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The Doors to Sin are Opened by Thoughts of the Mind
From the famous book, ‘Ad-daa Wad-Dawaa’ of Ibnul-Qayyim
Aboo Tasneem Daawood Adeeb al-Atharee, [Khutbah, Mar ’05]

Overview

“Allaah wishes to make clear (what is lawful and what is unlawful) to you,and to show you the ways of those before you, and to accept your repentance,and Allaah is the All­Knower, All­Wise. Allaah wishes to accept your repentance, but those who follow their lusts, wish that you should deviate tremendously away from the right path. Allaah wishes to lighten (the burden) for you; and man was created weak.” [Sooratun-Nisaa’, 4:26-28]

Know that reflective thoughts are not themselves harmful; rather what becomes harmful are constant (obsessive) ponderings. A thought about something is like a passer-by, if you do not call him, he will pass you by and go upon his way. However, if you call him, he will dupe and deceive you by his speech, and this is the easiest thing to do for the Nafs that is filled with falsehood. However, it is the most difficult thing to bear for the Nafs that is contended.

Allaah has placed in all of mankind two kinds of Nafs :

Nafs Ammaarah (the soul that commands evil), and  Nafs Mutma’innah (the soul that is content). They always oppose each other, so what is sweet for one is bitter for the other. There is nothing more difficult for the soul that commands evil than to go against its desires by working for Allaah’s pleasure, however, this is the most beneficial thing for it. Likewise, there is nothing more difficult for the soul that is content  than to work for other than the pleasure of Allaah. Every person has both a Nafs Mutma’innah and a Nafs Ammaarah.

Additionally, there is an angel on the right side (of every person) and it works in conjunction with the Nafs Mutma’innah. Likewise, on the left side (of every person), there is a Shaytaan that works in conjunction with the Nafs Ammaarah, and there is a constant, ongoing struggle between the two and it does not cease until this person’s appointed time in this life ceases. Falsehood always sides with the Shaytaan and the Nafs Ammaarah, whereas the truth always sides with the angels and the Nafs Mutma’innah, and the victor alternates.

However, victory comes with patience and whoever remains patient and has taqwaa (fear and consciousness) of Allaah, then he will be granted the upper-hand in this life and in the next. This is the law of Allaah that never changes.

Khutbatul Haajah ….

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Al-Islaam, those of you who believe in Allaah and His Angels, His Books, His Messengers and the Divine Decree – the good and the evil of it, the sweet and the bitter of it. O You who believe, those of you who believe in the things that we cannot see, those things that are hidden from our view, those things like the Angels, and the Jannah and the Naar, the Paradise and the Hellfire, and those things that we can’t see like the Jinn and our Nafs. The Jinn is a creature that Allaah subhana wa ta’ala has created to worship Him, similar to the human being, but he is a creature that we cannot see in this life and this Dunya with our eyes. And as Imaam as-Shaafiee (rahimahullaahi ta’ala) said :

‘Anyone who says that they can see the Jinn in this life, then their testimony, (their Shahaadah) will never be taken. Their testimony for the contract of  marriage or contract of business or any type of testimony will not be accepted for no one can see the Jinn in this life. ‘

The other creatures that Allaah subhana wa ta’ala has created is inside of ourselves, that creature is called an-Nafs. In the Khutbahtul Haajah the Prophet (sallallaahu alaihiwa sallam) used to say for every Jummah and every salaatul Eid whether it be Fitr or Adha and at the weddings, he used to say,

“Innal Hamda lillaah Nahmaduhu wa nasthaeenuhu wa nasthaghfirhu wa na’oozu billaahi min shuroori anfusinaa, wamin saiyyia’athia’amaalina ..

All Praise is due to Allaah. We praise Him and beseech His help and in Him we seek forgiveness and we seek the refuge of Allaah from the mischief of our Anfus – the mischiefness of our souls, that Nafs similar to Shaitaan, similar to Iblees, similar to the Jinn that whispers to the human beings to make them think things, to make them say things, to make them do things that they should not be saying or doing.

Allaah subhanawata’ala He says :

‘Surely We created the human being and we know what his nafs whispers to him.’

There is not a Muslim who is sitting in this blessed Masjid, this House of Allaah tabarak wa ta’ala that does not have a jinn that whispers to him or her something evil. Allaah subhana wa ta’ala again in His Book says (Surah 114 An-Naas) :

‘Say to them O Muhammad, [Peace and blessings be upon him] I seek refuge with the Lord of the human beings; the Master, the King ofthe human beings; the God of the human beings;

(there is a jinn that is called Al-Khannas)

We seek refuge with our Lord, the King, the Master, the God of mankind from this Khannas; We seek refuge with Allaah subhana wa ta’ala from the Khannas, the one who is Muthawa’ariee al-Mukhthafee – the one who is hidden, we can’t see him but he comes to us and he says, ‘say that, do this, say this and do that..’ and he runs away.  He runs away the coward that he is. Those things go inside of our hearts and they go inside of our minds.  We seek refuge with Allaah from the one who whispers in the Sadr – in our sudoor (in our chests) from the jinn and the men. Because we have the Jinn (the Shayaateen) and the Shayaateen from the human beings. i.e we have the devils from the Jinn and the devils from the men and both of them whisper. But our Nafs is something that is with us all time and it whispers to us.

