Revenge of the Fallen

Revenge of the Fallen

Opening and Introduction to Adam's Story

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Allah in the Quran in a number of places mentions the story of Adam, alayhi salatu wa salam. He mentions in Surah Al-Baqarah, for example:

He mentions his creation, also in Surah Al-A'raf, Surah Al-Taha. And Allah after He mentions his creation, He mentions that Allah:

Allah taught him the names—how to name things, as one of the great scholars of Tafsir mentioned—how to categorize and name things. And then Allah showed him an enemy. And Allah made it clear to him and his wife:

Don't come close to this tree, or you'll become from people who are losers.

The Enemy of Adam and Humanity

After this, Allah teaches us an important lesson in the story of Adam—the enemy of Adam, our father, and consequently the enemy of all humanity. So Allah in different places says:

He teaches us about Shaytan, Satan, this devil, and how he was able to deceive Adam and his wife, and be the means which eventually led to their expulsion from paradise.

The Nature of Paradise

Allah in the Quran—some ulama said that the jannah which Adam and his wife were in is not the same jannah that Allah promised for His righteous servants. But this is a weak opinion. Because when Allah in the Quran talks about jannah, the jannah in the hereafter, He always uses the definite article (المعرف), either through possession (إضافة مضاف إليه) or through the lam alif (لام ألف).

So whenever Allah talks about jannah, the jannah of the hereafter, He says الجنة. And in the Quran when Allah talks about a garden in this dunya, He uses what's called the indefinite article (نكرة). As Imam Ibn Malik mentioned:

نَكِرَةٌ قَابِلُ أَلْ مُؤَثِرْ ... مَوْقِعْ نَكِرَةٌ وَالذِّكْرَةُ

So when Allah talks about jannah in the hereafter He uses الجنة with lam alif. When Allah talks about a garden in this life, He uses the indefinite article with tanween. So when Allah addressed Adam and his wife, He said:

He used the definite article. For this reason, the ulema said that the jannah which Adam and his wife were in is the same jannah which Allah promised those who believed in Him and submitted to His way of life, Islam.

Addressing All of Humanity

For this reason, sometimes in the story, Allah said:

He said to Adam and his wife: Both of you get out of paradise. So He used what's called a dual. But in other places in the Quran:

Allah talks to a group of people, although at that time there's only Adam and who? And his wife. So here the ulema said Allah is addressing Adam and his dhurriyyah—Adam and his offspring, all of humanity in this verse.

The Clear Warning About Shaytan

Allah taught him about this enemy. And Allah said:

This is an enemy to you and to your wife. And He called Shaytan, the devil, an enemy. And Allah said in Surah Yasin:

Take him as an enemy. Don't take him as a wali. Don't make him a friend or protector. As mentioned in Surah An-Nisa:

Whoever takes Shaytan as a protector is indeed in great loss.

The Traps of Shaytan

So Allah shows us this enemy and talks about His qualities, His talents, His abilities. That's why numerous scholars wrote books about مكايد الشيطان the traps that Shaytan sets for people to make them fall.

Because when Allah exonerated Adam and his wife by teaching them repentance:

Another recitation (قراءة ابن كثير). The gist of the meaning is that Allah taught him and his wife these words of repentance:

Iblis's Oath and Determination

Allah reveals to us the true nature of Iblis, Shaytan, in different places in the Quran. When, for example, he says:

This is a tough statement in Arabic. He says: "I swear by Your Izzah, I will deviate them, all of them." This lam also means "I swear." I will deviate them, all of them.

In other places in the Quran he says:

And he swears to Allah: I will come at them from the right and from the left, and you will find very few of them thankful to you. You will find very few of them are shakirin.

So Allah illustrates the hatred that Iblis has for the sons of Adam. This anger, this hasad which he had towards Adam caused him to swear in front of Allah:

فَبِعِزَّتِكَ لَأُغْوِيَنَّهُمْ

I hear a lam—it's called lam al-tawkid, which means a lam of certainty, and at the end of it, the noon of tawkid also. "I will indeed, indeed, misguide indeed, all of them, all of them." This is the meaning in Arabic. So you feel this guy doesn't like you. He's not your homie. But he's destined to use all of his ability and all of his talents to make you fall, to make you slip, to make you mess up.

The Tools of Shaytan

And Allah mentions some of the tools of Shaytan:

He says in Surah An-Nisa: I swear I'm going to lead them astray, and I swear I will make them procrastinate. "Oh, I'll make Hajj insha'Allah when I'm in my sixties." As many of our brothers and sisters in Arab countries

sometimes say: "What, insha'Allah when I'm 60, I'll make Hajj." Masha'Allah, who said you got 60? Who guaranteed you 60?

وَلَأُمَتِّيَنَّهُمْ - I'll make them procrastinate.

وَلَآمُرَنَّهُمْ - And I will order them to change the fitrah of Allah.

And I swear I will lead them astray.

The Guidance That Protects Us

That being said, Allah equipped His servants with knowledge—the knowledge of revelation:

Allah says: If there comes to you guidance from Me, and you follow this guidance—this is the meaning—you'll never be scared nor grieve. You'll not fear in this dunya, and you'll not grieve in the hereafter.

Another verse:

Allah says: If there comes to you guidance from Me, whoever follows My guidance—the implied meaning- you'll never go astray, you'll never be sad and regret.

