The Evil Nature of our Hearts- Mufti Minhajuddin Ahmed

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.

And peace and blessings be upon the Master of the Messengers. And upon the Seal of the Prophets. And upon his family, the good and the pure.

And upon those who follow them with goodness until the Day of Judgment. And after. Allah, the Exalted, said in the book of his revelation, after we seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan, In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

And I do not disown myself. Indeed, the soul is a commandment for evil. And Allah, the Exalted, said, I do not swear by a single day that I will stand up and I do not swear by the soul that is in error.

And Allah, the Exalted, said, O you soul that is at peace, return to your Lord, pleasing and pleasing to Him. So enter among My servants, and enter My Paradise. Allah, the Exalted, speaks the truth.

The Challenge of the Soul

My dear respected brothers and sisters, respected elders and young students, As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh. There are so many commandments of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, that we are aware of, we have knowledge of, we know what we are supposed to do. So many prohibitions of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, we know we need to abstain from.

Yet all of us find it difficult to follow through with the orders of Allah, with the أَوَامِر awamir of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, to abstain from the نَوَاهِي nawahid, the prohibitions of Allah. With no exception, each one of us are facing this challenge to overcome our inner desires. We are all in the same boat.

And this is our نَفْس nafs, our internal nafs that is pushing us in the wrong direction. Our internal desires that we have, that we have to conquer. This nafs that we have, no doubt, its default state is such that it incites us towards evil.

But in the few ayahs that I recited, there is hope that if we continue to struggle in obedience of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, continue to do مُجَاهَدَة mujahada, and strive against our nafs, to do the ذِكْر zikr of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, remain in the company of the righteous people, continue to gain عِلْم ilm of deen, in struggle, depending on how much Allah has decreed for us in our individual lives to make that level of struggle and effort, in mujahada, then this nafs can change. It will not always remain the same. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

And that is the different stages of the nafs that I would like to speak about today, insha'Allah bi tawfiq, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The first default state, unfortunately, this is the nature of the test that we are all going through. It is very difficult.

The First Stage: Nafs al-Ammara (The Soul That Incites to Evil)

This is the first ayah that I recited from surah Yusuf. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says:

This comes in the chapter of surah Yusuf a.s. Particularly at that juncture of his story, when the king, he saw a dream. The king of Egypt, he saw a dream.

And it really was a complicated dream.

We don't have time to go into the dream. Seven thin cows eating up seven fat cows.

Very strange dream. And when he asked his members of his court to interpret the dream, they said:

These are just mixed up confused matters that you have seen and there's no interpretation. But he knew that it was a significant dream.

And finally, the royal cupbearer who used to give him the drink, he remembered:

After a long period of time, nine years, his mind went back to nine years ago when he was in the jail and he was facing hanging and he was and he met a person in the jail and he had given an interpretation of a dream that he had. And that interpretation came true. That his friend was hanged and that he became the royal cupbearer.

He said:

I will tell you the interpretation of this dream. I know. I have a very good source who can give you the right information for us.

You know when he send me, I will go and find the interpretation. So he goes back to the jail. He remembers Yusuf a.s.

He said to Yusuf:

Oh Yusuf, give us aftina, give us the fatwa, give us the interpretation and the ruling regarding this dream.

So he explained the meaning:

About seven years, you will have good grains and you will have abundance of wealth. And:

Then you will have seven difficult years of hardship and you have to prepare for that.

And that's why the grains that you have, you have to be rationing it out, keep the seeds to plant in the difficult years. So when he goes and tells his detailed dream as well as the plan of implementation for saving the economy of the country, the king is so impressed, he says:

The king says bring this man to me. This is an amazing genius.

What is he doing rotting in the jail?

I will make him my minister, my special minister, close to me, advisor. So Yusuf a.s. when the messenger comes from the king:

The messenger comes from the king says you have been granted a royal pardon and you can now you are now invited by the king himself. Yusuf a.s. instead of jumping at this great moment that he is now finally released from jail, he did not do so because freedom was very dear to him of course.

