How Shaytan Will Rope You In
By Nouman Ali Khan | 2026-01-09T14:25:54.812686+00:00 | Topic: Iman
How Shaytan Will Rope You In - Khutbah by Nouman Ali Khan
Opening Du'a and Praise
"O Allah, Lord of the worlds, make us among those who believe, do righteous deeds, and advise one another to truth and advise one another to patience."
"O Allah, make us firm at the time of death with the statement, 'There is no god but Allah.'"
"O Allah, expand for me my breast [with assurance], and ease for me my task, And untie the knot from my tongue That they may understand my speech."
"My Lord, expand for me my breast [with assurance]"
Introduction to the Story of Adam (عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ)
Today I wanted to speak to you about some ayat from the Quran, surah Al-A'raf. And in the beginning part of surah Al-A'raf Allah (عز وجل) tells the story of Adam (عليه السلام). The story is mentioned in the Quran in some detail here and there altogether about 7 times. And each time there's a different kind of detail offered to the story.
So it's not a repetition, it's actually looking at the same exact events from a different point of view. So surah Al-A'raf has a very particular point of view and the lessons that you learn from the story in Al-A'raf are unique. You don't learn them in Al-Baqarah, you don't learn them later on in As-Saffat or other places.
So this is part of the principle of studying the Quran. Somebody might say, I already know the stories of the prophets. I already know the story of Adam (عليه السلام) or the story of Musa (عليه السلام),etc. As a matter of fact, every time Allah tells the story and He repeats it, every time He tells it, He's actually giving you a different set of lessons, a different set of wisdom.
The Beautiful Creation of Humanity
And so one of those things that I wanted to highlight today for you is from the beginning how Allah talked about the way in which human beings were created. I recited the ayah before you, Allah (عز وجل) says:
"(Quran 7:11)"
Certainly it is We who created you. Moreover, above and beyond that, we didn't just create you, we molded you. Allah created the skies and the earth. Allah created the mountains. Allah created beautiful waterfalls. Allah created an expansive universe. Allah created these gorgeous snow crystals, ice crystals.
Allah has beauty in everything that He created. But He doesn't go out of His way to describe the beauty of something beyond just saying that He created it. But when He talks about us, He says, He didn't just create you, He moreover molded you, crafted you.
And the idea of molding, the idea of taswir in the Arabic language, those of you that are familiar with Urdu, taswir is like a picture, but that's actually surah in Arabic. But taswir is actually molding or crafting something. And the idea is that this is done out of a sense of art.
It's not done out of need. If you just have the need to create something, you create it. But if you create something and then you want to decorate it and beautify it and perfect it, then you take that next step and you do taswir of it. You do molding and crafting of it.
Allah (عز وجل) describes that the human being was molded and crafted. In other places in the Quran, Allah will use the origin of the word husn. So Allah (عز وجل) will say:
"(Quran 95:4)"
Very famous ayah from Surah At-Tin. We created the human being in the most beautiful, in the most upright, in the most beautiful of upright fashions. Allah (عز وجل) will say in Surah At-Taghabun, He will say:
"(Quran 64:3)"
He molded you and He beautified the molding. He takes that even a step further. It's not just molding which is beautiful in and of itself, He added another layer of beauty.
The Power of Human Beauty
This is important to note because Allah (عز وجل) brings special attention in the Quran to the beauty and attractiveness of the human being. The human being is an attractive creature. He's a beautiful and she's a beautiful creature of Allah. And this is a very powerful force in humanity.
As a matter of fact, the industry surrounding beauty even in the world today is one of the most capitalistic industries there can be. From everything from the cosmetics industry, to the fashion industry, the clothing industry, the film industry, how do they pick actors and actresses or models and things like that. And even certain filthy industries, they actually pick up on the idea that human beings are inherently beautiful and are themselves attracted to the beauty of other human beings and they capitalize on that and make countless amounts of money off of this idea. So this is a very powerful thing that Allah (عز وجل) endowed the human being with, the man and the woman with.