The Names and Nature of Iblis

Allah sent the prophets and the books to remind us of this important battle between good and evil, between Shaytan and the believer. That Shaytan is his enemy, and that Shaytan's goal is to deceive and trick this person. That's why his name is Iblis:

وَلْيَلْبِسَ الْحَقَّ بِالْبَاطِلِ

He is the one who causes things to be confused—shak and tawahum. His other name is Shaytan. Shaytan means something which has given up hope (خَلَصَ) there is no hope, there is no raja for this entity. So his goal is to try to destroy and attack the people.

The Three Doors of Shaytan

That's why Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim said that Shaytan will come at you from seven different ways through three major doors. These three major doors lead to a big house which Shaytan plays in and works on the people.

The First Door: Anger

The first door is the door of anger. How many brothers—when I work in Egypt (no disrespect to Egyptians, because we get this question from all over the Arab countries, not just Egypt)—how many people divorce their

wife out of anger? Subhanallah, you'll be shocked. Most of the time, people divorce their wife, it's out of anger.

لَا طَلَاقَ بِإِغْلَاقٍ )Sahih Hadith(

The Prophet said—alhamdulillah. Then the brother says: "Wallahi, I wasn't wanting to divorce her, I was just mad at her." I say: "Masha'Allah."

And how many times has a father or mother said something crazy to their kids? As one young brother told me— he's in his early twenties, can you imagine his whole life? He's in a very good university here in America. He told me: "One day I came home, my father was mad at me, and he said: 'Wallahi, you've done nothing good in this life. Never I saw you do one good thing." Subhanallah, you'll destroy your son if you say something like this to him.

Or how many times we said something to our husbands out of complete anger. So the first door is the door of anger. Shaytan comes through anger. Because what caused him to be astray is anger. That's why the ulama said anger is the symptom of kibr. Anger is the symptom of arrogance. Because people get angry usually when they feel they're violated. So someone who's mutakabbir is somebody who sees themselves as something great— constantly you'll find him angry at people because he feels everybody violated his space.

That's why the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, taught Abu Hurairah, radiyallahu anhu. When the man came to the Prophet and said: "Advise me," the Prophet said: "Don't become angry." He said: "Advise me." The Prophet said: "Don't become angry." He said it again: "Don't become angry."

Imam An-Nawawi said it doesn't mean that you won't become angry, because becoming angry is something from our nature. But he said: Don't act on your anger. Chill out. Take it easy.

The Second Door: Negligence (Ghaflah)

The second door which Shaytan comes to the people through is the door of ghaf lah—negligence:

وَلَأُمَنِّيَنَّهُمْ

That people are going to procrastinate until they die. Imagine now, if you're 35, you're only 15 years away from 50. If you're 50, you're 15 years away from 65. If you're 65, you might be 15 years away from your grave. This is a reality.

Fudayl ibn Ayyad, one time he came into the masjid and he found a man there, an older gentleman, and he said to him: "السلام عليكم." Imam Fudayl said to him: "أجائز أنت؟" - Are you ready for the trip? And then he said to Fudayl: "I'm not going anywhere, I don't have any plans." Then he said: "بئس ما قلت" - This is the worst thing you could have said. He said: "Why, where am I going?" He said: "سبحان الله, you're around 60, 70 years old, you're not thinking about the grave?"

Then the man started crying. He said:

So, الغفلة to be negligent.

"Oh, I'm young, I'm just 17, 18, 19. I'm going to have some fun right now. I'm going to kick it till I'm like 23. Then when I turn 23, I'm going to kick it till I'm 30. And then I'm going to chill. From 23 to 30, I'm going to chill. From 30 to 40, I'm going to chill. From 40 to 50, I'm going to chill. From 50 to 60, I'm going to chill. From 60 to 70, I'm going to die. And then I'm going to be thrown into the hellfire because I chilled my whole life."

So this—can't believe I just said that—this is some old-school DJ stuff right there. Although it's funny, it's very serious. It's a very serious issue. الغفلة means to be negligent. And Allah mentions that people of ghaflah are stupider than cows:

Allah says in the 7th chapter of Quran: These people are like cows—nay, in fact, more ignorant than cows. They are the negligent ones.

In Oklahoma, we have cows. You know what time in the morning cows wake up? At dawn. They pray Fajr. The negligent person, what time does he wake up? 9:30. He's dumber than a cow. The cow prays Fajr.

One young Muslim came to me once and said: "My dad prays four times a day, masha'Allah." Four times a day? Yeah, four times a day. And that's a very dangerous symptom. Because the Prophet ﷺ said: "If the people knew the reward of coming to Fajr, they would come to it crawling." And he said: "The most difficult salah on the hypocrite is Fajr."

Now I understand many of us have to be at work by 6:30 or 7, so we can pray Fajr in our home—alhamdulillah, no problem. We can pray Fajr in our cubicle. As one brother told me: "How can I remember Allah in Cisco, in my cubicle?" I said: "If Yunus could remember Allah in the belly of a fish, you can remember Allah in your cubicle in Cisco." He said: "That's true."

Signs of Negligence

So being negligent. And there are some signs of negligence:

Number one: Hating worship. When it's time to pray, when it's time to worship, the person feels as though they're going to meet the income tax man. It's hard on their body. It's difficult on the heart. The heart is weighed down like rocks and stone.

