From Bad to Better & Good to Great

Opening & Supplication for Ramadan

Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam is his final messenger. We ask Allah to send his peace and blessings upon him, the prophets and messengers that came before him, his family and companions that served alongside him, and those that follow in his blessed path until the Day of Judgment — and we ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma ameen.

Dear brothers and sisters, now just a few days away — wa lillahi alhamd — from Ramadan.

Oh Allah, allow us to live to witness this blessed month. Allow us to be forgiven through this blessed month. Allow us to be elevated in Your sight, to be freed from the punishment, and entered into Your eternal bliss. Allahumma ameen.

Setting Resolutions Before Ramadan

So many of us, as we approach this month, are approaching it with all sorts of goals in mind. And one of the things that we should be approaching it with is some sort of set of resolutions — that something about me has to change. And obviously, you already know that the last khutbah in Ramadan, or the khutbah right after it, is: how do you maintain progress? But if you don't already set in motion what that progress looks like before Ramadan starts, then afterwards the only thing that progress is going to mean to you is maintaining the feeling of Ramadan — which is a misguided notion — because Ramadan is meant to bring about taqwa in our lives, meant to bring about God-consciousness in our lives, that allows us to sail with the example of the Prophet ﷺ ahead of us, always guiding us throughout the entire year.

And we talked last week quite a bit about the tactics of the Shaytan and what we can take from that. And of course, as I said, he's going to be extremely active before the start of Ramadan. We know what the last few days look like before Ramadan — all types of deflections, the most wild and bizarre and harsh tactics that you expect from the Shayateen right before Ramadan starts, as they are about to be chained away.

The Story of Barsisa: From Bad to Worse

Here's what I want to discuss today, insha'Allah ta'ala, in that regard. When we talk about the way the Shaytan comes to a person, many of us are familiar with the story of Barsisa, the monk. I've spoken about this narration that comes from the books of Tafasir — in various iterations, a monk from Bani Israel that was known to be a righteous man, and he was entrusted to take care of the young daughter of some man, or the younger sister of some man, as they went away. And slowly, slowly, the Shaytan crept up on him and got him to commit zina, got him to fall into a major sin — though it was something that was unimaginable to him at the time.

And in that narration — which I'm not going to go through in detail now — if you pay attention, the way that it starts off is with a messaging of care, a messaging of good. "She's going to be all alone. You should take care of her. You know, you putting the food out there and not talking to her and giving her company is going to be a problem." And all of that, up until he falls into that major sin. So he uses the tactics of goodness. He preys on the man's good sentiments, his goodness — that, you know, you should take care of her, you should show her some kindness — until he gets him to fall into that.

And then you just see that narration take the turn. Where the Shaytan takes him from bad to worse, and bad to significantly worse. First, it is adultery. Then a child. Then: murder her and murder the child. Then lie about it to cover up your tracks. And the entire time you can see the psychology of the Shaytan, and the psychology that the Shaytan preys upon, to take someone from a very bad situation to a situation of no return — up until the last part, where he goes from being a lifelong worshipper of Allah to listening to the Shaytan, who says to him: "Look, I was the one who got you in this situation. I'm the one who can get you out." And so he curses his Lord, he worships the Shaytan, and he dies in that state.

So it starts off with preying on a good sentiment and trickery. And then it becomes: turn a bad situation into a worse situation. Would the man have been able to repent from zina, from committing adultery? Of course. We know of a woman in the time of the Prophet ﷺ whose repentance from zina was greater than all of the repentance of the people of Madinah, in the words of the Messenger ﷺ — the story of Ma'iz, radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. There are so many stories that we see of repentance even from a horrible and major sin. It doesn't take away from the status of the sin — the sin remains as it is, it's a horrible sin — but he could have repented from it. He could have turned back. But then the next thing and the next thing followed up with murder. Because how can you turn back to Allah after committing that major sin? Then follow it up with lying and follow it up with trickery. And you can see how, even though it's an extreme example, the Shaytan can play with a person's mind and take them from bad to worse, to where they could even have logic to their horrible actions. And we see that manifest, subhanAllah, all the time when the Shaytan is able to mess with a person like that.

The Man Who Killed a Hundred: From Bad to Better

And then you see the other side. A hadith that is actually narrated in Bukhari. Another famous story. Another man from Bani Israel — the man who killed 99 people. We've all heard that story. I can see you shaking your heads already.

Then he goes to a monk. He asks the monk: "Any chance for me to turn back to Allah? I mean, I didn't murder one person. I didn't just commit zina or steal or lie. I've killed 99 people. I'm a serial killer. Any chance of turning back to Allah?" He tells him: "Are you crazy? You killed 99 people." He doesn't use those words, but that's the sentiment, right? "I mean, you killed 99 people. What do you want? You should have thought about that after two or three people. What's wrong with you?" And so he kills him too, because the man told him he had no hope.

Then he goes to a scholar and he asks the scholar. And here's the thing — you've all heard the story, I think for the most part. I don't want to focus on the story. I want to focus on a few sentences from the hadith and I'm going to tell you why. Because often we read these stories so paraphrased, and they're so extreme in their manifestations, that we just don't get it — until extreme things happen in our community and we're like, wow. Okay. Some of these things from a hadith that we never thought we'd witness in our lives, we're witnessing now. And we don't relate to our behavior the message that is there.

So this story gets quoted to mention the mercy of Allah, but there's something so deep in just the next few sentences. When he tells the scholar: "Any hope for me? I killed a hundred people. Will Allah ever forgive me?" — I'm going to just read the sentences.

He said: "Who's going to stand between you and your repentance? It's not up to me. It's not up to the last guy you killed. It's not up to the guy that you'll go to if you kill me after. Who's going to stand between you and tawbah? Your repentance is between you and Allah."

"What do you mean? Do I have hope? Do I have a chance?"

He said: "But you have to leave your bad company. Leave this group of filthy people and everything that comes with that companionship, and go to this town of righteous people and adopt their ways and worship Allah in that place."

Now again, an extreme example, right? I mean, what do we do here? Obviously hijrah is a thing — migration for the sake of Allah is a thing. But can't we adopt that in our own lives? To realize that, look, if you're trying to set new standards for yourself but you plan on keeping the same company — in Ramadan, after Ramadan — then it's very likely that the standards of that company, if they are lower than the standards set for you by Allah and His Messenger ﷺ, they're going to pull you right back down.

So the man was wise, subhanAllah. He made sure to say: as for the sincerity of your tawbah, no one is between you and your Lord — that's between you and Allah. But you really want to make it sincere, and not just say astaghfirullah for killing a hundred people but stay in the same environment that led you to that, until you kill a hundred and one and say, "Oh my God, astaghfirullah." No — you've got to leave this place. What do we take from that in our own lives? You have to abandon certain company, certain groups, certain people that hold you back, and move on.

So he goes. And the hadith says:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3470; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2766)

He went out intending to go to the town of righteous people, and death overtook him on the way. And the angels of mercy and the angels of punishment came to dispute over him. His situation is truly perplexing.

And guess who shows up in the hadith for the very first time? He was there all along, but his name shows up for the first time:

Now Shaytan speaks. The whole time he was operating in his head, operating in the background, pushing him towards certain things. Now he makes himself known. This is the first time Shaytan is mentioned in the narration. And what does he say? He says: "No, no, no. He's mine. He never disobeyed me for a single hour. I had him his whole life. Not a moment of his life did he ever disobey me."

SubhanAllah — the whole time, throughout this whole hadith as we're going through it, Shaytan is not mentioned. But now, when it's time for him to receive either mercy or punishment: "Wait, wait, wait. That's my guy. I messed him up, and he never once disobeyed me for a single hour."

But then the angels of mercy said: "But he went out seeking repentance." And of course, we know that the end of this narration — Allah forgives the man. Allah says: measure the distance between him and the land he left and the land he was going to. And Allah — according to one narration — shakes the land so that he could actually be closer to the land he was going to. And Allah forgave him and showed mercy to him.

This man could have easily gone from bad to worse. Barsisa killed one, and then killed two — the baby as well. Barsisa killed two. This man killed a hundred. But the outcome is literally the exact opposite. This man ends up in the mercy and forgiveness of Allah. Barsisa ends up in the worst state — a murderer, an adulterer, a devil worshiper at the end of his life. SubhanAllah.

What is it? It's that Barsisa went from bad to worse, whereas this man who killed a hundred people was going from bad to better. And that's what Allah azza wa jal calls you to:

Say: O My servants who have transgressed against themselves, do not despair from the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, He is the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful.