The Command in Paradise
Now, after having said that, we know that this is actually, I was telling you, this is the story of Adam (عليه السلام). And I think everybody here knows at least some details about the story of Adam (عليه السلام). The only instruction Allah had given to our parents in Jannah was:
"(Quran 7:19)"
Don't go near this tree. Don't go, either of you stay away from this tree, stay far away from this tree. That was the only instruction.
Understanding Shaytan's True Goal
And you would imagine, if you don't know the text of the Quran carefully, you would imagine that shaytan's goal, shaytan's goal is to get our parents to eat from that tree. That's his goal. Allah (عز وجل) does not describe that as shaytan's goal.
That's what I expected. I expected shaytan's goal is, Allah says, don't go near the tree, shaytan's goal is gonna be get them near the tree, get them to eat from the tree. In Baqarah, Allah will say:
"(Quran 2:36)"
Shaitan caused both of them to slip. The devil caused both of them to slip. We still don't know what exactly that slip is. But in Surah Al-A'raf, Allah doesn't just tell us what shaitan did. Allah told us his motivation. So why does he want us to go near the tree? Is the eating from the fruit, the forbidden fruit, is that his goal? Or is there some other goal that he has in mind that will destroy the human being?
You have to understand, that even at the end of the day, Adam (عليه السلام) was told one particular tree, the fruit of that tree is haram. It's impermissible for you to eat from that tree. And he and our mother made the historical mistake and we ate from that tree. But if you think about it from a logical point of view, we make lots of mistakes in life. And human beings, when they've come on this earth, they do some pretty bad things.
People kill, rape, pillage, rob, steal, invade, take over other people's property, deny rights, abuse. We do all kinds of horrible things. And when you compare all of those things to eating a fruit, then it doesn't seem like such a bad thing.
And actually even in the Quran Allah (عز وجل) says:
"(Quran 2:36)"
He caused them to slip. He caused them to slip. You would think this is the biggest mistake ever made in the history of humanity. And Allah (عز وجل) reduces it to what? A slip. He describes it as a slip. But shaitan saw something more than just a fruit. He saw something more than just going near a tree. He had a very particular agenda. And that's what I wanted to highlight before you today.
Shaytan's Method of Continuous Whispering
The first part of my khutbah seems unrelated to this part. In the first part I told you Allah created the human beings as beautiful and very attractive. Now listen to what Allah (عز وجل) describes from the mind of shaitan. Allah is taking us inside the mind of shaitan.
"(Quran 7:20)"
- يعني وسوس هَمَسَ وغاب، همَس وغاب Then shaitan continually whispered to them and disappeared - whisper and disappear. Then he'd whisper again and he would disappear. The idea was you have to constantly bombard someone with a message before they accept it. This is the very nature of propaganda.
Why do you think they run ads over and over again? Until you memorize the jingle. The idea, until the وسوسة is done to you over and over again, it's not gonna become part of your thinking. You see a coke commercial 8 or 10 times, and all of a sudden I'm having coke for iftar. I didn't even know where it came from. It was planted in your head. The idea of وسوسة keeps on suggesting something to them.
Shaytan's True Objective: Exposing Human Ugliness
Now, what is this goal? Allah says:
"(Quran 7:20)"
He says shaitan kept whispering to them, listen to this carefully, so he could expose before both of them what was covered of them from their ugliness, meaning their naked bodies. لم يذكر الشجرة - He didn't mention the tree.
Now this is difficult to understand, because just a few moments ago in an ayah in the same surah, Allah said he created us what? Beautiful. And now he's saying shaitan wanted that our parents were exposed to each other in their ugliness, meaning in their nudity. That he wanted to remove their clothes from them. That was his goal.
Now what in the world, first of all there are two problems here. Why isn't he saying that shaitan just wanted them to eat from the tree? And the second problem is, why is all of a sudden Allah saying the same body that he made beautiful is now ugly? Why in the world would he say that?
The Relationship Between Beauty and Spiritual Corruption
This is the problem that humanity must understand, but especially believers must understand. Allah (عز وجل) made this body beautiful. And actually a man couldn't be more attracted than he is to a woman.
