DARS 46
The Only Thing that Defeats shaytan
{ وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ وَكَذَّبُواْ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَآ أُوْلَـٰٓٮِٕكَ أَصۡحَـٰبُ ٱلنَّارِۖ هُمۡ فِيہَا خَـٰلِدُو}
Surah al-Baqarah v39
Up to this point, in a very nice way, Allah ta’ala has instilled into our minds the great and important message of the Qur’an, and this is continued right through until the end; it is the essence of the Qur’an. Allah ta’ala has summarized the whole message to mankind with this incident of Hadhrat Adam alayhi salam, namely, that this Dunya that you have been transferred to, that you will go to, with all the conditions and circumstances that you will experience, is a dangerous place; it is a place of test, examination, challenge, worries, distresses, issues. These will surround you from all directions. And shaytan and Nafs are your avowed enemy. Shaytan has full power and many techniques, and the Nafs will assist him; traps and nets will be laid out for you and it will be very difficult for you. They will penetrate your minds and run in your veins. {عَدُوٌّ۬ مُّبِينٌ} - Allah tells us that shaytan is our ‘manifest enemy’.
Allah ta’ala has explained all the conditions of the world to us, and alongside that Allah subhana wa ta'ala has also told us the solution to all of this, how to break all of this: {فَمَن تَبِعَ هُدَاىَ} – that’s it! Allah says {فَمَن تَبِعَ هُدَاىَ} – ‘Whoever follows My guidance, the Hidaya that I have given’, and this means the Qur’an and the Shari'ah and Sunnah of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. This is {فَمَن تَبِعَ هُدَاىَ}, the guidance the Qur’an has given. Allah ta’ala says ‘This will come to you as a complete protection against all the challenges of the world. It will take you through every test and all difficulties and worries and issues.’ That is {فَمَن تَبِعَ هُدَاىَ}. This will be the solution to all your problems. Imagine a hungry person who has bread and chapattis, and he is seen crying while he packs the food into a box inside containers. Someone asks him ‘Why are you crying?’, and he replies, ‘I am hungry! What can I do? I am so hungry – extremely hungry.’ He is then asked ‘What have you got in these containers?’ The man replies ‘There are some chapattis and dhal.’ The other person says ‘Well you have got food to eat! The solution to your hunger is in front of you. So why are you crying with hunger?’
In the same way, we cry and shriek and complain today, blaming worldly factors and conditions. This is extreme foolishness. Allah ta’ala has given us such a fantastic treasure, such a great Ni’mah and gift. The Qur’an is present in every home; Tafseers and commentaries are present; there are speeches and Masjids all over the place. People who can explain are present, and we can read ourselves and have desire to read Tafseers, and we ponder over which commentary will be best – we have a lot of desire. So then the question comes ‘Why are you still crying?’ Because we don’t practice! This is just like not eating the chapatti and the dhal – we have no Amal. We have Masaajid but no Amal, Dar-ul-Ulooms but no Amal, we have long titles to reflect our knowledge but no Amal, no practice. So the same thing will happen – it will end in tears, in crying. If someone who is hungry doesn’t eat, he’s going to cry due to the pangs of hunger. In the same way, Allah ta’ala has given us protection and guidance but we don’t utilize it, go towards it, pay attention to or implement it – and what is the result? Crying and complaining; bad situations. Allah ta’ala says {فَمَن تَبِعَ هُدَاىَ} – ‘Whoever takes hold of the guidance that I have given’ – SubhanAllah. This is a clear message from Allah ta’ala that has come to our lives, alhamdulillah, a clear message.
Now we go to the next scenario. Never consider your enemy as weak – this is the first principle. Always regard even the weakest of enemies as an enemy. Never say to yourself ‘Oh, he is weak – I will do away with him.’ He can come to you any time. Even if he looks at you in a loving, affectionate manner and tries to ensnare you with his warmth towards you, he is still an enemy; and the enemy is going to bite. So always be alert with the enemy – principle number one. And the enemy that Allah says is your {عَدُوٌّ۬ مُّبِينٌ۬}, shaytan, who is your real, genuine enemy, how can we fall into the delusion that he will not do anything to us if we do not protect ourselves? He will use all the tactics under the sun; he has every method to deviate man. He came down to earth with big plans, and with full Ijaza from Allah, promising not to leave any human being alone. So he saw that we had nothing with which to ward him off apart from that one assistance, and said ‘I can’t do anything against anyone who deploys that tool against me, because that resource has come from Allah.’ {يَأۡتِيَنَّكُم مِّنِّى هُدً۬ى} – Allah says ‘This is from Me, from Allah’, and so this contains a strength that shaytan knew he could not stand against. He cannot oppose the power of Allah. He said ‘Wherever the power of Allah comes, I cannot do anything. Wherever the Sunnah of Nabi al-Kareem sallallahu alayhi wasallam is present, I cannot be there. I cannot delve into that matter or affect that person.’ So he said ‘Ok, I will do something else; I will play another trick.’
This was a big development. He worked hard and thought to himself ‘Let me put all of my plots and plans and tricks behind me. Let me get these people from one angle. If I get these people and control them, then success beyond success will be mine. My mission will be fulfilled and complete, and they will all go into Jahannam. I will trap them by this means.’ This how he plotted and planned. We forgot, but he didn’t forget. Rather he fulfilled his promise to Allah that he would deviate everyone. He realised that his plans were nothing if people were to utilize Allah’s resources, so what did he do? What was his trick? What was his plot? What was his new game plan, his new resource? He set his sights on removing us from the protection of Allah that would bring us to success – {فَقَدۡ فَازَ فَوۡزًا عَظِيمًا}. He turned us away from that path. Shaytan started saying ‘Read, attain knowledge, learn Qur’an and recitation, do Qira’ah, go on Umrah and Hajj, give charity and Sadaqaat, do pious, good deeds, pray’, and he said this knowing that for all of these, the Ruh, the soul of those deeds is needed.
{وَمَن يُطِعِ ٱللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ ۥ فَقَدۡ فَازَ فَوۡزًا عَظِيمًا}. Allah is telling us here: ‘If you obey My Rasool sallallahu alayhi wasallam and live according to the Sunnah, then your Salah will be accepted, your Hajj will be accepted, your Umrah will be accepted, your Sadaqah will count. Everything will be accepted, but only when it is done in accordance to the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. If your life is in accordance to the Sunnah and Shari'ah, then your deeds will be accepted.’ So shaytan said ‘I will let them pray and worship and gather in their thousands at conferences.’ What big gatherings we hold! To make a gathering takes just a click of the fingers, and shaytan supports these gatherings, but only where he has instilled one particular factor, namely that the Sunnah and Shari’ah of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam should not be communicated or propagated in that gathering. He will support lengthy marches and overflowing mosques, but only when they conform to his desire that nothing of this sort should come from the mouths of the leaders who are present. They can talk about Ishq and love, and the tears can flow, the heads can rock, and emotions can overflow – all of this is fine, but the real message must not emerge from their mouths. SubhanAllah. The Sunnah of our Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam should not be disseminated – this is shaytan’s plan.
This message of the Qur’an {فَمَن تَبِعَ هُدَاىَ} has been hidden by shaytan; he aims to hide this. Allah then says {فَلَا خَوۡفٌ عَلَيۡہِمۡ وَلَا هُمۡ يَحۡزَنُونَ} – end of story! Shaytan knows that if this comes into the lives of human beings, then they will become those referred to by {فَلَا خَوۡفٌ عَلَيۡہِمۡ وَلَا هُمۡ يَحۡزَنُونَ}. They will become unique human beings; nothing will be able to touch them, and shaytan knows this. The people who have Shari'ah and Sunnah in their lives will be fantastic, supernatural human beings! Those who take Allah ta’ala’s guidance will become like beacons of light, and they will embrace such a great methodology of life through the Shari'ah and Sunnah - and shaytan knows this. Their lifestyles will change, Noor will come into their lives, and inside and outside they will become brilliant human beings. A person becomes such a great human being if he adopts Shari'ah and Sunnah. If one person on this path sits among one hundred thousand people, he will revive those hundred thousand people, SubhanAllah. When he has a gathering, it is never unsuccessful. Thousands of people gather to understand the Shari'ah and Sunnah – those are the successful gatherings, remember this. What is the sign of a successful gathering? What distinguishes it from a gathering that is a failure? A successful gathering is that person’s gathering from where people depart with the Sunnah Tariqa of Nabi al-Kareem sallallahu alayhi wasallam, with the method of his Sunnah, even if he leaves with just one Sunnah.
This is a dangerous generation we are living in, the most dangerous of generations. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam has told us the name of this generation that we are living in. This is the generation of Fitnah, the era of Fitnah, of challenges and disorder, proper disorder. What is this generation? The generation of Fitnah – trials, tribulations, disorder. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam has defined this generation. What is Fitnah, tell me? What does shaytan do in this generation? As I have mentioned, he will allow us to do all the actions under the sun, but he will take the honourable Sunnah Sharifah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam out of our lives. Shaytan, the biggest plotter, will eliminate that from our lives. And what will he replace the Sunnah with? Allahu Akbar, Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam said:
إِنَّ أَصْدَقَ الْحَدِيثِ كِتَابُ اللَّهِ وَأَحْسَنَ الْهَدْيِ هَدْيُ مُحَمَّدٍ وَشَرُّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا وَكُلُّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ وَكُلُّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ وَكُلّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّار
In other words, shaytan will create opposition to the Sunnah and Shari’ah, to the Kitab of Allah and to the Sunnah Sharifah; he will try to replace them. “وَشَرُّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا” – what will that be? “كُلُّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ”- ‘All innovation is wretched and cursed’ Any action that is in opposition to the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam will be Bid’ah. And what is Bid’ah? Bid’ah is that action that is introduced into the Deen. It is one thing to do something that supports the Deen, to adopt an action that assists the Deen, but quite another to introduce something new into the Deen, and to make that thing part of the Deen, thinking ‘I am doing a good deed here and I will get Thawab.’ So the Sunnah is removed and its methodology gets replaced with his own opinions and his own words. He creates his own Deen, and this will be obvious because there will be no proof or evidence from the Shari’ah. Bid’ah is when a person says that an action is from Deen but there is no proof from Shari’ah.
Any educational input for which there is no proof from Qur’an or Hadith or from the Salaf-us-Saliheen, nor any relevant guidance, then such actions will be against the Shari'ah and Sunnah. They will bring a new way of life into the Deen that was never heard of by the Sahabah, the Salaf-us-Saliheen, the Tabi’een or the Taba-Tabi’een. None of these generations saw this; it was not present and it was not taught. But it is conveyed in such a way, with such attractive words, that people will hasten to that teaching, and it will become Deen. That is why Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam referred firstly to the Kitabullah, then his path, the Sunnah. The Kitabullah is the great guidance, and then his guidance, which is his path, his practice, his great method. The third thing mentioned is the worst of actions - “وَشَرُّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا وَكُلُّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ وَكُلُّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ”. These actions will have no backing, not proven from either the Qur’an or the Sunnah, and these are called Bid’ah, innovation.
