Shaytaan Is Chained, But The Nafs Remains
By Khalid Latif | 2026-01-16T13:23:33.332253+00:00 | Topic: Iman
Shaytaan Is Chained, But The Nafs Remains
Imam Khalid Latif | Jummah Reflection
Opening
(السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ - assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh)
(بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ - bismillahir-rahmanir-rahim)
Quranic Recitation
I'll be reciting a couple of verses from Surah Al-Furqan:
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Opening Praise
All praise is due to Allah. We thank Him, we praise Him, we glorify Him. We beseech Him to send His choicest salutations upon His Most Beloved and upon all those who choose to tread His path until the last day.
Alhamdulillah, we're blessed to be together on this Mubarak day of Jum'ah, within the most blessed month of Ramadan. May Allah make it a means of benefit and increase for all of us and not let this day end on any one of us without each of us taking from its most necessary blessings, those that are hidden and those that are apparent.
Main Khutbah Body
Reflection on Desire and Intellect
And as we go into this, I want to reflect on some of the verses that our brother Tamim recited. MashaAllah, may Allah preserve him and all those who are guardians of His book and make them a means of continued illumination and light for all of us and all of His creation. Here we see two verses in Surah Al-Furqan that I think are a good framing for what I was hoping to discuss with you all today.
(أَفَرَأَيْتَ مَنِ اتَّخَذَ إِلَٰهَهُ هَوَاهُ - afara'ayta mani ittakhadha ilahahu hawa)
The verse says that do you see the one who takes his hawwa, his desire, as being his Lord? And in another verse it says that they are like the cattle, the ones who don't utilize their intellectual capacity. And I want you to think about these two frames: a verse that talks about whims and desires, hawwa; a verse that refers to those that do not utilize the intellect as cattle.
The Hadith of Ramadan
In understanding a different prism of the hadith where the Prophet ﷺ tells us:
(Sahih al-Bukhari 1899, Sahih Muslim 1079)
"When the month of Ramadan is upon us, the gates of Jannah are opened, and the gates of Jahannam are closed, and the shayateen are chained, they're shackled."
It gives us an insight now on a few different things. One, the immense uniqueness of Ramadan, and where blessing is paramount and opportunity for growth is there. But two, it gives us an indication also that Ramadan in and of itself is not just about external things, nor is it simply about the abstainment of things. It's not about the deprivation of food or the leaving behind of water as an absolute.
Beyond the External
But quite often where we have ritual that engages us now in these ways of externals and mechanics, we see it now as the ultimate ends, but not as a means to an end, and not as also a part of a collective means to an end. Because here in this hadith, the Prophet is talking about Ramadan, but he's not talking about Ramadan in the context of not eating and not drinking. He's not talking about it in the context of inactions of things that are externalized. He's not talking about it in terms of things that are taking place around us.
But when he says that these gates are open and Jahannam's gates are closed, that these shayateen are chained, it's giving us an insight now into inward components of Ramadan, inward realities. To open a door of reflection that starts to now contemplate, well, if these shayateen are chained, what is that impacting me towards?
Understanding Our Adversaries
And the connection has to be one that's deeper, because quite likely the presence of shaytan is not one that we should limit to the idea of running to find something to eat or drink during the course of the day. But it creates an opportunity to utilize the intellectual capacity that we have, the aql that we have been given, that makes us now viable for accountability in our discernment of right and wrong in decisions, to say, why is it an important thing for us to know? Or where is the relevancy to me in the context of Ramadan that these shayateen are chained?
And that we don't want to be like those that the Quran says, that they're just like cattle, that they start and stop with eating, drinking, engaging in sexual behavior. But it's just about the physicality of it, the externals. And where the other verses that Tamim read give us a deeper insight, that when these shayateen are chained, it now gives us an understanding that of the four adversaries that we're taught about, that are now competing with us to control our entire selves, and the most prescient part of us, our hearts.
The shayateen are what get chained, but there are still elements of things that remain unchained. What is adversarial to you and I is not just simply the waswas of shaytan, may Allah protect us from it. But so too dunya, the materialistic world. Hawa, our base whims and desires, as the verse says, that you see the one who takes his whims, his desires as being his Lord. And then there's the nafs, the ego, the self, that can exist in different states. But in our tradition, the state that we want to avoid the most is the nafs that is commanding to that which is not good, a nafs al-amara bisu, and its inclination is towards that which moves us away.