But what is more important than freedom was his name, his honor. And he wanted to clarify that. On what basis was he in prison? The entire time it was a false allegation.

So he said, no, no, no, I am not going to leave the jail.

Go back to your master. Ask him, figure out, do an investigation what was the lot of those women who cut their hands.

Those women who cut off their hands when they saw my beauty, they are those who plotted against me. With the ring leader being Zuleikha, the wife of the governor of Egypt.

My lord knows how they plotted against me.

So they did the investigation and the result came that Yusuf a.s. was clear. And these allegations are false.

The wife said, now the truth has come out.

I was the one trying to seduce Yusuf a.s.

He is amongst the truthful ones. He was chased. He was loyal to his master.

He did not and lay a hand on his master's wife. Nor did he commit any sin. So Yusuf a.s. now felt pleased and happy.

Satisfied that his innocence has been proven. So he said:

He said, now I wanted this investigation to occur first. So it is firmly established for everyone that I did not make any betrayal of trust.

Allah will not guide those who betray the trust. So he is now proving his innocence. This is actually the context of this first ayah.

This is brief context. The whole surah is the context. But this is the last part of the story preceding this ayah that I quoted.

So he is actually proving his innocence. He is proving that he did not commit this crime. She was a seductress and he remained chaste and he was wrongfully imprisoned all these years.

And after proving that, he felt uncomfortable. He felt uncomfortable in proving that I am free of blame. Because even though he completely was justified in this particular instance to do so, because the general principle is in the Quran, Do not declare yourself to be pure.

Do not claim to be sinless. Allah alone knows who is truly God-fearing and who isn't. Likewise Allah says, Do you not see those people who claim themselves to be pure? No, it's Allah who purifies whom He wishes.

So, Tazkiyatun Nafs meaning, one is the purification of the soul. We hear this word Tazkiyatun Nafs. That is of course something we all need to engage in.

But one is Tazkiyatun Nafs in the sense that you declare yourself to be pure. In that context is something wrong, not to be done, not to declare yourself to be pure. In Surah An-Najm, Allah SWT says beautifully that even that He knows your condition fully, even when you are a Jinnah.

A Jinnah is plural of Janeen which means when you are the fetuses, when you are unborn. Before you were born He was fully aware of your condition. He knows who is Muttaqi, who isn't.

Don't have this holier-than-thou attitude and declare yourself to be pure. So, in this context when Yusuf AS, he went through this whole investigation to prove his innocence, he felt uncomfortable. But why was he justified here? Because he was wrongfully accused of a crime and now he is being released.

If he didn't set the record straight, it would always be on his record. Yeah, he was wise man. Yeah, he was intelligent.

Yeah, he was a genius. He gave a great interpretation. The king liked him and elevated him.

But he has a past. He has some baggage. He has a history.

Back in his younger days, you know, you don't have to necessarily remember that, but the fact of the matter is he did commit these crimes. So, he wanted to clear that. No, no, he never committed any crime.

That's why he made a point to prove his innocence. However, at the same time, he says, look, Subhanallah, look at his humbleness. He says that, I did remain pure and I want everyone to know I was pure, but if I was pure, it's not because of my perfection or because I am so great.

It is only the mercy of Allah that He protected me from falling into this sin. And that's why he says:

I do not declare my nafs to be completely bari, which means free and pure and will never be susceptible to falling into sin. I don't do that.

In fact, he mentions the default state of the nafs, which he was far elevated from that. We are in that condition. What does he say?

The condition of the nafs is such that it is one is an amir, which is an active participle, the one that commands, and one is ammarah.

Ammarah with a double letter meem, ammarah means it very strongly commands a person towards evil. Just like you heard of alim, is a scholar, and one is allama with a shada on the laam. You hear of allama iqbal.

No one says alim iqbal. They'll say allama iqbal, rahimallah. So, likewise you have alim versus allama.

So you have amir versus ammarah. Ammarah is the one that is just non-stop pushing you towards evil. Ammarah bis-su.

