Surah Al-Kahf | Part 11 Ayahs 50-54 | Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed | Weekly Tafsir

Opening Supplications

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. O Allah, send blessings and peace upon our Master Muhammad and his family.

O Allah, open my heart and ease my affairs, and relieve the knot from my tongue so that they may understand my speech.

Glory be to You, we have no knowledge except what You have taught us. You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.

O Allah, teach us what benefits us, and benefit us with what You have taught us, and increase us in knowledge and action. O Allah, enlighten our hearts with Your knowledge, and use our bodies in Your obedience. O Allah, guide us to what You love, and strengthen our speech, actions, intentions, and guidance. O Allah, You are the All-Powerful, the All-Knowing.

May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow our presence here — online or on-site — and may He make it a means of us all being joined together with the Prophet ﷺ under his shade on the Day of Judgment. Ameen.

We renew our intentions that we are here for the sake of Allah. We are here to learn — number one, to practice ourselves; and number two, to propagate it to others. We make niyyah that, ya Allah, whatever issues and troubles and trials and fitan that any one of us is going through, ya Allah, through the barakah of this dars, allow those questions to be answered. Allow the difficulties to be removed. Allow us to be able to find the way out of any type of difficulty that we are going through. Ameen, Rabbil Alameen.

Recap: The Parable of the Dunya

Last week, we covered one complete ruku' regarding the parable that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives of the dunya — and how it is za'il, it is going to come to an end. Everything is coming to an end. Just like the water comes in, the plants grow, and after a while when the season changes, everything is gone. Similarly, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is explaining to us that no matter how much a person has, at the end of the day, that is all going to come to an end.

Who is the intelligent, lucky one? The one who prepares for the akhirah by doing good deeds. When we look at the people who leave the dunya, we see that none of them are taking anything with them — except for their good deeds. And their soul is kept in 'Illiyyīn or Sijjīn based on the good they did, or — Allah forbid — the bad they did. Looking at that, hearing those stories, makes a person realize that everything is a farce. Everything is so fake, subhanAllah.

When a person loses sight of that — you look at the narcotics trade, you look at the child trafficking trade, you look at the arms trade, you look at all of these things that happen in the world — billions are being made, and more importantly, thousands, millions of lives are being destroyed. And you ask yourself: what is the reason this is happening? And it just comes down to one simple thing: the love of dunya. That is it. People are so thirsty for dunya, so thirsty. They could care less what they do business in. They do business of humans, they do business of arms, they do business of anything. No matter how many people they destroy, they do not care. What they care about is the dollar amount.

So when a person sells his soul to the Shaytan, this is the type of stuff he will do. He thinks that he will never die and never perish. And that is exactly what Shaytan wants us to think. Because Allah subhanAllah gave Shaytan respite until the Day of Judgment. And so Shaytan is working super hard to deceive people. He has given up on trying to change. His goal is just to take as many people to hellfire with him. So that is a man on a mission, working falsehood 24/7 — all the time, constantly trying to deceive people, mislead people, and use the muhabbat of the dunya to get people to become blind from reality.

On the other hand, we should be asking ourselves: what is our purpose, and how long have we got to live? If we do good deeds, then alhamdulillah, these will stay behind.

Sadaqah Jariyah: A Living Example

Today, one of the famous brothers who came here in the path of Allah azza wa jal — Haji Ibrahim, from Kerala originally, who lived in Dubai — an extremely successful businessman, passed away. But what he had done was establish madrasas in South India, and orphanages, and colleges. SubhanAllah. Imagine the sadaqah jariyah of being able to go to Allah azza wa jal, having had a hand in the education of thousands of men and women — individuals who could not afford tuition, individuals who did not have an opportunity to support themselves, to learn. Teaching them dini 'uloom and dunyawi 'uloom. I think that is a great sadaqah jariyah. How many of those students across the globe — those hundreds of thousands of students that were in his schools — must be praying for his maghfirah, as we are as well.

He came here as a very, extremely humble person. People speak about: fulan is so wealthy, fulan is so wealthy, look how hard it is to meet him, he is stuck-up like this and that. SubhanAllah, that sifat of being stuck-up and difficult to meet, thinking oneself to be full of himself — that is Iblees. That is Iblees. There is nothing to be proud of. There is nothing great to flaunt in a person being arrogant over his wealth, proud over his position and power. That is nothing to be excited about, nothing to flaunt, nothing to be proud of.