"(Quran 3:14)"
The strongest of attractions that was put inside of a man is the attraction a man has for a woman. It's a very powerful force. As a matter of fact, it's so powerful that the same language is used for it in the Quran, that the same was used for the tree.
لَا تَقْرَبُوا هَذِهِ الشَّجَرَة، لَا تَقْرَبُوا الزِّنَا، لَا تَقْرَبُوا الْفَوَاحِشَ
Don't go near this tree. Don't go near adultery. Don't go near committing illicit relationship with a woman. Don't go near any form of shamelessness or lewdness. So it's dangerous. And it's something that just like the tree, you go near it, you're gonna get sucked in. You're not even gonna realize how far you've gone.
You thought it was just a look, and you kind of liked what she looked like, and you looked again, and then she smiled, and you smiled back, and then things kind of started rolling from there. And then, you know, things get out of hand. And before you know it, you're wrapped up in something, and you don't even know how to get out.
So the idea of you not going near it is good advice. Because you don't even know where to stop. And when you get to a certain point, you can't stop. You're locked in.
The Ugliness of Illegitimate Relationships
So Allah (عز وجل) describes that when human beings expose themselves to each other outside the command of Allah, outside the command of Allah, then that is in fact the ultimate ugliness. A man and a woman are supposed to have a beautiful loving relationship. Allah made us beautiful for a reason. So we would be attracted to one another. But then He created an institution by which this relationship could be made legitimate. That this relationship should be made legitimate.
But when human beings, because of their attraction to the opposite gender, seek that relationship, but they seek it in a way that is not approving to Allah, then that same relationship that they got into because of beauty, because of attraction, that same relationship actually becomes ugly. And it's not just the ugliness of a physical body.
Somebody listening to this, well, you know, I have a girlfriend, but she's beautiful still. I don't see how she got ugly after the Quran was revealed. No, no, no, that's not what I'm talking about.
There's an ugliness inside you. There's a goodness inside you that dies. Human beings weren't just made beautiful physically. Human beings were made beautiful morally, spiritually, ethically. Human beings were made beautiful in their personalities. And when you engage in an illicit relationship, then some of that beauty that you have is gone.
Some of that goodness that Allah gave you starts getting stripped away from you. You'll feel it being pulled away from you. So you'll find a young man who has an illegitimate relationship with some girl or whatever, or a girl the other way around, you'll notice that they're getting nastier and nastier with their parents. And they have a bigger and bigger anger problem. Like this relationship is there, but it's bringing out an ugliness in their life and other parts of their life. And you can't even tell where this came from.
This is the saw'ah, this is the ugliness. And this ugliness, by the way, in Arabic you say, qabaha, it's qabih, it's ugly. Now what is this saw'ah? Saw'ah actually in Arabic means a corpse. Nothing is uglier to the
The Image of Death
human eye than seeing a dead body. We find it disgusting. The smell of it, the look of it, the deteriorated flesh, the skin, etc, etc. The insects and the worms all around it. All of that stuff is hideous for us to think. That's the image Allah عز وجل describes.
In other words, your body is fully alive, but your soul starts dying. Your soul starts turning into a corpse.
Shaytan wanted to expose them to their nudity, to the ugliness. He wanted to take the goodness away from them.
The Higher Status of Humanity
By the way, on that note, it's important to understand that Allah عز وجل gave the human being a higher status than the angels. And He gave him a higher status than Iblis. But there's one thing that gave him that higher status.
When Allah put the ruh inside the human being. The body is beautiful, but the ruh that Allah put inside, the spirit that Allah put inside of you of goodness, that is actually what makes you more beautiful than any other creation of Allah. That is what sets you apart. And Shaytan knows he's gonna exploit the physical beauty of the human being to make the inner beauty of the human being ugly. That's his goal.
Shaytan's Deception: The Promise of Eternal Life
Now, having said that, how did he convince our parents? That's a long story. I'll give you the short version because I need to come back to the same point. The short version of it is, he told Adam and Hawwa عليهما السلام Listen, the plan is that you were created for the earth.