This is how shaytan succeeds in this day and age, by creating new ways and new practices. If we look around in society today, there are gatherings and long, drawn-out discussions, but firstly, you don’t hear anything mentioned about the Sunnah in those gatherings. Secondly, everyone sitting there will not be practicing Shari’ah, and no-one dares to come onto the stage and criticize them. They will skirt around the subject and bypass it, speaking about philosophy for hours in lengthy discussions, but no one will dare to say plainly and clearly as I am doing. People will come onto the stage in front of thousands, even tens of thousands, but there will be no discussion about Kitab and Sunnah. No one will dare to speak of this, and no one will be there to tell them that they are wrong and that what they are presenting is not the Deen. The gatherings can be hundreds of thousands strong, but no one will voice this because they have fear in their hearts. They think ‘If I speak about the Deen, I will be removed from my position and my status will fall. How can I speak about the true Deen?’
So what has shaytan created? He has created a new methodology instead of the Kitab and the Sunnah, a new philosophy, a new way of thinking. What is this? The Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi has told us about it: “عند فساد أمتي” He said “When there is Fasaad in my Ummah” – and this generation is the era of Fitnah and Fasaad, when Bid’ah is common and the Shari'ah and Sunnah of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam has been degraded and demoted. Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam is saying that this will be the day and age of Fitnah and Fasaad, of trials and challenges. A person will be a Mu’min in the morning, and by the evening he will be a disbeliever. Hadhrat Abu Hurayrah radhiAllahu anh narrated this Hadith which is in Mishkat and in Sahih Muslim, referring to such a dangerous generation where the Sunnah and Shari’ah will be demoted, and Bid’aat will have been mixed into the Deen such that the whole world will be filled with Bid’aat and innovations. Bid’aat, cultures and traditions will fill the world, and the Deen will be eliminated. When fear of the world becomes widespread, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that would be the age of Fitnah, a Fitnah which would descend from the skies during the night. In another narration, Fitnah is described as dropping down like drops of rain from the sky. There will be Fitnah in our homes, Fitnah outside, Fitnah in our shops, Fitnah in the Masjids, Fitnah on the streets – everywhere, Fitnah beyond Fitnah is what we see. Fitnahs and sins are falling from the sky just like droplets of rain.
What do we do when rain falls? We seek protection, shelter, some canopy, or we pick up an umbrella to protect ourselves from becoming soaked by the rain. Allah’s Rasool sallallahu alayhi wasallam has defined the generation of Fitnah. There will be so much Fitnah that a person will be a Mu’min in the morning and a disbeliever by the evening. He speaks like a Mu’min in the morning but by the evening he forgets and starts doing actions of disbelief. Examples of this are everywhere. On Jumu’ah, for instance, a person puts on all the attire, and then as soon as it finishes, he goes and commits all sorts of sinful actions. He takes everything to be permissible - with ease he runs after impermissible actions. You can see such actions everywhere, openly visible - two opposite ways of being, one thing in the morning and another by the evening. People say ‘Strange, he was ok this morning. I saw him in the Masjid praying but look at him now. His Islamic clothing has been taken off and his practice has disappeared.’ This is so common that we see it and are not even surprised anymore. Mothers whose own clothes are immodest give similar items of clothing to their daughters, saying ‘Take these, they will look good on you. People will compliment you as you walk around, so wear these clothes.’ The mothers select these indecent, revealing clothes – and even the fathers too. They say to their daughters ‘Oh you look very nice today – don’t make too many boyfriends when you go out.’ This is the society we are living in today, plainly and simply put. Mothers and fathers receive their friends together when people come to the house. They say ‘Come, come, this is an open, modern society. We have freedom, these things are over. The Deen is finished, so we have to embrace these habits.’ And yet, in our cupboards are Qur’ans or portions of the Qur’an.
SubhanAllah, this is the Mu’min. Shaytan has won by means of this one tactic: he has taken the Sunnah out of our lives. If the Sunnah was present in our lives, then our Tarbiyyah and our children’s Tarbiyyah, at home and outside, would be according to the Sunnah. If that was the case, how could our daughters and children be spoiled? How? If Sunnah was present in our lives, we could not send out children to sinful places. The Qur’an testifies to this, if only we would take hold of the Deen. Allah says { فَمَن تَبِعَ هُدَاىَ} – ‘I promise! Don’t worry about your generation or your location in the Dunya. It belongs to Allah - every hemisphere belongs to Allah! Don’t worry!’ Allah says that first and foremost, we need to do this action. But nowadays, if a woman gets married in Pakistan, what is the first thing that happens when she gets here? People back home are amazed. ‘She wasn’t like that when she was here’, they say. The Burkah comes off, the hair gets cut, the clothing changes – may Allah forgive. And their own daughters dress in such a way as to make them look naked, and they select the items themselves for them from their wardrobes, saying ‘Wear this one, it is tighter. It makes you look better – you are more attractive when you wear this.’
The Qur’an is telling us that this is the situation today. Allah ta’ala’s Kalam is such that honesty comes out. If these words prick us, well they should prick us. Let them prick us like a thorn or a nettle or a needle. The Qur’an doesn’t care who is in front of it, listening or reading, no. I am reading the Qur’an, not a man-made novel or storybook, astaghfirullah. The Qur’an wants to save us from the fire. If we have shame and modesty, we should listen to the Qur’an and reflect. How many days are left to us in life? How many? There is no excuse – this is wrong. The Qur’an is telling us { فَمَن تَبِعَ هُدَاىَ} – Allah says ‘If you take hold of this guidance, you will never be deviated. Never.’ Allah is promising and the Qur’an is promising. This is so fantastic! How can shaytan attack us then? You can be living anywhere in the world where there are sins and negative influences, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t leave the guidance. So shaytan doubles his efforts and revives his plot, bringing in new Bid’aat so that new customs and traditions come into the house, mixing with the Deen. The son’s and daughter’s attire is one style while the mother wears a Burkah. What a strange contamination and muddying of the waters has occurred - look at our homes.
Allah ta’ala has stated clearly here that no action or Amal that does not contain Sunnah is acceptable, and that is why shaytan has attacked with this method of taking the Sunnah away from our lives. There is no Sunnah in clothing, no Sunnah in the children’s behaviour, and when you get angry, they see your clothing and face and say ‘What is this? Why are you wearing these clothes then?’ So you shouldn’t be angry. You have Tasbeehs in your hands and are doing your own Dhikr, but you don’t care about the children. Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that this change occurs within the few hours between the morning and the evening. The mother is practicing and the children are not, but she doesn’t say anything to her daughters or sons. It is such a weird situation that we are confronted with. And this is the era of Fitnah, of disorder, of Fasaad, of sins, of evil. What do we call it? Modernism. We say that we have progressed, that we are advanced. Hadhrat Umar radhiAllahu anh narrates a Hadith in Tirmidhi to the effect that in the last era, people will be sat with their ideologies and intellect, and with strange attire, and they will come to the Masjids. And their women will wear such attire that they will look naked even though they are wearing clothes. And we choose these clothes with our own hands! The father says to the daughter ‘Wear these clothes – you will get many boyfriends.’ It doesn’t matter what religion or lifestyle they choose, we say ‘Whatever you want. I just want to cool my eyes with your happiness.’ Allahu Akbar.
Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that there would come a time when people with different styles of clothing would come to the Masjid, and we see this today. The Masjids are filled with different styles of clothing, such that if you are praying behind them and you see them, it becomes very difficult to pray Salah. And the situation of the womenfolk is such that they wear attire that is termed clothing, and yet it renders them effectively naked when they wear it. Their hair is arranged on the top of their heads like the hump of a camel - there are such strange ways that womenfolk tie their hair on top of their heads! They go to the beauty parlors and clinics where they make them look attractive, don’t they?
This is the era of Fitnah, and Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam has defined it for us clearly. When such a time comes, it will affect good people as well – the drops of Fitnah fall like rain, remember? And we seek protection from the rain when it falls, so what is the protection that can shelter us from the Fitnahs that are falling around us today? It is the company of the Friends of Allah, remember this. Also in this Hadith, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that in that generation, Allah would even take the pious people away – that is how dark this era and generation is. The Walis of Allah will be taken from the world so that no shade or protection remains. Today we are afraid of that shelter and protection if we are afraid of sitting in the company of the Walis of Allah. This is the shelter and protection from the Fitnah, SubhanAllah. If you sit in the good company of a Wali of Allah, consider that you are sat under an umbrella through which no drop of rain can fall, because Allah’s Rahmah and mercy is present in that great company. But who wants to go there? Nobody wants to go there today; nobody wants good company.
When you go away from that shelter and protection, you will step out naked into the generation of Fasaad. You won’t consider good to be good, or bad to be bad; you won’t differentiate. You will say ‘There is nothing wrong with this, it’s ok. People are doing it, there’s nothing wrong with it. Don’t be too extreme – it doesn’t make any difference if we do it.’ From here, a person very quickly gets to the condition of those who are being afflicted morning and evening by Allah’s curses. Think about what we are doing at home, where we see our wives and children committing sins; do you think the mercies of Allah are descending there? Do you think Allah ta’ala will be happy? Astaghfirullah. Allah ta’ala has promised: ‘I may not touch you in this world, but when your eyes close, then the punishment will come to you. I will show you then.’ Allah says that mornings and evenings are filled with curses and wretchedness for those people.
So this is the generation of Fitnah. Everything will become a game. Deen will become a game and will not be taken seriously. This is the generation we are living in, isn’t it? Shaytan will create great fear in people’s minds; they will be scared. Fear of what? Fear of Dunya, as in ‘What will people say?’ They will go towards Haram due to fear of poverty. The fear of poverty will be such that a person will start to go towards Haram, saying ‘Oh, otherwise we will go backwards.’ On this basis, they will go towards Haram and start doing all kinds of wrong actions. In other words, shaytan will make us so full of fear that we will feel forced to do all sorts of wrongful actions. There is only one cure for this fear, and that is the Shari'ah and Sunnah of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. There is no other solution, Allahu Akbar!
This is the era of Fitnah that the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam told us about, and the reason for this is { فَمَن تَبِعَ هُدَاىَ}. Allah ta’ala says that when this condition comes into the world around us, when shaytan brings us to this position – and all of this is present around us, nothing is hidden. We can see it with our eyes – nothing is concealed. So then what will happen? Allah says in the Qur’an: { وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ وَكَذَّبُواْ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَآ أُوْلَـٰٓٮِٕكَ أَصۡحَـٰبُ ٱلنَّارِۖ هُمۡ فِيہَا خَـٰلِدُونَ} The Qur’an is telling us this. There will be two types of people. { وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ وَكَذَّبُواْ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَآ} Two types of people emerge in contrast to { فَمَن تَبِعَ هُدَاىَ}. Shaytan will split the people. Firstly { وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ } – those who totally reject the Deen, both the Qur’an and the Sunnah. They will refuse and will not accept it. { وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ} They will refute it. Shaytan will overwhelm those people completely, and they will say ‘No, we do not accept this. It is wrong – everything you are saying is wrong.’ Allah ta’ala has explained His Deen to us. You have to have Iman in the Qur’an, but they will say ‘No, we don’t accept this guidance that Allah ta’ala has sent. We don’t need His guidance and we don’t accept it.’ Allah ta’ala says { وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ} – ‘Those who have no Iman, who do not believe, have rejected My Qur’an and they have rejected the Sunnah of Nabi al-Kareen sallallahu alayhi wasallam.’ In other words, they don’t believe in Allah or in Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam. That is one group.
