How Shaitan Leads You Into Sin One Step at a Time

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Authored by ibn kayim islam what is the topic of this book a person may ask what is the subject of zadil ma'at the subject of is the prophet muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam everything we know about him or should i say everything that ibn al-qaeda knew about the prophet muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam anything that he said anything that he did anything that he confirmed and even things that don't have anything to do with our religious duties such as the way that he looked the way that he spoke right his voice things that these things that are natural things that every person is different in the prophet salallahu anything having to do with him ibn kayim documented it as best as he could and harmonized it in this book zadil it is one of the most critical in my opinion most critical and most important books in the islamic library but it is a complex book it is complicated and that is why in i don't know 40 some classes or something we've done so far we've gone through the first volume how could we have gone through the first volume and only those many classes because obviously we're not reading every single thing because there's a lot of things a lot of complexities and nuances that ibn okay goes into that are more appropriate for scholars and more more sought-after pieces of information with regards to students of knowledge and scholars than they are with the general people us just regular people the things that we need to learn the gist of it is what we're focusing on from so obviously we are summarizing summarizing and paraphrasing has mentioned so we could probably take this as an abridgement of z and so the last topic that we were speaking about is the chapter regarding the things that a person can do to open his heart the things that a person can do to open his heart so islam as we've mentioned before is a religion it is as people put it often a way of life but allah subhanahu wa ta'ala also refers to al-islam as a millah and emilia is a way of life that is all-encompassing and intrusive meaning that it has something to do or something to say about everything a person can do or say even things that allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not speak about not speaking about something is essentially saying something what does that mean the prophet salallahu said.

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He says indeed allah has obligated things so do not fail to fulfill those obligations he has placed limitations so do not cross the boundaries of allah he has made certain things haram so do not indulge in those impermissibilities and he has also remained silent about many other things as a mercy for you all not because he is unaware of them or forgot to mention them so do not ask about these things what does this mean this means that allah subhanahu wa ta'ala silence on something is essentially ibaah is essentially that it is permissible right so him not saying do this or don't do this particular thing rather leaving it to the discretion of the person this is what we called we call it we categorize it as muba neutral and neutralities are to the discretion of a person that is a ruling isn't it yes so emila is anything that has to do with any action of the human being anything everything the entire existence for of the human being from the moment he is able to comprehend until the day that he dies this is a miller right now it is also a discipline islam is a discipline a lot of people don't understand that concept a lot of people look at the polar opposites right they see islam and they see kofo and there's nothing in between and that's not correct that's not a way that a person should view things yes a person is either muslim or non-muslim in the general sense we will categorize there are certain conditions for a person to be a muslim right if they fulfill these conditions they are a muslim but in order for a person to be a good muslim a dutiful muslim a muslim on the path of the prophet sallallahu alaihi there is a discipline that goes along with it what do i mean by a discipline so for example let's say a person becomes muslim many of us are born into islam right many of the audience listening is born into islam our parents are muslim but that doesn't mean that we are automatically entered into paradise we have to also consciously make a decision to accept islam as well is that not correct yes by default we are muslim but the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam tells us that the person who is a hypocrite a person who is a fajr person who is sinful when he is placed into his grave and the two angels come to ask him who is your lord and what is your religion who is your prophet he will stutter and he will say i heard people saying something so i said what they said this individual said right this person may be fasted this person but the problem is is that they didn't make a conscious decision to accept islam and make it into a religious issue they just did what everybody was doing they did what the crowd was doing this kind of person if they were in a jewish community they would have been jewish if they were in a christian community they would have been christian if they were in a buddhist demographic they would have been buddhist etc for this reason a person has to reach a point in his life where he realizes islam in his life and so many of us refer to that as the time of istikham yani a person is living his life and he has an epiphany he has an awakening a spiritual awakening as if allah has tapped on his heart okay and he begins to pray now his prayer is different he feels that he is praying to allah he begins to refrain from things not because they are taboo in his culture but because in his heart no matter where he would be he would refrain from this thing and he would do this thing this awakening okay that a person has is essentially a type of entrance into islam it doesn't mean you weren't muslim before that it just means that you were a mukhalid in what you were doing before that you were just following the crowd then when your mind awakens and your heart awakens now islam enters and it becomes a personal thing right which many of us have experienced correct i mean the muslim world today is not a very religious world at all it's not all over the world the muslim world today what we consider muslim majority countries many people are not religious we have things that we do we have things that we don't do we have bakayam and.