Instead, the reality is that Allah gives you everything, yet you are more humble than everyone else — that is quality right there. Because your eyes are focused on Allah: "Yeah, whatever I have, so what? It is all coming from there. How am I supposed to ever think that I am something great? I am nobody. I just went to the well and brought a bucket of water. Allah subhanAllah is the Provider — I just went and He happened to give me something. What is there for me to be arrogant about?"

So what we need to do — munafasa — and compete with one another in, my beloved brothers and sisters, is the excellence of good deeds.

The Hadith of True Wealth

Shaytan will try his best to keep on making us forget what we have. The Prophet ﷺ said — Allahu Akbar:

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2346)

You want to become an industrialist? You want to become a CEO of a huge company? You already are. What did the Prophet ﷺ say? Whoever wakes up in the morning and has three things:

Number one — آمِنًا فِي سِرْبِهِ — he is at peace at home. He does not have to worry about being killed or attacked. He is at peace.

Number two — مُعَافًى فِي جَسَدِهِ — he is healthy in his body. He is not falling down sick. Alhamdulillah, he is healthy.

Number three — وَلَهُ قُوتُ يَوْمِهِ — he has one day's worth of food. Each shelf of our pantry has a week's worth of food.

فَكَأَنَّمَا حِيزَتْ لَهُ الدُّنْيَا بِحَذَافِيرِهَا — It is as though the entire world with all its luxuries have been brought to your feet. Meaning you are the king, if you have these three things. So all of us, subhanAllah, Allah has made us kings. We have alhamdulillah health, we have peace and aman, and we have definitely more than a day's worth of food.

The Hadith of Contentment

And in another hadith, the Prophet ﷺ spoke about qana'ah — that when a person is blessed with contentment, he is successful. He mentioned:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1054)

The one who has accepted Islam, and he has been given just sufficient sustenance, and Allah has made him content with whatever He has given him — قَدْ أَفْلَحَ — he is successful. Three attributes, three qualities: he is a Muslim; he has been given just sufficient — not more than he can handle; and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives him qana'ah and contentment with what He has given. So this person is successful.

This is the theme of Surah Al-Kahf. Again and again, this idea is being pushed through and presented: make sure you and I do not live a materialistic lifestyle. Make sure we learn how to control our desires.

The Epidemic of Materialism and Social Media

The materialism and the ego — the worship of the ego and the worship of the nafs — has destroyed this generation. This entire social media, what is it about? It is about telling people where you are. When you look at social media, as someone mentioned so nicely, the purpose of it is to make you wish that you were somewhere else, doing something else, with someone else — instead of enjoying where you are, with whom you are, doing what you are doing. All the time wanting something different. Everyone is looking at who has got what: the one who has a $30,000 car is looking at the one who has a $40,000 car, who is looking at the one with $50,000, and so on. So you can never be content and happy with what you have. That is one huge harm of social media.

Another huge reason why people are just mad — if you see someone taking a picture in Masjid al-Nabawi or Masjid al-Haram. You are looking at the Ka'bah right now, you are making du'a. Why are you taking a picture? He does not have an answer. "I want to post it on Twitter, I want to post it on my story." For what? What is the purpose of that? Does that build your sincerity? I saw once, a few years ago — and I am sure it has gotten much worse now — an old man from the mountainous areas of Pakistan, sitting there making du'a. And then after a while, he says in his language: "How did the picture come out?" There was actually someone there taking a picture of him as he was raising his hands, making du'a in front of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala — apparently. That really upset me. I felt that this is mazaaq and tamassukh with Allah azza wa jal. You are making a joke with Allah. But people, mindless, as though they have no mind, no sense, doing it again and again — whether in Medina, whether in Mecca, everywhere, non-stop, cameras are pulled out.

Enjoy the moment. If you are at a campfire, a bonfire — can you ever translate the enjoyment of a bonfire with family onto a camera? The sparkling fire, the stories, the heat, the nice cold weather — just enjoy it instead of worrying about taking a picture. But the idea is to tell people: "Guess what, I am worthy of envy. I have this, I have that." Senseless.

I try to speak with brothers sometimes: "Brothers, please do not put pictures of your wedding online. Please do not put pictures of your spouse from your wedding day on Facebook or Twitter." These are things unheard of in a previous generation — that a husband and wife's chit-chat, their little talk, their nudging and playfulness, is being presented to the world to see. Just to make money. That is all it is — to worship the ego, to get more likes, more retweets, to advertise. And in doing so, you are selling your soul, selling your family — taking pictures of your little kids, presenting them. And these are things just a decade or two ago no one had ever thought they would do. But now this has become the norm.