And alongside them are the second group - { وَكَذَّبُواْ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَآ}. Listen to this as well. Who are the second group? The first is { وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ } – it is clear; we know that they say ‘We don’t believe; we don’t accept.’ The other group will be { وَكَذَّبُواْ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَآ}– ‘They deny Our Revelations’. They don’t accept, but neither do they refute. They are hanging in between; they won’t accept totally, nor will they reject totally. They will float in between, and shaytan will be with them. It doesn’t mean that they will reject the Qur’an and say that the Qur’an doesn’t exist. They won’t say that they do not believe in the Qur’an. The meaning of not accepting the Qur’an is that they will say ‘No, we don’t need this’ in respect to the orders and guidance of the Qur’an. They won’t accept the orders and the instructions, as I said to you before. The Qur’an is clear; it is present physically, but in place of that, they will follow the Bid’aat that shaytan has created. They will go towards the Bid’aat that shaytan has mixed into the Qur’an and the Shari’ah. Such a person will embrace the Qur’an, he will kiss the Qur’an, read the Qur’an, do Khatams of the Qur’an, do Hifdh of the Qur’an, learn the Uloom of the Qur’an, do commentary of the Qur’an and translations of the Qur’an, saying ‘Yes, I accept the Qur’an’ – but he will not accept the orders and instructions of the Qur’an; he will reject them. What does ‘deny’ mean? It means that he will read the Qur’an and so much besides, but he will not do Amal on the Qur’an. This is denying the Qur’an and refusing the Qur’an. Allah says {كَذَّبُوا} - they refuse, they deny Allah’s Revelation. If he had Yaqeen on the Qur’an, then he would do Amal on those orders and instructions.
The reason for the Qur’an, the essence of the Qur’an, is not Hifdh of it or recitation of it or explaining it, no. The real purpose and objective of the Qur’an, the message in the Qur’an, is that we have to act upon it. If a person does not practice upon the Qur’an, he can do whatever else he likes with it, but the Qur’an says {وَكَذَّبُوا} - ‘He is a liar and he is denying the Qur’an.’ A person who denies is one who refuses to accept all of the education of the Qur’an.
So one group are those who reject clearly – those who disbelieve and do not accept the Qur’an; and the second group are those who deny - they learn the knowledge but their practices go against the Qur’an. They read the Qur’an ten or fifteen times over, but their practice of life is contrary to that same Qur’an. Nothing in their lives is in accordance to the Qur’anic injunctions. Many people think that it is sacred so that it can be used for Khatams or for Duas or to make Wazeefahs from certain verses, but they leave the objective that the Qur’an has been sent for. They show off to people saying ‘My child is a Hafidh’, but this is all for the sake of earning the Dunya and pride and showing people. If ‘Ilm comes, alhamdulillah, Noor ‘ala Noor – it is great to become an Alim or a Mufassir, but only when he has the Amal of the Qur’an. The true colours and benefits are there only if he practices the words of the Qur’an; then he is a person who accepts the Qur’an. The one who rejects openly is a disbeliever, but the one who reads it and says he accepts it despite not practicing, he is a Faasiq and a Munafiq. There is the difference. One group is those who openly reject – {وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا} – but alongside these, Allah indicates those who hold the Qur’an, who read it, who understand it, but they practice against it. They are the Munafiqs and the Faasiqs. {وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ وَكَذَّبُواْ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَآ} They deny those verses that Allah ta’ala has revealed.
This a clear explanation of how shaytan has bitten us severely. He gives Da’wah to us: ‘No, no, you’re fine. You’ve got Iman – there is Thawab in reading the Qur’an. There is so much Thawab from reading just one word, if you read this much, you get so much Thawab, if you recite it like this, you get so much Thawab, and if you do Khatam of the Qur’an, there is so much Thawab.’ Thawab, Thawab, Thawab – oh people, at least do Amal on the Qur’an if you want Thawab! Why doesn’t this come out of our lips? Why do we hide this essential component of the Deen?
We have reached verses 38 and 39 of the Qur’an – tell me, how can we progress from here? If we read this verse, verse 39 – {وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ وَكَذَّبُواْ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَآ أُوْلَـٰٓٮِٕكَ أَصۡحَـٰبُ ٱلنَّارِۖ هُمۡ فِيہَا خَـٰلِدُونَ} - how long will it take to understand it? Am I ready to go beyond it? Am I getting Thawab for every letter? I will only get Thawab when I ensure that I am not included amongst those who {كَذَّبُواْ} described in this verse. I should do Tawbah and repent and promise to Allah: ‘I won’t deny the Qur’an or reject the Qur’an. I will come out of Kufr.’ If I promise to Allah ‘I won’t deny this verse of Qur’an that I have read today, InshaAllah. You have explained to me and made me understand {فَمَن تَبِعَ}, that I must do Amal on the Qur’an according to the Shari'ah and Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam.’ Every decision in your life should be according to which guide? The Sunnah and the Shari’ah. Every single decision of your life.
If anyone promises this today, SubhanAllah, then Allah ta’ala will give them the fragrances of Paradise immediately. But those in the two groups, those who reject openly and those who deny, they will both suffer the same consequence: {أُوْلَـٰٓٮِٕكَ أَصۡحَـٰبُ ٱلنَّارِ}. Allah ta’ala has informed us about two categories of people in the Hereafter: one is Ashab ul-Jannah, the inhabitants of Jannah, and the other is Ashab un-Naar, the inhabitants of Hellfire. The Ashab ul-Jannah will populate Jannah and live there, while the Ashab un-Naar will populate Hell and live there together. {ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ} are those who express their Kufr, and openly reject the guidance of {فَمَن تَبِعَ هُدَاىَ}. How many of this group are in the Dunya today? We can see. You can tap a search into the computer and see how many people in the world today are in this group of { ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ}, those who reject and say that they have no Iman. They do not know what Shari’ah is, what Qur’an is, and they say they have no interest in this and want to live their own lives with the freedom to live in their own style, to do what they want and go where they want. They reject. Ok, fine. Allah says ‘That is your choice, your freedom of expression in the world. But very soon you will come back to Me. You think your way of life is correct, but shaytan has encompassed you and trapped you. He is doing his work and has included you among those taken out of Jannah; he has finished you off.’
And together with them are those who { كَذَّبُواْ}. How many people are there in the world today who deny the Qur’an, who claim that they are Mu’mins and Muslims, but do not do Amal on the Qur’an? How many people do Amal on the Qur’an, tell me? How many people today are implementing Shari'ah and Sunnah? Let us consider: how many households in Bolton, in this town where I am sitting, are implementing Shari'ah and Sunnah? You hear big claims, but how much Shari’ah is present in their lives and in their homes and in their families? I swear by Allah - we must fear Allah! We don’t understand the punishment of Allah. Allah ta’ala seizes. He may not seize here and now, but He will seize. When Allah does seize and shake a person, no one can get out of Allah’s grip; no one can be saved. Think about it. How many people nowadays are in this group of { كَذَّبُواْ}, tell me? What would the figure be? The words I am saying might sting, but the Qur’an will give its message regardless. We might say ‘Oh, we don’t accept this. This is oppression upon us’, and cry and complain, but the Qur’an will not hold back from telling the Haq.
Allah is not embarrassed to speak the truth. Allah does not need to please us and make us smile, or to hide things from us, not at all. Allah mentions these two groups - { ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ وَكَذَّبُوا} – so how many people deny the Revelation today? We can see { ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ}, but { وَكَذَّبُواْ} are hidden in their dens – see what they are like in their homes! How many people are sitting at home right now who did not pray Maghrib Salah in congregation? How many people are there with faces like monkeys and apes? How many people’s young daughters are not at home now, and are out wearing tight clothes, and the parents do not know where they are – and they accept and collaborate with them in this! They communicate with them – ‘Where are you daughter? Where are you son?’ ‘Oh, we’ve just gone out to a takeaway to have some food.’ SubhanAllah – how can this be, tell me? { ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ وَكَذَّبُوا} – these are those people. This is the story of the world today, my brothers. The Qur’an is sketching it out for us – it is the plain truth.
What does Allah ta’ala say then? { أُوْلَـٰٓٮِٕكَ أَصۡحَـٰبُ ٱلنَّارِ} – Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. Can anyone imagine the fire of Jahannam? We cannot begin to grasp its reality. That fire was burnt for thousands of years. It burnt for one thousand years and became red, then for another thousand and it became white, and then after another thousand years it became an intense black. At the moment it is in a state of intense darkness and blackness. This is Jahannam, and who has it been prepared for? Those who deny the Revelation, who reject it and do not do Amal upon it. It does not matter who they are. Reading the Qur’an is not Amal; doing Hifdh of the Qur’an is not Amal; doing Tafseer of Qur’an is not Amal; giving speeches about the Qur’an is not Amal; giving Da’wah on the Qur’an is not Amal. No. What does it mean to do Amal on the Qur’an? Allahu Akbar! { مَن يُطِعِ ٱللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ ۥ فَقَدۡ فَازَ فَوۡزًا عَظِيمً} It is to implement its orders and instructions in conformity to the lifestyle of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam.
What did he say that we would see in that age of Fasaad, in the age of Fitnahs? That age is not characterized by a lack of food and drink, no. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam defined the era of Fasaad as a time when deception and delusion, lying, Fisq and evil would be widespread, when Akhlaq would have disappeared, when oppression and bribery and Zina of daughters would take place in front of our very eyes. What is the definition of Zina, tell me? The passion of Zina is open and common; it is happening every night. Every night, every evening, daughters leave home and do Zina. And pious people will be sat in Masjids knowing that all of this is going on. With all this Fitnah and Fasaad going on, there will be no reality to their worship and to their prayer. This is just like the words of Hadith - they will turn their faces from the Qur’an. On their phones and in their homes, what will be found in place of the Qur’an? Dancing, singing, music, dramas, pointless discussions, songs, lyrics – all of these time-wasting actions will be in their pockets and in their homes.
The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam made a beautiful, wonderful point in one Hadith: ‘Oh my Sahaba, when this time comes, understand that my Ummah will have become spoiled and finished. They will have nothing left to their name - Shaytan will have succeeded in his plan for them. But even at that time, in that dark era, if somebody takes hold of one Sunnah of mine in those severe conditions, then I tell you as your Nabi that Allah ta’ala will give him the reward of one hundred martyrs for reviving that one Sunnah.’ This is how great this Deen is.
In other words, the environment will become so dry and barren that the Sunnah will become eliminated from people at that time. People will have left the shelter, they will have left the company of the Friends of Allah, they will make a joke and a mockery of them and have weird attitudes to the pious people. They will meet them and then they will speak against them behind their backs. They will have malice in their hearts towards them, and Allah ta’ala looks at the hearts so they will get no benefit from the company of the Walis of Allah. People like this have malice and hatred and jealousy, and they don’t like what the Sheikh is saying. They make a fuss and complain, and the mood of their heart changes when Nasiha and instruction comes to them. When the Sheikh gives them guidance and tells them the truth, they start complaining and making a fuss. Those who have these characteristics in their hearts should consider that they are { كَذَّبُواْ}. The company of the Wali of Allah is not benefitting them. They are denying and rejecting, so they in that second group of { كَفَرُواْ وَكَذَّبُواْ}. If a person who has the company of the Wali of Allah feels their heart pinched, and has malice and envy within them, and disagrees with and dislikes what the Sheikh is saying, they should consider that shaytan has won and has controlled you, because this is against the Sunnah.