Allah's decision is that you were made for the earth. So you are about to be transferred out of heaven onto the earth. And who would wanna leave heaven and go to earth? So listen, the only people who get to stay here are angels. Sorry, you guys are not angels. Or the only other option is you become permanent residents. You get green card into jannah. That's the only other option you have. But the only way to do that, to become an angel, or to become permanent residents, you have to eat from that tree. That's the only way.
So he says:
Eat from this tree, either you'll become angels, or you'll be permanent residents. That's why our parents made that mistake.
The Slow Process of Temptation
But now when they did make that mistake, what happens? And Allah describes:
Very important ayah to understand. He says, he roped them in slowly. دَلّاهُمَا You know دَلّى in Arabic comes from the word دلو, which is a bucket. And a bucket was used back in the day for a well. And you know back in the day, you drop the well in the water, and you pull the water up. This is called أَدْلَى دَلْوَهُ To pull the bucket up. أَدْلَى دَلْوَهُ Does it come up right away or it takes time? It takes time.
It's a slow process. But if it's an extra slow process, you don't say أَدْلَى دَلْوَهُ You say دَلَّى دَلْوَهُ It takes an extra long amount of time. Shaytan is being described as this guy is in no hurry. He wants to get you, but he will take his sweet time. He'll come at you, you'll say:
He'll say, okay, you know what, I'll be back. I'll catch you later, don't worry. We got time, we got time. And he'll come back again. And then he'll come back again. And then he'll come back again. He's not in a hurry to get you to disbelieve or to get you to sin. He's gonna work on you 1% at a time.
The Gradual Nature of Sin
And that's very important to understand. You know, they do an experiment in psychology of the slow boil. You take a frog, and you throw it in boiling water. It jumps out right away. Then you take a frog in normal water, and you start heating the water slowly until it reaches boiling temperature. It never jumped out, it died. It didn't even realize that the temperature was being raised slowly.
Shaytan doesn't want you to do the haram thing right away because you'll realize it's wrong. And you'll just seek Allah's protection. So he'll come at you with innocent things. Innocent things. And then you're like, what's the big deal? Why are you making such a big deal out of this? You won't even realize it.
And then he'll come back and make you a little bit more. And everybody else around you will be like, don't do this. He'll say, come on, what is a haram? What have I done? Have I killed someone? What have I done? Why are you making such a big deal out of it? That's exactly what shaytan does.
And he did that with them using all kinds of deception. It's interesting that in the Arabic language the word ghurur means deception. It also means pride. He put people's pride in them. That when they would
make a small mistake, and somebody would correct them, or somebody would try to remind them. It didn't matter if it was the wife, or the husband, or the mother, or the father.
Somebody would try to remind them, all of a sudden they would become maghrur. They would get full of themselves. No, what are you talking about? Who are you to correct me? And their ego would get in the way. That same problem that shaytan had of pride, he tries to inject it to humanity.
The Exposure of Nakedness and Loss of Shame
But anyway, he succeeded over time. Now we're learning that he didn't get our parents to the tree right away. You read the ayah, he whispered to them, and they said, okay, good idea. And they went, no, no, no, no, no. It took a long time before they got there. And they made their classical mistake. Allah عز وجل says:
Their nudity, their ugliness came out. It was exposed. Their clothes were removed. Allah عز وجلas a consequence of that act, their clothes were removed.
This is actually a very powerful, philosophical, symbolic teaching in the Quran. Not only we take it literally, but there are lots of wisdom inside of it. When a human being goes down the road of haram, whether it's haram food, haram earning, haram behavior, when we decide that we are going to break the rules of Allah, when Allah told us stay away from this, and you don't stay away from it, then slowly but surely you lose your shame. You will lose your shame.
You will lose your hesitation. Your eyes, you will have a hard time lowering them. Your tongue, filthy words will come out, and you're not gonna have any control over it. You're gonna be shameless in your speech, shameless with your eyes, shameless with your actions. It will go down a spiral, and it's all related to you going near what seemed unrelated, some fruit of some tree. But when you disobey Allah in anything, and you go near His hurmat, the most gifted thing Allah has given you, your haya, your shame, your modesty, your sense of hesitation, He will rip that away from you. You don't deserve it.