Self-Reflection
When you think about yourself now as something that remains in its entirety, a reflection and contemplation that allows for us to now dig deep into things that we might not really be thinking about so much. When was the last time you took a pause to just think about the overall state of existence that you're in? When was the last time you thought about yourself, not just in terms of a body, the condition of a heart, the state of a soul, and not in terms of condemnation or damnation and salvation or any of these other things, but just with open, honest, productive introspection and reflection?
The Quran says to us in Surat Al-Adiyat:
(وَإِنَّهُ عَلَىٰ ذَٰلِكَ لَشَهِيدٌ - wa innahu 'ala dhalika lashahid)
"And indeed, he is to that a witness." Reference: Quran 100:7
Giving us an indication of a human condition that it says that we as humanity have. It now follows with this verse that says that you're just a proof of it yourself. But to know where you are in relation to yourself on an entirety, you don't have to look elsewhere, you just look to yourself and you understand yourself through yourself.
Inward vs Outward Focus
And so you can't limit Ramadan to just an action that exists with external elements, even if that action is essentially an inaction, because the outward denial is meant to root itself in also an inward upliftment and embracement to render the heart sovereign of the entire body and to make then determinations as to what state my inside is actually in and to then just grow at a pace that makes sense for me.
The Student of Externals vs Internals
There's a Shaykh who sits with his students and says, do you want me to show you the difference of the student of externals and the student of internals? The one who is only able to see what is outside and the one who is able to think about what's inside? And the students, they say, yes, we want to see. Can you show us this?
And he says that when your classmate comes in and gives you salaam, don't return the salaam. And this is the student of externals that they are told to not respond to his salaam. And so the student comes in and he gives his salaam, Assalaamu Alaikum, and because the Shaykh has told them to not do it in order to understand something, they don't respond.
A second time now the student of externals gives the salaam and again he is met with silence. And then a third time he gives the salaam and now when he is met with silence again, the anger comes up and he says, don't you know it is obligatory upon you to return my salaam?
And now the student of internals comes, a student who understands what's happening inside. And the Shaykh says the same way, don't respond to his salaams. And when he walks in and he gives his salaams, nobody says anything. A second time he does it and again there's nothing. And then a third time when he is met with silence once more, he now responds in a way that someone who is in connection to their inward would: Did I do something to offend you? That you are not returning my salaams?
God-Centricity vs Egocentricity
The opportunity to find ourselves now in the midst of this becomes contrasted to the supremacist society in which we are situated. Egocentricity is not the goal of Islam as a religion. A God-centric religion centers God so that we can see we exist in a sphere of interaction with all those that we share space with in this creation.
And what does it mean to be egocentric? One of the best illustrations that we can conceptualize is rooted in a framework of our religious tradition that has all of us five times a day facing in a directional understanding of
The Empty Kaaba
We can demonstrate now a deeper understanding of self also that again can be illustrated through that illustrious Kaaba where people will move in directions circumambulating, making tawaf around it as the focal point of what becomes now our spiritual ambition that the Kaaba inside is empty. And it's not an emptiness that is meant to render difficulty and loneliness. But an emptiness that is meant to symbolize it's not stuck or connected to anything in the dunya.
It finds itself in a place where it is unrooted from those types of deeply reinforced constructs that hold us down. But I want you to think about the person, the pilgrim who walks around that Kaaba over and over in the footsteps of some of the best of creation to ever walk on this earth. And then I want you to think about with a heart that has observed Ramadan for a few days what is it in your life that you make tawaf of daily, weekly, monthly? What is it that has you going around in circles? And is it really worth it at the end of the day? Is that what you want the focal point of it to be?
And is it evidence of this verse where you have in supremacy a modern day shirk that it elevates the self to the level of idolation and I now become the Qibla but not who it is that I actually am but parts of me that seek to have just momentary satisfaction at the expense of real contentment.
Understanding the Complete Self
None of us are any of the thoughts that we think because if we were simply the thoughts that we think then who are thinking our thoughts? We are not any one of our feelings because somebody has to be feeling those feelings. You are bigger than just the body that you have but you have a spiritual heart, a qalb that you should have aspiration to be what is sovereign over the rest of you. You have the nafs, the lower self. You have the soul, the ruh. You have the intellect, the aql. You have irada, sheer will and determination.
You want to be in a place where the heart is governing irada so that the aql is now able to decipher that sheer will and determination and intellectually compel the rest of the body to go out and do what is right simply because it's the right thing to do.