What is the Sunnah in this regard? The Companions radhiAllahu anhum sat in the blessed company of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and had a great connection and extremely close friendship with him. Have you ever heard that the Sahabah said to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam ‘No, we don’t like what you are saying’? Did they say ‘I didn’t like what you said to me’, or criticize or complain or show bad manners or disrespect? Tell me. Did any Companion do this? Good manners and attitude in this respect is Sunnah! If you want to obtain effective shade and protection from the Wali of Allah, then you have to clean your hearts, my brothers. If you have cracks and dust in your hearts, and you feel distaste and distrust, and if there is no Adab or respect or humbleness in your heart when you hear the words of the Sheikh, then consider that shaytan has attacked you and he has won. He knows that if he breaks you away from your teacher, you will have nothing. He will make you do all other actions, but he will take the Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam away from your life. He will demote the Sunnah and Shari’ah, because when you have a link with a Sheikh, the bond with the Sunnah increases and strengthens, just as the Sahaba al-Kiram had that bond with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Nowadays people tell others not to go to the Friend of Allah because they themselves get no Faidh or blessings or benefit. But you will only get benefit when you embrace and adopt the Sunnah by having love for your Sheikh, for your teacher. You have to practice this, otherwise they will become those who { كَذَّبُواْ}, whose shade has ended, whose protection has ended. For them, everything has gone.
Allah ta’ala announces { أُوْلَـٰٓٮِٕكَ أَصۡحَـٰبُ ٱلنَّارِ} – that these people are destined for Hell. Now tell me. Allah ta’ala is telling a group of people that this will be their destiny if they spend their lives as described in the Hadith and verses of Qur’an that we have discussed, whose mothers and daughters and sons commit sins, whose Libaas is indecent, whose ears listen to Haram, whose way of life is Haram in all its actions. They regard small things as their Islam, small things that their Nafs likes, which makes them feel good. Shaytan is very cunning and clever. He gives them little snippets of the Deen, making them do Umrah once every few years so that they say ‘Oh yes, I have done Umrah; I have been on the pilgrimage.’ Or he makes them do other small actions, like sometimes reading Qur’an or doing a Tasbeeh or saying some good words or reciting Surah YaSeen, and then they say ‘Yes, I practice; I am a good Muslim. I went to a gathering and I felt good there and listened to the words of a scholar, of Moulana Sahib. I enjoyed myself today and now my life has changed.’ They do small snippets under the control of shaytan, whose main objective is to prevent them from doing Amal. He never lets them come towards the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam - this is at the heart of his plots and plans.
Majalis and gatherings, and places and people – for the sake of Allah, assess the situation! Where there is no Amal on the Sunnah, where there is no encouragement to practice the Sunnah, stay away from there; and where you are given encouragement to practice the Sunnah, don’t leave that gathering. It will take you to Paradise, so don’t leave that gathering. Don’t leave the company of a person who encourages you and influences you to practice the Sunnah and Shari’ah. Shaytan will attack you and try to take you away from that person and that place; he will try to detach you and divert you from that place. He will make your hearts negative and angry and insert misguided thoughts – ‘Oh, he is this, he is that’, putting Waswasa in your ears and in your heart. There is one sign: you should ask ‘Am I getting the message of the Qur’an and the Sunnah from this gathering and from this person? Do I get the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam in my life?’ If so, then everything else is Waswasa from shaytan. It cannot be an impure place if you are attaining this. A place where you are learning about the importance of implementing the Sunnah can never be an impure place; it can never be the wrong place. Increase and strengthen that relationship more and more.
So it is stated about { أَصۡحَـٰبُ ٱلنَّارِ} – the inhabitants of Hell – that they will experience darkness and heat and urine and pus and excrement. What a severe place Hell will be! { هُمۡ فِيہَا خَـٰلِدُونَ} Allah Akbar. One year? Two years? Three years? No! You won’t burn for just a few years. The commentators have written that this Hellfire is such a dreadful place, Allahu Akbar – oh Allah, forgive us! Forgive us, oh Allah! What a fire is the fire of hell. When the human being is thrown into the fire of hell, he will be conscious, completely aware. He will be conscious while he is burning, Allahu Akbar. He will be fully aware as he is burning, and he won’t die. If you burn here, you die, but there you are alive while you burn – for how long? { هُمۡ فِيہَا خَـٰلِدُونَ} Allahu Akbar, for evermore. For evermore. Think about it.
Why will this happen my friends? When you listen to music, how long do you enjoy yourself for? When you put on indecent clothes, how long will you enjoy yourself? When you stay lying down instead of getting up for Salah, how long is the enjoyment you get from that? When you look at sinful things on the TV or on screens, at singing, dancing and dramas, how long does it satisfy your heart? After a while, the enjoyment goes. If you spend the night in immodesty, then by the morning, the taste has gone. The plans we make for sins in the night last only as long as that night. If you drink alcohol, after a couple of hours, the taste has gone; the appetite has gone. And what do we get in exchange for all this? What are we earning by these actions? Jahannam! For that small, temporary enjoyment! How long does a person get enjoyment from doing Zina? How long does the enjoyment of fornication last, tell me? It is short, and then your mood changes, and after a while you start to dislike the girl as well. Once the muck comes out of the body, the attraction goes and the Zina is finished. How long will a person be punished just for that short enjoyment? { هُمۡ فِيہَا خَـٰلِدُون} – Allah says that we will burn for evermore, for years and years and years. So look at the extent of that enjoyment that shaytan invites us to, that he makes us do for a short while. Where does he send us with this? { هُمۡ فِيہَا خَـٰلِدُونَ} Into the fire for evermore due to those sins.
Come, let us do true Tawbah to Allah. What a great door Allah ta’ala has opened. Whoever gets this message, even if he has run after shaytan for thirty years or has been a client of shaytan for fifty or sixty years, do Tawbah right now, saying ‘Allah! I am afraid of that fire! I turn back to the right path. I do Tawbah; I seek forgiveness. Oh Allah, take me out of this wrongful and rubbish life. Throw away all my sins and forgive me!’ SubhanAllah, SubhanAllah, immediately he will be changed from Ashab un-Naar to Ashab ul-Jannah. He will immediately go to { فَلَا خَوۡفٌ عَلَيۡہِمۡ وَلَا هُمۡ يَحۡزَنُونَ} - SubhanAllah. He will get this massive reward immediately. Allah says ‘The fear has come out of your heart. I give you this reward now that there will be no fear of the Dunya.’ What fear can there be for the Dunya, when thousands of years of the Hereafter await, where people will be drowning in their sweat? The earth will be shaking, Allah ta’ala’s scales will be established, and the sun will come so low. How long will that Day of Judgement last? Allah ta’ala will take the fear out of your heart on that day because you embraced the Sunnah and Shari’ah of His Habeeb sallallahu alayhi wasallam in the world and did Tawbah from your sins. What a great difference is made! And on the Bridge of the Siraat there will be so much fear because it will be thinner than a hair and sharper than a sword and beneath it will be Jahannam. It will be extremely dark but { فَلَا خَوۡفٌ عَلَيۡہِمۡ وَلَا هُمۡ يَحۡزَنُونَ} they will have no fear and no grief. And what light will they find there on the Bridge of Siraat? Every Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam will bring them light on the Bridge of Siraat. { رَبَّنَآ أَتۡمِمۡ لَنَا نُورَنَا} - Allah says ‘I will strengthen the light of these people for these minor Sunnahs, for Miswaak, for Surmah, for their clothing, for their truthfulness and their avoidance of Haram, for the protection of their eyesight and gaze.’ These Sunnahs will come as Noor and light for those people. Allah ta’ala will strengthen their light on the Day of Hashr and Resurrection when people will be shaking in the darkness.
{ رَبَّنَآ أَتۡمِمۡ لَنَا نُورَنَا} This will come if we do Tawbah today to Allah subhana wa ta'ala. Let us practice the true Deen for the few days that remain to us. Is there any guarantee about death? Do we know when it is going to come? A person can leave home walking and suddenly have a heart attack. We just found out today that a brother had a heart attack. He had just come out of the car, and before he knew what was happening, he began to sweat, his heart started knocking and he died. This happened just now. Is there any guarantee for my life or your life? Who has a guarantee? It is Allah’s favour and Karam upon us that right now Allah ta’ala has given us the message of the Qur’an. He is explaining to us and reminding us about everything, so don’t do wrong actions and don’t commit sins. This is so very bad, Allahu Akbar.
What a beautiful verse. { وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ وَكَذَّبُواْ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَآ} - Allah says ‘Those who reject and deny the Revelations that I have sent - the Qur’an and the great, honourable and Mubarak way of life of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam – whoever has done this will abide in Hell for evermore.’ But if he does Tawbah and repents, { فَلَا خَوۡفٌ عَلَيۡہِمۡ وَلَا هُمۡ يَحۡزَنُونَ } - Allah says ‘I will remove fear from them forever.’ They won’t have fear in the world or in the grave; they will enjoy their life in the Qabr! They will say ‘This is the life! I have no fear of anything.’ Their eyes will see Jannah and Hoors and palaces, so do you think they will experience fear? Allah says { وَلَا هُمۡ يَحۡزَنُونَ} – ‘They have no grief.’ They will have left the Dunya behind, their houses, buildings and assets and cars and children. They will have no thoughts about the world and no grief. Grief for what? For leaving the Dunya? They will see the rewards of Allah and will know that everything in the world was fake.
Wrong actions are just baggage pulling a person towards hellfire. This is in Tirmidhi. He will see that he was earning Haram for his children in the world, giving them cars by earning through fraud and taking people’s wealth. He will see that he is burning in Hell for those wretched people of the world, for whom he ran around all his life, yet they gave him nothing in return. Wake up now, wake up! Children are shaytan if they make you destroy your life by earing Haram for them, devouring other people’s wealth, taking interest, lying and committing fraud. Do you do all this for them? Tell me, how long will they support you? How much will you eat from them? You will become ill due to these people, and they don’t even pray Salah, and they don’t do Dhikr of Allah, and they don’t go towards the Qur’anic injunctions. They don’t do anything! All they say is ‘Give me a house! Give me a car! Give me money!’ Are you running around sweating for your whole life for these children? What are you buying? What are you purchasing? What have they given to you in return? { أَصۡحَـٰبُ ٱلنَّارِۖ هُمۡ فِيہَا خَـٰلِدُونَ } They are taking you towards those people who will live for evermore in Jahannam.
Come, let us do Dua to Allah ta’ala that Allah gives us understanding of this Qur’an, that Allah gives us true Tawbah and true repentance, and that we become honourable servants of the shade and protection under whose canopy we have been brought, that we fulfil the rights of that shade. We should be humble that Allah ta’ala has given us the shade and protection of the Wali of Allah, due to which we can be saved from the fire of Jahannam. If I hear Hadhrat Sahib’s name today, I start shaking and sweating because he was that great shade who saved me from the fire of Jahannam. So how is it that we persist in doing ill-mannered actions, disrespecting in our hearts and with our tongues, speaking words of nonsense loudly – what is this? Is Allah ta’ala not watching?
وأخر دعوانا أن الحمد لله رب العالمين
5th Oct, 2020
Life is beloved and beautiful for me, ever since I met my beloved Shaykh ? no misery or sorrow can ever afflict me since my heart made this connections ?