The nafs, by its very inherent nature, the way it is created by its creator, is ammarah bis-su, it is pushing you towards evil. And it would have pushed me towards evil too. And I would have committed the sin with zulaifah.

And I would have committed zina, I would have done everything. She closed the seven doors. You know, since we are part of the masjid here and the designing and everything, even though engineering, architecture is not our field, we meet with the contractors, architects, so we have certain idea.

So one of the things we know is that there are different building codes. And there are different rules for building any structure, public place, or even private place. So one of them is that you have to have emergency exits.

When I read the tafsir of this and when we see how the building codes nowadays are, it just is amazing how impossible this type of structure would be in our current environment.

This means that there is a palace, there is a door. Inside the palace is a chamber which has a door. Inside that chamber is another chamber. Inside that chamber is another chamber. Inside that is another room.

Inside that room is another room. Seven doors. So, in case of any fire or emergency, you know, you are not one or two doors away from exiting out.

You are seven doors away. You have to get out of this room. That's when Yusuf started running towards the door.

It was locked, but he ran towards the locked door. Allah opened it for him. The one door.

Then he from there, he had to run out. He didn't have fresh air outside. The second door.

Then the third door. Then the fourth door. The fifth door.

The sixth door. This would be completely impossible to build such a structure nowadays with the present building codes. Right? And seven doors.

After the seventh door he crossed. The seventh door they found the master. They found the husband.

And she was so quick with it. She was panting and running after him. First there's an allegation of a crime.

Then what do you do? Then you prove the crime occurred. There's witnesses, testimonies. There's testimony.

There's witnesses who testify. And evidence. Cross examination of the evidence.

Then what happens? Eventually the crime is established. Then after the crime is established, finally the last stage is you come to sentencing. The judge will sentence the punishment.

What should it be? So she jumped. She didn't even accuse him. She didn't accuse him.

She didn't give evidence. She jumped straight to sentencing. When she found her husband there, she said, Oh my dear husband, what should be the punishment of the one who has evil intentions against your wife? He should be imprisoned or face a dreadful torment.

So he says, Yusuf A.S. says, I don't declare my nafs to be pure. The nafs is going to continually command you towards evil. With the exception, if my lord has mercy on me.

If my lord has mercy on me, Alhamdulillah, he saved me. And whoever Allah has mercy on and protects them from their own nafs, they will be saved. Otherwise we are all lost.

Verily, my lord is a forgiving and merciful. So this is where we all are starting from. This is the starting line.

And nafs ammara bisu. Pushing us towards evil day and night. So we don't have to further expound on that because that is what we are all experiencing.

We all know how it feels. We know how the inclinations come. The desires come.

To disobey Allah. How difficult it is to obey Allah. This is our daily experience.

The Second Stage: Nafs al-Lawwama (The Blaming Soul)

But, Inshallah, if we continue working, if we continue striving, don't give up. Then Inshallah, there is hope that eventually we can progress. That we come to the second stage.

And that brings us to surah al-qiyamah.

I swear by the day of judgment. This laa is added there when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is refuting those who deny the day of judgment and he takes an oath.

Then he adds an additional laa.

And I swear by that nafs which is perpetually involved in lawwama. Lawwama is the one that is self reproach. Always doing malamat. Always blaming oneself.

Does the human being think that I cannot resurrect the bones? These big, big bones in the body? I cannot put them back together again?

Bala, why not?

I definitely have the ability even to recreate the banana. The banana are the fingertips. The fingertips, each fingertip we have, you know, this is a means of identification. It's so unique.

No fingertip is is copied. Every single individual has their own fingerprints. Allah says, you're worried about the big, big bones I can't put them back together again? I'm telling you man, I can bring your fingerprints back.

I can recreate even the fingertips and the fingerprints. So in this context, Allah Ta'ala uses the word nafs al-lawwama. Lawwama is the one that is reproaching itself.