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Okay but it's not something that we really think about it's not an active discipline that we have that before i speak i think about what i'm going to say and the ramifications of this statement and if it's halal or if it's haram and what will allah react to this statement we don't have this kind of thought process right it's just going with the flow so when a person has that religious awakening that have that spiritual awakening that is a seed that has been planted by allah subhana wa ta'ala person now begins to obey allah not because of where he is or who he is but he begins to obey allah because of what he knows and he begins to disobey shaytaan because of what he knows correct but let's say before that a person was a habitual liar they lie all the time right well now they have to stop lying they didn't magically stop lying because they became muslim or they didn't magically stop lying before because they started praying all of the sudden and so they start to build up the discipline to stop lying you understand they start to build up the discipline to refrain from certain vices they start to build up the discipline to make sale on time they start to build up the discipline of focusing in prayer right i mean and many of us had that discipline but then after our fever and our fervor goes away it starts to what starts to drop and this is why the scholars of sunnah they mention that iman is belief in the heart statement of the tongue it manifests itself on the in the actions of a person it increases with good deeds and decreases with bad deeds right and this is why the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam warned us so much of the gray areas of islam.

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So it's important for us to understand how a person begins to turn evil after they became muslim okay i'm talking about this to scare everybody i want you to be scared i'm scared okay and as al-hasan al-basri rahimahullah and this turning evil after you become muslim what do we call what is this referred to in the in in this in the quran what is it we're talking about becoming evil but you're still muslim that is what it is it is referred to in the quran as what and it is referred to in the quran as and sometimes allah mentions them together.

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And so what is this state of being when a person is muslim but turns evil they still have the pillars of islam they still have the pillars of faith okay but their faith becomes very weak you understand their islam becomes very weak so they start to do evil major sins right they start to hurt people kill people whatever do anything all of the terrible things take riba okay the dabble in seher okay a all of these things lie cheat scam but they pray they make all the five prayers they go to hajj they do all the have we met people this before or not yet we all have right these are people who are referred to in the quran as people will have an illness in their hearts and sometimes they are referred to as there's a narration where the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam says in sahih muslim he says four traits whoever has one of them has a trait of nifak until he leaves it off and whoever has all of them is a munafir a true hypocrite even if he prays and fasts and claims that he's a muslim then he mentions those traits what are those traits he says if he speaks he lies if he is entrusted he is treacherous if he makes a treaty he is treacherous if he promises he breaks his promise okay these are four traits does this mean that this person is no longer a muslim if they have these four traits that's not what that means this means that this person has gone evil after he has become muslim but he is still a muslim and if he died upon that having believed in allah in the last day and not had any major shirk he would enter paradise eventually do you understand this is why we say there is major nefar and minor nifak right major hypocrisy a minor hypocrisy major volume and minor volume is everybody with me does anybody not understand what i'm saying so far very important information here because we get on a one-track mind here's how a shaytan sets you up for failure you want to hear how i'm gonna tell you how one of his tricks okay is that when you have that spiritual awakening and you start to pray or if a person was a non-muslim enters into islam and you start to pray and fast and do everything a shaitaan will come to you and convince you that you're muslim now everything is going to be okay you understand no that is not the promise of islam in that totalitarian sense okay in christianity believe in whatever it is that whatever the denomination wants and you'll enter paradise that's it you either go to hell or you go to heaven that's it right every religion promises that except islam islam you can become muslim and still go to hell it can still happen right because islam is a discipline so shaytan sets you up for failure by telling you you're muslim now you're good you're fine right and slowly evil creeps into your heart and when you look back after 10 15 20 years we know this verse allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said and do not be those who were given the book before you all and a long time passed and a long time transpired while they had the book and they began slowly to lose its teachings until their hearts became hard and many of them are truly rebellious sinful individuals okay so a person can become evil even after they have become muslim why because the teachings of islam are a discipline okay a person says he does not lie you have to practice that that in the moments when it's most beneficial to you to lie you tell the truth you always tell the truth you when it's time to pray you always pray that's it this is not non-negotiable okay but if you start to bend the rules okay if you start to blur the lines is this a white lie or a black lie right is is the salah time in or out wait till the last second for salah right and then make it now evil is starting to creep into your heart because the prophet salallahu alaihi this process may allah help us all he said that which is permissible is clear and that which is haram is clear and between the two are gray areas that most people don't know most people who are the people that know who are the people that know man.