Number two: Turning away from Dhikr. Because either we're remembering Allah, or we're remembering something else.

Number three: No Tawbah. The person very seldomly repents to Allah. May Allah give us Al-Afiyah.

Number four: Absence of Awlawiyat (priorities). So instead of spending time with my kids and feeling how important it is to spend time with my kids, I spend time watching some TV, reading the newspaper—not just a few minutes, talking about like a few hours. And then when my son wants to throw a football with me, it's like: "Oh man." It's very difficult to spend time with my husband, to spend time on what really matters in the hereafter. I'll find it difficult on myself.

These are all signs of ghaflah.

The Remedy for Ghaflah

The way to remedy this ghaflah, number one, is to think about death:

(Hadith)

The Prophet said: Think about death a lot—it destroys this type of ghaflah.

Every soul is gonna die. To think about this responsibility we have with Allah. That's why on the day of Eid, a day of celebration, a day where everyone's happy, the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam—it's his sunnah to read in the second rakah Surah Al-Ghashiyah.

Why does he read Surah Al-Ghashiyah on the day of Eid? To remind the Muslims: Have fun, enjoy yourself, but don't forget you have responsibilities:

He balances between Farah and Khawf.

The Third Door: Desires (Shahawat)

The third door that Shaytan comes through is the door of desires—Shahawat.

And we know when Allah created Paradise, He told Jibreel:

اذْهَبْ إِلَيْهَا فَانظُرْ إِلَيْهَا

Go look at it. Jibreel looked at it, then he came back and Allah asked him: "What do you think about it?" Jibreel said: "Anyone that hears about it will go to it. Anybody that hears about this place, he will long for it."

Then Allah ordered that the Paradise be surrounded with hardships and difficulties—the incline. And then He ordered: "Jibreel, go and look at it now." Jibreel came back to Him. He said: "I don't think many people can make it."

Then when He created the Hellfire )لَمَّا خَلَقَ اللهُ تَعَالَى النَّارَ He ordered Jibreel: "When He created the Hellfire, go and look at the Hellfire." He looked at it. He came back to Allah. He said: "Anyone who hears about it, they will

not go there. They will hate to go there. They will despise this place."

Then Allah ordered it to be surrounded by something, and He ordered: "Jibreel, now look at it." He came back and said: "No one will escape it."

What was that? Those things which appeal to the soul—desires. "I can go to Fajr and study in the morning, but it's so easy just to make wudu, pray by my bed, and go right back to sleep." هكذا النفس.

At school, to hold it down as a Muslim—it's not easy, man. High school, يا سلام. Last year I went to Wilcox High School. رحمكم الله أيها الشباب - May Allah have mercy upon our young Muslim brothers and sisters. I was shocked. I graduated from high school in 1990.

When I went to high school in a public school system, you could not wear shorts. It was forbidden to wear shorts. And girls were not allowed to wear mini skirts. Now this would be the Taliban—this was a non-Muslim school board! There was no music. You're not allowed to bring music in the school unless it's Beethoven or Mozart.

Now it's the opposite. You shouldn't wear clothes at school, and you can listen to whatever you want. سبحان الله!

So parents, when our young Muslim brothers and sisters struggle in high school, this is a deep current that they have to swim through. You can anchor them down and cause them to drown, or you can be the lifeboat which is going to help them pull through this current, man. Because Shaytan is working on them.

So holding it down in high school is hard, man. Being a religious person is difficult enough as it is. In the professional world, where sometimes we get so caught up in who we are: "I'm going to knock off this deal. I know this manager at Cisco. We like this. All I got to do is cut a few phone calls. I'm going to get this deal right here." With no insha'Allah.

So we get caught up in the professional world, and we forget Allah, and we start to think: "أنا قادر على كل شيء" - I'm the one who's running the show. But Allah says:

Allah is in control of everything. So the disease of desires—either feeling powerful, feeling uloom, not being successful (because being successful is important), but attributing success ultimately to Allah is a difficult challenge.

So that's why I tell brothers: When you cut a deal at work or you get a promotion, say: "الحمد لله، الحمد لله خلاص" - Praise Allah. Make some sadaqah. Do some khair. Do some good to the people.

Allah says: If you're thankful to Me, I'll increase you.

The Seven Levels of Iblis's Attack

After that, Iblis works through a number of ways which the ulema mentioned:

Level One: Disbelief

Number one is to make you a non-Muslim. This is his ultimate goal. That's why in some athar it says that when a Muslim dies on shahada, Iblis cries. And when the non-Muslim dies on kufr, Iblis laughs. He feels pleasure. He was successful in misguiding one of the sons of Adam.

Level Two: Innovation (Bid'ah)

Number two is innovation. He will try to get someone—if he cannot make them a disbeliever—to fall into innovation. And Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim said that this is one of the most difficult tests because usually people make innovations in what? In acts of worship. So how can you come to tell someone and say: "Come to someone and tell them, what you're doing is wrong." "I'm worshipping Allah, yeah." "Yeah, but this is wrong." "But I'm worshipping Allah."

So he says Shaytan beautifies for this person this bid'ah, this innovation. May Allah protect us.

Level Three: Major Sins (Al-Kabair)

Number three is the major sins. Major sins are what's called al-kabair. And those are the sins which Allah either called them haram in the Quran, or the Prophet called them haram in hadith, or they are linked to some type of punishment in the hereafter or in this dunya. These are called kabair.

