Captioning provided by MUHSEN (www.muhsen.org)
Evil is real.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala asks us
in the last two chapters of the Quran,
to worship him and to ask for his protection.
Qul aAAoothu
"Say I seek protection refuge, a shield,
from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala."
Qul aAAoothu birabbi alfalaq
"He is the Lord of the daybreak."
And Qul aAAoothu birabbi annas
"Say I ask protection with the Lord of humanity."
(man humming solemnly)
Each of those two Surahs asks for protection
from two different things.
The first Surah from the physical things,
and the physical dangers,
the second one from the invisible dangers
and the whispering of the Shaytan.
yuwaswisu fee sudoori annas Mina aljinnati wannas
Both of them show us that it is important for us
to recognize that evil does exist in the world.
And that makes us want to then ask a question
that other people might challenge us as Muslims and say,
Well, if Allah is there, why does he allow evil to exist?
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala khalaqal kulli shay
is the creator of all things.
And the things that Allah has created,
many of them He has given the ability to choose to do good
and to choose to do evil.
And therefore, Mina aljinnati wannas
from the evil that is brought by Jinn and mankind,
that the evil is not made by Allah,
but by the choices that human beings make.
And therefore, when you see that suffering
is found in the world, and the environment,
and climate change and war,
and you see that there's hunger and famine,
it's not because Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
intends this for mankind,
rather, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
has given us the intellect, al bayaan
the ability to speak and negotiate
so that we can solve those problems.
Wala tufsidoo fee al-ardibaAAda islahiha
And Allah warns, "Do not cause corruption in the earth
when I have made it balanced and in harmony for you."
Waatakum min kulli masaaltumoohu
Allah says, "I gave you from everything
that you would ever seek to ask of me
so that you could live with each other
equitably, fairly, justly.
But you have caused corruption."
Thahara alfasadu feealbarri walbahri bima kasabat aydee
annas
Fasad, an evil, which is another word that describes sin.
"Evil and corruption has spread in the ocean and the seas,
and the air, and everything around us on this earth.
bima kasabat aydee annas
"As a consequence of the dealings of mankind,
of the actions of the hands of men."
And therefore, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
always in the Quran, when evil is mentioned,
that those who have knowledge, they refer it to themselves
or the actions of others and not to Allah.
And therefore, whenever we speak about evil,
it's important as a part of our belief,
to know that nothing in the world,
nothing in the creation of Allah
is created more evil than good.
Nothing in the world is even created
or in the realm of the creation of Allah
that is even equal in good and evil.
Even the Shaytan has more good in the creation of the devil,
than there was in the evil consequence of his existence.
Because the Shaytan that you and I combat,
improving our love for Allah,
it diminishes him and diminishes the evil
that is wreaked in the world.
There is more good that is experienced
in the world in its totality,
than there is evil and sinfulness and wretchedness.
And we pray that Allah Subhanahu Wa' Ta'ala
allows us to be callers to good, rejectors of evil.
ya/muroona bilmaAAroof
We invite people to what is good, wayanhawna AAanialmunkari
And we forbid evil for what is being done.
Wa yu'minoona billah wa tu'minoona billah
And you have a belief in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
We hope, bi-idhnillah Ta'ala
that our belief in Allah is one of the things
that protect us from doing evil
by following the Sharia, the path of a good life.
assirata almustaqeem that was led for us
by the Prophet Mohammad SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
So why does evil exist?
Well, it allows us to understand why, what is actually good.
Unless I experienced being unwell,
I didn't value how important good health was.
Unless I experienced a financial downturn,
and not having always the amount of money that I want,
I wouldn't, and you wouldn't appreciate the good things
that we already have with us.
If we didn't see other people suffering,
we wouldn't appreciate our place
and they wouldn't appreciate their place
and compare it to those who suffer more than them.
And therefore, good and bad in life are in harmony
and are the two sides of the same coin.
But there is always more good
in the creation of Allah than there is evil.
And that's a part of our belief as Muslims.
Evil also is given to a person as an opportunity for them
to show obedience to Allah.
So when Allah allows evil to be done,
and you reject it and you turn away from it,
it and you take opportunity to be obedient to Allah,
that is a great way of honoring the magnificence of Allah,
and of elevating yourself in status
in this life and the next.
And to do so, to be from those who push back against evil,
we have to push back against those four enemies
that we spoke about.
Our inner dialogue to ourself and our soul asking for evil,
the enemy of outside us, the Shaytan, human and Jinn,
to be a person who doesn't put so much value
on the Dunya that we seek it
at the expense of our Akhirah.
And that we're not people who lose self-control,
and know that we are in charge of our own place
in time with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
One of the most important steps of course,
is identifying how the Shaytan, who's a clear enemy to us,
seeks to attack us.
And that will be our next discussion, inshaAllah.
The Shaytan's attack against mankind.