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Which is clear to everyone and then there is a gray area in between that most people don't know whether it is these are referred to as the doubtful things things that are doubtful they're sketchy okay the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said whoever stays clear of these sketchy things then this person has preserved his honor and he has preserved his religion and whoever starts to indulge in these sketchy things than a person has indulged in haram what does that mean meaning you are going to enter into haram eventually that's how shaytlan trains you he trains you first with get a little closer a little closer a little closer and then the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam gave an example he said just a shepherd around a guarded land or a sanctioned land keeps getting closer and closer to the perimeters of that land it is very at any moment he could actually be in that sanctioned land what does that mean well most of us we don't shepherd sheep okay so let's try to bring this home and understand what the prophet is telling us what he's telling us is let's say there is a piece of land where the grasses seems really green and nice okay but that land is preserved it's it's nobody is allowed to enter into that land with their livestock to eat from that grass it's preserved but it doesn't have a clear fence on it okay so what happens a person needs to stay far away with his flock of sheep from that land just as allah told adam and do not come close to the tree stay far away okay but what ends up happening is the shepherd allows his sheep to wander closer and closer and closer to the sanctioned land and there's no fence you know so we're not sure where it starts and where it ends right and we come closer and closer and closer until finally what happens one of the sheep is now in the land now two of the sheep are in the land but who's to say they're really in the land but anyways what's the difference between this land and that land i mean it's just you know it's all the same before he knows it his entire flock is inside of the middle of this sanctioned land this is what's going to happen right that's how a shaitaan trains a person into haram nobody said it's haram i'm not sure it's haram so i'll do it i have something in the back of my mind saying this might be haram but don't ask don't tell right keep going keep going keep going until what happens i'm doing minor sins now i'm doing them all the time i'm doing them constantly i'm doing them habitually now i'm doing major sins and at first i'm upset about it but now i'm doing it all the time now it's become commonplace and then a shaytlan comes to you after all this and says carlos what's the point now i mean he already screwed everything up just keep going right you already messed up you already did the major sins you've already gone too far keep going right and so these little tiny fires that were happening now turn into a giant blaze that burn you alive right the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam he said in a narration which is in muslim he said minor sins are an individual who goes into a valley and starts to gather firewood right so a stick from here and a little twig here and a little stick here no small log here until it becomes a giant pile and he ignites it and it burns him alive this is what he said about minor sins so the same thing happens with money right isn't the same thing happen with money that's how they nickel and dime us to death in this country all right it's just a five dollar subscription it's just a ten dollar subscription it's just thirty dollars a month it's just three dollars it's just five dollars you walk up to the checkout lane the chocolate is only a dollar fifty it's only the before you know it you're you're paying more than you are making now you're in debt right so you get in debt and you start using something that is definitely haram to try to get out of debt so now you're using credit cards and now you're paying reba now you're doing all this stuff before you know it you're too far in you might as well just give in and just go all the way and this is how things work the point here that we are making is that a person can become muslim and can be religious but his religion may waver at a point a person's religion may start to deplete a person's discipline will start to go away right and so a person will yes be muslim but he is an evil person right he's a person who is evil he's not totally evil because no muslim no believer is totally evil but he's pretty close right this is how this happens the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was asked in the narration of a muslim listen to this narration he was asked the sins that we committed before we became muslim are they erased by us becoming muslims.

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Is in this narration the companions came and they asked the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam o messenger of allah the sins that we committed before islam are they forgiven for us are they forgiven by us entering into islam what did he say sallallahu meaning before islam they killed people they murdered people they committed zina they did all these atrocities right they did all of these things that are haram are these things counted against us after we've become muslim he said sallallahu alaihi wasallam whoever enters into islam and continues to be good in islam his previous sins will be forgiven but whoever enters into islam and becomes evil after entering islam he will be held to account for what passed of his sins and what is to come of his sins what does that mean let's say a person before islam used to drink alcohol okay they become muslim and they continue to drink alcohol that means that isla all the other sins that they did or they are forgiven for but the fact that they're continuing to drink alcohol means that they are not sorry and not repentant for the pastimes that they drank alcohol so the time before they became muslim they are held to account for do you understand that concept and so there is a chance and there is a concept of a person who can become evil as a muslim we need to know that you know why because you need to be scared as al-hasan al-basri rahimahullah he said and if.

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Hypocrisy is something that no one except a believer will truly fear and a hypocrite is the one who will not fear hypocrisy none what does that mean that means that if you're fine and you're no i'm good i'm safe now i'm this i'm that be afraid of being a hypocrite of having elements of hypocrisy the true believer is always scared that he will be amongst the hypocrites we know the narration of umar with hadith correct didn't know the names of the 12 hypocrites in medina before the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam passed away came to and he said i ask you by allah was i one of them did he name me as one of them to you who is this but we go and we kick back and we say it's going to work out no you should be scared you should be very scared of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala but not so scared that you're not hopeful anymore you need to be scared and you need you need to be hopeful scared of your sins hopeful in allah's mercy that's the beautiful harmony that is going to lift you to allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala right so i'll end with a narration that will kind of bring this all together remember last week we said we have our prime colors right we have islam and we have kofur we have tauhid and we have shirk right we have night and we have day we have black and we have white but then we have people that are in the middle right there are people that are careful but they're not as bad as as other kuffar and there are people that are muslim but they're not as good as other muslims correct for example we could take a perfect example from the four uncles of the prophet muhammad how many uncles did he have how many say it say it quick how many did he have four four uncles right let's name them yellow number one hamza number two abu lahab number three abu talib number four la best that's where everybody opens his mouth hello two of them were believers and two of them were kuffar correct who were the two kuffar abu lahab and abu talib but whose kuffar is worse and whose kuffar is least abu talib correct we have al abbas and hamza whose islam was best and whose islam was was not as as strong and as fervent as hamza al-abbas both of them are muslim both of them are in paradise the other two both of them are kuffar both of them are in hell but they're not in the same level do you understand and this is why we need to look at the world as not every a non-muslim is a combatant against islam there are neutral types of non-muslims so here is a narration that will kind of solidify this.

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Foreign.