The Only Thing that Defeats shaytan
{ وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ وَكَذَّبُواْ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَآ أُوْلَـٰٓٮِٕكَ أَصۡحَـٰبُ ٱلنَّارِۖ هُمۡ فِيہَا خَـٰلِدُو}
Surah al-Baqarah v39
Up to this point, in a very nice way, Allah ta’ala has instilled into our minds the great and important message of the Qur’an, and this is continued right through until the end; it is the essence of the Qur’an. Allah ta’ala has summarized the whole message to mankind with this incident of Hadhrat Adam alayhi salam, namely, that this Dunya that you have been transferred to, that you will go to, with all the conditions and circumstances that you will experience, is a dangerous place; it is a place of test, examination, challenge, worries, distresses, issues. These will surround you from all directions. And shaytan and Nafs are your avowed enemy. Shaytan has full power and many techniques, and the Nafs will assist him; traps and nets will be laid out for you and it will be very difficult for you. They will penetrate your minds and run in your veins. {عَدُوٌّ۬ مُّبِينٌ} - Allah tells us that shaytan is our ‘manifest enemy’.
Allah ta’ala has explained all the conditions of the world to us, and alongside that Allah subhana wa ta'ala has also told us the solution to all of this, how to break all of this: {فَمَن تَبِعَ هُدَاىَ} – that’s it! Allah says {فَمَن تَبِعَ هُدَاىَ} – ‘Whoever follows My guidance, the Hidaya that I have given’, and this means the Qur’an and the Shari'ah and Sunnah of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. This is {فَمَن تَبِعَ هُدَاىَ}, the guidance the Qur’an has given. Allah ta’ala says ‘This will come to you as a complete protection against all the challenges of the world. It will take you through every test and all difficulties and worries and issues.’ That is {فَمَن تَبِعَ هُدَاىَ}. This will be the solution to all your problems. Imagine a hungry person who has bread and chapattis, and he is seen crying while he packs the food into a box inside containers. Someone asks him ‘Why are you crying?’, and he replies, ‘I am hungry! What can I do? I am so hungry – extremely hungry.’ He is then asked ‘What have you got in these containers?’ The man replies ‘There are some chapattis and dhal.’ The other person says ‘Well you have got food to eat! The solution to your hunger is in front of you. So why are you crying with hunger?’
In the same way, we cry and shriek and complain today, blaming worldly factors and conditions. This is extreme foolishness. Allah ta’ala has given us such a fantastic treasure, such a great Ni’mah and gift. The Qur’an is present in every home; Tafseers and commentaries are present; there are speeches and Masjids all over the place. People who can explain are present, and we can read ourselves and have desire to read Tafseers, and we ponder over which commentary will be best – we have a lot of desire. So then the question comes ‘Why are you still crying?’ Because we don’t practice! This is just like not eating the chapatti and the dhal – we have no Amal. We have Masaajid but no Amal, Dar-ul-Ulooms but no Amal, we have long titles to reflect our knowledge but no Amal, no practice. So the same thing will happen – it will end in tears, in crying. If someone who is hungry doesn’t eat, he’s going to cry due to the pangs of hunger. In the same way, Allah ta’ala has given us protection and guidance but we don’t utilize it, go towards it, pay attention to or implement it – and what is the result? Crying and complaining; bad situations. Allah ta’ala says {فَمَن تَبِعَ هُدَاىَ} – ‘Whoever takes hold of the guidance that I have given’ – SubhanAllah. This is a clear message from Allah ta’ala that has come to our lives, alhamdulillah, a clear message.
Now we go to the next scenario. Never consider your enemy as weak – this is the first principle. Always regard even the weakest of enemies as an enemy. Never say to yourself ‘Oh, he is weak – I will do away with him.’ He can come to you any time. Even if he looks at you in a loving, affectionate manner and tries to ensnare you with his warmth towards you, he is still an enemy; and the enemy is going to bite. So always be alert with the enemy – principle number one. And the enemy that Allah says is your {عَدُوٌّ۬ مُّبِينٌ۬}, shaytan, who is your real, genuine enemy, how can we fall into the delusion that he will not do anything to us if we do not protect ourselves? He will use all the tactics under the sun; he has every method to deviate man. He came down to earth with big plans, and with full Ijaza from Allah, promising not to leave any human being alone. So he saw that we had nothing with which to ward him off apart from that one assistance, and said ‘I can’t do anything against anyone who deploys that tool against me, because that resource has come from Allah.’ {يَأۡتِيَنَّكُم مِّنِّى هُدً۬ى} – Allah says ‘This is from Me, from Allah’, and so this contains a strength that shaytan knew he could not stand against. He cannot oppose the power of Allah. He said ‘Wherever the power of Allah comes, I cannot do anything. Wherever the Sunnah of Nabi al-Kareem sallallahu alayhi wasallam is present, I cannot be there. I cannot delve into that matter or affect that person.’ So he said ‘Ok, I will do something else; I will play another trick.’
This was a big development. He worked hard and thought to himself ‘Let me put all of my plots and plans and tricks behind me. Let me get these people from one angle. If I get these people and control them, then success beyond success will be mine. My mission will be fulfilled and complete, and they will all go into Jahannam. I will trap them by this means.’ This how he plotted and planned. We forgot, but he didn’t forget. Rather he fulfilled his promise to Allah that he would deviate everyone. He realised that his plans were nothing if people were to utilize Allah’s resources, so what did he do? What was his trick? What was his plot? What was his new game plan, his new resource? He set his sights on removing us from the protection of Allah that would bring us to success – {فَقَدۡ فَازَ فَوۡزًا عَظِيمًا}. He turned us away from that path. Shaytan started saying ‘Read, attain knowledge, learn Qur’an and recitation, do Qira’ah, go on Umrah and Hajj, give charity and Sadaqaat, do pious, good deeds, pray’, and he said this knowing that for all of these, the Ruh, the soul of those deeds is needed.
{وَمَن يُطِعِ ٱللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ ۥ فَقَدۡ فَازَ فَوۡزًا عَظِيمًا}. Allah is telling us here: ‘If you obey My Rasool sallallahu alayhi wasallam and live according to the Sunnah, then your Salah will be accepted, your Hajj will be accepted, your Umrah will be accepted, your Sadaqah will count. Everything will be accepted, but only when it is done in accordance to the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. If your life is in accordance to the Sunnah and Shari'ah, then your deeds will be accepted.’ So shaytan said ‘I will let them pray and worship and gather in their thousands at conferences.’ What big gatherings we hold! To make a gathering takes just a click of the fingers, and shaytan supports these gatherings, but only where he has instilled one particular factor, namely that the Sunnah and Shari’ah of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam should not be communicated or propagated in that gathering. He will support lengthy marches and overflowing mosques, but only when they conform to his desire that nothing of this sort should come from the mouths of the leaders who are present. They can talk about Ishq and love, and the tears can flow, the heads can rock, and emotions can overflow – all of this is fine, but the real message must not emerge from their mouths. SubhanAllah. The Sunnah of our Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam should not be disseminated – this is shaytan’s plan.
This message of the Qur’an {فَمَن تَبِعَ هُدَاىَ} has been hidden by shaytan; he aims to hide this. Allah then says {فَلَا خَوۡفٌ عَلَيۡہِمۡ وَلَا هُمۡ يَحۡزَنُونَ} – end of story! Shaytan knows that if this comes into the lives of human beings, then they will become those referred to by {فَلَا خَوۡفٌ عَلَيۡہِمۡ وَلَا هُمۡ يَحۡزَنُونَ}. They will become unique human beings; nothing will be able to touch them, and shaytan knows this. The people who have Shari'ah and Sunnah in their lives will be fantastic, supernatural human beings! Those who take Allah ta’ala’s guidance will become like beacons of light, and they will embrace such a great methodology of life through the Shari'ah and Sunnah - and shaytan knows this. Their lifestyles will change, Noor will come into their lives, and inside and outside they will become brilliant human beings. A person becomes such a great human being if he adopts Shari'ah and Sunnah. If one person on this path sits among one hundred thousand people, he will revive those hundred thousand people, SubhanAllah. When he has a gathering, it is never unsuccessful. Thousands of people gather to understand the Shari'ah and Sunnah – those are the successful gatherings, remember this. What is the sign of a successful gathering? What distinguishes it from a gathering that is a failure? A successful gathering is that person’s gathering from where people depart with the Sunnah Tariqa of Nabi al-Kareem sallallahu alayhi wasallam, with the method of his Sunnah, even if he leaves with just one Sunnah.
This is a dangerous generation we are living in, the most dangerous of generations. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam has told us the name of this generation that we are living in. This is the generation of Fitnah, the era of Fitnah, of challenges and disorder, proper disorder. What is this generation? The generation of Fitnah – trials, tribulations, disorder. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam has defined this generation. What is Fitnah, tell me? What does shaytan do in this generation? As I have mentioned, he will allow us to do all the actions under the sun, but he will take the honourable Sunnah Sharifah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam out of our lives. Shaytan, the biggest plotter, will eliminate that from our lives. And what will he replace the Sunnah with? Allahu Akbar, Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam said:
إِنَّ أَصْدَقَ الْحَدِيثِ كِتَابُ اللَّهِ وَأَحْسَنَ الْهَدْيِ هَدْيُ مُحَمَّدٍ وَشَرُّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا وَكُلُّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ وَكُلُّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ وَكُلّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّار
In other words, shaytan will create opposition to the Sunnah and Shari’ah, to the Kitab of Allah and to the Sunnah Sharifah; he will try to replace them. “وَشَرُّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا” – what will that be? “كُلُّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ”- ‘All innovation is wretched and cursed’ Any action that is in opposition to the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam will be Bid’ah. And what is Bid’ah? Bid’ah is that action that is introduced into the Deen. It is one thing to do something that supports the Deen, to adopt an action that assists the Deen, but quite another to introduce something new into the Deen, and to make that thing part of the Deen, thinking ‘I am doing a good deed here and I will get Thawab.’ So the Sunnah is removed and its methodology gets replaced with his own opinions and his own words. He creates his own Deen, and this will be obvious because there will be no proof or evidence from the Shari’ah. Bid’ah is when a person says that an action is from Deen but there is no proof from Shari’ah.
Any educational input for which there is no proof from Qur’an or Hadith or from the Salaf-us-Saliheen, nor any relevant guidance, then such actions will be against the Shari'ah and Sunnah. They will bring a new way of life into the Deen that was never heard of by the Sahabah, the Salaf-us-Saliheen, the Tabi’een or the Taba-Tabi’een. None of these generations saw this; it was not present and it was not taught. But it is conveyed in such a way, with such attractive words, that people will hasten to that teaching, and it will become Deen. That is why Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam referred firstly to the Kitabullah, then his path, the Sunnah. The Kitabullah is the great guidance, and then his guidance, which is his path, his practice, his great method. The third thing mentioned is the worst of actions - “وَشَرُّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا وَكُلُّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ وَكُلُّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ”. These actions will have no backing, not proven from either the Qur’an or the Sunnah, and these are called Bid’ah, innovation.
