How do you handle Shaitan's whispers in your heart?

Suggestions and when this beckoning from a Shaitan intensifies what a person should do, what a person should say, how a person control his thoughts when one's demons begin to rear their head. He mentions and he starts off this chapter with a narration which is collected by Allah and others on the authority of Abdullah bin Masood. That the prophet said that indeed the angel does hold a position and has a voice and an insinuation in the heart of the human being and likewise, a Shaitan does as well and so, the suggestions and the whispers of the angel in a person's heart suggestions, and promises of good suggestions, and constant reminder to believe in the truth and constant hopefulness and encouragement to the human being to constantly be hopeful in Allah Allah's reward. He says, and the Shaitan, he as well has He is well holds whispers and does toss suggestions into the human being's heart. And those are most notably when we boil them down, they are usually suggestions of disbelief in the truth. And hopelessness. And so the prophet says if you experience the suggestions of the angel in your heart, then praise Allah. And ask Allah for good. And if you find yourself experiencing in your heart, a suggestion from a Shaitan, then seek refuge in Allah. and seek his forgiveness. So here, we see that the human being does not only have a devil, a Korean, that whispers and incites evil to a human being but as well, the human being has angels that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has placed in his life to continue to suggest and beckon to do good things, to think good thoughts, to believe true things. It's mentioned by some of the scholars, some of the companions, the Taberian, that the angels that are commissioned by Allah to write down our deeds. So, we have an angel on the right and an angel to the left. These angels are to document our good deeds and document as well our bad deeds that these angels not only collect and write and document meticulously what the human being says or does but as well these angels the angel to the right writes our good deeds and also suggests to us and encourages us to do good things and the angel to our left that is commissioned to document our misdeeds not only does that but as well warns us and tries to suggest us away from committing acts of sinfulness, and to avoid disobedience of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

[Silence]

To the point that he describes the intensity of a Shaitan's whispers to him in his prayer as being intense that a Shaitan has essentially come between myself and my prayer and recitation. You know, what shall I do about this? The prophet responded and said, that whisper that you experience in prayer specifically comes from a very particular type of demon or devil who is known as Kinzeb and so if you start to feel this scattering of thought and excessive whispers in your prayer, seek refuge in Allah and blow to your left three times. This is what a person is to do if they find themselves being assailed by a Shaitan with whispers in their prayer. This of course, all of these things that the prophet tells us to do or say, to seek refuge in Allah from this or to ask for this, these things. if they are done, they have to be done by the person with total surety, and total belief in the promise Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The promise of the messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alai that indeed if I do this and if I follow through with this properly in the way that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has commanded and truly believing in the promise of Allah that I shall be responded to and my dua will be answered. This is what is meant. Not just that a person go through the motions. Just having doubt whilst having doubt in Allah's promise. Yes. In salah, yes. Now, in.

[Silence]

To weaken his faith and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Shaitan may present himself in a person's heart as the person himself. And will whisper to a person things that will induce hopelessness and induce hesitation in belief in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the last day It's mentioned here that the companions complain to the prophet about these whispers. Meaning, they would find that leading thoughts, whispers, would antagonize them in their heart, in their minds would kind of overtake their thoughts. Things that are unspeakable. And so the prophet.

[Arabic recitation]

And praise to Allah that he has reduced the Shaitan's efforts to mere whispers. One of these common occurrences is that a person will start to have doubts about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala about the prophet about the Quran, about the religion of Islam, about many things in this vein in this regard and so a person is to fight these thoughts head on And a lot of this entails dismissing these thoughts. Many people get caught in this trap and they can't seem to find a way out. They have these thoughts. They have these feelings, and they try to do one of two things. Number one, they tried to debate these things and come to a resolution Or number two, they dwell on these thoughts and are scared of these thoughts. To the point that people will say things you know, I'm I'm afraid that I'm a disbeliever but I actually want to be a believer, right? This is actually contradicting the statement itself is contradicting. For person wants to be a believer, they will be a believer. These fleeting thoughts will only become permanent, a permanent fixture in a person's mind if the person dwells on these thoughts too much. The prophet gave us an example of this. He said that a Shaitan may come to a person and whisper to him saying, who has created such and such, who has created such and such, and the person will reply, Allah is the creator, and then a Shaitan will whisper to a person, this is so what about Allah? He created everything, who created him? The prophet said that if a person has this thought, that to seek refuge in Allah and to cease these thoughts. What do you mean cease these thoughts? Meaning not to dwell on them. These are not your thoughts. People will confuse these things as being their own thoughts. And they're not their own thoughts. Whispers from a Shaitan. And a person needs to dismiss them. Sometimes a person needs to learn. Maybe they're having a hard time because of a lack of research or a lack of knowledge. And they could come a resolution but oftentimes, these whispers are beyond resolution in the person's mind. These are just antagonizing thoughts that a Shaitan presents to a person to weaken his resolve, to weaken his belief in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And so, usually people try to either debate this issue in their mind which is not a good idea, because a person trying to do is, they will often fail to do so because they do not have the appropriate knowledge necessary to debate this issue or maybe they don't have the proper understanding to debate this issue in their mind. Or second of all, a person starts to dwell on these thoughts and they allow these thoughts to scare them. They allow the whispers of a Shaitan. To scare them. and these are two things that a person must avoid at all costs. When these thoughts come to a person, they have to dismiss them and they have to make sure that they not allow these thoughts to scare them, scare them into thinking that they're their own thoughts or scare them into thinking that these things are valid or that these things have. that these things have any consequence with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. They do not. Allah Allah has pardoned the human being for fleeting thoughts. Person is not held accountable for thoughts that are fleeting through their mind, that are unintentional, as long as they're not dwelled upon, as long as they, as long as they are not believed, and held as true beliefs. then mentions a common, a common example of this. He mentions what's called the is a is kind of a logical fallacy. that's been brought up throughout the centuries, throughout the millennia, really, and that is, you know, this idea that every creation has to have a creator, every effect has to have, a cause. And so, if we go and trace every effect back to its original cause, say Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the ultimate creator. He's the ultimate cause of all that has happened. And so a person may then question, well, who created Allah? Subhanahu wa ta'ala. But this question is a fallacy. Because Number one, We don't have to necessarily understand something completely for it to be the right answer. right? What does that mean? So, for instance, When we as Muslims say, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has no cause. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has no no creator. He has no beginning, right? This is a valid answer. Do we understand it completely? Do we understand the concept? Really, vividly, understand the concept of an infinite beginning, not having a beginning ever. We can't really understand something that because it's not something that our minds can compute. We we have no example of that. It's very unique to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It has he has no beginning. He just always was. Right? but just because we can't understand that doesn't mean I mean, we understand what it means but we don't understand how that is Doesn't mean that that's an incorrect answer. It doesn't mean that that invalidates that as being a valid answer. It's a valid answer. And I'll give you an example of that. Let's say for instance, that Now, we went to Let's say for instance that we went to the moon or went to another planet. Just just an exercise here in thought. and we found on the moon all kinds of machinery and equipment Clearly made by an intelligent being, right? I don't know, ships or vehicles or anything. We find all kinds of equipment over there on the moon. It's not equipment from Earth. It's not equipment made by human beings. What is the logical explanation of this equipment? The explanation of this equipment is that some intelligent being has put this together and put it here, left it here. Some intelligent being has made it and put it here. Left it here on the moon. We don't know who it is. We know it's not a human being. We just, there it is, right? That's the explanation. That's a valid explanation. That explanation doesn't need an explanation for it to be valid. I don't need to prove who brought it and how they brought it and who they are in order for that to be a valid explanation. It's valid because that's the only answer. that can be produced. I don't know who those if I can't identify those intelligent beings that left this equipment. It doesn't invalidate my answer that this was left by someone who's not human. You understand? So, just because something isn't necessarily something we can completely wrap our minds around, doesn't make it an invalid answer. It's valid. and so, The point here is that a person sometimes is unable, oftentimes, unless they've studied and have the tools to be able to debate or discuss these issues. Most people don't have the tools or maybe they don't have the understanding or the knowledge necessary to be able to find a resolve to these kinds of issues. A person and should never find themselves Feeling that if they don't have the answer, it's must not be right. That's not correct. There's a lot of things that we don't have the answer to. As individuals but we hold these things as being truths and that's correct. And a person doesn't have to completely understand something for it to be beneficial and for it to be valid and for it to be of consequence.

[Silence]

Allah Al.

[Silence]

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has commanded us to deal with these two types in two different ways. The whispers and beckoning and urges of a Shaitan that is of the of the spiritual realm. One is to seek refuge in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. and as for the evils the human a person is to deflect this person's evil, to respond to others harshness with kindness, with forgiveness, with overlooking in order to avoid conflict. This is in the vast.

[Arabic recitation]

Emotions, very potent emotion is that of anger. And when we say anger, we're speaking about unfettered, unbridled anger. for a person to not get angry, not become angry, to not allow anything to make them angry. This is an impossibility. Everybody gets upset. Everybody has insecurities. Anyone can get upset. And becoming upset, becoming angry is an emotional response to being offended or something of the sort. When the prophet tells us not to get angry. Meaning that we should avoid the things that make us angry. We should avoid situations that make us upset. and that we should control symptoms of our anger when they arise but the actual emotion of being angry or being offended by something, something that has to be caught, it's something that has to be bridled and controlled. But it's an inevitability. It's going to happen. And human beings are very good at pushing each other's buttons. Very good at being offensive. Very at manipulating one another especially when a person is dealing with a kind of passive aggression. This is something that can be absolutely infuriating. It can almost drive a person insane. and there's a lot of other things that people do to emotionally wound one another and in our society, you know, physical fighting isn't really something that is looked at as being prudent. It's something that's looked down upon and confronting people face to face is something that most people avoid but most people resort to passive, aggressive techniques, and preferred to as gaslighting and things that and a person has to learn how to deal with these things without allowing himself to be taken out of character not allowing himself to get out of character. This is a discipline. It's something that a person has to practice. You have to practice controlling yourself and the more you practice, the better at it you'll become. and the less you practice, the more your this discipline will slip. controlling one's anger is Discipline just a muscle. The more a person practices it, the stronger that muscle becomes, the better at it they'll become. It doesn't mean that a person will never get angry or a person will never act out. And that's a misunderstanding. A person needs to be number one, avoid the things that make them angry, if at all possible. Number two, try to control one's anger in the in the heat of it. Number if they slip, if they react badly, then they need to be quick to repentance and quick to damage control if you will. This is all a person can do and we as human beings are very emotional creatures. We're emotional before we are logical in most cases. So, it's important for a person to practice this and to try to discipline himself with this as much as possible. The prophet gave us some advice with regards to dealing with some of these traits of anger, Some of these misdeeds that may come up when a person becomes very angry. We'll discuss these more next week. Because this is a very important chapter. It needs to have a lot of attention. And inshallah that's enough for tonight. Muhammad A.