing, like electricity when it goes out, and if you are flying and you start seeing, you know, different pockets of a city going dark, unfortunately that happens a lot nowadays. Not only because of electricity being scarce, but more importantly and more tragically because the place is being bombed across the world. And you see how lights go off in certain areas.

Similarly, when that scholar, and when that salih, righteous, sincere person dies, that whole neighborhood is gone as dark. Then another one dies, and that whole neighborhood goes dark. And one by one, every single time, one of these mukhlis, sincere scholars, and righteous people leaves this world, we have huge areas of the earth becoming, falling into darkness. And no matter what type of generator you bring in, it's not gonna bring the light back. And that's the sad part.

That's why Rasulullah ﷺ mentioned another hadith, the gist of it is that, sometimes a scholar passes away, and he leaves behind such a huge gaping hole, that an entire tribe, meaning thousands of people, cannot fulfill that void. Cannot fill that void rather. Because they were that powerhouse. They look like 5 foot 10, look like everyone else, you know, normal body, but their heart was something else. Their presence brought so much khair and barakah and blessing for us, we didn't realize that.

My brothers and sisters, those people are leaving, day by day. Every week we hear of righteous people leaving us, and ulama from across the entire globe leaving us. And it becomes even more dark and more challenging. So each one is now having to, subhanAllah, go to the next neighborhood, or to the next town, or to the next city, to find a righteous person to spend some time with. To be able to get some light from them.

Taking Responsibility for Our Own Spiritual Development

And we also are being forced to, take matters in our own hands. And say, you know what, I need to light up something for my own house. We have to create something within our own selves. We have to become something ourselves. We cannot just say, I'm going to go to the shaykh and say, make dua for me. That's what it was, right? In the old days, someone would get married, they would go to the shaykh, make dua. Then they have a child, make dua. Then their child is aqeeqah time, make dua. That was it. Then after that they say, by the way, dua is enough. Now, where are you going to go? Where are you going to even go for dua? Not to say that dua was enough, you need to do your own actions then as well.

Seeking Divine Guidance in Truth and Falsehood

But now we don't even have that often people of du'a. I'm not saying they're all gone. But I'm saying we have ourselves to become stronger now. We ourselves have to learn self-defense techniques against shaytan and nafs. We ourselves have to create taqwa. And remember the beautiful du'a that has been passed down from the salaf.

Oh Allah, allow me to see the truth as the truth. Whatever is the truth, allow me to recognize that this is the truth. And allow me to see falsehood as that this is the falsehood. And guide me, and provide me, and inspire me to stay away from it.

You hear this du'a? Oh Allah, allow me to recognize the truth as the truth. We should all say that. This is from the salaf. It is narrated from the pious elders of the past. Not a direct hadith of the Prophet ﷺ. But the meaning is obviously from the Quran and Sunnah.

The Importance of Spiritual Discernment

That we're asking Allah, I don't know, I'm so confused. Give me taqwa within myself so that I can separate righteousness from falsehood. And whatever I see, whatever is right out there, allow me to gravitate towards that and put it into practice. And whatever is falsehood out there, allow me to recognize that this is no good. No matter how nice it looks, no matter how Islamic it looks. But allow me to have that sixth sense within myself to be able to sniff it out and say that this is false. And then allow me to stay away from it even though everyone may be rushing towards it. Allow me to stay far away from that.

Final Du'a

I ask Allah عز وجل to accept this du'a on behalf of ourselves, our parents, our siblings, our children. And keep us on the haqq all the time. Keep us part of the party and the army of Allah. And save us from ever falling into the party of shaytan. May Allah عز وجل allow us to always have our allegiance with Him and with the deen. May Allah عز وجل grant us the strength to always remain steadfast on the deen.

سبحان الله وبحمده سبحانك اللهم وبحمدك

Insha'Allah we stand up and perform the sunnah.