This is how shaytan succeeds in this day and age, by creating new ways and new practices. If we look around in society today, there are gatherings and long, drawn-out discussions, but firstly, you don’t hear anything mentioned about the Sunnah in those gatherings. Secondly, everyone sitting there will not be practicing Shari’ah, and no-one dares to come onto the stage and criticize them. They will skirt around the subject and bypass it, speaking about philosophy for hours in lengthy discussions, but no one will dare to say plainly and clearly as I am doing. People will come onto the stage in front of thousands, even tens of thousands, but there will be no discussion about Kitab and Sunnah. No one will dare to speak of this, and no one will be there to tell them that they are wrong and that what they are presenting is not the Deen. The gatherings can be hundreds of thousands strong, but no one will voice this because they have fear in their hearts. They think ‘If I speak about the Deen, I will be removed from my position and my status will fall. How can I speak about the true Deen?’
So what has shaytan created? He has created a new methodology instead of the Kitab and the Sunnah, a new philosophy, a new way of thinking. What is this? The Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi has told us about it: “عند فساد أمتي” He said “When there is Fasaad in my Ummah” – and this generation is the era of Fitnah and Fasaad, when Bid’ah is common and the Shari'ah and Sunnah of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam has been degraded and demoted. Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam is saying that this will be the day and age of Fitnah and Fasaad, of trials and challenges. A person will be a Mu’min in the morning, and by the evening he will be a disbeliever. Hadhrat Abu Hurayrah radhiAllahu anh narrated this Hadith which is in Mishkat and in Sahih Muslim, referring to such a dangerous generation where the Sunnah and Shari’ah will be demoted, and Bid’aat will have been mixed into the Deen such that the whole world will be filled with Bid’aat and innovations. Bid’aat, cultures and traditions will fill the world, and the Deen will be eliminated. When fear of the world becomes widespread, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that would be the age of Fitnah, a Fitnah which would descend from the skies during the night. In another narration, Fitnah is described as dropping down like drops of rain from the sky. There will be Fitnah in our homes, Fitnah outside, Fitnah in our shops, Fitnah in the Masjids, Fitnah on the streets – everywhere, Fitnah beyond Fitnah is what we see. Fitnahs and sins are falling from the sky just like droplets of rain.
What do we do when rain falls? We seek protection, shelter, some canopy, or we pick up an umbrella to protect ourselves from becoming soaked by the rain. Allah’s Rasool sallallahu alayhi wasallam has defined the generation of Fitnah. There will be so much Fitnah that a person will be a Mu’min in the morning and a disbeliever by the evening. He speaks like a Mu’min in the morning but by the evening he forgets and starts doing actions of disbelief. Examples of this are everywhere. On Jumu’ah, for instance, a person puts on all the attire, and then as soon as it finishes, he goes and commits all sorts of sinful actions. He takes everything to be permissible - with ease he runs after impermissible actions. You can see such actions everywhere, openly visible - two opposite ways of being, one thing in the morning and another by the evening. People say ‘Strange, he was ok this morning. I saw him in the Masjid praying but look at him now. His Islamic clothing has been taken off and his practice has disappeared.’ This is so common that we see it and are not even surprised anymore. Mothers whose own clothes are immodest give similar items of clothing to their daughters, saying ‘Take these, they will look good on you. People will compliment you as you walk around, so wear these clothes.’ The mothers select these indecent, revealing clothes – and even the fathers too. They say to their daughters ‘Oh you look very nice today – don’t make too many boyfriends when you go out.’ This is the society we are living in today, plainly and simply put. Mothers and fathers receive their friends together when people come to the house. They say ‘Come, come, this is an open, modern society. We have freedom, these things are over. The Deen is finished, so we have to embrace these habits.’ And yet, in our cupboards are Qur’ans or portions of the Qur’an.
SubhanAllah, this is the Mu’min. Shaytan has won by means of this one tactic: he has taken the Sunnah out of our lives. If the Sunnah was present in our lives, then our Tarbiyyah and our children’s Tarbiyyah, at home and outside, would be according to the Sunnah. If that was the case, how could our daughters and children be spoiled? How? If Sunnah was present in our lives, we could not send out children to sinful places. The Qur’an testifies to this, if only we would take hold of the Deen. Allah says { فَمَن تَبِعَ هُدَاىَ} – ‘I promise! Don’t worry about your generation or your location in the Dunya. It belongs to Allah - every hemisphere belongs to Allah! Don’t worry!’ Allah says that first and foremost, we need to do this action. But nowadays, if a woman gets married in Pakistan, what is the first thing that happens when she gets here? People back home are amazed. ‘She wasn’t like that when she was here’, they say. The Burkah comes off, the hair gets cut, the clothing changes – may Allah forgive. And their own daughters dress in such a way as to make them look naked, and they select the items themselves for them from their wardrobes, saying ‘Wear this one, it is tighter. It makes you look better – you are more attractive when you wear this.’
The Qur’an is telling us that this is the situation today. Allah ta’ala’s Kalam is such that honesty comes out. If these words prick us, well they should prick us. Let them prick us like a thorn or a nettle or a needle. The Qur’an doesn’t care who is in front of it, listening or reading, no. I am reading the Qur’an, not a man-made novel or storybook, astaghfirullah. The Qur’an wants to save us from the fire. If we have shame and modesty, we should listen to the Qur’an and reflect. How many days are left to us in life? How many? There is no excuse – this is wrong. The Qur’an is telling us { فَمَن تَبِعَ هُدَاىَ} – Allah says ‘If you take hold of this guidance, you will never be deviated. Never.’ Allah is promising and the Qur’an is promising. This is so fantastic! How can shaytan attack us then? You can be living anywhere in the world where there are sins and negative influences, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t leave the guidance. So shaytan doubles his efforts and revives his plot, bringing in new Bid’aat so that new customs and traditions come into the house, mixing with the Deen. The son’s and daughter’s attire is one style while the mother wears a Burkah. What a strange contamination and muddying of the waters has occurred - look at our homes.
Allah ta’ala has stated clearly here that no action or Amal that does not contain Sunnah is acceptable, and that is why shaytan has attacked with this method of taking the Sunnah away from our lives. There is no Sunnah in clothing, no Sunnah in the children’s behaviour, and when you get angry, they see your clothing and face and say ‘What is this? Why are you wearing these clothes then?’ So you shouldn’t be angry. You have Tasbeehs in your hands and are doing your own Dhikr, but you don’t care about the children. Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that this change occurs within the few hours between the morning and the evening. The mother is practicing and the children are not, but she doesn’t say anything to her daughters or sons. It is such a weird situation that we are confronted with. And this is the era of Fitnah, of disorder, of Fasaad, of sins, of evil. What do we call it? Modernism. We say that we have progressed, that we are advanced. Hadhrat Umar radhiAllahu anh narrates a Hadith in Tirmidhi to the effect that in the last era, people will be sat with their ideologies and intellect, and with strange attire, and they will come to the Masjids. And their women will wear such attire that they will look naked even though they are wearing clothes. And we choose these clothes with our own hands! The father says to the daughter ‘Wear these clothes – you will get many boyfriends.’ It doesn’t matter what religion or lifestyle they choose, we say ‘Whatever you want. I just want to cool my eyes with your happiness.’ Allahu Akbar.
Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that there would come a time when people with different styles of clothing would come to the Masjid, and we see this today. The Masjids are filled with different styles of clothing, such that if you are praying behind them and you see them, it becomes very difficult to pray Salah. And the situation of the womenfolk is such that they wear attire that is termed clothing, and yet it renders them effectively naked when they wear it. Their hair is arranged on the top of their heads like the hump of a camel - there are such strange ways that womenfolk tie their hair on top of their heads! They go to the beauty parlors and clinics where they make them look attractive, don’t they?
This is the era of Fitnah, and Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam has defined it for us clearly. When such a time comes, it will affect good people as well – the drops of Fitnah fall like rain, remember? And we seek protection from the rain when it falls, so what is the protection that can shelter us from the Fitnahs that are falling around us today? It is the company of the Friends of Allah, remember this. Also in this Hadith, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that in that generation, Allah would even take the pious people away – that is how dark this era and generation is. The Walis of Allah will be taken from the world so that no shade or protection remains. Today we are afraid of that shelter and protection if we are afraid of sitting in the company of the Walis of Allah. This is the shelter and protection from the Fitnah, SubhanAllah. If you sit in the good company of a Wali of Allah, consider that you are sat under an umbrella through which no drop of rain can fall, because Allah’s Rahmah and mercy is present in that great company. But who wants to go there? Nobody wants to go there today; nobody wants good company.
When you go away from that shelter and protection, you will step out naked into the generation of Fasaad. You won’t consider good to be good, or bad to be bad; you won’t differentiate. You will say ‘There is nothing wrong with this, it’s ok. People are doing it, there’s nothing wrong with it. Don’t be too extreme – it doesn’t make any difference if we do it.’ From here, a person very quickly gets to the condition of those who are being afflicted morning and evening by Allah’s curses. Think about what we are doing at home, where we see our wives and children committing sins; do you think the mercies of Allah are descending there? Do you think Allah ta’ala will be happy? Astaghfirullah. Allah ta’ala has promised: ‘I may not touch you in this world, but when your eyes close, then the punishment will come to you. I will show you then.’ Allah says that mornings and evenings are filled with curses and wretchedness for those people.
So this is the generation of Fitnah. Everything will become a game. Deen will become a game and will not be taken seriously. This is the generation we are living in, isn’t it? Shaytan will create great fear in people’s minds; they will be scared. Fear of what? Fear of Dunya, as in ‘What will people say?’ They will go towards Haram due to fear of poverty. The fear of poverty will be such that a person will start to go towards Haram, saying ‘Oh, otherwise we will go backwards.’ On this basis, they will go towards Haram and start doing all kinds of wrong actions. In other words, shaytan will make us so full of fear that we will feel forced to do all sorts of wrongful actions. There is only one cure for this fear, and that is the Shari'ah and Sunnah of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. There is no other solution, Allahu Akbar!
This is the era of Fitnah that the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam told us about, and the reason for this is { فَمَن تَبِعَ هُدَاىَ}. Allah ta’ala says that when this condition comes into the world around us, when shaytan brings us to this position – and all of this is present around us, nothing is hidden. We can see it with our eyes – nothing is concealed. So then what will happen? Allah says in the Qur’an: { وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ وَكَذَّبُواْ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَآ أُوْلَـٰٓٮِٕكَ أَصۡحَـٰبُ ٱلنَّارِۖ هُمۡ فِيہَا خَـٰلِدُونَ} The Qur’an is telling us this. There will be two types of people. { وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ وَكَذَّبُواْ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَآ} Two types of people emerge in contrast to { فَمَن تَبِعَ هُدَاىَ}. Shaytan will split the people. Firstly { وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ } – those who totally reject the Deen, both the Qur’an and the Sunnah. They will refuse and will not accept it. { وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ} They will refute it. Shaytan will overwhelm those people completely, and they will say ‘No, we do not accept this. It is wrong – everything you are saying is wrong.’ Allah ta’ala has explained His Deen to us. You have to have Iman in the Qur’an, but they will say ‘No, we don’t accept this guidance that Allah ta’ala has sent. We don’t need His guidance and we don’t accept it.’ Allah ta’ala says { وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ} – ‘Those who have no Iman, who do not believe, have rejected My Qur’an and they have rejected the Sunnah of Nabi al-Kareen sallallahu alayhi wasallam.’ In other words, they don’t believe in Allah or in Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam. That is one group.