And it goes down to one simple thing:

(Narrated by various scholars as an athar; attributed to 'Ali ibn Abi Talib and others)

The love of the dunya is the root cause of every sin. When we worship that nafs, and we want more money, more power, more material things, my beloved brothers and sisters, we will end up doing things we would not have imagined.

I actually told one person one time: "Don't use your children to make money. That is shameful." You have a whole YouTube channel presenting your child — but do you understand, your child is a little kid. He does not understand what you are doing. You are using him to make money. What about his future? What about his education? With all those views and all those people commenting on his or her looks — what is this child going to become in the future? Just for some extra money, you use your child for this? I said, I know you don't know me, you probably think I'm crazy, but I have to tell you this. This is something which I think is genuinely wrong.

We as Muslims need to lead by example. In our schools, our universities, our workplaces — we have to share, we have to speak against this craze of materialism. Right now at year's end, when there is a constant buy, buy, buy — this is a time when we have to take a stand and tell ourselves we are not going to fall into this.

Surah Al-Kahf — Ayahs 50–54: The New Ruku'

So similarly the next ruku' is also continuing on with the same theme.

And behold, We said to the angels: bow down to Adam. So they bowed down, except Iblis — he was of the jinn, and he rebelled against the command of his Lord. Will you then, O human beings, take him and his progeny as patrons apart from Me, while they are an enemy to you? How woeful a substitute this is for the wrongdoers.

Allah Jalla Jalaluhu mentions the story of the incident in which Iblis refused to bow down out of respect to Adam alayhis salatu was salam. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions this multiple times in the Qur'an. In each place, some new aspect is highlighted. So Allah wants us to think of that scene in which He ordered all the angels to prostrate to Adam.

The Nature of This Sujood

This is called not sujood of ibadah. This is not the sajdah of worship. This is simply the sajdah of khudoo' — the sajdah of humility, the sajdah of i'tiraf bil-fadl, of recognizing someone's honor and status. So Allah azza wa jal wanted all the angels to recognize Adam's status.

From here we understand that a wali can become superior — and of course a nabi — even superior to an angel. Human beings have the capacity to become superior to angels if they work on themselves. And on the flip side, they have the capacity to become worse than jamaadat — animals or senseless things. بَلْ هُمْ أَضَلُّ — Allah says, some human beings are more astray than livestock.

This sujood al-fadl is like what the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1159)

If I were to ask anyone to prostrate to anyone, I would have asked the wife to prostrate to her husband. What type of sajdah is this? Again, sajdah of i'tiraf al-fadl — simply acknowledging prominence and acknowledging a virtue. It is like bay'ah, a pledge of allegiance to an amir. That is why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said in the Qur'an:

Chaos is worse than murder. Anarchy is horrible. That is why in Aqeedah al-Tahawiyyah and the books of aqeedah they say:

We do not regard it permissible to rebel against the imam al-muslimin — the leader of the believers. Because although he may be doing something wrong, when you start a rebellion against the amir al-mu'minin, the after-effects are horrible: chaos and killing. So what have we been told?

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 594)

Perform your salah behind every righteous and sinful imam. If the imam in your masjid — you don't like him — go ahead, still pray. Many people are fooled into thinking: "I am not going to pray behind the imam because I don't like him, or because I saw him like this." No. You do not go and pray your own jama'ah. That is worse — to start your own jama'ah. astaghfirullah al-'azeem. That has happened in certain masajid — such a sad, 'ajeeb fitna in masajid. May Allah protect all the masajid from such fitna.

Leadership in Marriage

Similarly, in marriage — you cannot have two amirs. It just does not work like that. When you have one amir, and hopefully he is just and fears Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, then you have a very successful marriage. And if the amir is doing dhulm, guess what? There is Malik Yawm al-Deen. On top of every amir is another amir, and the greatest amir and the greatest leader is Allah azza wa jal, and everyone has to face Him.

If you have done an iota of sin, you will see its punishment. So no one is going to get off the hook. Everyone is going to face the retribution of their sin. But in order for a marriage to succeed, following these guidelines is an important aspect.

SubhanAllah, I usually never speak about this topic — because this is one of the taboo topics. The LGBTQ movement, music, and many other topics — no one wants to speak about them in Jummah anymore. And this is another topic no one wants to speak about: the rights of a husband in a marriage. Attend any nikah ceremony — what is it about? It is about the rights of the wife. And there is certainly a place for that. But we have to ensure our message is tailored to the crowd and the community that we are in. This is the job of imams, this is the job of those who have the mic in their hand — to address issues that are relevant.

