The knots, whispers, sticks & stones of Shaytan

The Knots, Whispers, Sticks & Stones of Shaytan

We bear witness that Muhammad ﷺ 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. We ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma ameen.

Dear brothers and sisters, I'm going to get right into it because it is a long topic, but one that is so specifically relevant to Ramadan. And that is the topic of the impact of the shayateen upon us — the impact of the devils.

And when we talk about the impact of the shayateen, we know that one of the blessings of Ramadan is that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala chains the shayateen. And we've talked about in previous khutab what that exactly means according to various interpretations of the scholars. But at the bare minimum, they are limited in the impact that they can have upon us once Ramadan comes.

So what that means is — imagine being a prisoner whose sole purpose is to ruin someone, and you know that you're about to be put in chains. How hard are you going to be working in the ten days or two weeks before you go into that prison to make sure that you leave enough seeds of discord and distractions that that person cannot meaningfully connect to Allah in a way that when you come out, you will not have the same impact? So the shayateen will be extremely busy in Sha'ban — in these next ten days in particular — as we await Ramadan.

Oh Allah, allow us to reach Ramadan. Allahumma ameen.

And so as they are particularly busy, I wanted to run through a few narrations where the Prophet ﷺ talks about the tactics of Shaytan and some of the underlying things that we can take from them — because they're actually incredibly empowering. Usually there's a sense that if you talk about the shayateen, it's going to just instill a lot of paranoia — oh my god, I can't succeed because the shayateen are out there. No. Every time the Prophet ﷺ talks to us about the impact of the shayateen, he gives us a way to overcome them — so that we understand:

As Allah says: "Indeed, as for My servants — you have no authority over them, except those who follow you of the deviators." So my servants — as for my servants — you have no control over them except for those that willingly follow you.

The First Tactic: The Whisper Over Your Heart

So what are the underlying themes? I'm going to run through them and I want you to try to identify in your own life your own interaction with them.

First and foremost, Anas ibn Malik radiallahu ta'ala anhu narrates that the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Referenced in Tafsir Ibn Kathir on Surah An-Nas; see also Ibn Abi Hatim's Tafsir)

The Prophet ﷺ said: "Verily, Shaytan is lying in wait over the heart of the child of Adam." He's waiting right over your heart. Think about the last few weeks — what we've been talking about. Your thoughts, your heart, protecting them. So Shaytan is right there waiting over your heart to see when he can get in. He's waiting for the opportunity to ambush. And what is that ambush? That ambush is when you forget Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He's waiting: How can I wait for him to forget so I can penetrate at that moment?

So the Prophet ﷺ said: if you remember Allah, he sinks away. He can't do anything. He has to retreat. He has absolutely nothing to get into if you remember Allah — because that's your fortress: the remembrance of Allah in your heart, in your words, in your deeds. The places in which Allah is remembered, Shaytan is just not finding an opening. But the moment that you forget, Shaytan will devour your heart. And that is al-waswas al-khannas — the whisperer and the one who retreats. He waits for the moment that you forget Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so he can penetrate. So a space or a place — including the heart and the mind — where Allah is not remembered is ripe for Shaytan. He's waiting for it. So obviously when you remember Allah, then he doesn't have much of a place to go.

The Second Tactic: The Three Knots of Sleep

And every night before you sleep, the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1142; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 776)

Every night when you sleep, he gets on top of your head and he ties these three knots. And as he strikes the place of every knot, he says: "You have a long night ahead of you. You worked so hard today. Sleep. Make sure that you go deep into your sleep. What a long day you already had — go ahead and sleep, deep, deep, deep." So that you don't wake up for prayer.

If you wake up and you remember Allah, one of the knots comes loose. Then if you make wudu, another knot comes loose. And if you pray, then the last of the three uqad — the last of the three knots — comes loose. And the Prophet ﷺ said: you wake up fresh — pure-souled, energetic in spirit. You undid all three knots because you remembered Allah, you did wudu, and you went to the prayer. You came to your salah. And you know the difference between the days you miss Fajr and the days that you don't. In fact, you know the difference especially on the days that you pray Fajr in the masjid and you're fresh, versus the days that you barely catch it. There is a difference in your energy. There is a difference in your spirit as you're waking up and going through those days.

The Underlying Theme: Procrastination

And the Prophet ﷺ, as he's sharing this with us — Ibn al-Jawzi says the main tool of Shaytan is procrastination. Wait! He didn't tell you don't pray when you went to sleep at night. He said prolong your sleep. He didn't tell you salah is not important, don't remember Allah, don't do wudu. He said: "What a long day you've had. Sleep. Put off your prayer. It's okay. The time will come."

And that is how Shaytan corrupts all of our acts of worship. When we know that worship is important and that we have to do what we have to do, then Shaytan can merely mess with our priorities. He can merely mess with us by making us procrastinate. And isn't that the cause of failure for a person in their personal affairs as well? I know what to do but I don't really do it — because, well, I've had a long day. I know I should be doing this but I'm stuck in this. I know that I should be making this change in my life, but everyone else around me does it too, so I can wait. A sense of urgency is put off. And that is a disease. May Allah protect us from it.

With our overcoming of sins — when we know we're committing a sin: I know I have the sin. It's not as bad as that person's sin. Everyone else does it anyway. It's okay. I can wait. Maybe next Ramadan. This Ramadan I didn't really feel it inside. Who told you you're going to live to see the next Ramadan? Who told you you're going to live to see the next Jumu'ah? The next day? But in your mind it's subconscious: Yeah, I know I could be doing this obligation a little bit better, but alhamdulillah at least I'm doing something. I'm kind of doing this obligation, so I can put off fulfilling it later on. Besides, look at everyone else around me. I have time. I have time.