‘Walillaahil Hamd – All Praise is due to Allaah – that Allaah (subhana wata’ala) has favoured this Ummah to not being held accountable for the things they have in their mind, for not being held accountable for the things they have in their hearts – unless they say those things or do those things.

There is not one of us that does not have evil thoughts – not one of us. All of us have evil thoughts. But the Prophet [Peace and blessings be upon him]  on the authority of Abu Huraira (radiallaahu tha’ala anhu warad’aahu) collected by Imaam Muslim in his saheeh, ‘the Prophet [Peace and blessings be upon him]  said :

Allaah has absolved, Allaah has excused, Allaah has pardoned, Allaah has forgiven, Allaah has done away with for this  Ummah , for me – My ummah, for this nation, this Ummah of Islaam all the things that they think about – all the things that comes to their minds and their hearts – all those evil thoughts about backbiting their brother, and slandering their sister, and picking up that glass of beer, whisky or wine, when they have the thought of smoking the marjua’ana or have the thought to commit zinaa (wa iyyadu billaah) or have the thought of stealing or robbing or  any of those evil thoughts or even worse –  thoughts about prophets and messengers of Allaah, which some of us unfortunately have in our heads and in our minds or thoughts that are bad about Muhammad [Peace and blessings be upon him]  himself –Allaah subhana wa ta’ala has excused us and pardoned us. ‘Maa lam tha’lam awthatha kallam.’ As long as we don’t do those things or say those things then, those things that are in our minds of evil – those things that are in our minds that whisper to us from our nafs or from Shaitaan or evil, of wretchedness, those horrible thoughts that come to our minds we are forgiven. Walillaahil Hamd we are forgiven.

The companions of the Messenger of Allaah  [Peace and blessings be upon him]  – they were the best of human beings after the prophets and the messengers but they also used to have bad thoughts. As the hadith of the companions of the Prophet [Peace and blessings be upon him] said : ‘that a party of the companions of the messenger of Allaah [Peace and blessings be upon him] they came to him asking him : O’ Messenger of Allaah, one of us have some things in the inside of our heads. We have some thoughts that comes to our minds that are so ugly, they are so horrendous, they are so horrible, they are so evil that we are even afraid to talk about them. The Messenger of Allaah [Peace and blessings be upon him] said :

Do you really have those type of thoughts in your minds? You really have those evil thoughts in your minds, you really find those things in your minds?’ They said : ‘Yes, we have these evil thoughts O’ Messenger of Allaah.’ The Messenger of Allaah [Peace and blessings be upon him] said: ‘zaakaa sarihul Imaan. Zaakaa sarihul Imaan … – that is clear, pure,faith.’

In another narration collected by Imaam Abu Dawuud (rahimahullaah): the prophet [Peace and blessings be upon him] said,

‘Allaahu Akbar, Allaahu Akbar, Allaahu Akbar.., Allaah is theGreatest, Allaah is the Greatest, Allaah is the Greatest, Praise be to Allaah the one Who has diminished, has minimized those evil thoughts to just a whisper..

to just a whisper so that you won’t say it or you won’t do it Wa lillaahil Hamd.

** 2nd part of the Khutbah**

Our beloved brothers and sisters in Islaam, those of you who have been pardoned by Allaah tabarak wa ta’ala for the evil thoughts that you have in your minds and the evil suggestions that come to your hearts, O you who believe those of you who has been excused from those wretched ideas that you have, we must realize that we are human beings. We are fragile creatures. We are human beings that are created weak.

We are human beings that are not able to control ourselves except Allaah subhana wa ta’ala gives us mercy to us – and except that Allaah subhana wa ta’ala gives the bounty to us. We are creatures that we are not able to control ourselves as the Prophet [Peace and blessings be upon him]. He said that – when Allaah warned Adam in Jannah and left Adam as He wanted to leave him, for the time He wanted to leave him – then Iblees went around Adam looking at him and he saw that he was a creature at the point ‘into him’

As Ibn Kathir (rahimahullaah) says,

‘going into him from his nostrils and out from his backside, checking him out and finding he was hollow – he realized that Adam was a creature ‘Laa yatha maalak’ – that he was a creature who could not control himself. We are blessed by Allaah subhana wa ta’ala to have the sunnah of the Messenger of Allaah [Peace and blessings be upon him] to explain to us what to do.