Four Types of Thoughts
In our spiritual tradition, our teachers give to us indication of four different kinds of thoughts that one can have:
First: You can have a thought that is rabbani, a thought that is influenced by God, just an overtly positive thought, something that is so good you just have to listen to it and obey. That's what's exerted when many of us give up food and drink during the course of this day. We are yielding now to a positive thought that gives us an indication whether it's difficult or not. Some of us will fast and have headaches. Some of us will fast and we will not have headaches. May Allah make it easy for all of us. Ramadan is also there for all of us whether we are fasting or not. We can choose a different mode of illustration here.
Second: You have then a second mode of thought that our spiritual tradition teaches us that is malakani, angelic thoughts that are now in their frame of goodness a little bit different from the first layer of thoughts that are God-given thoughts, rabbani thoughts. A malakani thought is a little bit lighter in its level of goodness but it might be something, for example, that says to you sit down and make dua after your prayer is done. Pray your sunnahs. Add on some things that are extra.
Third: A third frame of a thought is a nafsani thought, a thought that comes from the lower self. These are the kinds of thoughts that would tell us, for example, that you don't need to pray your sunnah prayers right now. You can just walk away from sitting down and making some dhikr or reflecting or contemplating at the conclusion of a prayer.
Fourth: Then a fourth frame of thought is a shaitani thought, may Allah protect us from it, that tells us to not just pray at all.
The Role of Ramadan
You've got to think about this in the context of the hadith that we were just referring to that the shayateen are chained. To understand the illustration of our text that gives us insight into our capacity to perform, a lot of us are doing now what we're doing because that prism of thought is pushed out. So you're going to see yourself praying in ways you haven't prayed and reading Quran and giving in charity but also being kind and compassionate willing to understand and embrace both your strengths and your flaws.
And the role of Ramadan is to help us now to be in control of the nafsani thoughts, the thoughts that tell us to not be generous, to not be kind, to not be forgiving. The thoughts that tell us to not put in effort, to not strive, to not struggle, to not take on what comes in front of us as obstacles and disruptions. The thoughts that tell us that what somebody else goes through is simply their test when in reality the hunger of the masses, the abuse of those who are abused and survivors, the ones who struggle with different forms of poverty and food insecurity and homelessness, these are not their tests, these are our tests and the nafsani thoughts have to be limited so that we don't do what is wrong but simply do what is right by others and meet these different things with a sense of strength and it all trickles down to the self that you want to be, the self that you want to move forward with.
Transformation Through Ramadan
Ramadan unfortunately gets treated by many as just a time that has a start and a stop to it but the transformative nature is one that's meant to impact the inward in such a way that it moves us now to have things that we carry forth inwardly and outwardly throughout our time in this world.
We start just by spending some time during the course of the days to try to understand who is it that I am. Sociologically there's four different layers of self that we are sometimes understanding our own perception of:
1. There is how we want people to see us as the first frame of self-awareness
2. There is how people actually see us as a sense of self that is coming externally
3. There is how we see ourselves rooted in core beliefs that can be negative and positive: Do I believe I am worthy of success? Do I believe that I am worthy of love? Do I believe that I am worthy of God's mercy? Do I believe that I too can be from amongst those who stand in these nights where nobody is pushed away?
4. And then a fourth prism is who I actually am, the things that I love about myself, the things that I don't like about myself, the things that I do well and the things that I can improve, the station that I am in right now situated in relation to where it is that I would want to be.
Believing in Yourself
When I say to you today my sisters and brothers on this first Jummah of this blessed month of Ramadan, see yourself the way that Allah sees you. Believe in Allah and ask of him to put within yourself a belief in yourself in the way that he believes in you so that you move forward and you just try your best but you are willing to acknowledge that you can still learn what your potential is.
Esteem can be something that comes from the outside, esteem can be something that is rooted in externals. Think about literally we are in an online platform where you can post something up and you can have validation from so many different people inclusive of those that you wouldn't want their validation if you really knew who they were and the kind of things that they did.
But when esteem comes from what is inward, when contentment comes from what is inward, when your sense of validation is not rooted based off of esteem catalysts that are about how many followers and how much money and what kind of titles and whether you have a ring on your finger or not or the ability to have children or have no children at all or anything and anything that seeks to tear us down or put us into boxes that we are definitely bigger than, let yourself have wakeful hearts through Ramadan.
Call to Action
See where it is that you are and recognize the beauty that Allah has endowed within you. Remove the veils that keep you from seeing your own light and then go and seek to be a means of illumination for a world that is most definitely within it.
Where you can connect to Allah's book in this month do so and we have a lot of programs through which you can hear the recitation of the Quran. Where you can give to help others in their time of need make sure you do so and we have already started to raise funds for those who are in our community that are reaching out, that literally have no food to eat whether the sun is up or down, who are still in situations either in abusive homes or have left homes but don't have funds to stand on their own feet, who are undocumented and are not considered human enough to receive stimulus checks.
So support our campaigns to support those who are in need. A Ramadan ago, last year the first one in social distancing, this community raised one and a half million dollars to assist over a thousand households who found themselves in need and so far we have already raised over one hundred thousand dollars just a few days into this blessed month. We want to try to raise as much as we can at launchgood.com. It is tax deductible, Zakah eligible and Khums eligible but it is really a means of saying who is the self that I want to be.
Where you can contribute to our Islamic center please do so as well at ICNYU.org. Our programs are entirely run off of the support of the community. Whatever you can give would be appreciated in that regard. Where you can join in to the programs and events that we have with our staff, with our community members and others and you can find info on all of it whatever part of the world that you are in at ICNYU.org.
Dua
And so as we close out in Dua I would ask that you recenter yourself to the space and understand that before anything came into existence Allah has written or Allah wrote that you and I would be in this moment together at this time and so that the Dua that we make is not one that is just one voice that is uttering but to be present in every sense of the presence of word physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually as we make Dua together and we turn to our Lord in our blessed month of Ramadan with our hearts that are observing this Ramadan in a place where we turn to Him and ask of Him to give to us better than what it is that we are even asking of and so our brother Tamim is going to start the Dua and then I will finish the Dua and will conclude the reflection for today InshaAllah ta'ala. We pray that Allah accepts from us.
Salawat
Duas in Arabic
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Dua in English
Ya Allah, Ya Alim, Knower of all things, You who has known each of us before we even knew ourselves, help us through this month of Ramadan to know ourselves better.
Help us through this blessed month to know our strengths and to live by them, to know our character and how to increase it, to know our pains and how to heal them, to know our value and how to share it, to know our blessings and how to be grateful for them, to know our wants and to see where they conflict with our needs, to know our shortcomings and how to confront and defeat them, to know how to really forgive all those who have wronged us and to actually forgive them, to know how to seek forgiveness from those that we have wronged and to then go out and seek it, to know what charity is by being generous with our wealth and our time, to know what integrity is by being honest and truthful, and to know what goodness is by extending our hands without qualification to all those who are in need.
Help us through this blessed month to know who it is that we are and not let the people we are today be afraid any longer to meet the people we can be tomorrow.
And through it, Ya Rabbi, help us to know you and your mercy, to know you and your love. Make us from amongst those who live with true contentment every day of our lives and grant us an abode in the place of ultimate contentment in the world beyond this one.
Allow for our beings to be filled with self-love that we can go out and share with others rather than a love of ourselves that keeps us from being everything that we are able to be.
When our hearts are heavy and we are filled with darkness, bring people to us who illuminate us through kindness, compassion, and love. Make us always the reason that people have hope in this world and never the reason that people might dread it.
Help us to know the realities of those that are around us by overcoming whatever it is that exists within us that keeps us away from one another.
Through this month of Ramadan, perfect us inwardly so that we are victorious in the battle that is taking place every day for control of our hearts. Give us victory over selfishness and remove from within us any feelings of arrogance or racism.
Increase us in brotherhood and sisterhood so that we might together take on every challenge that we individually face and together celebrate every success and every achievement.
Give us hearts that feel anger whenever one of our sisters are abused and the confidence and compassion needed to build for her the services and shelters she's in need of. Give us hearts that feel sadness when any one of us loses a loved one and the gentleness and mercy needed to be there for them fully. Give us hearts that feel joy whenever any one of us succeeds and the love and hope needed to celebrate that achievement.
Give us hearts that are not lost in the pursuit of this world, but hearts that are bold enough to be drawn to the world beyond this one. Let our rage be only at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people so that we will work for justice, equality, and peace. Let our tears shed only for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and conflict so that we will reach out our hands to comfort them and change their pain into joy.
And let our successes be many as we make a difference in this world by doing the things which others say cannot be done. Make us those who use our strength, our power, our sheer will, and determination to break down the walls of inequity, injustice, and oppression that confine so many today.
Help us to truly be those who come together on principles of truth, patience, and mercy so that we can, as a community, do for others what we have the ability to do.
Inspire this community, Ya Allah, to build the shelters and clinics that our neighbors are in need of. Inspire this community, Ya Rabbi, to take in the orphans and children that the world has forgotten. Inspire us to be generous and honest people of integrity and sound character.
Inspire us to live our Islam in such a way that brings benefit to all those who are around us. Send us reminders always of what true contentment really is. And let us never be those who sacrifice the fulfillment of our needs by chasing after the complacent desires of our wants.
Help us to see this world always through hearts that have benefited from Ramadan.
To see the goodness in all those who are around us. To see the goodness in ourselves. And to never be those who elevate ourselves by denigrating others. To see the benefit in any challenge that comes our way. And to not pass on a gift that can only be acquired through patience and perseverance.
Help us to silence fear and abolish anxiety. To overpower indifference and break away from greed. To eliminate arrogance and defeat racism.
To be bold enough to ask of you to make us those who only do what is good. Make us those who find real peace and real love, ya Allah. And not just the semblance of it. Those who give real peace and real love. And not just the facade of it.
Make our motivation always selflessness, not selfishness. Sincerity and never self-centeredness.
For any pain and torment that we might have faced, through it give ease, understanding, and facility. For any suffering that we have sustained, bring to us understanding and strength of healing. Grant us always a life that is filled with the wellness of our minds, our bodies, our souls, and our hearts.
Make this month of Ramadan a month of rejuvenation for us. A month of renewal for us. A month of replenishment. It is not our stomachs that are hungry nor our throats that are thirsty. But our hearts are parched and long to be revitalized.
Ya Allah, grant us both in and through the coming weeks a much needed peace that we long for, even if we don't realize it. And throughout this month and beyond, help us to make decisions through our hearts and never at their expense.
Put into our hearts a desire for nothing less but to take from this Ramadan all that it is that we can. And remove from our hearts anything that distracts us from it.
Make us those who seek out, witness, and benefit from Laylatul Qadr. And in our standings in the night, help us to remember all those who are forgotten, whether by us alone or the world around us. Give us the energy to stand into the night. And the sincerity to make dua for all who are special to us.
Through this Ramadan, increase us in our Islam. Through this Ramadan, increase us in our Iman. Through this Ramadan, increase us in our Ihsan.
Make the Quran our guide and grant us a deep understanding of it. Make the sunnah our goal, both inward and outward aspects of it. And make our prayer our anchor, granting us the true sweetness that only salah and dua can.
Make the best of our deeds the last of our deeds. And let not any one of us leave this world other than in a state that is most pleasing to you.
Watch over this community, Ya Rabbi. I have been blessed to serve it for 16 years. These are good men and women who I know to be better than anything that they might believe themselves to be. Help them and all of us to see ourselves through this month of Ramadan the way that you see us.
Help us to see ourselves through wakeful hearts that have benefited from this month. And let not any one of us leave from this month other than having gained from all that it has to offer.
Protect us always from hearts that are not humble, tongues that are not wise, and eyes that have forgotten how to cry.
Forgive us for our shortcomings and guide and bless us all.
Closing Dua in Arabic
May Allah bless you, O Most Merciful.
And may Allah send blessings and peace upon the best of His creation, Muhammad, his family, and all of his companions.
Indeed, You are the Oft-Returning, the Most Merciful, and turn to us in forgiveness, O our Master.
Make us from amongst those who truly take from this month of Ramadan.
Concluding Remarks
It is there for you, my sisters and brothers. Don't let any moment pass you by. It is there for you and I to gain from.
Please do take advantage of every resource that's facilitated for you, and let your heart be open in the way that it is meant to, to truly take from Ramadan everything that its purpose was for us to take from it.
Where you can, think of those that the world has forgotten. Don't let this day end without you doing something good for somebody else, as well as doing something truly good for yourself.
You and your loved ones are in my prayers as always. Every part of me wishes that we could be together physically. But it is a comfort to know that even this many days of social distancing, that I still long to be with this beautiful community that we have.
And so it is with gratitude that I appreciate our separation, that it will be that much more meaningful when we are able to be together.
Where you can give inshallah to our campaign, to serve those who are in need right now, who really have nothing. I have no other way to describe it.
Launchgood.com/ICNYU Ramadan Relief
Give on this day of Jummah. There'll be more barakah to it. And give more than you think you even have the capacity to give. You'll help somebody who really has nothing.
May Allah reward and bless you all. I hope to see you with some of the rest of our programs. Please keep me in your prayers. You and your loved ones will be in mine.
And Allah knows best, and with Allah is success.
And peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
End of Khutbah