Level Four: Minor Sins

Number four: the minor sins. If you cannot get someone to be a disbeliever, or be a person of bid'ah, or be a person of major sins, next is the minor sins. Those things which the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, discouraged, or Allah discouraged, but they did not link them to a grievous punishment in the hereafter, nor is there any hadd (penal punishment) for them in this dunya.

Level Five: Permissible Things (Mubah)

The next are what? The permissible things. If Iblis cannot get someone to be a kafir, or to be ahl al-bid'ah, or to fall into major sins, or minor sins, the fifth step is what? Things that are absolutely permissible. There's no reward and no punishment. Because as long as you're in park, you're not going nowhere.

So Iblis said: "Look, if I can't get them to go into reverse spiritually, let me stop them from going forward—keep it in neutral." So keep them busy, hours upon hours.

So I had a friend, the sheikh—I'm not gonna say his name, I'll get him in trouble. He wanted to test his son. So he gave his son the opportunity to make khalwah ma'a PS3—to make khalwah, seclusion (not the seclusion of

ibadah, but the seclusion with a PlayStation 3).

He said: "I gave my son a PlayStation 3, and I wanted to see how long he could play it before he stopped. We bring him food, water. It's time to pray? Pray. That's it." He told me: "Wallahi, he played for 12 hours straight till his eyes almost fell out of his head. He looked like Beetlejuice or something. His eyes started falling out of his head."

This is an example of the permissible. It's permissible certainly in Islam, but if the permissible—as the Maliki, Imam Al-Dardir in Sharh Al-Kabir, mentioned—if the permissible take someone away from the obligatory actions, that thing becomes forbidden.

And you know what example he gave? He said: Marriage, subhanallah. He said if marriage causes someone to leave what Allah has ordered them to do, he said this person should not get married—it's no longer mubah.

So Iblis يلعب بقلوب الناس - he plays with the hearts of people in the permissible things. Like my son—he's only 4 or 5 years old, masha'Allah. So one time I told him: "Hey, why do you watch this Ben 10?" It's a cartoon called Ben 10—it's pretty cool, by the way. I said: "Why do you watch Ben 10 all the time?" He said: "I'm not a sheikh, and I'm still a kid. I can do what I want." I said: "No, you're a sheikh, because that's the answer of a sheikh right there. That's a scary answer that you gave."

So I watched him for hours, hours, hours watching Ben 10. He mastered how to use YouTube and type B-E-N-1-0. That's the only word, that's his sight word. Sorry, I need to send him to Granada. His only sight word is Ben 10, the Transformers.

But see how, subhanallah, even though he's a young boy, of course—but how many of us are older people? Sports. All we do is play sports every day. "Baby, I'm not coming home tonight. I'm going to play sports." You're 45 years old, brother. What you playing sports for? Every day. You got a big contract? You got an agent? Someone bringing home some halal bacon? "No, no, I'm just going to play sports every single day for hours and hours and hours on end."

I love to play sports myself. And look, in the time of the Romans, there was a historical event that happened that was very interesting. When Rome was about to collapse, there was a major decision to be made by the emperor of Rome. So his general said to him: "Either we can bring sand from Egypt, we can fill the Colosseum and have horse races, and the people will get drunk and forget about how bad we are as a government, or we can take the money and feed the people."

So the emperor of Rome said: "You idiot. This is not even up for conjecture. Get the sand for the chariot races." This is a historical event. So they brought the sand for the chariot races. People watched thousands of lions eating people. Maybe Russell Crowe was out there running around or something. And what happened? They forgot about their problems.

Level Six: Choosing the Lesser Good

The next is that Iblis will get you to choose between the lesser of two good deeds. If you're going to move forward now, fine, but I'm going to cause you to take the road which has less ajr. And the way to be safe from that is what Ibn Al-Qayyim said: (فرض الوقت - To understand the obligation of time). What is the best thing to do at this moment in this time?

Level Seven: Physical Assault by Jinn

Finally—and I don't want to get into this because I know people like to get into this kind of spooky stuff— Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim said if all of that breaks down, he attacks you with the jinn. Physically assaults you. (والله على وجن)

Building a Compassionate Community

That being said, in our struggle to Allah, there are a few points I want to make as I finish.

We All Make Mistakes

Number one: All of us are going to make mistakes. Some of those mistakes might be massive. Some of those mistakes might be small. But as a community here, we have to exercise a term that I keep saying over and over again: Compassionate Orthodoxy.

There are many people in this community who made mistakes. They will not come to this masjid now. A few days ago, a dear brother of mine—he's not known in the community, very dear friend of mine—I said to him: "Where are you, man? I haven't seen you." He said: "No, people at MCA talking about me." I'm sure people at MCA don't even know him. I bet none of you know him. But somehow Shaytan is telling him that he's like on the front page of the Friday newspaper.

How can we eliminate that stigma? First of all, we need to create an environment where we're acceptive of mistakes. Meaning that we forgive and we help. Not that we agree to errors and mistakes, but we'll help people who make mistakes. We're there for people who make mistakes because we make mistakes ourselves.

The Prophet ﷺ said: "Tuba"—the Prophet ﷺ said: "Paradise for the one whose mistakes keep him busy, whose mistakes keep him busy from other people's mistakes."

But we know that the Prophet ﷺ said in a sound hadith:

(Sunan Ibn Majah 4251, Sunan At-Tirmidhi 2499)

Every son of Adam makes mistakes. And (خطاء) is called (صيغة المبالغة), which means a lot of mistakes—not just one mistake, but many mistakes.

The Prophet's Example with Sinners

And in the time of the Prophet ﷺ, people got drunk, people smoked the equivalent of weed in those days in the

Arabian Peninsula. People committed adultery. People got into fights. People murdered. I'm not saying that these things are good, but I'm telling you that the Prophet ﷺ dealt with human condition. And when those people made mistakes, the first place they went to is to the masjid, and the second place they went to is to the Prophet ﷺ.

Because they trusted the community. They knew that they would not be indicted by the community, but they would be given transcendence and strength by the community.

How many of us here today, we got some drama in our life—some crazy, wild, mad drama—and we're terrified.

"If anyone, if Sheikh Suhaib finds out, I go to the masjid..." Arrogant. One time I met a brother, and I was very busy. He said salam to me, and I gave him the busy imam salam. Then he came to me and said: "You know what I did?" I said: "I don't know what you did, brother." He was so concerned, so worried. So what? If I'm your brother, I should be there to help you.

At the end of the day, we're not imams, we're not sheikhs, we're not the principals of the Islamic school. We're brothers and sisters.

The Masjid as a Place of Redemption

So number one: We make mistakes. And the greatest agent that Shaytan can use to destroy the fallen is to make the very community which should be the clinic for the sinner the last place that that sinner would want to come to. Because the masjid is a place of redemption. That's why it's called mihrab. Mihrab is from harb. Harb means a war, because that's the place you fight Shaytan.

But if the community doesn't support the one who's fighting Shaytan and recognize that we don't have an institutionalized religious expression—some people got trauma, some people masha'Allah awliyaullah, some people awliya Shaytan, some people awliya Beyoncé, some people awliya Jay-Z, some people awliya...

So how do we deal with ourselves as a community? Doesn't mean that I'm saying go out and sin. Of course not. Don't go home tonight and say: "You know, I'm going to the club because Suhaib said we got this compassionate orthodox thing going on." It's not what I'm saying. But we realize the human element of religion exists. And while the holy book we read is holy, and the statements of the Prophet ﷺ are holy, the readings of those books are human, and they're not holy. They make mistakes.

Building Trust Through Love

So the revenge of the fallen—one of the greatest ways we can overcome Shaytan is to be a community of love, compassion, mercy, forgiveness. We don't backbite people's kids. "Ooh, masha'Allah. Masha'Allah son. Masha'Allah beta. Masha'Allah ibni. Masha'Allah nur aqalli. Anta ahsan min da. You're better than their son. Why? You heard what happened to their son? He got busted smoking shisha. Masha'Allah ibni. Masha'Allah my son. Masha'Allah beta. You're so great."

You're destroying your brothers and sisters like this, man. "Ooh, they're better than you." Parents sometimes tell their children: "They're better than you. Why? You did this, you did that." It's not how we're going to build a

community. How we're going to build trust.

The Prophet's Approach to Those Who Struggle

How we build trust is how the Prophet ﷺ dealt with the people who struggle. When a man comes to the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ in a sound narration, and he's upset, the Prophet ﷺ recognizes he's upset. He goes to him, says: "What's up?" He said: "Rasulullah..." I didn't say "what's up," but he said: "What's wrong?" He said: "I've committed so many sins. I've done so many bad things, man. It's over. I'm X'd out."

The Prophet ﷺ told him what? "Sit down. Sit down. And repeat after me." He said: "Okay."

The Prophet ﷺ told him to say: "O Allah, Your forgiveness is greater than my sin, and my hope in You is greater than my fear of my evil action." The Prophet ﷺ told him: "Say it three times." He said it three times. The Prophet ﷺ said: (قُمْ فَقَدْ غَفَرَ اللَّهُ لَكَ) - "Stand, Allah has forgiven you." That's how the Prophet ﷺ dealt with someone who has drama in his community.

Creating Practical Mechanisms for Support

So that takes us to something important. That's a rhetoric. We can talk about being compassionate. We can talk about being merciful. We can talk about being non-indictive. But we have to start to create mechanisms within our community that support those who are the fallen, those who have struggled.

Practical Proposals

So for example, I propose to our young brothers and sisters in the community to have an anonymous youth hotline. If you know a young person in high school that's got problems and he's a young Muslim: "Like, yeah, call Shaykh Ibrahim, man. He'll help you out." "I ain't calling Shaykh, are you crazy? Ooh, call Suhaib." "No, no, no, no, no. Go to Sahib Zahir." "I ain't calling him. Go to Sahib, man." "Okay, call Imam Muhammad." "No, no, no, I ain't calling."

But if you said: "Here's an anonymous youth hotline. You can talk to a fellow Muslim youngster who's been trained." We have a lot of talented counselors in our community. They might go for that. So you have an instrument that helps people.

We have counseling here, alhamdulillah, for people that have problems in their life. We shouldn't want to know who went to see Dr. Kamal. "Who went to see Dr. Kamal this week?" We should pray for the people that have trouble, that have to go see the shaykh. We should pray for those young brothers and sisters who have problems.

So thinking of instruments that help the sinner—all of us are sinners—that help the one who's struggling to come back to Allah, the one who's trying to draw nearer to Allah.