We are blessed by Allaah subhana wa ta’ala to have the Qura’an to seek refuge with Allaah subhana wa ta’ala so that when we go to bed at night – we cup our hands and we say : “Qul Huwallaahu Ahad,.. and we say Qul Aoozu birabbil Falaq.. and we say Qul Aoozu birabbin Naas..’so that Shaitaan or any evil will not approach us and then we spit in our hands and we wipe as much of our bodies that we can and we say Ayatul Kursi– the verse of the footstool before we go to bed and we seek refuge with Allaah subhana wa ta’ala when we walk into the bathroom from the Khubz wal Khabaiz – from the male and female jinns and we seek refuge with Allaah tabarak wa ta’ala before we approach our wives, making dua against Shaitaan and him against his Qaidaah — against his plots and his harming our children.. and we can go on and on ..

What Allaah and His Messenger [Peace and blessings be upon him] have given us to protect ourselves from Shaitaan and to protect ourselves from the whispers of our nafs. The Ulamaa in following the way of the Prophet [Peace and blessings be upon him] they have explained to us that everything begins as a ‘khatrah’  –  everything begins as a ‘thought’. So they have said, ‘Protect yourselves !! Ward off the thoughts !! And if you don’t ward off the thoughts, then the thought will become an idea. And ward off and make guard against the idea – because if you don’t ward off the idea then it will become lust.

It first begins as a thought.. brothers, then sisters it becomes an idea.. if you don’t ward yourself and guard yourself from the original thought, that thought will become an idea and if you don’t guard yourself from that idea, then it will become ‘shahwa’ – lust. Now you have to make war on the shahwa. Now you have to make war, jihad on your desires, on your lusts. And if you don’t do that then that desire, that lust becomes resolved in determination. And if you don’t make war on that determination and resolve the results from that thought, from  that idea that is transmuted that changed from idea to lust then it will become ‘Azeema wahimma’ – it will become resolved in determination.

And if you don’t defend yourself from that , if you don’t make jihad on that, then it becomes an action. And if you don’t protect yourself and ward off from that and do the opposite of that action, then it becomes a habit. Then it becomes a habit – that thing becomes ‘you’. And it is going to be very, very difficult to get rid of this. If you don’t do the opposite of that thing that has become an action, it will become a habit and the Ulamaa of science say ‘that we are creatures of habits.’ It starts with a thought. It starts with a thought which becomes an idea, an idea that becomes lust and a lust that becomes resolve and you let these things become planted in your heart and in your mind and then it becomes ‘you’.

First a thought comes : ‘Tell a lie.’Then when you don’t do something to guard against that, it becomes an idea. It becomes an ideology in your heads. And then if you don’t guard against that, it becomes a desire. And if you don’t make war on that, then it becomes resolve – something that is becoming firmly planted in the soil of your nafs, in the dirt of your nafs and your nafs now becomes a seed that has become firmly rooted. And if you don’t guard against and get rid of that, then it becomes an action and from an action it becomes a habit.

Abu Sumail (rahimahullah) one of the Tabi’oon, Sammaak Ibn Waleed (rahimahullaahi ta’ala) said :

‘I asked Ibn Abbas (radiallaahu anhu) there is something that I find in my chest.’ Ibn Abbas  said, ‘What is it that you find in your chest.’ He said: ‘It is something Wallaahi ya Abdullaah, (it means Abdullaah Ibn Abbas, I swear by Allaah), I don’t want to even mention it as it is so evil.’ Ibn Abbas started laughing and said : Allaah tabarakwa ta’ala says ‘if you have doubt about any thing which Allaah has revealed, then ask the people of the Book – those who came before you for they also had doubts. To get rid of that evil thought you should say that Allaah is :’*Huwal Awwalu wal Aakhiru, wa Daahiru wal-Baatinu, wa huwa ala’akulli shai’in aleem.*’

This is what you should say. This is what Abdullaah ibn Abbas said. When those evil thoughts come to you or you have any doubts about your Deen, you have any doubts about the angels, you have any doubts about the messengers, you have any doubts about the sunnah, you have any doubts about anything of Islaam – you have any doubts whatsoever then say :

‘*Huwal Awwalu wal Aakhiru, wad Daahiru wal-Baatinu, wa huwa ala kulli shai’in aleem.*’

We ask Allaah subhana wa ta’ala to protect us from the evil of ourselves, from the shuroor of our Anfus, from the evil of our nafs (when they whisper to us) and we ask Allaah to give us protection from the Shayateen – both from the Jinn and the men and we ask Allaah subhana wa ta’ala by His Greatest Name to let us see His face and be in the closest proximity of the Prophet Muhammad [Peace and blessings be upon him]

May Allaah reward the sister who Transcribed from the Audio
Slight modifications by AbdurRahman.Org