Because every week we deal with tens of divorce cases, unfortunately. There are so many issues going on — it is scary. But one thing is that there is no concept of an amir in the marriage anymore. And that becomes a very big problem. Everyone says, "Who are you to tell me?" Everyone is following the nafs. If everyone follows the nafs, if the kids say, "Nope, I am not going to listen to dad or mom" — what is going to happen? It is going to be anarchy. The house will fall apart. And that is exactly what is happening today.

Those of you who are not yet married — boys and girls — I am telling you: make lots of du'a, cry to Allah azza wa jal every single day, fast, do sadaqah, and say, "Allah, please give me the very best spouse." And after that, understand these basics — that in any jama'ah, you have to have an amir. If you try to supersede that amir, the pilot and co-pilot fighting with each other — that plane is going straight down. You cannot fly successfully to your destination if this is happening.

If you want to stop this divorce pandemic, we need to be serious with ourselves, with our sons and daughters. If they are not ready for marriage, do not get them married. Do therapy, do counseling. But once you send them off, you have to be strong. There is no such thing as it failed in three days, or three weeks, or three months. Don't just cuddle everyone up. Once you commit, you make it work.

The Sujood Was of Honor, Not Worship

So anyway, this is what Allah is speaking about. The sujood of Adam AS that the angels were told to do was of i'tiraf al-fadl — not of ibadah. Of honoring him. Because Allah gave him 'ilm that the angels did not have. And from here, what you understand is that 'ilm is the criterion by which people are graded.

Allah will elevate the believers from amongst you, and those who have been given knowledge, by many levels. Knowledge is how you become honorable.

One of the khalifas — one of the emirs of the past — came to the Ka'bah to do tawaf and saw someone sitting with his back to the Ka'bah and a line of people waiting to ask him fiqhi questions. He tried to cut in — and was told, "Back of the line." He had a question of hajj or 'umrah. He asked: "Who is this person?" And they said it was such-and-such scholar — and he was a freed slave. At that time the king said, "SubhanAllah — this is what I need to tell my sons to acquire. I need to tell my sons to study 'ilm. That is how my prince, my son, will become worthy of something. Look — today I as a king had to go to the back of the line because of knowledge. If my children do not have knowledge, they are going to be at the back of the line — today, and more importantly, tomorrow on the Day of Judgment." Knowledge is king. Ensure that we study 'ilm and encourage our children to study 'ilm.

Iblis Was from the Jinn, Not a Fallen Angel

Iblis was never a fallen angel — the Qur'an makes this clear:

He was from the jinn. Just as Jibreel AS is the leader of the angels, similarly Iblis is the leader of the shayateen. And the Qur'an says وَذُرِّيَّتَهُ — you have taken him and his children, his progeny, as patrons apart from Me. So how does he have children? This is something Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows best. However, we do have a very interesting hadith, where the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Narrated by Salman al-Farsi radiyallahu anhu; collected by al-Humaydi in his Musnad)

Do not be the first to enter the marketplace, nor the last to leave it — for that is where Shaytan lays his eggs and where they hatch. This is an authentic narration telling us that the marketplace is a place of shayateen. And the marketplace is no longer only your local store — you have the virtual marketplace. That is the worst one. Because you are in it right before you go to sleep, and you are in it as soon as you wake up. لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ — the virtual marketplace. And now there is this new virtual world, the metaverse, that already has a marketplace in it.

What happens in a marketplace? Buying and selling. What does excessive buying and selling do? It creates ghaflah and heedlessness. And that is what Shaytan loves to do. Through excessive buying and selling, a person forgets his maqsad. It is literally addictive — just buy this, buy that, return this, return that. And so this is what it means: Shaytan is in the marketplace, and you must make sure you are not the first one alone with him or the last one alone with him.

Why Does Allah Repeat: Shaytan Is Your Enemy?

So Allah azza wa jal is saying: how can you be worshipping Shaytan alongside Me, when he is your enemy? That is the shocking part. Why do you love Shaytan when he is your enemy? This theme runs throughout the Qur'an — Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala keeps on mentioning to us that Shaytan is our enemy. Why does this have to be mentioned so many times? It is because people do not realize the extent to which Shaytan goes to harm us.

For example, you want to pray your sunnah of Isha or Maghrib. You just finish your Maghrib, and all of a sudden someone calls your name. You speak to him, and then you walk out — and you missed your sunnah. It is all planned. Or you are about to pray, you look at your watch, there are 10 minutes left for Isha — and then something spills, or your child starts crying. Before you know it, Isha is missed.