The Natural Response: Seeking to Cover
So now when they did this act, their nudity was exposed, and what did they do?
They immediately started covering themselves with the leaves of Jannah. They got humiliated, and they started clothing themselves.
What are we learning? It is in the nature of the children of Adam, to not be naked in front of each other, to clothe themselves, to cover themselves. This is put in the nature of Adam's children. So all human
beings are naturally inclined to be covered.
A little girl, a little boy, that is not... Once they reach even a little bit of consciousness, they're 2 years old, 3 years old, 4 years old, they're little. They're not intellectual beings by any stretch of the imagination. But if father walks in and mother was changing their clothes, they get ashamed. Or they wanna hide under a blanket. Allah put a sense of shame naturally inside the human being.
How Shaytan Makes Ugly Things Appear Beautiful
But what happens when shaitan does whispers and whispers and whispers? He takes everything that is supposed to be ugly, and he converts it into beautiful.
Shaitan took their deeds and beautified it for them. With iman, with faith. What Allah made ugly, we see as ugly. What Allah made beautiful, we see as beautiful. But if you let shaitan into your heart, the things that are supposed to be ugly, start becoming beautiful.
And so you get to a point in society where the less you're clothed, the more exposed your clothing is. And that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم would say:
(Sahih Muslim 2128)
That women will be inclined to wear at a stage clothes, even though they're clothed, they're practically naked anyway. The clothes would hug their bodies so much that it's just spray paint on their bodies, it's not even clothes. That's what that would become. That this will become beautiful to humanity.
The Balance: Proper Expression of Beauty
But then on the other hand, this is by the way shaitan's trap, right? That the ultimate failing of the human being will be when shamelessness is celebrated. And by the way, what do they do? Even the young guys that are here, that are having a really hard time in Ramadan, because they made a promise to themselves that they're not gonna watch a movie.
Right? What do they do to sell you a movie? They make trailers. And what do they do in these trailers? It's a trailer of some action film, there's explosions happening, there's a car chase, there's a fight, there's some guy getting kicked in the face, whatever. In the middle somewhere, they'll have some nudity for a few seconds. The movie has nothing to do with that, but they'll throw that in, and say, ah, now I gotta watch it. Now they hook you in like that. They celebrate shamelessness. They celebrate what was supposed to be covered from the eyes of humanity.
But then, there's another extreme. The other extreme is we're supposed to be modest. We're supposed to be bashful. We're supposed to protect our haya. Astaghfirullah. And now you just look down your entire
life, and the only experience in life you have is looking at dirt and grass. And you don't even wanna look at the girl you're gonna marry. And even after you get married, in some Muslim cultures, we're so religious, we're more religious than the Quran. And we're more religious than the sunnah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم
So the wife is wearing like jilbab, and hijab, and she's completely covered even at home. And she never even beautifies herself for her husband. She doesn't even dress herself up for her husband. She never even tries to seduce her husband. And when you say, why don't you do that? Astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah. Like that's not astaghfirullah. That's astaghfirullah you're covered up.
Because when the relationship between a man and a woman is not beautified under the shade of halal, when the relationship is not beautified under the shade of halal, then shaitan has the opportunity to say to the man, you will find what you're looking for outside that shade. Then you'll find it outside. You understand?
Allah's Guidance on Beauty and Modesty
So this is actually something Allah عز وجل protected us from in the Quran to beautify and romanticize the relationship within the marriage. How did He do so? Allah عز وجل says in the same surah, He says, describing:
Hold on to your beauty when you come before Allah and make sajda. Beautify yourself before Allah. And then later on He says:
Who's telling you, who's gonna prohibit the beauty that Allah created? Allah is not telling you, you should cover this beauty all the time. Allah is telling you, there's an appropriate place for this beauty. There's an appropriate setting for this beauty. He doesn't wanna deny you that beauty. He made it so that you would be attracted to it, but you'd find the proper means to it, the proper road to it. That's the reason He did it.
