From someone who says, I don't need to pray.
Over the years, I've heard people say things like that.
That was 1400 years ago, People used to say,
I'm very busy.
I'm a busy man.
I've got a family to feed.
I've got my career, I've got my work.
We're living in a non Muslim country
Or some people will say, Surely all we have to be a good Muslim.
We just need to do...
We need to be good and we need to be kind to our neighbors.
People say this sort of thing.
Why do we have to go through the rituals?
I've even heard this.
..someone..
He has this attitude.
He doesn't pray because he says those are just the surface things;
He says, the rituals now that can be going into arrogance.
That sort of refusal is like the Shatanic refusal, isn't it?
I mean, who does he think he is?
An order comes from Allah (swt)..
He was arrogant,
and arrogance was defined
or described by the Prophet (pbuh) in a quite a scary Hadith..
Shaitan how he operates, what he did and how we must combat him.
Actually, this is something we need to take seriously
because not only does it affect our Dunya, it affects our afterlife.
Really, This is something which is so much more deadly than the Covid virus
that we've been fighting for over a year and half now.
We should not be following in the footsteps of Shaitan.
And there's a verse which I want to start with today in sha Allah,
In Al-Baqarah, Ayaat 208:
Allah (swt) is addressing the believers, o you who believe,
enter into self surrender to Allah wholeheartedly,
It's like enter into Islam wholeheartedly.
But as you know, Islam means self surrender.
So enter into self surrender
to God wholeheartedly and do not follow the footsteps of Shaitaan.
Indeed he is to you, an open enemy.
This idea of not following the footsteps of Shaitan not doing as he did.
It's one of the meanings understood; not doing as he did.
So we look at what he did, try and avoid it, in sha Allah.
We will look at some of those footsteps that he took, In Sha Allah.
But even in his name, Iblis from the verb Abalasa.
Some of the scholars say Abalasa, he gave up all hope.
He despaired. He became broken in spirit.
So those are things for us not to follow.
In his description as Shaitan, you see the word, Shaitan:
Scholars say Shatana and Shata, two words which make up.
Now Shatana has the meaning of becoming distant from the truth. And Allah's mercy;
he distanced himself from the truth and from Allah's mercy;
but also shata, it's very interesting.
It has the meaning of he burned with anger or hate.
So if we find ourselves burning with anger and hate, it happens sometimes.
Yes.
We need to remind us that this may be following in Shaitan's footsteps.
First verse in the Quran, where Shaitan is actually explicitly mentioned.
As I said last time, he's mentioned, even before we start reciting Quran,
he's there right at the beginning of the Quran because we say,
I take refuge in Allah from Satan, the outcast.
But the first actual verse which mentions him
In surah Al-Baqarah, Verse number 34:
And we said unto the Angels, behold, when we said to the Angels,
prostrate unto Adam, so they prostrated.
Not so Iblees, he refused.
He was arrogant and he became one of the unbelievers.
So already there are indications of things that we shouldn't follow.
This is what he did, .... He refused.
He was arrogant, but he was amongst the Angels because of his high status.
And this is something worth remembering.
That he had a very high status.
He was a devout worshiper.
They say he was very knowledgeable.
So he was there when the order came down
to the Angels to prostrate and to Adam (A.S), prostation of honor, of course,
in Arabic, they say that Abba is not just refusal, but it's a determined refusal.
He's adamant in his refusal.
This is something to note.
It's like saying, I'm not going to do this,
but it's not that ...
It's not that ...we have firm resolve not to do it.
Sometimes all sorts of things happen.
Things get in the way.
Maybe we succumb to temptation.
Maybe we forget as Adam (A.S), he forgot.
Elsewhere in the Quran, it says
We had already.. we.. Allah (swt) made a Covenant with Adam (A.S),
And the scholar said this Covenant was not to,
You know what
Some are saying; What is referring to that;
To not approach the tree.
But he forgot,
and We did not find in him a firm determination, resolution,
you see, and the way this is understood, there's two opinions;
One is that he wasn't determined in obeying that command.
But another is that, he wasn't determined in his disobedience.
He forgot. We forget Sometimes,
we say something and then we remember, oh, that was backbiting.
We shouldn't have done that.
We have, Iblees, firmly or determinedly disobeying,
Adamantly, yes. Refusing.
He refused. And then we have Adam and Hawwa (A.S)
forgetting.
Now we mustn't follow the way of shaitaan.
He was arrogant and arrogance was defined or described
by the Prophet (pbuh) in a quite a scary Hadith;
anyone with even a mustard seeds weight of arrogance,
of in his heart will not enter Jannah /paradise; scary.. serious.
When the prophet (Pbuh) said this, there was someone in the congregation,
and he was someone who you might say took pride in his look.
But a man likes to have the best clothes and the best shoes.
As if he's saying, is this pride and arrogance?