Every day Shaytan is out there trying to make us neglect our salah, neglect our zakah, neglect our sadaqah, make us say things we should not say. When a person out of anger curses someone, or — Allah forbid — divorces his spouse, or walks out. All of these things — where are they coming from? Anger. So Shaytan is pressing the buttons. He is our enemy.

That is why, my beloved brothers — nisyan, forgetfulness — is something so simple. You forgot. But the Qur'an says forgetfulness comes from where? From Shaytan. We will cover this in the next couple of weeks:

"Shaytan made me forget." The story of Musa and Khadr. So the fact that you forgot — and then someone entered the door and caused damage because you forgot to lock it, or you forgot to put your seatbelt on, or you forgot to bring your spouse something and it became a big issue — man, how could I forget? This fight would not have happened if I had not forgotten. If forgetfulness is attributed to Shaytan, then what about all the rest? If something as so-called simple as forgetting to recite:

after every salah — or forgetting to recite Ayatul Kursi after every salah — or forgetting to recite:

or the morning and evening duas — all of this is coming from Shaytan. So you dropping your tea, having to clean it up, and missing your salah — why can that not also come from Shaytan? That is why you have to keep on seeking refuge in Allah azza wa jal from the accursed Shaytan. Do not ever underestimate him. Anytime you miss your a'mal, anytime you don't do what you are supposed to do, immediately seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Shaytan. Say: "Ya Allah, I really do want to worship You. But Shaytan made me forget, Shaytan made me miss this." So immediately you make tawbah and istighfar — so much istighfar that you make up for what you have lost.

It is mentioned of Mu'awiyah radiyallahu anhu that he did not wake up for tahajjud salah once — he overslept. When he realized he had missed his tahajjud, he cried so much and did so much istighfar that the next night, while he was sleeping, someone came and woke him up for tahajjud salah. When he woke up he said, "Who are you?" He said, "I am Shaytan." "What have you come to my house for?" "I came to wake you up." "Why?" "Because yesterday I made you oversleep, and the amount of istighfar you did ended up becoming more weighty than had you even prayed tahajjud. So I thought that was a losing situation for me. Let me wake you up so that you do not do that again." This is powerful. When we are supposed to do something which we are not doing — how do you make up for it? You make up for it by doing tons of istighfar and seeking Allah's protection from the evil Shaytan.

Shaytan is not someone you can shoot or destroy with a nuke. You cannot. He is an invincible makhluq that Allah created. But the only way you can save yourself from him is by asking Allah to protect you. Hide behind Allah.

There is no place to run, no place to hide from Allah except by coming back to Allah. So when we run to Allah and say, "Allah, please protect me from this monster" — that is the only way we are going to get saved.

That is why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, in multiple places, says he is 'adoo — your enemy. Why are you falling for him? It is like getting a vaccine — you are getting exposure to a certain virus so that your body builds up its own immunity to handle it. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wants us to build an immunity within our bodies to Shaytani influences. That is why He shares the story of Adam in so many places. For us to reflect: this khabees, this evil Shaytan, is so bad. He messed up with our father. Someone says this man hurt your father, usurped his land — that makes you upset? Good. That is what Allah wants us to feel towards Shaytan. That he tried his best to mislead Abuna Adam. And Shaytan said in the Qur'an:

I am going to attack the children of Banu Adam. Hanak is the upper part of the mouth — the palate. When you have the rope around the palate, the horse is not going to go anywhere — you have full control. Shaytan says: I am going to put a rope around the palate of the son of Adam. I am going to have full control. I tell him go right, he goes right. I tell him go left, he goes left. إِلَّا قَلِيلًا — except for a few.

What do you see in these musical concerts? What does the music industry do? Working with Iblis to mislead the masses. Just watch what the youth and the young generation — how completely they have been misled by Shaytan. Who are the most powerful people today? Artists. Who are the ones who have the highest social media following in the world? Artists, musicians. Period. They are the ones who are running the show. And who are they? They are definitely agents of Shaytan. And that is what the Qur'an is speaking about.

The Reason for Shaytan's Vendetta

Why does he hate us? He says: I made a mistake, I did not bow down to Adam. I was already sour because Allah told me to bow down to him.

"You created me from fire and You created him from the soil of the earth. Why do I need to bow down to him?" That was bad enough. And then when I said no, You disgraced me:

"Get out of this garden and you are cursed." That pinched him. That hurt his ego. So now he has made it a vendetta — the rest of his life, that is all he is going to do: go after you and I. The Qur'an wants us to think about this animosity that he holds and say: we are not going to obey him while leaving Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Ayah 51: Allah Did Not Call Them to Witness Creation

I did not call any of them to witness the creation of the heavens and the earth, nor even the creation of their own selves. Nor would I ever take the evil misleaders as assistants.