And alongside them are the second group - { وَكَذَّبُواْ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَآ}. Listen to this as well. Who are the second group? The first is { وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ } – it is clear; we know that they say ‘We don’t believe; we don’t accept.’ The other group will be { وَكَذَّبُواْ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَآ}– ‘They deny Our Revelations’. They don’t accept, but neither do they refute. They are hanging in between; they won’t accept totally, nor will they reject totally. They will float in between, and shaytan will be with them. It doesn’t mean that they will reject the Qur’an and say that the Qur’an doesn’t exist. They won’t say that they do not believe in the Qur’an. The meaning of not accepting the Qur’an is that they will say ‘No, we don’t need this’ in respect to the orders and guidance of the Qur’an. They won’t accept the orders and the instructions, as I said to you before. The Qur’an is clear; it is present physically, but in place of that, they will follow the Bid’aat that shaytan has created. They will go towards the Bid’aat that shaytan has mixed into the Qur’an and the Shari’ah. Such a person will embrace the Qur’an, he will kiss the Qur’an, read the Qur’an, do Khatams of the Qur’an, do Hifdh of the Qur’an, learn the Uloom of the Qur’an, do commentary of the Qur’an and translations of the Qur’an, saying ‘Yes, I accept the Qur’an’ – but he will not accept the orders and instructions of the Qur’an; he will reject them. What does ‘deny’ mean? It means that he will read the Qur’an and so much besides, but he will not do Amal on the Qur’an. This is denying the Qur’an and refusing the Qur’an. Allah says {كَذَّبُوا} - they refuse, they deny Allah’s Revelation. If he had Yaqeen on the Qur’an, then he would do Amal on those orders and instructions.
The reason for the Qur’an, the essence of the Qur’an, is not Hifdh of it or recitation of it or explaining it, no. The real purpose and objective of the Qur’an, the message in the Qur’an, is that we have to act upon it. If a person does not practice upon the Qur’an, he can do whatever else he likes with it, but the Qur’an says {وَكَذَّبُوا} - ‘He is a liar and he is denying the Qur’an.’ A person who denies is one who refuses to accept all of the education of the Qur’an.
So one group are those who reject clearly – those who disbelieve and do not accept the Qur’an; and the second group are those who deny - they learn the knowledge but their practices go against the Qur’an. They read the Qur’an ten or fifteen times over, but their practice of life is contrary to that same Qur’an. Nothing in their lives is in accordance to the Qur’anic injunctions. Many people think that it is sacred so that it can be used for Khatams or for Duas or to make Wazeefahs from certain verses, but they leave the objective that the Qur’an has been sent for. They show off to people saying ‘My child is a Hafidh’, but this is all for the sake of earning the Dunya and pride and showing people. If ‘Ilm comes, alhamdulillah, Noor ‘ala Noor – it is great to become an Alim or a Mufassir, but only when he has the Amal of the Qur’an. The true colours and benefits are there only if he practices the words of the Qur’an; then he is a person who accepts the Qur’an. The one who rejects openly is a disbeliever, but the one who reads it and says he accepts it despite not practicing, he is a Faasiq and a Munafiq. There is the difference. One group is those who openly reject – {وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا} – but alongside these, Allah indicates those who hold the Qur’an, who read it, who understand it, but they practice against it. They are the Munafiqs and the Faasiqs. {وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ وَكَذَّبُواْ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَآ} They deny those verses that Allah ta’ala has revealed.
This a clear explanation of how shaytan has bitten us severely. He gives Da’wah to us: ‘No, no, you’re fine. You’ve got Iman – there is Thawab in reading the Qur’an. There is so much Thawab from reading just one word, if you read this much, you get so much Thawab, if you recite it like this, you get so much Thawab, and if you do Khatam of the Qur’an, there is so much Thawab.’ Thawab, Thawab, Thawab – oh people, at least do Amal on the Qur’an if you want Thawab! Why doesn’t this come out of our lips? Why do we hide this essential component of the Deen?
We have reached verses 38 and 39 of the Qur’an – tell me, how can we progress from here? If we read this verse, verse 39 – {وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ وَكَذَّبُواْ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَآ أُوْلَـٰٓٮِٕكَ أَصۡحَـٰبُ ٱلنَّارِۖ هُمۡ فِيہَا خَـٰلِدُونَ} - how long will it take to understand it? Am I ready to go beyond it? Am I getting Thawab for every letter? I will only get Thawab when I ensure that I am not included amongst those who {كَذَّبُواْ} described in this verse. I should do Tawbah and repent and promise to Allah: ‘I won’t deny the Qur’an or reject the Qur’an. I will come out of Kufr.’ If I promise to Allah ‘I won’t deny this verse of Qur’an that I have read today, InshaAllah. You have explained to me and made me understand {فَمَن تَبِعَ}, that I must do Amal on the Qur’an according to the Shari'ah and Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam.’ Every decision in your life should be according to which guide? The Sunnah and the Shari’ah. Every single decision of your life.
If anyone promises this today, SubhanAllah, then Allah ta’ala will give them the fragrances of Paradise immediately. But those in the two groups, those who reject openly and those who deny, they will both suffer the same consequence: {أُوْلَـٰٓٮِٕكَ أَصۡحَـٰبُ ٱلنَّارِ}. Allah ta’ala has informed us about two categories of people in the Hereafter: one is Ashab ul-Jannah, the inhabitants of Jannah, and the other is Ashab un-Naar, the inhabitants of Hellfire. The Ashab ul-Jannah will populate Jannah and live there, while the Ashab un-Naar will populate Hell and live there together. {ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ} are those who express their Kufr, and openly reject the guidance of {فَمَن تَبِعَ هُدَاىَ}. How many of this group are in the Dunya today? We can see. You can tap a search into the computer and see how many people in the world today are in this group of { ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ}, those who reject and say that they have no Iman. They do not know what Shari’ah is, what Qur’an is, and they say they have no interest in this and want to live their own lives with the freedom to live in their own style, to do what they want and go where they want. They reject. Ok, fine. Allah says ‘That is your choice, your freedom of expression in the world. But very soon you will come back to Me. You think your way of life is correct, but shaytan has encompassed you and trapped you. He is doing his work and has included you among those taken out of Jannah; he has finished you off.’
And together with them are those who { كَذَّبُواْ}. How many people are there in the world today who deny the Qur’an, who claim that they are Mu’mins and Muslims, but do not do Amal on the Qur’an? How many people do Amal on the Qur’an, tell me? How many people today are implementing Shari'ah and Sunnah? Let us consider: how many households in Bolton, in this town where I am sitting, are implementing Shari'ah and Sunnah? You hear big claims, but how much Shari’ah is present in their lives and in their homes and in their families? I swear by Allah - we must fear Allah! We don’t understand the punishment of Allah. Allah ta’ala seizes. He may not seize here and now, but He will seize. When Allah does seize and shake a person, no one can get out of Allah’s grip; no one can be saved. Think about it. How many people nowadays are in this group of { كَذَّبُواْ}, tell me? What would the figure be? The words I am saying might sting, but the Qur’an will give its message regardless. We might say ‘Oh, we don’t accept this. This is oppression upon us’, and cry and complain, but the Qur’an will not hold back from telling the Haq.
Allah is not embarrassed to speak the truth. Allah does not need to please us and make us smile, or to hide things from us, not at all. Allah mentions these two groups - { ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ وَكَذَّبُوا} – so how many people deny the Revelation today? We can see { ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ}, but { وَكَذَّبُواْ} are hidden in their dens – see what they are like in their homes! How many people are sitting at home right now who did not pray Maghrib Salah in congregation? How many people are there with faces like monkeys and apes? How many people’s young daughters are not at home now, and are out wearing tight clothes, and the parents do not know where they are – and they accept and collaborate with them in this! They communicate with them – ‘Where are you daughter? Where are you son?’ ‘Oh, we’ve just gone out to a takeaway to have some food.’ SubhanAllah – how can this be, tell me? { ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ وَكَذَّبُوا} – these are those people. This is the story of the world today, my brothers. The Qur’an is sketching it out for us – it is the plain truth.
What does Allah ta’ala say then? { أُوْلَـٰٓٮِٕكَ أَصۡحَـٰبُ ٱلنَّارِ} – Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. Can anyone imagine the fire of Jahannam? We cannot begin to grasp its reality. That fire was burnt for thousands of years. It burnt for one thousand years and became red, then for another thousand and it became white, and then after another thousand years it became an intense black. At the moment it is in a state of intense darkness and blackness. This is Jahannam, and who has it been prepared for? Those who deny the Revelation, who reject it and do not do Amal upon it. It does not matter who they are. Reading the Qur’an is not Amal; doing Hifdh of the Qur’an is not Amal; doing Tafseer of Qur’an is not Amal; giving speeches about the Qur’an is not Amal; giving Da’wah on the Qur’an is not Amal. No. What does it mean to do Amal on the Qur’an? Allahu Akbar! { مَن يُطِعِ ٱللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ ۥ فَقَدۡ فَازَ فَوۡزًا عَظِيمً} It is to implement its orders and instructions in conformity to the lifestyle of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam.
What did he say that we would see in that age of Fasaad, in the age of Fitnahs? That age is not characterized by a lack of food and drink, no. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam defined the era of Fasaad as a time when deception and delusion, lying, Fisq and evil would be widespread, when Akhlaq would have disappeared, when oppression and bribery and Zina of daughters would take place in front of our very eyes. What is the definition of Zina, tell me? The passion of Zina is open and common; it is happening every night. Every night, every evening, daughters leave home and do Zina. And pious people will be sat in Masjids knowing that all of this is going on. With all this Fitnah and Fasaad going on, there will be no reality to their worship and to their prayer. This is just like the words of Hadith - they will turn their faces from the Qur’an. On their phones and in their homes, what will be found in place of the Qur’an? Dancing, singing, music, dramas, pointless discussions, songs, lyrics – all of these time-wasting actions will be in their pockets and in their homes.
The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam made a beautiful, wonderful point in one Hadith: ‘Oh my Sahaba, when this time comes, understand that my Ummah will have become spoiled and finished. They will have nothing left to their name - Shaytan will have succeeded in his plan for them. But even at that time, in that dark era, if somebody takes hold of one Sunnah of mine in those severe conditions, then I tell you as your Nabi that Allah ta’ala will give him the reward of one hundred martyrs for reviving that one Sunnah.’ This is how great this Deen is.
In other words, the environment will become so dry and barren that the Sunnah will become eliminated from people at that time. People will have left the shelter, they will have left the company of the Friends of Allah, they will make a joke and a mockery of them and have weird attitudes to the pious people. They will meet them and then they will speak against them behind their backs. They will have malice in their hearts towards them, and Allah ta’ala looks at the hearts so they will get no benefit from the company of the Walis of Allah. People like this have malice and hatred and jealousy, and they don’t like what the Sheikh is saying. They make a fuss and complain, and the mood of their heart changes when Nasiha and instruction comes to them. When the Sheikh gives them guidance and tells them the truth, they start complaining and making a fuss. Those who have these characteristics in their hearts should consider that they are { كَذَّبُواْ}. The company of the Wali of Allah is not benefitting them. They are denying and rejecting, so they in that second group of { كَفَرُواْ وَكَذَّبُواْ}. If a person who has the company of the Wali of Allah feels their heart pinched, and has malice and envy within them, and disagrees with and dislikes what the Sheikh is saying, they should consider that shaytan has won and has controlled you, because this is against the Sunnah.
What is the Sunnah in this regard? The Companions radhiAllahu anhum sat in the blessed company of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and had a great connection and extremely close friendship with him. Have you ever heard that the Sahabah said to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam ‘No, we don’t like what you are saying’? Did they say ‘I didn’t like what you said to me’, or criticize or complain or show bad manners or disrespect? Tell me. Did any Companion do this? Good manners and attitude in this respect is Sunnah! If you want to obtain effective shade and protection from the Wali of Allah, then you have to clean your hearts, my brothers. If you have cracks and dust in your hearts, and you feel distaste and distrust, and if there is no Adab or respect or humbleness in your heart when you hear the words of the Sheikh, then consider that shaytan has attacked you and he has won. He knows that if he breaks you away from your teacher, you will have nothing. He will make you do all other actions, but he will take the Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam away from your life. He will demote the Sunnah and Shari’ah, because when you have a link with a Sheikh, the bond with the Sunnah increases and strengthens, just as the Sahaba al-Kiram had that bond with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Nowadays people tell others not to go to the Friend of Allah because they themselves get no Faidh or blessings or benefit. But you will only get benefit when you embrace and adopt the Sunnah by having love for your Sheikh, for your teacher. You have to practice this, otherwise they will become those who { كَذَّبُواْ}, whose shade has ended, whose protection has ended. For them, everything has gone.
Allah ta’ala announces { أُوْلَـٰٓٮِٕكَ أَصۡحَـٰبُ ٱلنَّارِ} – that these people are destined for Hell. Now tell me. Allah ta’ala is telling a group of people that this will be their destiny if they spend their lives as described in the Hadith and verses of Qur’an that we have discussed, whose mothers and daughters and sons commit sins, whose Libaas is indecent, whose ears listen to Haram, whose way of life is Haram in all its actions. They regard small things as their Islam, small things that their Nafs likes, which makes them feel good. Shaytan is very cunning and clever. He gives them little snippets of the Deen, making them do Umrah once every few years so that they say ‘Oh yes, I have done Umrah; I have been on the pilgrimage.’ Or he makes them do other small actions, like sometimes reading Qur’an or doing a Tasbeeh or saying some good words or reciting Surah YaSeen, and then they say ‘Yes, I practice; I am a good Muslim. I went to a gathering and I felt good there and listened to the words of a scholar, of Moulana Sahib. I enjoyed myself today and now my life has changed.’ They do small snippets under the control of shaytan, whose main objective is to prevent them from doing Amal. He never lets them come towards the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam - this is at the heart of his plots and plans.
Majalis and gatherings, and places and people – for the sake of Allah, assess the situation! Where there is no Amal on the Sunnah, where there is no encouragement to practice the Sunnah, stay away from there; and where you are given encouragement to practice the Sunnah, don’t leave that gathering. It will take you to Paradise, so don’t leave that gathering. Don’t leave the company of a person who encourages you and influences you to practice the Sunnah and Shari’ah. Shaytan will attack you and try to take you away from that person and that place; he will try to detach you and divert you from that place. He will make your hearts negative and angry and insert misguided thoughts – ‘Oh, he is this, he is that’, putting Waswasa in your ears and in your heart. There is one sign: you should ask ‘Am I getting the message of the Qur’an and the Sunnah from this gathering and from this person? Do I get the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam in my life?’ If so, then everything else is Waswasa from shaytan. It cannot be an impure place if you are attaining this. A place where you are learning about the importance of implementing the Sunnah can never be an impure place; it can never be the wrong place. Increase and strengthen that relationship more and more.
So it is stated about { أَصۡحَـٰبُ ٱلنَّارِ} – the inhabitants of Hell – that they will experience darkness and heat and urine and pus and excrement. What a severe place Hell will be! { هُمۡ فِيہَا خَـٰلِدُونَ} Allah Akbar. One year? Two years? Three years? No! You won’t burn for just a few years. The commentators have written that this Hellfire is such a dreadful place, Allahu Akbar – oh Allah, forgive us! Forgive us, oh Allah! What a fire is the fire of hell. When the human being is thrown into the fire of hell, he will be conscious, completely aware. He will be conscious while he is burning, Allahu Akbar. He will be fully aware as he is burning, and he won’t die. If you burn here, you die, but there you are alive while you burn – for how long? { هُمۡ فِيہَا خَـٰلِدُونَ} Allahu Akbar, for evermore. For evermore. Think about it.
Why will this happen my friends? When you listen to music, how long do you enjoy yourself for? When you put on indecent clothes, how long will you enjoy yourself? When you stay lying down instead of getting up for Salah, how long is the enjoyment you get from that? When you look at sinful things on the TV or on screens, at singing, dancing and dramas, how long does it satisfy your heart? After a while, the enjoyment goes. If you spend the night in immodesty, then by the morning, the taste has gone. The plans we make for sins in the night last only as long as that night. If you drink alcohol, after a couple of hours, the taste has gone; the appetite has gone. And what do we get in exchange for all this? What are we earning by these actions? Jahannam! For that small, temporary enjoyment! How long does a person get enjoyment from doing Zina? How long does the enjoyment of fornication last, tell me? It is short, and then your mood changes, and after a while you start to dislike the girl as well. Once the muck comes out of the body, the attraction goes and the Zina is finished. How long will a person be punished just for that short enjoyment? { هُمۡ فِيہَا خَـٰلِدُون} – Allah says that we will burn for evermore, for years and years and years. So look at the extent of that enjoyment that shaytan invites us to, that he makes us do for a short while. Where does he send us with this? { هُمۡ فِيہَا خَـٰلِدُونَ} Into the fire for evermore due to those sins.
Come, let us do true Tawbah to Allah. What a great door Allah ta’ala has opened. Whoever gets this message, even if he has run after shaytan for thirty years or has been a client of shaytan for fifty or sixty years, do Tawbah right now, saying ‘Allah! I am afraid of that fire! I turn back to the right path. I do Tawbah; I seek forgiveness. Oh Allah, take me out of this wrongful and rubbish life. Throw away all my sins and forgive me!’ SubhanAllah, SubhanAllah, immediately he will be changed from Ashab un-Naar to Ashab ul-Jannah. He will immediately go to { فَلَا خَوۡفٌ عَلَيۡہِمۡ وَلَا هُمۡ يَحۡزَنُونَ} - SubhanAllah. He will get this massive reward immediately. Allah says ‘The fear has come out of your heart. I give you this reward now that there will be no fear of the Dunya.’ What fear can there be for the Dunya, when thousands of years of the Hereafter await, where people will be drowning in their sweat? The earth will be shaking, Allah ta’ala’s scales will be established, and the sun will come so low. How long will that Day of Judgement last? Allah ta’ala will take the fear out of your heart on that day because you embraced the Sunnah and Shari’ah of His Habeeb sallallahu alayhi wasallam in the world and did Tawbah from your sins. What a great difference is made! And on the Bridge of the Siraat there will be so much fear because it will be thinner than a hair and sharper than a sword and beneath it will be Jahannam. It will be extremely dark but { فَلَا خَوۡفٌ عَلَيۡہِمۡ وَلَا هُمۡ يَحۡزَنُونَ} they will have no fear and no grief. And what light will they find there on the Bridge of Siraat? Every Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam will bring them light on the Bridge of Siraat. { رَبَّنَآ أَتۡمِمۡ لَنَا نُورَنَا} - Allah says ‘I will strengthen the light of these people for these minor Sunnahs, for Miswaak, for Surmah, for their clothing, for their truthfulness and their avoidance of Haram, for the protection of their eyesight and gaze.’ These Sunnahs will come as Noor and light for those people. Allah ta’ala will strengthen their light on the Day of Hashr and Resurrection when people will be shaking in the darkness.
{ رَبَّنَآ أَتۡمِمۡ لَنَا نُورَنَا} This will come if we do Tawbah today to Allah subhana wa ta'ala. Let us practice the true Deen for the few days that remain to us. Is there any guarantee about death? Do we know when it is going to come? A person can leave home walking and suddenly have a heart attack. We just found out today that a brother had a heart attack. He had just come out of the car, and before he knew what was happening, he began to sweat, his heart started knocking and he died. This happened just now. Is there any guarantee for my life or your life? Who has a guarantee? It is Allah’s favour and Karam upon us that right now Allah ta’ala has given us the message of the Qur’an. He is explaining to us and reminding us about everything, so don’t do wrong actions and don’t commit sins. This is so very bad, Allahu Akbar.
What a beautiful verse. { وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ وَكَذَّبُواْ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَآ} - Allah says ‘Those who reject and deny the Revelations that I have sent - the Qur’an and the great, honourable and Mubarak way of life of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam – whoever has done this will abide in Hell for evermore.’ But if he does Tawbah and repents, { فَلَا خَوۡفٌ عَلَيۡہِمۡ وَلَا هُمۡ يَحۡزَنُونَ } - Allah says ‘I will remove fear from them forever.’ They won’t have fear in the world or in the grave; they will enjoy their life in the Qabr! They will say ‘This is the life! I have no fear of anything.’ Their eyes will see Jannah and Hoors and palaces, so do you think they will experience fear? Allah says { وَلَا هُمۡ يَحۡزَنُونَ} – ‘They have no grief.’ They will have left the Dunya behind, their houses, buildings and assets and cars and children. They will have no thoughts about the world and no grief. Grief for what? For leaving the Dunya? They will see the rewards of Allah and will know that everything in the world was fake.
Wrong actions are just baggage pulling a person towards hellfire. This is in Tirmidhi. He will see that he was earning Haram for his children in the world, giving them cars by earning through fraud and taking people’s wealth. He will see that he is burning in Hell for those wretched people of the world, for whom he ran around all his life, yet they gave him nothing in return. Wake up now, wake up! Children are shaytan if they make you destroy your life by earing Haram for them, devouring other people’s wealth, taking interest, lying and committing fraud. Do you do all this for them? Tell me, how long will they support you? How much will you eat from them? You will become ill due to these people, and they don’t even pray Salah, and they don’t do Dhikr of Allah, and they don’t go towards the Qur’anic injunctions. They don’t do anything! All they say is ‘Give me a house! Give me a car! Give me money!’ Are you running around sweating for your whole life for these children? What are you buying? What are you purchasing? What have they given to you in return? { أَصۡحَـٰبُ ٱلنَّارِۖ هُمۡ فِيہَا خَـٰلِدُونَ } They are taking you towards those people who will live for evermore in Jahannam.
Come, let us do Dua to Allah ta’ala that Allah gives us understanding of this Qur’an, that Allah gives us true Tawbah and true repentance, and that we become honourable servants of the shade and protection under whose canopy we have been brought, that we fulfil the rights of that shade. We should be humble that Allah ta’ala has given us the shade and protection of the Wali of Allah, due to which we can be saved from the fire of Jahannam. If I hear Hadhrat Sahib’s name today, I start shaking and sweating because he was that great shade who saved me from the fire of Jahannam. So how is it that we persist in doing ill-mannered actions, disrespecting in our hearts and with our tongues, speaking words of nonsense loudly – what is this? Is Allah ta’ala not watching?
وأخر دعوانا أن الحمد لله رب العالمين