Shaitan is working day & night to drag you down with him

Summary of Maulana Shaykh Nazim’s Daily Suhbah

5th January 2010, Tuesday

Shaitan is working day & night to drag you down with him

A’uzubillah himinsh shaitan nirrajeem

Bismillahir Rahman-nir Raheem

Assalamu’alaikum wrh wbkt

• Knowledge comes from Experience. Only one who has experienced, will acquire the knowledge to explain that experience! Maulana gave the example of one who has travelled to Damascus, he would certainly know about the territory, the climate, the creatures that live there and the local culture and customs. If he hasn’t been to Baghdad, he would know nothing of it. So Man can never know everything, but he can learn much by experiencing. In the study of Islam, we must take knowledge from one who has experienced what he is speaking about, for such knowledge is different from one who simply read or heard about it.

• Maulana advises us not to judge a message by looking at the speaker, but to listen to the words of the message itself. If you take knowledge from one who has experienced and understood it, you will be able to feel the satisfaction that such knowledge brings to your heart. A true message brings satisfaction, you cannot buy satisfaction from a supermarket, you cannot buy it with money, it is a Divine gift from Allah to the hearts of seekers. A heart finds satisfaction, when it understands what it is seeking to know. When your heart is satisfied, it means that you have taken something beneficial, from the Assembly/Suhbah.

• You cannot understand religion by yourself, for Allah had sent Prophets and Saints, to bring the light of understanding into the hearts of Man. These are the chosen people, who bring the light of understanding, and hence satisfaction, into your hearts.

• Yet many of us have our eyes closed, we are asleep, we are heedless, and we do not seek out these chosen people, so we remain in the dark, our hearts troubled and unsatisfied. Humans open their eyes wide, only to seek out profit, business and other worldly matters, but are blind to matters pertaining to the message of the Prophets. Maulana says, honour is linked to matters of akherat, not dunia, but Man is always seeking dunia. The treasures of dunia are just a mirage, but the treasures of akherat are endless, yet 21st century Man is exceedingly heedless. Technology has created for him many distractions and he never cares to seek reality anymore, joining shaitan on the way to oblivion/destruction. It pains Maulana to see people seeking/chasing/yearning for the imitated, temporary, minute pleasures of this world throughout their lives, and in the process, giving up the life of true happiness/safety/ blessings and pleasure, for ETERNITY.

• Maulana says he always considers himself a student, a seeker, still learning and acquiring knowledge. He reminds scholars not to consider themselves as learned ones, but to always be humble and to seek to learn constantly.

• The Leaders of the Bani Israel and Christians must also call out to their followers to seek the life of akherat, of eternity, so why are their leaders silent on this matter? For if these Leaders represent the Lord of Heavens on earth, they must call people to His service.

• The Jews reject both Prophet Isa (as) and Prophet Muhammad (saw), saying that they only accept Prophet Musa (as). Did they really obey Sayyidina Musa (as), Maulana asks? Allah had commanded Bani Israel to obey His orders. Yet when Sayyidina Musa (as) had left them for a few days, what did Bani Israel do? From amongst them, was shaitan’s representative, Samiri, and he laid out traps for the people of Bani Israel, and thousands were snared in these traps, and were duped into worshipping a golden cow. A single representative of shaitan, was enough to mislead thousands of Bani Israel!

• So shaitan doesn’t sit on his laurels, he works incessantly to mislead humans. Shah Naqshband (qs) had remarked, “If I had seen Iblis sleeping, I would have bound his hands, and gagged his mouth, but at no time had I ever seen him asleep.” Maulana says that shaitan works very hard, never resting, he spends every moment seeking to trap and destroy Man. Shaitan is the hardest working creature on earth!

• Shaitan now controls whole countries by controlling its leaders. Tyrants/Dictators, under the thumb of shaitan, keep their citizens under their yoke, imposing shaitan’s wayward and cruel ways on them. By controlling one man, shaitan exerts his influence over an entire nation.

• Shaitan extends his hold on the entire Ummah today, by setting traps using the many devices invented by technological advances. Today, we have mobile phones, internet, laptops, home theater systems, sports cars, jets, iPods, Playstations – the list of inventions is endless – and using these, shaitan has set his biggest traps, that have caught practically everyone on earth.

• Almost all our lives are now wasted in the pursuit of entertainment – music and movies. Many people build virtual lives on the internet, and spend much time chatting, surfing and playing games. Free mixing amongst the sexes, and easy online introductions, promote promiscuity and pornography. Almost every youngster is either addicted to some computer game, or has music plugged into his ears. The race to acquire the latest in technology, means we are always seeking new phones, computers and related devices. An entire Ummah of blind, distracted people, seeking gratification and pleasure, wasting time and money, has emerged! Shaitan has used modern technology, to ensnare almost everyone.

• Maulana says, technology has become shaitan’s representative, people have left the Shariat of Allah, because of the expanding influence of technology! Technology has brought people away from the remembrance of Allah, and into a meaningless, virtual life, wasted on pleasure and entertainment. Why aren’t the scholars speaking out against all this? Salafi scholars have the time to label zikir, maulud and selawat as shirik, bida’ah and haram, but have no time to warn the masses of shaitan’s traps!

Fatihah.