The average person — in a sense — becomes a satanist every time he listens to the whisperings of Shaytan. You do not have to be a self-declared satanist. Simply listening to the whisper of Shaytan — looking at haram, listening to haram, speaking haram — what has happened? We have obeyed Shaytan and left Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

So Allah says: why are you choosing to make friends with him? What has he done? Has he created the world for you?

Did you create it, or did We create it? And this ayah — 18:51 — is also a beautiful point regarding today's scientists and others who speculate how the world was created without any proof. The Qur'an says: I never asked you to be there when the heavens and the earth were created. You were never at the table. Nor were you there watching how you yourself were created. Meaning, you do not even know how you were created, much less how the world was created. So speak with proof. And the greatest proof we have is what? Wahi — revelation. If you want to say it was just a big bang out of nowhere, bring a proof. Why are you saying these things? Their only dalil is speculation, and they think their speculation somehow becomes solid proof. What we say — wahi — unfortunately according to them is just a conjecture. SubhanAllah, this ayah is a very nice one to refute those who promote theories about how the world was created, without a burhan or a dalil.

Ayahs 52–53: The Disbelievers and the Fire

Then the defiant unbelievers will see the fire of hell and they will realize with certainty that they are about to fall into it. Yet they will find no escape from it.

Allah azza wa jal says that the disbelievers will be looking at Jahannam from far away — فَظَنُّوا — and they will realize they are going to fall into it. But they are not right there yet. As they say: the fear of death is worse than death. If they were to fall in right then and there, it would have been over. But they can hear the crackling fire of Jahannam, they can see it.

Jannah is being brought forth. Jahannam is being brought forth. And you can hear the hissing of the fire of Jahannam.

Jahannam is about to burst open out of anger. 'Ajeeb. Jahannam will have a hissing, growling sound of anger. So when people will hear this, they will be worried. They know they are going to fall into it. They wish it would come to an end right now. But it is a 50,000-year-long day. It is not going to end so soon. This adds to the horror — the fact that they are not falling in yet, but they know they are going to. وَلَمْ يَجِدُوا۟ عَنْهَا مَصْرِفًا — they will not find any escape from it.

The Core Theme: Faith vs. Materialism

What is this ruku' about again? Same thing. Iblis stands for materialism. Adam stands for a life of faith. Faith versus materialism. This battle — the armies of haq and batil — have been fighting from day one. This is an old, running game from the very beginning. You can choose: be part of the army of Allah, or be part of the army of Shaytan. The tactics are changing — social media, the metaverse, virtual world, smartphones — this is the new methodology that Iblis is using to create ghaflah within all of us. Allahu Akbar.

Ayah 54: The Qur'an's Variation and Man's Argumentativeness

Now truly, indeed We have varied in this Qur'an something of every kind of illustration for the good of all people. Yet of all things, man is most argumentative.

The Qur'an is not boring. The Qur'an changes it up — sometimes it is Jannah, sometimes Jahannam. Sometimes stories of the past, sometimes asking us to look into nature. Sometimes reflecting about how Allah destroyed a nation, or saved a small group of people who were firm on their faith. There is always different stories, different ways that Allah mentions the same thing. Maybe if this does not get to you, that will. If that does not get to you, something else will. So there is so much variation. If you have the exact same thing being presented, it becomes monotonous. We are not very receptive to that. So Allah azza wa jal changes it up.

But He says, unfortunately, this human being is most argumentative. The fitrah of human beings is that very few people are just going to say سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا — "we heard and we obeyed." They want to sit back and argue about everything. When we talk about our children — they do not want to listen to what parents say, they want to respond back. This is a weakness that we have.

Because if human beings did not have these weaknesses, we would think ourselves to be all-powerful. The Qur'an speaks about many weaknesses of human beings:

All of these weak attributes — a human being is oppressive, ignorant, quick to lose hope, weak. But in reality, these things make us understand the need of Allah. If we were like a rock — hard and not emotional, not affected by our environment — a person may never think that he would need Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So these weaknesses are actually beneficial for us. When you are broken, when you are heartbroken, what do you do? You run to the masjid. When you are sick, what do you do? You run to Allah azza wa jal, you give sadaqah. This weakness within us is actually beneficial — it makes us turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Beloved youngsters — when a person turns old and is surrounded by sickness, for him to find himself coming back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is easy. What the real kamal — the greatness — is, is when a person is in the height of his youthful years and finds himself in the house of Allah. That is kamal, that is greatness. That is why the Prophet ﷺ said, from amongst those seven categories of people who will be enjoying the shade of Allah's throne:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 660; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1031)

A young person who grows up in the worship of Allah. So why should we wait for problems to happen? Why should we wait for a problem in sustenance, in our family relationships, in our job before we find Allah?