And that's why He says:
SubhanAllah. We sent clothing down to you. We revealed clothing. Allah says in this ayah, that clothing just like the Quran, just like wahi, is a revealed gift of Allah. And just like we beautify the Quran, you're supposed to wear beautiful clothes. Modest but beautiful clothes. And it covers your ugliness. And then He says:
وريشا
And by the way, clothing is a means by which you are to be beautified. The word (رِيش - reesh) actually in Arabic literally means a feather.
قَبْلَ الرَّمْي يُرَاسُ السَّهْمُ
Before you shoot the arrow, you put feathers on the arrow. So the idea of feathers, back in the day, women used to put feathers on their clothes and decorations and things like that. The idea is to decorate, to beautify.
Modern Challenges and the Need for Balance
Allah (عز وجل) is actually giving us a profound balance. Our world today in the United States and in the modern world, and much of the Muslim world that is modernizing in all the wrong ways. What do you see? You see beautiful roads and infrastructure. You see government. You see technology. You see so many good things happening in society.
But in one thing, humanity is losing its own self. And that is we're celebrating shamelessness. We're celebrating nudity. We're celebrating obscenity. You know, young kids know foul language beyond the adult's vocabulary. And they learn it at school with each other. Mobile devices have given you access to things that will rip the soul out of your body. And now you're exposed to this stuff all the time. All the time. You're being hit with these images. You're being hit with these words, these messages.
We have to on the one hand protect ourselves. But that beauty that Allah created inside of us, you can't just cover it up and expect that it's not gonna have an effect on you. It needs a proper outlet. It needs a channel. It needs to escape in some meaningful purposeful way. And that is actually the institution of marriage. That's the institution.
A Practical Religion for Imperfect People
Allah (عز وجل) has given us a beautiful practical religion. He doesn't expect you and me to become saints. He doesn't. There are sahaba (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُم أَجْمَعِين - radi Allahu anhum ajma'een) they were companions of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) who had a life before Islam. They had a life. And they didn't exactly have like Astaghfirullah sister over there. That's not the life they lived. There are some of them, you would call them basically players. That's what they were.
And even after Islam, they had a hard time coming out of that life. One would even come to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) and say, O Rasulullah, I'm really sorry, I kissed a girl on the street. A sahabi did that on the street. And Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) just told him to pray a couple of rak'ah because he's still getting better. He's getting there. I'm not saying that's okay for you.
But I'm saying for those that had come just into Islam, and it was a journey for them. That the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) did not drop it on him and say, haven't you heard the story of Adam (عليه السلام - alayhis salam)? Don't you know that this is how we were dropped out of Jannah? And you're following the footsteps, there was no long lecture. Just pray two rak'ah, apologize to Allah, and don't let it happen again.
A Call to Repentance and Change
Don't be so hard on yourself. Some of you have made mistakes in your past. Some of you are continuing to make mistakes. This is the time to turn back to Allah. Pray a couple of rak'ah, ask Allah for strength that you get out of those relationships, that you get out of those addictions. Nobody has to know about this.
You don't have to come and admit them to me or anybody else. Allah already knows what you've been up to. Allah already knows. If you cannot find the strength of your hearts in this month, then you can't ever find it. This is the time to get out of that mess. This is the time like no other.
So I pray to Allah (عز وجل) that those of you and those of us that have made mistakes or are continuing to make mistakes, that Allah gives us the strength of iman that we're able to come out of these mistakes. And that we're able to recognize that that's actually the shaitan pulling us in. And we're able to pull out. And we can take what is otherwise haram and we can go the way that Allah has opened for us, the way of the halal.
Closing Du'a and Prayer
"Indeed, Allah orders justice and good conduct and giving to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression. He admonishes you that perhaps you will be reminded."
"Indeed, prayer has been decreed upon the believers a decree of specified times."
"Recite, [O Muhammad], what has been revealed to you of the Book and establish prayer. Indeed, prayer prohibits immorality and wrongdoing, and the remembrance of Allah is greater. And Allah knows that which you do."