A Trick Of Shaithaan

I want to tell you about a trick of Shaitaan. When you go late to work and you're late, and your boss is angry because you are late, and lots of people work at your office, you know what you do? You avoid eye contact and sneak into your cubicle. You don't want to face him. When you have a bad report card, and you go home to family in 6-7 grade and you got bad a report card, you sneak into the house. There's no, "Salam Alaikum, I'm home!" You sneak in and kind of go and you pass out, you go to sleep.

"What happened in school?" "Nothing!"

When you disappoint someone you avoid contact, it is natural. In this faith when do something shameless, when we wrong ourselves, who have we disappointed? Allah azzawajal. You've disappointed Allah. So naturally, Shaitaan takes advantage of this. He comes to you and says: "You're going to pray now, you hypocrite. You do this shameless thing, you do this and that, and now you wanna go attend a class! Now you wanna go to do ibadah? You're such a two faced person." So the person says to himself: "Yeah, I shouldn't pray because I'm two faced." Shaitaan takes advantage. He distances you from Allah and he is embarrassed to go in front of Allah azzawajal. But the true muttaq, he does something wrong, and immediately what does he do? - He remembers Allah. "Zakarullah" (remembering Allah) There not even no "fa" "thu'umma"(then, after) nothing. Zakarullah, immediately!

"Fastaghfaru li zunoobi him." Then they ask Allah to forgive for their sins. And the word for sins here, zunoob, comes from zanab actually, meaning a tail. That which you're not proud of. That which humiliates you. Something you did that you're not proud of. And they ask Allah to forgive those embarrassing things that they did. " Wa ma'ii yaghfiruz zunoob illallah"- who's gonna forgive sins if not Allah. Who are you gonna go to? Where else you got to? Who knows the thing that you and I have done wrong except ourselves and Allah. There's a lot of things in our closet that Allah has not exposed. And only Allah knows, and we have to find the time to ask Allah to forgive. This is the main attribute of people that are described that enter jannah. "Ooula'eeka lahum jannatu tajri min tahti hal anhar" The ayat are coming. The sandwich between mentions of Jannah. 

And the last thing I share with you about this final passage. I was one time with my family and we were at a mall, and this other mom was yelling at her child. This mother was yelling at her child. And the kid's crying his head off. And she gave him a little you know (slap). But you know where the child went? After he even got hit and yelled at. He's still holding on to the mother. He's not letting go. Everywhere else around there's ugly gigantic strangers, he doesn't wanna deal with them. Even if she is angry, even if she is disappointed, even if she is upset, his whole world, his whole shelter, his whole protection, where's he gonna go except...?- his mother. And it made me think, SubhanAllah, when you and I sin, when you and I disobey Allah where are we gonna go? Where else is there to go? Who do we turn to? We don't have anywhere else to turn. So even if we disappoint our lord, even if we fall short of the standard he set for us, the true muttaq, hopeful of jannah, never loses hope in Allah. Don't lose hope in the mercy of Allah. You're not allowed to lose hope in the mercy of Allah. This is the attitude we have to internalize. May Allah azzawajal make us from among the muttaqeen. May Allah make us from those who spend when it is easy and when it is difficult. 

May Allah make us of those who whenever they commit and act that is not becoming of a believer they immediately remember Allah and they ask Allah to forgive their sins, for who is there to forgive their sins except Allah

By Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan