When an enemy invades a country, they try to control the airbase and airport first. This is done in an attempt to prevent medical, military and emergency aid from entering into the land. If they are successful, the people within this land will become trapped and deprived of possible aid and supplies. Now, the enemy has officially taken over. Now, the enemy can easily bring in their own weaponry and people to defeat the country.
Similarly, Allah promises us aid in the form of ‘sakeenah’, which means peace. But often this sakeenah cannot land in the hearts of believers, because Shaytaan has taken over the airport of heart. We are no longer at peace. In an attempt to regain a sense of contentment, we begin following the ways of the kuffar. We start dressing like them, conducting our weddings like them, and then we call these weddings “walimas”. We are making a mockery of this deen of Allah. How can we sit comfortably in a walima like this, knowing the sunnah is being trampled upon?
It is because the heart is taken over. Our heart is in the hand of Shaytaan, so he gives us comfort in that which would have caused the pious discomfort. Sakeenah is not landing, Iman is not increasing and deen is not giving us peace. So how do we regain peace and control over our heart? By entering deen into totality. A believer will only find happiness and contentment when he turns to deen in totality. We cannot accept deen part time, we have to accept it full time.
Sometimes when our environment changes, our attitude towards deen changes too. A young person may have committed certain sins with his old friends but as he enters into adulthood, he gives up his past sins and Allah guides him to the straight path. Now after a while when he meets up with these old friends; all of the sudden, he feels that he must play the role that he played the last time he was with them. All of a sudden, he feels that he cannot practise deen and be the person Allah has allowed him to grow into.
Allah has allowed him to become a better believer, but they do not know that, so he thinks that I will just behave like them. I need to have those conversations we used to have again. I need to do what we used to do again. This is foolishness. One minute we behave one way, the next minute we behave another way; that is the job of a chameleon, not a Muslim! If we made mistakes in the past, then that is history. Why do we feel obliged to dig up our past, and change our behaviour depending on our company?
Do we worry that people will assume us pious? I was telling my young friends today, that we will travel to Estcourt straight after maghrib Salah, rather than staying behind in the masjid to read Quran. However as we travel, there is plenty of time to read your Quran. But Shaytaan will make us think that my friends are here and they are all talking, how can I be reading the Quran, when they want to talk to me?
You are worried about your friends but the day you die, they will not enter your grave with you. However, those extra Quran Sharif pages will. Your conversations with them will not come into any assistance, but your conversations with Allah will. They may think you are displaying piety, let them think that, let people pass comments. People passed comments on Nabi ﷺ, often they were very negative. So what makes us think we will be spared?
If such negative comments were made against our sons, even if they were untrue we would still hide it. Allah loves Nabi ﷺ more than we love our own sons, yet, Allah does not hide these negative comments. He explicitly mentions them in the Quran for us to read. Why? To teach us a profound lesson; do not waste your time by worrying about the opinion of others, rather, invest your time by worrying about the opinion of Allah. As ultimately when we enter the home of the grave, people will not save us, only Allah will. So always prioritise Allah. Always.
“And let them not prevent you from Allah’s verses after they are sent down to you, and call [people] to your Lord, and never become one of those who associate partners with Allah.” (Surah Qassas, ayah 87)
May Allah allow us to enter deen into totality, and to remain consistent in our adherence to deen, Aameen.
— Shaykh Dawood Seedat حفظه الله
The above is an extract from Shaykh’s talk on 10/5/2016 in Estcourt. To listen to the full majlis, please click here.
