Allah has put us in this world to attain His marifat (recognition and awareness of Him). If we succeed, in return He will bless us with His love, pleasure and Jannah. Anything and everything that comes in between us and that goal, should be removed from our lives. There are many obstacles that Shaytaan places on our path.
One of them is hobbies. Some are haraam, which we must give up or we will pay in the hereafter. Others are permissible. However, anything permissible can become impermissible, if it takes us away from Allah. For example, it is permissible to paint but to omit worship due to painting, is not permissible. To think of painting in Salah rather than Allah, is another sign that one’s love for painting has reached impermissible heights. Thus, enjoy your hobbies but do not let it distract you from your ultimate goal. If it does, withdraw and rebalance yourself.
Disputes shatter our contentment and peace of mind. Most people don’t look for problems. But we share this world with billions of people and as we are all unique, naturally, disputes arise. Shaytaan capitalizes on the situation by making us worry and lose focus in our Salah. He turns one problem – the dispute, into two problems – the dispute and the loss of rewards in Salah. Thereafter, when we respond with bad character and foul language, we are only worsening the dispute and increasing our sins in the process. Shaytaan further capitalizes on our weakness and multiplies our problems.
Opt to beat him by capitalizing on the situation yourself. Seek forgiveness and maintain good character, for it is foolish to risk losing our rewards in the hereafter, due to small disputes in this world. They may seem like great matters in our sight, but remember that our sight is narrow as it is only confined to this worldly life. Allah has informed us that in His sight, this world is not even worth a mosquito’s wing. Our disputes are even smaller than this wing. And considering we don’t know when we will die, we simply cannot afford to occupy our minds with small worries and concerns.
May Allah grant us the ability to remain focused on matters of the hereafter, rather than losing focus due to matters of the dunya. Aameen.
— Shaykh Dawood Seedat حفظه اللّٰه
Above is an extract from Shaykh’s talk on 14/01/19 in Masjid-ut-Taqwa, Pietermaritzburg. To listen to the full talk, please click here