The prophet (Pbuh) clarified and said,
indeed, Allah is beautiful. And He loves beauty.
So he's reassuring this man, that's not taking pride in your appearance.
Looking good.. looking good or wearing good clothes....
Good shoes...
Not necessarily a problem.
But then he went on to define what Kibr was.
Kibr is refusing to accept the truth
and looking down on people. Just want to go back to this refusal.
And let's use examples;
Primary example is Salah.
Now we can be fairly confident based on statistics and so on that
not everyone in this room prays the five time daily prayers,
even though it's obligatory, some of us won't pray the five times daily prayer.
Maybe some of us missed fajr this morning.
Yes, we set the alarm,
but somehow we switched it off and we managed to switch off the second alarm.
We didn't get up, we didn't come to the Masjid.
This can happen.
That's a very different way of disobeying.
It's disobedience because it's obligatory. Yes.
From someone who says, I don't need to pray.
And there are people like this.
I don't need to pray.
Some people will think or say
over the years I've heard people say things like that.
That was 1400 years ago;
People used to say,
I'm very busy. I'm a busy man.
I've got a family to feed.
I've got my career, I've got my work.
We're living in a non Muslim country.
Or some people will say, yeah,
surely all we have to be a good Muslim.
We need to be good and we need to be kind to our neighbors.
People say this sort of thing.
Why do we have to go through the rituals?
I've even heard this in recent times.
Yes.. someone..
He has this attitude.
He doesn't pray because he says those are just the surface things.
he says
the rituals ...now that can be going into arrogance.
That sort of refusal is like the Satanic refusal, isn't it?
...Who does he think he is?
An order comes from Allah (swt) and yet he refuses.
We mustn't do this. As I say,
we can almost guarantee that there are people in this room who don't pray.
Maybe there are people here who only come for Jummah,
But Alhamdulillah, at least you come for Jummah ..Something...
There are people who only go for Eid prayers....
Really in our community.
It's not even a compulsory prayer.
That's the strange thing.
But we mustn't have that arrogance.
It's a command from our Lord now. Yes, of course.
Some of us, as I say, sometimes we may not wake up for Fajr or
we've lost track of time and we miss a prayer.
We haven't noticed or something happens.
Something gets in the way.
But that's very different.
You see, from a resolute refusal, determined refusal, which we mustn't do.
This is in Surah Al-A'raf, verse no: 11.
Indeed, We Allah (swt),
We created you and we shaped you. We formed you.
And then We said to the Angels, prostrate unto Adam (A.S),
So they prostrated.
Not so Iblis.
He was not of those who prostrated themselves.
There's some lesson for us. They said earlier.
Who did Iblis think he was?
There he was amongst the Angels.
They all prostrated without delay.
They all prostrated.
And yet Iblis didn't what made him so special.
Now this happens sometimes in the community, really.
The majority of us, the majority of us,
we're doing certain things and that sometimes you get minority
minorities... Who will say, I don't have to do this,
that's for the majority, I have a better understanding.
Some people, they may not say this.
No one actually says, do they don't get up in the morning
and say, Let me see how many times I can disobey my Creator today.
And yet we all do, think about it.
We all do because we're all sinners.
Every time we sin, we're disobeying Allah (swt), that's okay..
In the sense that we can turn back to Him.
We can make Tawbah / Repentance.
But not if we insist on our sins
and refuse to see that we've made a mistake or we've disobeyed Allah (swt).
And then it goes,
Allah says, what prevented you from prostrating when I commanded you?
And then this almost shocking reply,
He said, I am better than him.
You created me from fire, and you created him from Clay.
False logic.
Why should Fire be superior to Clay?
And some of the commentators, they say, well, Clay is humble.
Fire rises. Clay is humble, and humility is a good quality
for us to have in relation to Allah (swt),
But if it were the case, Fire was superior to Clay;
Why does that mean that he can disobey a commandment of Allah (swt)?
one aspect of this, we may think, okay,
we don't have this kibr / arrogance.
We don't refuse to accept the truth,
or we don't reject the truth, or we don't look down on other people.
Well, think of the racism that exists in our community.
What's racism considering someone to be inferior to oneself?
Now, if we think we don't have racism in our community, we're kidding ourselves.
Really?
Alhamdulillah, though I must say that one of the best places
in terms of minimization of racism,
I have experienced in my life has been in some Masjids.
Alhamdulillah Really,
we don't know because we don't know what's
in people's hearts, but certainly in terms of behavior.
But really, racism exists in our community.
And if it does, if we think, for instance,
we can't marry our daughters to someone from this country or that country or this
color or this shade or this region of our country.
If we think that we can't do that,
because somewhere them how we're superior to them,
then this is part of Kibr, isn't it?
Looking down on people, despising people, think of oneself as superior.
We can have preferences.
Of course, it's not a problem.