The Prophet ﷺ said there are certain people who will be dragged in chains to Jannah. They did not want to come happily. Allah said, "Come, just pray your salah here and do your dhikr." No. He did not want to come. Allah had to put difficulties upon him — only then did he start coming to the masjid. So the Prophet ﷺ said there are certain people who are going to be dragged in chains to Jannah. Alhamdulillah, at least they are still being dragged to Jannah — they are lucky. That difficulty brought them there. But we should aspire to be from amongst those who do not need that kind of difficulty before we come towards Allah. Instead we say: "Allah, we are going to come to You happily."

Rabi'ah al-'Adawiyyah: The Three Types of Servants

Rabi'ah al-'Adawiyyah rahmatullah alayha mentioned that there are three types of servants.

The slaves — those who worship Allah out of fear of His fire. The business people — those who worship Allah with the desire of His Jannah. And then the free people — الأحرار — who recognized that they have a Lord and so they obeyed Him. Their purpose is not the paradise of eternity, nor the beautiful maidens of Jannah, nor the beautiful homes of paradise. Their maqsad and purpose is نَظَرُ الْحَبِيبِ — to look at their Beloved. That is their goal. And she says: this is the end goal of an honorable group of people.

My beloved friends, why not try to enjoy worshiping Allah while we are healthy, while we are wealthy, while we have all our issues taken care of? Worshiping Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in this situation is much better.

The Prophet ﷺ said — what is the best sadaqah?

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1419; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1032)

He says: the best time to give charity is when you are healthy, and you are greedy over more money — you could enjoy the money right now, you could buy a new car, you could buy a plane ticket to some vacation destination. You are healthy. You are shakhiih and desire more. You are actually scared of poverty: "If I donate too much, I am not going to have anything left." And you have hopes for wealth and access to wealth. He says that is the best time to give charity — not when you are at the throes of death saying, "This belongs to this one, take this..." The money does not even belong to you anymore; it belongs to your heirs. The best time to give charity is right now when you are healthy and alive and you can enjoy it. That is when you give it.

So alhamdulillah, it is so nice to see so many young brothers and sisters coming to the house of Allah on these Tuesday nights, even though it is cold. Hani'an lakum — congratulations to you all. Tuba lakum. If you are 18, 19, 20, 25, and you are in the house of Allah on a Tuesday evening, you should thank Allah so much. And you should try your best to become an agent of khayr that brings others as well. How much ibadat are you going to do? You have only 24 hours in a day — 8 hours of sleep, 8 hours of work. But you bring a few other brothers and sisters to the house of Allah, and you become a means of them getting connected to the masjid — they may end up getting further ahead than you. They may become a student of knowledge. But you get the commission. You will always get the commission. Because you became the source of them connecting to the house of Allah. So every one of you, just ask Allah: "Ya Allah, make me from amongst those who becomes a peg of the masjid, and make me from amongst those who is able to connect people towards Allah."

Announcements: Winter Intensive and No-Tech Retreat

We have our upcoming winter intensive coming up on Saturday. Class starts at 10 AM, with registration and coffee with the teachers at 9:30 AM. There are five parallel sessions running simultaneously at Darussalam, all running from 10 AM to 6 PM. After Isha will be dhikr. Make sure you do not miss this.

The five parallel sessions: youth ages 6 to 10; youth from 10 to 14 (boys); youth from 10 to 14 (girls); and the adult session. Topics include Islamic well-being, mental health, physical exercise, masaail of bulugh — reaching maturity — and much more. Our teachers and volunteers have made an amazing schedule. May Allah reward them all. If you do not show up, that is going to be really sad. So please become ambassadors. Every one of you — make niyyah right now that you are going to go home and invite at least 10 families. If they are coming to Chicago for something else, tell them to come visit for a few hours.

We have Ustadh Fahad Taslim, Shaykh Shanawi, and Ustadh Mubeen Vaid — all three new scholars and speakers to our community. Amazing in their delivery and in the topics we have chosen for them. The theme is building a confident Muslim — to dispel doubt, to deconstruct doubt. You are going to love it. Please adjust your travel plans to make sure you are here for these days. InshaAllah.