But then the second part — and by the way, this ayah is in the first part of the advice the scholar gave to this man. The second ayah:

Turn back to your Lord and submit yourself to Him.

The second ayah matches the second sentence that came from the scholar's mouth to this man after he found himself in a hopeless situation. Shaytan traffics in despair and Shaytan traffics in delusion. Despair — when he finds you there, he takes your situation from bad to worse if you continue to listen to him. Allah azza wa jal takes you from your deepest pits of despair and gives you a chance. But you have to develop the resolve, and you have to develop the roadmap — or rather, follow the roadmap that's already set out there for you — and aim for the mercy of Allah.

Two Sets of Resolutions for Ramadan

So that's one set of people, dear brothers and sisters, as we go into Ramadan: that importance of setting that resolution — to quit, to abandon company, to follow the roadmap towards good.

From Good to Great: The Importance of Ihsan

The other set of resolutions is in regards to what is already good and making that great — putting ihsan into it. And in some ways, you find a person that is neglectful of their prayers altogether, and you find a person that prays kind of five times a day — kind of five times a day, right? Sometimes they miss, sometimes they pray much later, but kind of. That person who is neglectful of prayer altogether might find that spark and, because they recognize the sense of urgency, turn back to Allah and start to pray all five prayers in the right way. Whereas that other person says, "Yeah, I pray — I count myself amongst the Musallin."

SubhanAllah, sometimes you find people that are half-fulfilling obligations — going through the obligations of the deen, half-fulfilling obligations — and they settle in that place and stay in that place for the rest of their lives. Whereas you see someone who's not fulfilling obligations at all and they make a complete switch in their lives and adopt those ways. So yes, even if we count ourselves amongst those who fulfill the obligations — how do you better those obligations? Are you satisfied with your salah? Are you satisfied with your obligations? Are you satisfied with where you are with them? Or do you bring in the quality that makes it ihsan? Do you embellish them with those voluntary deeds, and put out a plan for yourself right now, the resolution for yourself right now, to adopt that — bithnillahi ta'ala — in Ramadan and beyond?

Timeless Standards: Halal and Haram Are Clear

And finally, dear brothers and sisters, we have Ramadan resolutions, but we have timeless standards. We cannot lose sight of the clear guidelines. The Prophet ﷺ says:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 52; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1599)

Indeed, what is permitted is clear, and what is prohibited is clear, and between them are the doubtful matters — which we abandon. The guidelines are there. The good has been made clear. The bad has been made clear.

Let's say that you start Ramadan and you start struggling with your resolutions. Do you just give them up? No. There is such a thing as tawbah in Shawwal too. There is such a thing as tawbah in Rabi' al-Awwal. There is tawbah, there is repentance, throughout the year. This, however, is a time where we get to make those resolutions — bithnillahi ta'ala — while the Most Merciful is inviting to His mercy in a way that: what a failure a person would be if they missed out on the mercy of Allah in the month of mercy. That's the one that Jibreel alayhi salam says: khaba wa khasr — that's a fail. That you would miss out on mercy even in the month of mercy, where the gates of paradise have been flung open, the gates of hellfire shut, and the Shayateen chained away.

Make those resolutions, dear brothers and sisters, and make them concrete. Don't leave them abstract. Concrete resolutions for yourself — bithnillahi ta'ala — to make changes in Ramadan.

Closing Du'a

May Allah allow us to go from what is bad to what is better, and from what is good to what is great. May Allah azza wa jal make us a people of taqwa, a people of ihsan, a people that often oscillate between istighfar — seeking Allah's forgiveness — and tasbih — glorifying Allah's perfection and acknowledging our own imperfections always. Allahumma ameen.

عِبَادَ اللَّهِ، إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالْإِحْسَانِ وَإِيتَاءِ ذِي الْقُرْبَىٰ وَيَنْهَىٰ عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالْمُنكَرِ وَالْبَغْيِ يَعِظُكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَكَّرُونَ. فَاذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ يَذْكُرْكُمْ وَاشْكُرُوهُ عَلَىٰ نِعَمِهِ يَزِدْكُمْ وَلَذِكْرُ اللَّهِ أَكْبَرُ وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ.