Signs of a Believer

Signs of a Believer

By: Abu Taubah

Opening Greetings and Khutbah al-Hajah

All praise belongs to Allah. We praise him, we seek his forgiveness and his guidance. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our own egos and the evil results of our own deeds.

Anyone whom Allah guides, then no one can lead him astray. And anyone whom Allah leaves to stray, then there is none that can guide him. And I bear witness that there is nothing worthy of worship and no gods in reality, except Allah who is alone having no partners.

And I bear witness that Muhammad, the son of Abdullah, is his slave and his final messenger to mankind.

"O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims."

Allah says what could mean in the Qur'an, O you who believe, fear Allah, respect Allah, remember Allah, as it is his right to be feared, respected and remembered. And don't any of you die, except that you die as a Muslim.

Allah also says what could mean, O mankind, fear your Lord, respect your Lord, remember your Lord who created you all from one soul, Adam. And created from that soul its mate, Eve. And raised up and spread from the two individuals, many men and women.

And fear Allah, respect Allah, remember Allah, the one whom you ask things for. And don't cut ties with the wombs that bore you. Indeed Allah above you all is laying in watch.

And Allah also says what could mean, O you who believe, fear Allah, be mindful of your accountability to Allah. And in light of your accountability, then open your mouth and say a word that goes straight to the point. If you do this, Allah will rectify your affairs and forgive you your sins.

And whomsoever is already obeying Allah and obeying his messenger, has already achieved the highest thing he can possibly hope to aspire to.

As for what follows, then please understand that the best book, the best speech is the Qur'an, the speech of Allah. And the best guidance, best in any way possible, is the guidance of Muhammad. And the most evil of

affairs, the worst things in this whole creation, are things that we, you, me, we invent.

Things that we come up with that are not part and parcel of Islamic legislation. Each one of these novel ideas that we come up with that oppose Islamic law and Islamic concept, it's something that leads us astray, ever so minuscule or seemingly small. And anything that leads you astray will eventually lead you to the hellfire.

Introduction

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ

Tonight is our last lecture together. And I want to concentrate so that I don't forget anything I want to share with you guys tonight. Because it's a long way from home and I don't know if Allah will allow me to see you again.

So I want you all to know:

Wallahi, I love you as my brothers. I feel like I've come to a home and met relatives that I haven't seen in a very long time. And it's only out of my sincere, and Allah knows best, desire to share with you that I'm going to tell you these things.

So try to remember.

First Sign: Begin with the End in Mind

When we're talking about the signs of a believer, the first thing the believer has to understand is his end, the end. So the believer, a sign of the believer is that he begins with the end in mind.

So that's for all of us. As the Prophet, he said, what could mean? Busy yourself or remember death a lot. That is the end of this particular lifestyle that we have now.

And we transition at our time of death into another reality. And in each reality, there are certain particulars and things that we can and cannot do. So in this reality here, we have the opportunity to make decisions and do particular things.

The outcome of which are played out in the next two realities. Because in this world here, we have the reality of our waking hours and the reality of our sleeping hours. And one of the benefits that we can conjure from our sleeping hours is the reality of death.

Because every day we die. We don't choose to, but our bodies tire. And they get to the point where they obey Allah and we lay down and cannot operate anymore.

And we go into another reality. And in that reality, we can fly. We can do things that you cannot do here. We can see things that we cannot see here. And that is only to remind us, and Allah knows best, about what's going to happen when we die the final death. And we're in the grave.

And the realities that will happen in the grave as the Prophet explained to us. That certain things are going to happen in our grave. And if you don't believe that, then believe your daily dreaming.

And then every morning, or every time we fall asleep, we are forced to wake up again. We're forced back into this reality. And we're given, with that, an opportunity to start all over.

We get another chance to do it better this time. Because there's going to come a day when we go to sleep and we don't wake up in this reality. But we transfer into that sleep life, that death.

And when we're forced into the new reality, it's going to be Yawm al-Qiyamah. It's going to be the day of resurrection. And we won't have any opportunity to do any action.

And everything that happens in that life, that final resurrection, will be predicated on what we did in this world.

So the believer, he has to begin with this in mind. As the Prophet told us, He said, do a lot of dhikr al-mawt, remembering death.

And if you remember death, think about right now. Imagine if you were dead right now. And your book is closed.

What would you like it to say? And whatever you would like your book to say, do that. Do that while you have a chance. And don't believe that you're going to continue to have a chance.

Death comes to the children, death comes to the young, death comes to the middle age, and death comes to the old. So we have to begin here.

Second Sign: Ihsan - Worshipping Allah as if You See Him

After saying that, the next thing that I wish to share with you is that the believer, we say, what is ihsan? Ihsan, as the Prophet was asked, what is ihsan, excellence?

And he says:

(Source Name)

He said, what could mean? Ihsan is that you worship Allah or you slave for Allah as if you can see Allah, as if you see Him.

But since you cannot see Him, you have the reality that He sees you. This helps us understand riyadh, showing off, or being careful. You know, if you're in a room and your father or your teacher or your supervisor is

standing over your shoulder watching you, you're going to perform in a different manner.

And you know, if he's not there, you're going to perform in a different manner. So Allah's Messenger and the person that shows off, he's not showing off because the people that are there see him. Because the person showing off doesn't know if those people see him or not.

But he's showing off because he sees them. Do you understand that? He's showing off not because the people are looking at him. They may or may not be looking at him.

But because of the fact that he sees them there, he shows off. So we need to take this sick mentality and flip it for our own benefit and understand that Allah sees you. He not only sees you, He sees through you.

He's alimul ghayb, He knows what's in your hearts. And He knows the reasons behind your actions. And He's muhaymin, He's always watching you.

And knows what you're doing. And so with this reality, with this consciousness, act, behave, recognize. And so this is from the character of the believer.

Learning and Supporting Each Other

Really, all you have to do is read the Qur'an. And with that, I wanted to remind, sometimes we're here, we're doing these lectures, and I make mistakes. I may quote the ayah and not recite it properly because I'm going fast, get caught up, or get a little confused.

Alhamdulillah, it's upon all of us. It's not just upon one of us. It's upon all of us to know the Qur'an.

And I'm gonna suggest something here. Find 10 friends. Who here has 10 friends? Raise your hand if you have 10 friends. 10 colleagues, raise your hand. Raise it up high. Okay, do this brothers, sisters too.

Out of your 10 friends, each one of you, take 3 juz of Qur'an. Just 3, amongst you all. And make a promise that you will memorize these 3 juz and the other one within a year.

It doesn't take to memorize 3 juz of Qur'an. Everybody take 3 juz. And then between you all, you'll have the whole Qur'an.

And then after you memorize it, you learn the tafsir for those 3 juz. Just those 3 juz. And find out from amongst your friends which one of them have what other juz.

And when you need a question, go to them. They will be the expert in that particular juz. That particular ayah, those ayah.

And so what's supposed to happen is the believers support each other in this fashion. So that when someone makes a mistake, that person gets up to correct him. That person is the support in that way.

Because Ibn Uthaymeen, rahimahullah, he taught us this particular technique. He told us to overcome that thing that you cannot do by doing what you can do. And this, again, is from the signs of a believer.

Synergism and Working Together

The believer synergizes. What is synergism? Synergism is meaning that the sum total of all our efforts greatly outweighs our individual additions. What does that mean? Let's say 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 people in here can go out and earn $1,000 in one month.

Okay? Each one of them can come with $1,000. That equals how much? I can't hear you. What's that? $5,000.

Okay? But if they work together, they can come with $10,000. So if they go out on their own, and they deal with their own contacts, and they make their own effort, they all come back, and there's only $1,000 for each one of them. But if they work together, if they synergize, if they become interdependent, then they can come up with double that or much more than what their individual effort is.

And this is from Islam. Because Allah says in the Qur'an:

He says cooperate with each other on those things that are touching on righteousness and taqwa, the remembrance of Allah. So here is a way that we can cooperate with each other and encourage and push each other.

So this is one of the signs that the believer has. And this thing becomes something that we can all benefit from each other.

Reminder from the Quran لَيْسَ لِلْإِنسَانِ إِلَّا مَا سَعَىٰ

We say, Allah is the only one that doesn't forget. But each one of us are responsible to remind. And then another thing is, remember what your intention is. Man is not gonna have anything except for what he races for.

Third Sign: Being a Visionary

So sometimes we come through life and we see something and because we have a bad mindset, a negative, a pessimistic mindset, all we see is negative. But if we're optimistic, if we have a good mindset, then we never see the negative. Part of the signs of a believer is that he's a visionary.

Do you know what it means to be a visionary? Some people think that to be a visionary is that you can see something. You can see what can come of something. But that's not necessarily the whole of it.

Everyone can see what could possibly be. But only the visionary is blind to the obstacles. Only the visionary doesn't see the obstructions, doesn't see the negatives as big deals.

They're only big deals to mental midgets. It's small thing to mental giants. So to be a visionary, don't see obstructions in the road.

You improvise, you adapt, and you will come, overcome every one of your situations. And this is from the positive mindset of the believer, that he's always looking to fulfill the goal, the qost.

"Indeed, actions are by intentions."

So watch out for Shaytan, because he is your biggest enemy.

Fourth Sign: Protecting Yourself from Shaytan

How many times does he take someone who has a good intention and turn him into an opportunist. And this is one of the tricks the Shaytan does. He takes people who have good intentions and he turns them into opportunists.

So they still go through with the positive looking goal, but because he corrupted it, they get no barakah. He voids the barakah in our interactions through a number of ways. So the believer, he has to remember you are at war.

You are at constant war with Shaytan. And you have to negate him from coming close to you and stop him from dragging you to hell. And the way to do this is to be conscious that Allah told you, Shaytan is your enemy.

"So take him as an enemy."

So take him as an enemy. And if you can't focus and find this, just imagine, every moment of your life, the day you were born, the first thing Shaytan did was pinch you and poke you till you cried. This is the level of his animosity.

Every time you go to the bathroom, if you don't say Bismillah, if you don't make the dua before entering the toilet, the Shayateen that's in the toilet, they're sitting there laughing at your private parts, making fun of you.

And this is from the evil that they do, from the (الْخُبْثِ وَالْخَبَائِثِ - al-khubthi wa al-khabaith) the dirty nasty, stinking, filthy jinn. But if you make the dua, Allah makes it invisible for them.

So you at war, you're protectors. If you don't make the dua before you have intercourse with your wife, he rapes your wife. As the Prophet ﷺ said, that if you don't make the proper dua before you have intercourse with your wife, Shaytan enters your wife before you.

So this despicable individual is poking our children, trying to rape our wives. Every time you go to sleep, he ties knots on your head. Three knots.

He blows and tells you, listen, it's a long night, don't get up, you got more time. I know you heard him say that. You wake up at night, you have the thought of making salah.

You have the idea, he says, chill, it's alright, we got time. And then as soon as you go back to sleep, he urinates in your ear. As the Prophet ﷺ said, that there is nobody that goes to sleep and sleeps the entire night, except Shaytan urinates in his ear.

This is nasty. This is filthy. And the reality of it, we can't understand.

The effect that air is there, we don't necessarily understand it. But if you believe and you know the message of Allah told you the truth, you take this Shaytan as an enemy. And you protect yourself.

He's always trying to enter your house. If you go into your house and you don't say bismillah, you don't make a du'a, bismillah when you enter, he comes in your house. If you don't say bismillah when you eat, he eats from your food.

He contaminates every aspect of your existence. And worst of all, he's constantly whispering to you. Come in and he talks the trick of Shaytan.

How Shaytan Tricks Us

And this is what the believer, this is what we have to be conscious of. The negative aspects of the Shaytan.

Because protection comes before allowance.

Shaytan's trick is weak. He talks in the first person. That's all you need to know.

He talks in the first person. He pretends to be you. And when you feel him, and you always feel him, you just don't realize he's there.

It not only means that he has a pug nose, it means that he comes and he goes. How is that applicable? What does that mean? So you're walking down the street. Okay? You're walking down the street and you get a negative thought.

What do you do? You stop. You pick your head up. You start listening.

You ever done that? You go, what are you doing? You're trying to perceive, did I say that? Where did that thought come from? You go, and if you don't feel anything, you go on. Maybe you don't even stop walking, but you listen for a second. Because it's that subtle.

That was Shaytan. As a rule, ya ikhwan, whenever you have a negative thought, it's not your thought. Whenever you have a negative thought, it's not your thought.

It's from Shaytan. And seek refuge in Allah when you have that thought. Even in Salah, every time you go to offer Salah, you know who comes? Khinzib.

Khinzib is a particular devil who comes to you every time you offer Salah and he starts to mention everything that you couldn't think about 20 minutes ago. Oh, you lost your keys. Oh, remember when your aunt said such and such.

And he starts talking and he starts saying things that you... Why did this thought come from? All he's trying to do is confuse you in your Salah. And we know this. And every one of you, we just offered Salah and Khinzib was here whispering to all of us, trying to remind us of even beneficial things.

He tries to tell you beneficial things. Why? Because one of the tricks of the Shaytan is that he tries to make you focus on something that is fardu kifaya so that you leave off doing the fardu ayn. Now what's fardu kifaya? Something that anybody could do or something that's not as important.

It may even be mustahab. Not fardu kifaya, but it's mustahab. Something that you should do.

But is mustahab take precedence over the fardu? When something is obligatory, you have to do that obligatory thing. But during the time of the obligatory thing, he's trying to make you focus on something that's mustahab. Why? So you can leave off doing the obligation.

And you think you're doing good, but you've left off your obligation, he's tricked you. So you have to be focused and always remember these particular tricks of Shaytan.

Fifth Sign: Distinction from Others

Hadith on Distinction مَنْ تَشَبَّهَ بِقَوْمٍ فَهُوَ مِنْهُمْ

Allah's Messenger said: Another sign of the believer is distinction.

Distinction. It means that he is characteristically different than everybody else. When I say everybody else, every other millah, every other religion, why do I say that? Because the Prophet ﷺ said, every religion has its particular characteristic, you know, a strongest characteristic.

And the strongest characteristic, distinguishing factor for the Muslim is shyness. We're modest. Now there is a difference from being modest and timid.

To be timid is blameworthy. Because timidity is defined as the inability to act when you have to act. Okay? Being scared to perform. This is not acceptable.

We ask Allah:

"Our Lord, pour upon us patience and plant firmly our feet and give us victory over the disbelieving people."

And make our feet firm. And help us against disbelieving people. Give us victory over them. So we are firm. But modesty is that we don't go to extremes.

We don't say things that don't have to be said. There's a certain way we dress, there's a certain way we talk, there's a certain way we look, there's a certain way we behave that is distinct and clearly Islamic.

"There has certainly been for you in the Messenger of Allah an excellent pattern..."

There is for you in the Messenger of Allah a beautiful example, the best example.

Because you want to know what it means to be a believer? All you have to do is look to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. She was approached and was asked عَائِشَةَ رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهَا what was the character of the Messenger of Allah?

She said, have you read the Qur'an? They said yes, of course we've read the Qur'an.

She said:

Hadith from Aisha كَانَ خُلُقُهُ الْقُرْآنَ

She said, what could mean? His character was the Qur'an. So again, if we go back to our original source, this book, we will find everything that we need to perform and to behave like a believer.

The Simple Path to Being a Good Muslim

The problem is this, a lot of times we are looking for some other answer. Where's your ear? Everybody touch your ear. You see what you did? Everybody, that means you too, touch your ear.

Okay, everybody touch their ear. You know what we do most of the time? You didn't touch your ear, brother.

جَزَاكَ اللهُ خَيْرًا بَارَكَ اللَّهُ فِيكُمْ. It's a test. It's a test.

Most people touch their ear like this. Why do I say that? Because when we say, how do you become a good Muslim? You want to go around your head to become a good Muslim when your ear is right here. What do you mean, how do I be a good Muslim? Pray five times a day.

Make hajj if you can. Fast in Ramadan. Pay yazakat.

The simple things. Why do we want to go all around the world to figure out how to be a good Muslim when the answer is right there? You can't be a good Muslim any other way first. Because Allah's Messenger, he taught us that the one who gets closest, no one can get closer to Allah or become more beloved to Allah than the person that does the maqtuba.

Those things that Allah قَدْ افْتَرَضَ عَلَيْهِمْ . Those things that Allah has made farood. Those basic pillars.

And then they get closer. And then, after doing the basics, then they get closer by doing the extra acts. Then, until the point where Allah becomes the hearing that they hear with, the hand that they strike with, the eyes that they see with, and if they ask for something, He gives it.

But the point here is begin with the simple basic pillars of Islam. And let's stop reaching around our head trying to find these outlandish or these unique techniques on just to be a basic simple Muslim. That in and of itself is difficult enough.

Just to be a basic simple Muslim. And again, one of the things that I wanted to share with you is time. When you're basically focusing of the end, you know, your end in mind, then you realize again what the Prophet said:

Hadith on Focus مِنْ حُسْنِ إِسْلَامِ الْمَرْءِ تَرْكُهُ مَا لَا يَعْنِيهِ

From the goodness of a person's Islam, is that he leaves off and he focuses off those things that don't concern him.

Understanding Time: Four Categories

Again, the believer has no free time. The believer has no free time. Because he's always utilizing his time to get a reward in the hereafter.

That's the distinguishing characteristic about us. How then should we look at time? No, there are only four times in your life. Four times.

1. Important and Urgent

Something is going to be important and urgent. Okay? Important and urgent. That's something like, Allah forbid, someone has to go to the hospital. They need a doctor. That's important and urgent. Isn't that correct?

2. Important and Not Urgent

The next thing is important and not urgent. You have half a tank of gas. Is that important to you to get gas? It's important to get gas, but is it urgent? I'm asking you guys. Is it urgent? Somebody might say, yes, it's urgent.

You have a test if you're in college or in school in two weeks. Is it important to study? But is it urgent? So you understand important and urgent? So now, important and urgent, if you don't take care of it in time, what does it become? I mean, important and not urgent. If you don't take care of it in its due time, it becomes important and urgent.

So let's go back to the first one. Someone has to go to the hospital. That's important and urgent.

But you did not get gas when it was important and not urgent. So guess what now? Can you go to the hospital? Can you? I'm asking you guys. What do you have to do first? I can't whisper.

What's that? You have to go get gas first. So then, if you don't watch the things that are important and not urgent, they may overwhelm the real things that are important and urgent. And this is something that you have

to understand because this is major.

Death is coming. It's important for you to prepare for it. Because you do not know when it is coming, it may not seem urgent.

Ibrahim a.s. was the first person to experience aging. He asked Allah to give him benevolence in this life. And then when he woke up, a third of his hair was gray.

He said, what's this? What's this? Allah told him, it's a warning. But it's sharaf. It's nobility in the next world.

So we start getting gray. It's a warning. And we know it's Nur, Yawm al-Qiyamah, on the Day of Standing.

So we have to understand death is coming. And it's not just a warning for the people that are getting gray. It's a warning for everyone who lays eyes on them.

Your turn is coming. Your turn is coming. Have no doubt about it.

You will die. And you will have to answer for every moment you spend in this dunya. So the believer, he understands that his preparations, if you're going on a trip, you prepare for that trip.

Even if you're just going out of town, you get the necessary provisions to help you on the way. Then what sense, ya ikhwan, does it make not to prepare for death? Not to understand that there are going to be, if there's bandits on the road, shaitan's that bandit. He's the one that's going to make that trip more difficult if you don't cease and protect yourself from allowing him to get close to you.

So here we have it. You have things that are important and urgent. And things that are important and not urgent.

3. Urgent but Not Important

That's just two. The next one, there are things that are urgent but they're not important. How many times does our phone ring and it sounds very urgent but it's not important at the time.

We're about to enter the salah or we're eating or we're doing something more important and this thing is ringing. These little funny sounds that are haram for you to have. Sometimes they have music on them and people put this, not even manly, to have some of these tones that people have.

But this thing is ringing, ringing, ringing, ringing. It's urgent, right? What do we do? We answer and say, I can't talk right now. And hang it up.

Why you talk then? Why did you talk? Turn it off.

Hadith on Time Management سَاعَةٌ فَسَاعَةٌ

The messenger of Allah said, there is a time for this and a time for that. And a man has to know when to distinguish when it's a time for this and it's a time for that.

These things do not own us. We own them. We are in charge of this creation.

Allah made us the khalifa. He's the one that made everything on us for us, halal for us, to utilize in the way that we need to utilize it.

Allah says, the one that made everything in the earth and created everything for us. Everything completely. Not for it to use us, but for us to use it.

So, here's something, some people may come up to you, listen, I gotta tell you something. Listen, don't you hear? And you have to... It's giba, it's backbiting, it's slander. Did you hear the news? Did you hear about Abu Talib? I'm gonna tell you, you know, he's really like... But we say, no, no, I don't wanna listen. What? I don't wanna listen.

What did you say? It's urgent, but is it important? In fact, it's dangerous. Because if you listen to this nonsense, you're participating in the same haram situation. And we already know that Allah said that most of our conversations have no benefit in them.

There's no good in most of the private conversations. So watch out for these urgent, but not important, conversations or activities. Remember, every moment of your life is gonna be one of these four things.

4. Not Important and Not Urgent

I have three fingers up because one more is coming. Every moment in your life. And the fourth one is that it's not important and it's not urgent.

Who won the World Cup three years ago? Who cares? Who cares? Who won it last year? Who cares? But when the World Cup comes, you won't probably see no one at the masjid, right? It's not important. It's not urgent. You should never be in this category.

This is something that only a child gets tricked in. Which leads to the point that men do not daydream. The believer does not daydream once he becomes a man.

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No Daydreaming - Only Contemplation

Children daydream. Once you mature to become a grown man, what is daydreaming? Daydreaming is my imagination running away with itself. As an individual man, a believer, I don't allow my imagination to run away.

I control it and I focus and this turns my imagination into contemplation. And the Prophet was quiet for contemplation. So I'm controlling my imagination and I'm putting in the situations that I want to figure out because imagination is intelligence.

That's why we promote the imagination in our children because it's the ability to see something there that is not there and to understand if it were there, what it would do, what are the consequences. And so you can change the consequences and hence you're learning. You're in your own mind learning, running series of tests and situations.

But the child, it's running away. But the adult, he's focusing. So this will change you down to the core when you realize that you should not be daydreaming.

You think, you contemplate, you consider, but you don't daydream men nor the ladies. And what TV does, it promotes you using and you shutting down your intellect. It's called, you have to arrest your reality.

You arrest and suspend your reality in order to enjoy Spiderman. You cannot enjoy Superman or Star Wars or the Transformers or whatever the stupid show is. You cannot enjoy it because it's not real.

And your intellect will say, this is not true. So you have to turn off your reality. And we are creatures of habit.

We are creatures of habit. So if you get into the habit of suspending your reality, how can you come up with a good solution when you have a problem?

And this is why when we start to think about problems, we have to sift through those things that are in the forefront of our mind. These TV programs, these foolish movies and we start to sift through it.

We're trying to get to some reality there. I got a headache. What do we do now? Take some drugs.

Take some drugs. And now we've coded our thinking ability with this drug. And I feel better.

Or better yet, let me not even think about it. So now I take something that's important and not urgent or possibly important and urgent and I don't even deal with it. And this becomes something that leads us to nothing.

Drives us to mediocrity. Makes us to accept and doesn't allow us to be the men that Allah created us to be. Our drive is taken away from us by doing these foolish childish things.

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Be Men, Not Children

We have men in their 20s thinking that they're teenagers. When we have the sahaba, when they became men, they became men at 15 years old. 15! Where are our 15 year olds? Like 7 year olds.

Where are they at? Where are they with their responsibilities but we keep babying these people when the purpose of education or cultivation or raising a child is to enable the child to get along without the parent. This

is the objective of our whole rearing process. But we've forgotten these particulars.

And again, the Prophet, he was nice. He was very nice. Allah tells him, Allah says, what could mean? If you were hard and tough and severe on them, they would have ran away from you.

I warn the young people or the immature older people, when you learn about the sunnah, don't shove it down people's mouths. One of the worst things that's happening now is that people are learning the sunnah and trying to jam it down other people's mouths. Remember that you didn't know something yesterday and you just learned it today.

And be gentle. The Prophet, he was nice. He was cool, so we say.

People enjoy to be around him. And because they enjoy to be around him, it was easy for them to accept things from him. The Prophet, he told us, He said, facilitate, don't complicate.

Be inclusive and don't push people away. This is the thing that's killing. Then we say to people, Oh, you don't want the sunnah.

You're against the sunnah. No. They're against your ugly attitude.

They're against your poor manners. We, the people of the sunnah, have to present the whole sunnah in a beautiful way. And Allah, because a person opined against his will, is still yet of the same opinion still.

So if you force someone, you outtalk them, they don't believe you. They just want you to shut up. They just want to get away from you.

And they will avoid you. But if you are facilitating, making it easy, allowing people and respecting people's intellect, that they have the ability to think for themselves and all you have to do is show and help. Again, facilitate.

Then people will then begin to consider what you're saying to them. And make the necessary changes they deem necessary. And everybody walks along his own path.

And certain things are more important to some than other. It's not you. Remember نَفْسِي نَفْسِي نَفْسِي نَفْسِي Worry about yourself.

Allah tells us in the Quran, Focus on you. So many times we men, we come to the khutbah, and then at the end of the khutbah, or at the end of reading some book, or studying some course, we say, Did you hear what the Sheikh said about them? You see how he blasted them? You see where Allah is talking about them? And he never sees himself as part and parcel of the whole structure of da'wah. So the believer is not like that.

Allah taught us, Allah's Messenger, He taught us that on Yawm al-Qiyamah, Me! Me! Me! That's the cry the day after you die. Me! Me! Me! That's all I want to concern myself with. I don't want to hear nobody, I'm just concerned about me.

This is the prophets. These are the prophets saying that. This is our father Adam, saying that, Me! Me! Me! So if that's the case, Yawm al-Qiyamah, then we need to take the advice that Allah has given us in the Quran, where he said:

Save yourself. Focus on you. Don't take any of these advices for someone else. Make your intention to raise ignorance off myself and then those around you.

It'll help out those around, but the focus is you. Does that make clear?

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Sixth Sign: Walking Humbly on the Earth

Allah says in the Quran, And the slaves of Ar-Rahman. Here is a description.

He said, وَعِبَادُ الرَّحْمَنِ And the slaves of Ar-Rahman. Again, you can include yourself or exclude yourself. It's giving you something to strive for.

الَّذِينَ يَمْشُونَ عَلَى الْأَرْضِ هَوْنًا Are those that walk on the earth هَوْنًا This is figuratively and literally. They walk on the earth and they move without making a whole lot of noise. They don't make a whole lot of destruction.

Gently.

وَإِذَا خَاطَبَهُمُ الْجَاهِلُونَ قَالُوا سَلَامًا

And when some ignorant person خَاطَبَهُمُ starts talking to them they say سَلَامًا . It's peace.

Peace. Why? Because you're confident. You know, ignorance makes you violent.

Did you realize that? Ignorance makes you confrontational. Causes you stress. Someone says, what? You know, you're so tense.

But when you're confident that you're okay you're not so confrontational. It's no big deal. No peace.

If you realize that the focus is on yourself it's okay. Somebody else, they want to do something else.

You do your thing and I'm going to do mine.

You're not so confrontational. And Allah says in the Quran:

سَلَامًا

They say, peace.

And those that... And see, this is the distinction. The distinction of the believers is not in public. Okay? The changes that we have to make are all done in private.

يَبِيتُونَ

We call a house a bayt. Bayt. This is because the verb is bayt. The place that you spend the night, the action of spending the night is called bayt.

But the place is called bayt. So he cuts the verb here.

وَالَّذِينَ يَبِيتُونَ

Those who spend their night in sajdah and standing.

So you want to know the sign of the believer? The sign of the believer, he is first and foremost in private. He's praying at night time. So we need to.

I mean if that was just it. We can just take these advices and see. Too many times we go to these places all around the world and people want to know how can I be a better Muslim? How can I? What can I? And these types of things.

And it's very simple. We don't have to do like so much research. It's right there.

The salah. It's the thing that prevents people and stops people from doing lewd things and going out astray. Stick to the salah.

The salah in the masjid. There are some places that are safer than others. Shaytan is in the street.

Remember I was talking about how much of an enemy he is to us. When our wives go out in the street, he gives them preference over everybody else. He jumps and tries to give our wives preference so he can lead them astray quicker and faster than anybody else.

Again, this is why he's our enemy. But when we come to the masjid, we're safer. Why? Because the Prophet ﷺ, he told us that there's no people that gather together in any one of the houses from the houses of Allah except the angels come down and they spread their wings over us right now.

And the rahmah descends. And we can't even fathom the amount of mercy and what it can do and what it is doing for us. So these are the places where we have to be safe.

Because the Prophet also said:

الدُّنْيَا سِجْنُ الْمُؤْمِنِ Hadith

That this world is like a prison for the believer. And more and more these days, it's becoming the reality.

And Allah's Messenger said that this life, it's gonna come to a time where it's gonna be harder to hold on to your religion than it is to hold hot coals in your hand. Which is a very difficult thing. We can't even hold an incense in our hand.

So we have to remember how to protect ourselves.

Making Dua Against the Hellfire

Those who spend their evenings in this du'a, they're saying this. They're saying, they're saying, Our Lord, عَنَّا عَذَابَ جَهَنَّمَ Take away from us the punishment of the fire.

إِنَّ عَذَابَهَا كَانَ غَرَامًا

The punishment of the fire is too much for me. It's an overwhelming debt. A غَرَامًا is like the taxman that comes, he wants the taxes now. If you don't have it, he's taking your children, he's taking your house, he's taking your livestock, in order to pay this debt, okay, this tax. That's what it is.

You can't handle it. We can't handle the غَرَامَة of the Jahannam.

إِنَّهَا سَاءَتْ مُسْتَقَرًّا وَمُقَامًا

It's an evil, despicable place for us to be established, and for us to be. What's so special about this dua? What's so special about it is when we say it.

When يَوْمُ الْقِيَامَةِ comes, everyone will say it. But only the believers say it in this world. Only the believers say it before seeing it.

Because they believe. And they say it with sincerity. And out of fear.

And out of hope that Allah will save them from the fire. This is the side of the believer. That he believes, deep in his heart, that he can be thrown in hell, and he might, and he deserves it.

Because Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى Allah's Messenger ﷺ, He tells us that if Allah, I'm sorry, Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى tells us that if He would repay, and give everybody what they deserve, He wouldn't leave a creeping, crawling creature on the planet. He would destroy us all. So make this dua.

Ask Allah to protect you from the punishment of the hellfire, before you see it. Recognize, and tell, express to Allah, that you know you cannot handle, you cannot pay, the price of the hellfire. And that you want to be saved from it, before you see it.

Because it's easy to make this dua, when you see the hellfire.

Seventh Sign: Balanced Spending

And those people, when they spend, when they spend, they don't go and waste their money. And they don't becomeيعني بُخْل tight-fisted or stingy.

وَكَانَ بَيْنَ ذُلِكَ قَوَامًا

And they establish themselves, between these two extremes. So the believer, he has these, there's more, I'm afraid that I'm getting, long-winded here, and I don't want to do that, for you brothers. This is the end of Suratul Furqan, where it describes, what the believer, and all his sifat are.

Final Advice

I suggest that you brothers, just read the Qur'an, and look at the messenger of Allah ﷺ, and recognize, and take Shaytan as an enemy. Don't be lazy. Don't be lazy.

The Shaytan, he tries to get us to be lazy, and lackadaisical. We have to fight this enemy. When you're in a state of wudu, you're safer than when you don't have wudu.

So remember, if you want to get into Jannah, Bilal رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ was promised, that whenever he breaks his wudu, he made wudu. And it's assumed, it's looked at as this is one of the reasons, why he was in Jannah earlier, than some other people. And so whenever, I'm suggesting, whenever you lose your wudu, remember if I'm not in wudu, Shaytan is gonna get closer to me.

And the closer he can get to you, the more damage he can do. Don't take him lightly. Take him as Allah's messenger says, and Allah says in the Qur'an, take him as your real clear enemy.

Closing

أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا

And I'm sorry for being long-winded. I see some people getting tired. I'm sorry.

وَصَلَّى اللهُ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَآخِرُ دَعْوَانَا أَنِ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ

جَزَاكُمُ اللَّهُ خَيْرًا وَبَارَكَ اللَّهُ فِيكُمْ

And I enjoyed my time, and my stay here with you brothers.