Procrastination. That's what Shaytan is going to do. He's not going to immediately corrupt your ideas or your standards. He'll just break your spirits and busy you and mess with your priorities. So you keep putting stuff off, putting stuff off, putting stuff off.

The Third Tactic: Incitement Between People

And then listen to this. What is the connection between the whispers and the knots — and the personal and the interpersonal? Meaning, there is a deep connection between that and family and community as well. Listen to this narration. It is in Tirmidhi. Jabir radiallahu anhu says that the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2812)

"Shaytan has given up hope that he can take people who pray to Allah and make them worship him." He's lost hope in you in that sense. He knows that you pray — or that you at least know that you should be worshipping Allah. So what does he do instead? He busies you with each other. Tahreesh baynahum — let me create discord and fitna amongst them. Because they're not worshipping me, if they fight each other, at least they'll be too busy to worship Allah — and that will give me more entrance to penetrate.

And SubhanAllah, that's where you see the incitement. Procrastination — and then incitement between his ibad, between the servants of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

The Stones and Sticks at Night

Have you ever gone to sleep at night and you wonder: Why am I suddenly getting all these bad thoughts about my family? Why am I suddenly getting mad about something? I'm in bed, I'm starting to think — I can't believe she said that to me, I can't believe he did this. And you're sitting at night and you're boiling. Listen to this narration.

Abu Umamah radiallahu anhu narrates in a sahih narration that Shaytan comes to you at night — after you've gone to sleep, said goodnight to your family. They already gave you a sense of good wishes. Even if it's just a courtesy: goodnight, goodnight, see you tomorrow, goodnight baba, goodnight mama, goodnight honey — whatever it may be. So Shaytan comes to you — and obviously there's a symbolism here — think about the imagery of this. He starts throwing rocks at you and sticks at you and anything to incite you against your family. To get you mad at your family.

Have you ever woken up from a bad dream and gotten mad at your spouse? Mad at your kids? You're going to sleep at night and you're boiling, getting angry, and now unfortunately you can just pick up the phone and text: I'm getting really upset. I can't believe you said that. So you start boiling in your thoughts. Instead of remembering Allah at night, you're getting mad at your friends, getting mad at your family member.

The narration says: when that happens to you, don't get mad at your family. Don't fall for it. So while he's tying knots on your head to distract you from Allah and to get you to procrastinate, he's also saying: Can you believe he said that to you? Can you believe she said that to you? Wow — you should do something about that. So not only are you putting off the worship of Allah and the remembrance of Allah, you're boiling in bed. Imagine if someone was standing on top of you, throwing rocks at you, poking you and saying: Go do something. Say something.

And then SubhanAllah — instead of going to sleep at night the way the Prophet ﷺ taught us — to clear our hearts and forgive people, which is your entrance into Jannah — you're filling your heart with anger. And now it's just: pick up the phone, send a text, make it worse, go ahead and compound the situation. All the while, you have less and less time for the worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

The Fourth Tactic: Iblis on His Throne — Tearing Apart Families

I'll share with you this last narration, just because of time. And it is a powerful narration. I want you to think about it — because again, these things always hit right before Ramadan. It's like: Why now? There's always the fitna, and things just start hitting you before Ramadan. This is the worst time it could happen. Every time I read this narration, I think about the imagery of it. The Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2813)

Iblis sets up his throne upon water — to try to imitate the Lord of the worlds, whose throne encompasses all things. So he sets up his throne, his ego, his arrogance. And then he starts to call his followers to him. And the Prophet ﷺ said: the closest people to Iblis when he sits on his throne on the water, and the shayateen are next to him, is the one who causes the most fitna. That's who Iblis loves the most.

Compare that to this: the Prophet ﷺ said the closest of you to him on the Day of Judgment are those that have the best akhlaq, the best character. The closest shayateen to Iblis when he talks to his followers are the ones that cause the most fitna.

So he starts to ask: "Tell me what you all did." One of them says, "I did this and I did that." And Iblis says: "That's nothing. Next — what did you do?" So the shayateen start to tell Iblis the corruption that they caused on the earth, and then he dismisses them. Then the last shaytan says: "I kept at him until I caused him to split from his family. I caused the breakup." And Iblis says: "Come here." He says: "What a good follower you are. What a good shaytan you are." And he embraces him. "I like you the best — you messed up the marriage, messed up the relationship."

And that's not to say, dear brothers and sisters, that there aren't real reasons sometimes for a split — and that's not to escape responsibility when we do the things we do and then say "it's the shayateen." No, take responsibility. But that is to say how happy Shaytan becomes when he pollutes that — when he messes up families, tears us apart from each other. Don't fall for it.

That's the connection between the personal and the interpersonal. The family. The community. To busy us with each other in negativity so that we cannot long for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and pursue him with positivity and productivity.

Du'a

May Allah fill our hearts with the love of him. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala not give Shaytan any opening into our hearts or our lives — with his whispers, or his knots, or his stones, or whatever it is — in Ramadan or outside of Ramadan. May Allah allow us to remember him so frequently that Shaytan finds no place within us. May Allah protect us as individuals from him. Protect our homes from him. Protect our communities from him. And allow us to be engaged with what is pleasing to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Allahumma ameen. Ar-Rahman, Ar-Raheem.