This means that first is evil, evil, evil, evil. Rejoice in evil. Relish the evil. Enjoy the evil. But if you continue working against that nafs, inshallah, it will become elevated that now it is at that level that when you commit sin, you have that guilty consciousness that you feel bad. You make tawbah.

You say, tawbah, seek your forgiveness. cry, shed some tears. But then guess what? You're not so strong.

You fall and you break your promise to Allah. You disobey Him again. But then you get up and you say, tawbah, astaghfirullah, I shouldn't have done that.

Then you disobey Him again. You keep on. In fact nafs al-lawwama, even the tafsir of that includes that after obeying Allah, you have reproached that I didn't obey Him enough.

After doing good deeds also, you feel bad that I didn't do enough. I could have done more. So this is the second condition.

Some of us lucky ones may have reached here already that whenever we do bad actions, we feel remorse. We feel regret, nadama. We feel sadness.

We seek forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Then alhamdulillah, that means we have God left the ammara bisul level and now we have come to the nafs al-lawwama level. And a person, if he doesn't give up and he continues to strive, continues to do mujahadah against the nafs, this is the nafs that Rasulullah s.a.w. asked the sahaba r.a one time.

What do you think about a companion? That if you feed him, you clothe him, you take care of him, then he will bite you, he will beat you, he will hurt you. And at the other hand, if you leave him alone, you ignore him, let him starve, remain naked, no clothes, no food, then he will stop hurting you. In fact, you will be in a better position.

What do you think about such a companion? They said this is the worst companion ever. Rasulullah s.a.w. said this is the nafs bayna jambayk, that is in yourself, in your chest, in your body. If you continue to feed it, it will bite you.

And if you starve it, then you will be saved from its evil.

The Third Stage: Nafs al-Mutma'inna (The Peaceful Soul)

Moving forward, subhanallah, the person of subhanallah is a beloved of Allah s.w.t, makes efforts, strives, struggles, and now he leaves the nafsul lawwara level and progresses to, we come to surah al-fajr.

The mutma'inna, oh nafs! This is a announcement, proclamation, calling out.

When is this going to be called out? Some narrations say right at the time of death, some say on the day of judgment, some say by Allah, some say by the angels, Ibn Kathir in tafsir, he said, when are all of it out? This could be at the time of death as well as on the day of judgment. This call will be made.

Ya ayyatuhan nafsul mutma'inna Oh that nafs, which was calm, and which was composed, which was peaceful, which was at ease, which was happy, which was content, mutma'in, which was content with the decree, which was radi bi qada' il qadi, which was pleased with the decree of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

This is the highest level. It's that nafs that continues, you struggle against it until you end up straightening this nafs so that that obedience of Allah which is difficult now becomes easy. Not only easy, it becomes enjoyable.

That disobedience of Allah which is enjoyable becomes distasteful, becomes hated. A person begins to hate disobedience of Allah, has a natural aversion to the disobedience of Allah and enjoys obedience of Allah. Disobedience of Allah, disbelief in Allah is hated now.

And Iman and our actions of Iman are beloved. We are at a stage, it's so difficult to get up further and we are struggling. This is our stage.

Then you have the stage of Rasulullah, he says Oh Bilal, give us comfort. How are you going to give comfort? By giving a nice drink, giving a nice food, giving a nice bed. How will you give me comfort? By calling the Adhan.

Call the Adhan so I have the comfort for Fajr Salah. So they are enjoying the Ibadah. Disobedience of Allah is an impossible scenario to even imagine.

This is nafs mutma'inna, pleased with the decree of Allah. Then Allah is calling out, come back.

Irji'i is a beautiful word. It means you are not going for the first time. When you are going for the first time somewhere, then you have apprehension, you are worried, how is it going to be when you get there. When you go back, that means you are going back to where you came from, it's your home.

Irji'i, come back. To your Lord.

Radhi'atan Mardi'atan. Radhi'atan is an active participle and Mardi'atan is a passive. Meaning Radhi'a, you are pleased, you are happy. Come back in such a state that you are happy.

And Mardi'a is that Allah is happy with you. Radhi'a means you are happy with Allah and Mardi'a is that Allah is happy with you. You are pleased with Allah and you are pleasing to Allah.

You are pleased with Allah and you are pleasing to Allah, Radhiya Mardhiya. And note, when is this? This is when you're dying. When you're dying, you're happy.

How in the world is that possible? Aisha Siddique Radhiya Allah said, Ya Rasulullah, how are we going to meet Allah when we die? She was honest enough to say, we don't like death. Death is pain. Death has pangs.

Death is separation from family and beloved ones. How are a person going to be happy? Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, Oh Aisha, at the time of death, the angels will bring the scenes of Jannah and the Basharat and the glad tidings to such an extent that there's a Nafs of the Mu'min. The Nafs of the Mu'min will be so pleased and will be looking forward.

I want to leave this physical mortal body, this world of pain and sorrow and grief, this world of hunger and sickness. And I want to go towards you, O Allah. You'll be Radhiya, you'll be pleased.

Don't worry, if you're not happy with death now, you will be happy at that time. Radhiya, and Allah will be pleased with you. You'll be pleased with Allah.

One time, Abdullah ibn Abbas r.a, he was just humming this ayah, in the presence of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and Abu Bakr Siddiq r.a. Abu Bakr Siddiq r.a was so affected. He said, what a beautiful title and such a noble address. It's so beautiful.

Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, Oh Abu Bakr, this is exactly how you will be at rest when your time to return back to Allah comes. This is how you will be addressed. That's why Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, Al-mawtu tuhfatul mu'min.

Death is the gift of the believer. Gift from Allah S.W.T. Yusirul habib ilal habib. It takes the lover to the beloved, it joins them.

Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, one of the most beautiful hadith ever. He said, Man ahabba liqaa Allahi, ahabba Allahu liqaaahu. Whoever is looking forward and has great expectations to meet Allah, then Allah is looking forward and has great expectations to meet him.

Waman kariha liqaa Allahi, kariha Allahu liqaaahu. Whoever is not looking forward, dislikes meeting Allah, then Allah dislikes meeting him as well. So the soul will come out very easily.

You know the famous surah, wal-nazi'at. We teach our children the surah from the Ammajuz. After naba' wal-nazi'ati gharqa, wal-nashitaati nashta, wal-sabihaati sabha, fal-sabiqaati sabqa, fal-mudabbirati amra.

These are five oaths, one after the other, five attributes of the angels. Time is up. We'll just do the first two.

Wal-nazi'ati gharqa are those angels that will be very vigorously and with great effort and striving, with great difficulty, they will be pulling out the nafs of the disbelievers from the body. When they will see the azaab, the nafs will see the azaab of the akhira, it will not want to go there. It will hide into every single little cell of the body and it will be spreading out and will try to escape.

wal-nazi'ati gharqa means the angels that will be pulling it out, pushing it out, create compulsion and force with exertion, pulling out that nafs from the body.

wal-nashitaati nashta, Allahu Akbar, is the angels that will be just untying like a balloon. We have for the kids a balloon. When you untie the balloon, how the air escapes? Comes out. So the way the air escapes from balloon, wal-nashitaati nashta, they will just untie, untie that, the lock, khlas, and the soul will escape quickly like the air escapes from a balloon.

Allah Ta'ala says:

Come back to me, la rabbi, to your Lord, radiatan mardiya, pleased with Allah, and Allah is pleased with you. Fadkhuli fee ibadi, Enter into my servants. Enter into the group of my servants. Fadkhuli jannati, Enter into my Jannah.

Conclusion and Call to Action

So we have to make an effort. We are all at nafs-e-ammara, bisul level, commanding us towards evil. We need to continue to engage in mujahada against this nafs, not to give up.

Inshallah, purify this nafs until it becomes nafs-e-lawwama. Beyond that, it becomes nafs-e-mutma'inna, inshallah, so that we can also hear these beautiful words at the time of our death and we gain the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala purify all of our souls.