The 2022 calendar is outside — please take one on your way home. If you want to donate something for the printing cost, please do so. If you cannot donate, no problem — take it. The rest of the entire year's schedule is done, and one of the dates for next year's winter intensive is already there. When you are planning your family trips, please base them around that so you are not missing out on these opportunities.

And insha'Allah, we will also be starting a new annual retreat. In the month of February, bi'ithnillahi ta'ala, we will have a no-tech retreat — 48 hours in the house of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, without any phones, without any technology, with i'tikaf, with fasting, and with talks dedicated to spirituality. Time for people to sit and do dhikr, build their relationship with Allah, and speak about their issues with visiting scholars. Please make du'a for the success of that program. It will be on the long weekend in February — President's Day weekend, the 18th or 19th.

Haqiqatan, we all know where we stand. We know this cell phone, this technology — being hooked on it — has just completely destroyed our relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So distancing ourselves from that for a couple of days, insha'Allah, will give us a breath of fresh air. It is like sitting in a smoker's lounge — you don't realize the second-hand smoke is killing you. It is only when you get out and get some fresh air that you realize: "Oh my God, this is how it is supposed to taste, this is how it is supposed to feel." And then you go back into the smoker's lounge and you start coughing — you realize how detrimental and horrible it was. You and I are consuming poison every single day. We just do not have ihsaas of it. It takes separating ourselves from it to realize.

Maybe something to do this winter break — take your children to a place where there is no reception. A road trip, a nature walk, for a day. Alhamdulillah, enjoy nature, connect with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Do it with the snow, with the stream water. Just sit there and look at the sky, look at the mountains, look at the stars, look at the clouds. Every single thing is so beautiful and inviting towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We are supposed to do that — but we are sitting there just looking at images on our phones and thinking about resolution. The highest resolution is to throw your phone away and look outside. There is no better resolution than that. So I would recommend to all of you to take even just a day — a hike somewhere with your family or friends — a no-tech day, a no-tech walk, a no-tech outing — and help yourself get a breath of fresh air.

Closing Dhikr and Du'a

Note on the Winter Intensive cost: $25 covers all four days of tuition, 9:30 AM to 6 PM, plus lunch. If someone is not able to afford it, please just tell them to come — this is not a money-making class. It is simply to cover the cost of certain things. If someone finds it difficult to pay, there are other resources and brothers always willing to cover the cost. May Allah bless them and reward them for that.

O Allah, allow us to embody the very best of akhlaq. Allow us to control our tongue, our eyes, our ears, our mind, and our thoughts. Ya Allah, save us from leading a life of materialism. O Allah, save us from leading a life of following our nafs, save us from yielding to the temptations of our nafs. Allow us to control our nafs, O Allah. Allow us to submit to none besides You. O Allah, save us from following Shaytan. O Allah, save us from befriending Shaytan. O Allah, allow us to make Shaytan as our enemy, as You have asked us to do. Allow us to see through the smokescreen that he has put in front of us. Allow us to see through and see his tricks as he tries to mislead us. O Allah, allow us to see how he is harming each and every one of us in various different ways, and then save us from his plots, his planning, his deceit.

O Allah, we ask You to allow this upcoming winter intensive to become a means of hidayah for thousands and thousands of people. O Allah, please make it a means of saving the iman of those who are losing it. O Allah, and bring iman back to those who have lost it. O Allah, allow these programs to become extremely successful, and allow their khair and barakah to spread throughout the globe. O Allah, allow more and more people to come and benefit from these programs. O Allah, allow all those who are listening here to become ambassadors — allow them to benefit, allow their family members to benefit as well. O Allah, whatever logistical issues there are — O Allah, we ask You from Your fadhl and Your karam, through the barakah of this gathering and this dhikr, please remove all obstacles and all issues in terms of any and all logistics of the event. O Allah, allow everything to happen smoothly, successfully, peacefully, without any hiccups.

O Allah, those who are sick amongst us — O Allah, grant them shifa, grant them shifa, grant them shifa. O Allah, those who have requested du'a — O Allah, we ask You to make their sickness a means of the forgiveness of their sins and the elevation of their status. O Allah, those who have passed away — O Allah, forgive them, grant them Jannat al-Firdaus. O Allah, wherever the ummah is suffering in any part of the world, we ask You, O Allah, to remove their suffering, and make their suffering a means of the forgiveness of their sins.

O Allah, whatever issues any one of us is sitting here with — whatever problems and difficulties any one of us is going through, be it related to our children, our spouse, our parents, our job, our health — O Allah, through the barakah of this gathering, remove their problems, allow them to understand what they need to do, allow them to find solutions to their issues, O Allah.