The Danger of Religious Utopianism

(حياة شيخ الإسلام ابن تيمية، حياة الرسول، حياة الصحابة؟ هل شهدتم أيها) But (الأعراب على رأسي) And I say this with all respect

(الأحباب أحلام. حياة أحباب الله). Like these movies they have over there about the lives of the Sahaba, the lives of the righteous. Look how they speak Arabic in those movies. Have you ever thought about it? They spoke Fusha.

But do you really think they spoke Fusha like Othello or Hamlet?

(يا رسول الله لقد قتلت ابني" ?You think that's how they talked " . يا رسول الله وكنت أردت أرى الشمس في وجهك من مكة المكرمة" بالسيف)." That's how they talked? That's not how they spoke. They spoke like humans.

But we've institutionalized religion to such an extent that when we watch historical figures, we romanticize their expressions. We romanticize the way that they carry themselves, so there's no human feeling to it. So the guy comes and urinates in the Prophet ﷺ's masjid. If you watch in the movies like: "(هل يوجد مكان هنا لكي أتخلص من حاجتي؟ تفضل يا أخي. وبعدين أشكركم لعلكم إيه؟ وإلى آخرها)." That's not how he talked. He said: "Look, I need to use the restroom. Where's the spot in the masjid?" I bet that's how he said it.

But institutionalization of religion has taken the breath and life out of religion. That's why I said it many times: Shaykh Muhammad Abduh, rahimullah, he told Imam Rashid Rida: "Whoever studied in Al-Azhar more than eight years, it's impossible to deal with him."

And that's why many of you have trouble dealing with religious personalities. Because we come out of those institutions institutionalized. We're not able to deal with the human element because we've been living with books for too long. And that's why Imam Ibn Khaldun, rahimullah, in his Muqaddimah said: "Woe to the scholar who lives in his books. Deal with the people. Keep the religion relevant. Give life to the religion. Understand that people make mistakes."

And that comes out of modernity and the concept of religious utopianism, which we inherited from our arch enemies, the evangelicals. Now we're trying to make, alhamdulillah, better relations with them. But at one time, about nine months ago, we weren't very good friends.

So the Muslims, when we inherited modernity and the idealism of modernity and the reality of religious utopianism, we have extremism in the Muslim world. Because people turned religion into engineering. And it's interesting that many of the leaders of those extremist movements happen to be engineers, scientists. Ya wallahi.

Whereas the alim, the sheikh, especially in Al-Azhar and other places, they study poetry. We study Immanuel Kant in Al-Azhar, freshman year in high school—Immanuel Kant. And you have to learn a second language in Al-Azhar, even in Kulliyyat ash-Shari'ah. Because they want you to be what? A rounded person. When you deal with the Muslims, you're not dealing with Ali Ghumar. You're dealing with Fulan Sahib Abba Tafuul. You're dealing with a normal person. A normal person. Khalas.

Effort Is Perfection, Not Results

The last point about this perfection is that the Prophet ﷺ taught us that effort is perfection, not results. As one sister told me: "If Abu Bakr came to my house to marry me, my father would say: 'No, we're waiting on Muhammad ﷺ to show up.'" Our condition is so high, and these young brothers and sisters can't handle it. We have young Muslims now on Prozac. Why?

"I want you in Harvard. I want you to speak Arabic perfectly. I want you to be a Hafidh. I want you to crack six figures your first year out of college. I want you to marry Yasmin from Al-Adeen. I want everything like this. I want Brad Pitt in Shalwar Kameez. Oh, there'll be love. Yeah?"

And then these young brothers and sisters are like: "Wow, man, I'm human. I got a B-minus." "What? I got a B-minus in Berkeley Law School." "What? A B-minus? You know what a B-minus is? You shame the whole family. From this day to the time of the Prophet ﷺ—because we're from the family of the Prophet ﷺ—you shame the whole family." "No, no, all the way to Adam." Masha'Allah.

Then we wonder why our daughters and our kids don't talk to us. They don't like us. When they come home, what do they do? They go into Guantanamo Bay. Boom! And get online. Yeah, that's a reality. Because we're not connecting with them. We're indicting them. We're not empowering them. We're destroying them because of an understanding of perfection which is based on a utopian set of constructs not found in Islam.

The Example of Michael Vick

The Prophet ﷺ, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, said in the sound hadith that success is effort. Success is to try. Success is to do your best. And as a parent, you think that your child is going to succeed without you? Look at Michael Vick. Look at Michael Vick. Today he signed with the Philadelphia Eagles for 1.6 million dollars. Next year, 5 million dollars.

Michael Vick, three-time Pro Bowler. This guy, when he runs, you don't see him. You just see the—like, what was left over. Extremely talented. He got the MVP, I believe, one year. But he couldn't have done it without Tony Dungy. And that's what they said today. It was very interesting when I was watching ESPN. I watch ESPN. I ain't gonna lie. Right before the khutbah, actually. Trying to get some inspiration.

Tony Dungy, who's a good man—you should read his books on leadership if you're parents. They're very powerful. Three books, man. Beautiful books. A great coach in the NFL. What did he say? Today, what did they say? "There's no way Michael Vick could have done this without Tony Dungy."

If Michael Vick, with all his talent and all his athletic ability, was unable to pull this off on his own, what about our young people in our community who are not physically as gifted as someone like Michael Vick?

So the understanding of perfection that we have with our young people, man, is drastically, drastically in contradiction to the understanding of the Prophet ﷺ and how he taught the Sahaba.

The Prophet's Gentleness with Anas

When he caught Anas making a mistake, Anas said: "His hand was softer than silk. His smell was better than oud. His face was brighter than the sun." And the Prophet said to him: "Ya Unais." And even he said "Ya Unais," which is a word instead of saying Anas, Unais like Habibi Anas. Tasgheer. Like the way he says his name is like he loves him.

So he doesn't call him Anas. He says: "Ya Unais. Didn't you—did you forget what I told you to do?" "Yes, O Rasulullah." "Yallah, do it." "Okay."

He said: "Anas, he never yelled at me. He never screamed at me. He never debased me. He never did anything to make me feel that I was not empowered. He inspired me as a person."

The Power of Repentance

And the last point that we'll make is the revenge of the fallen is with repentance. Nobody's sin in this room, and nobody's mistake in this room is greater than Allah's mercy. That's a promise. Allah promised that in the Quran:

That He forgives all sins. Any mistake you've made, any hardship you've—any time you've fallen, screwed up. No problem. That's because you're human.

How Sin Can Lead to Paradise

And that's why one of the great scholars said: "How many sinners went to paradise because of their sin?" And his students got upset. "Shaykh, are you saying that it's okay to sin, Shaykh?" He said: "No. I said: How many people made mistakes, and because of those mistakes, they went to jannah?" They said: "How is that possible?"

He said: "They sin, and maybe even they continue to sin, until eventually their heart cracked and broke. And the only place they can turn to is who? Is Allah. So they flee to Allah. They race back to Allah. They repented to Allah."

And Allah took the evil that they did and turned it into hasanat, and they entered paradise because of this humility and this repentance. He said: "That's how sin could take someone to jannah." And that's the mercy of Allah. His grace, His benevolence, His forgiveness.

A Personal Story of Repentance

And I'll finish with one story. Last year when I left to Egypt, I got a strange email, unlike any email I've ever gotten before. And the person's name was like "no name at no name"─(يعني - ya'ni) "no name at no name." So I said:

"Wow, I gotta check this out. This one dragged me. If you want me to answer your email, do something crazy like that."

So I opened it up. It said: "Dear Brother Suhaib, I was a Muslim and I left Islam. I was born Muslim and I left Islam. Can you help me to come back to Islam? Subhanallah. Can you chat with me?"

He said: "Okay." So unfortunately, at my job—don't tell Dar Al-Ifta Al-Misriyyah this—while I was working, this person will be contacting me. So after some time, after about five or six months, this person broke down. I don't know who this person is till now. And told me what? "I believe in Allah. I believe in Muhammad. I'm ready to come back."

I said: "Subhanallah. How merciful is Allah?" And then the person said: "Before this, I was a bad Muslim. I was tripping. I was tripping more than a man with no feet. And Allah caused me to leave Islam. He allowed me to leave Islam." And he said: "It was through—and I'm not encouraging anyone to leave Islam here, of course—but it was by leaving Islam that I realized the blessing of Islam." And I started crying.

I said: "Subhanallah. How merciful is Allah. There's someone who rejected Him. Because of that, Allah guided them back to the deen and made them better Muslims than they were before."

Reflecting on Allah's Infinite Mercy

And that's the question you should ask yourself now in the audience: How many of you became good Muslims because of a sin? How many of you started practicing Islam because some crazy drama went down in your life?

And that's how you know that Allah's mercy is infinite. That the one who messes up, if they come back to Him sincerely, Allah guides them and brings them closer to Him and gives them the sustainment spiritually.

So that's the revenge of the fallen. We ask Allah to bless us to be from the tawwabeen. And the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, said that he made tawbah in abundance every single day, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

And the most beloved verse of the Prophet in the Quran, he said: "It's more beloved to me than anything under the heavens and the earth," is the verse of tawbah. And Allah promises in the Quran, when He talks about accepting your forgiveness, He always says:

Then Allah turned to them. And this (فاء - faa) means (بالشرعة - bishar'ah)—lightning speed. Allah turns back to the person.

Exercising Allah's Attributes in the Community

So as a community, as Imam Al-Ghazali mentioned, rahimullah ta'ala, we should try to exercise those attributes

of Allah through the community. So the attribute of mercy, the attribute of forgiveness, the attribute of patience, the attribute of 'afw. Allah said:

Would you not love that Allah forgives you? So then forgive the other people.

We ask Allah to bless us, insha'Allah, to accept our tawbah, to make us from those who He loves.

وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ

Closing Remarks

There's a lot of other things, especially I see a lot of young brothers and sisters here tonight. It makes me happy because I know Friday night live, man, it's a million other things you could be doing, and Allah guided you to come to the masjid. May Allah bless every turn of the tire that you took to get here. You have four tires, insha'Allah. It's better than walking.

As-salamu alaykum.

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Questions and Answers

Just a quick announcement. No, no, don't, don't, don't. It's my announcement, that's why I said don't do it. It's a very good question here, bismillahirrahmanirrahim. And these are really very, very personal serious questions. You feel people putting their hearts in these questions, and here's an example.

Question 1: Growing Up Without Mentorship

Question: "How do you deal with growing up with no mentorship and facing verbal abuse from parents, and now you find yourself in an undesirable situation?"

Wallahi, I want to encourage this community to start a mentorship program for young Muslims. Anonymous mentorship program. What's that mean? It's the only two people who know about it—well, outside of the one who organizes the program is the mentor and the person. Big brothers, big sister.

Because a lot of these young brothers and sisters, man, I'll give you an example: my daughter. I tried to teach my daughter to memorize the Quran. So one day at the age of five, she said: "You're too tough on me." So I said: "Wow, alright." Then I realized I had to have someone else come and do it.

When someone else—one very nice Egyptian woman, one shaykhah—she came, then my daughter started memorizing, studying. Because that's dad, you know, dad. I'm not Imam Suhaib at home. I'm Hani and Baba. Imam Suhaib stays in the doorway. Just like when you go home, you're not product manager of fulan—you're Hani and Baba. Be like that. It works.

Sending my daughter here, took her out of school with our kindergarten teacher. Wonderful teacher, wonderful woman. And my daughter to this day, she still tells me about this lady who taught her how to read.

So mentorship. I encourage the community—like Ibad, you brothers, young professionals, man. Ashraf, brothers, not to put you guys on the spot. Zubair, the Akhi Kareem. And in this age group, late 20s, mid-20s, man. This is an opportunity for you. Sajid Khan, if he's here, we'll put him on the spot. You know, our public defender.

And our sisters here, we have a number—Amina, Dubna, Mariam. A lot of sisters here are at an age where you can mentor a young Muslim and not preach to them, not teach to them. Because our community is not in need of scholars as much as it's in need of what? Of clergy. People who will listen to people's problems, engage their problems, and help them.

So mentorship. For this young brother or sister, what I would recommend is you come and talk to me on Tuesdays from 2 to 6. You can make an appointment, and I have some ideas that I'll share with you on some of the things that you're going through.

Question 2: Stories of the Pious Predecessors' Repentance

Question: "Can you share some stories of the pious predecessors on how they made tawbah?"

One of the best examples is Malik ibn Dinar. Malik ibn Dinar used to drink alcohol, smoke weed. Used to drink alcohol, used to drink a 30-ounce, smoke a dime bag. One day he had a stepdaughter—she died. One night he got drunk. He saw her in a dream. He was being chased by this big snake. Every time he would get away from it, it would get closer to him. It's a long story.

Then he saw a cliff. Underneath it was hellfire. He kept running, running, running. Then he saw his daughter, and she said to him:

"Has not the time come for those who believe that their hearts are affected by Allah?" He woke up and he repented to Allah, and he became a great scholar.

Realize that many of the great scholars that you read about in the early days of Islam were recipients of God's benevolence. They were losers. They were bums, man. Fudayl ibn Iyad used to stick up people. Like, he lived in the jungles, man, in LA. He used to take people's caravans, like: "Yo, what's up, man? Get off that caravan." That was Fudayl ibn Iyad.

Then he heard a woman reading Quran, and he changed his life. So many of those early scholars were recipients of God's mercy, man. We would have turned our back on them if they were in our community. So that's one example.

Question 3: Supporting Muslims from Prison

Question: "There are Muslims here who took shahada in prison. Now that they are here in our community, they fail to feel welcome or any support. What's the solution?"

I'm gonna say something that's gonna put my neck on the line. I believe the MCA—it's time that we build a massive community center as far away from the masjid as possible. Because a lot of people will come to the community center who won't come to the masjid. And through that community center, you can have your comedy shows, your Sami Yusuf, your Nasheed artists, without upsetting the religious community.

Because right now, we're only increasing this dichotomy. People are banging on the walls when we're having a comedy show. Right? You can't blame them because the masjid, first and foremost, is a place of prayer.

So by having a massive community center where you have services—one of those services could be a potential halfway house for prisoners. Who's gonna work at the community center? Man, you'll find a million converts, a million brothers coming out of the prison system who need jobs. It's a very good place for them to have a place to work.

And at the same time, you can offer GED training, preparatory for SAT, ACT, if they need to get into colleges. But our prisoners, man, the amount of prisoners—one day I was in a prison, and five people became Muslim. It's unbelievable.

So we should have—and I think we do have someone here who's in charge of like prison chaplaincy. Contact prisons, see if they need books, rugs, tasbihat, dates, and so on. It's something very important.

Question 4: When to Distance from Sinners

Question: "Is there a time that we need to draw when it comes to accepting those who have committed sins? Is there a point when it is better to avoid them?"

The concept of making hijrah from a Muslim has a number of conditions. Although making hijrah from a Muslim was a phenomenon that took place in a classical era of Islam when the majority of the society were righteous people. So if you turn your back on a Muslim, you would immediately find a million other Muslims around him supporting your contention.

If you turn your back on a Muslim in America, they're gonna find who to support them? Joel Osteen. Yeah, for real. So you might lose them.

The only time you should turn your back on a Muslim who is sinning is if it gets to the point that it harms other people. It causes harm to other people's deen, to other people's practice. In that situation, you can turn your back on them.

We ask Allah to give us tawfeeq. We ask Allah to bless all of you for coming. May Allah accept our Salatul Isha. We write it for amongst us. Next week is gonna be Ramadan. So the best way to start Ramadan is with a sincere repentance to Allah.

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.