https://www.khutbah.info/the-struggle-against-satan/ It is from the wisdom and knowledge of Allah Almighty that He created this universe, its upper and lower realms, and created humankind and the jinn. Some were guided while others went astray, and He is Seeing of what they do.
إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ ,نَحْمَدُهُ ,وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ , وَنَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا ,مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ , وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ , وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ
Verily, all praise is for Allah. We praise Him, we seek His assistance and we ask for His forgiveness. And we seek refuge in Him from the evils of our selves. Whoever Allah guides, none can misguide. Whoever He misguides, none can guide. And I bear witness that there is no deity other than Allah and I bear witness that Mohammad is His slave and messenger.
يَا أَيُّهَا الّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ – آل عمران:102
Al Imran 102 : O you who believe! Fear Allah as He should be feared, and die not except in a state of Islam.
Oh people:
It is from the wisdom and knowledge of Allah Almighty that He created this universe, its upper and lower realms, and created humankind and the jinn. Some were guided while others went astray, and He is Seeing of what they do.
He sent the two parents, Adam and Eve, down from Paradise, and He sent Satan down with them. Satan had enticed them, caused them to slip from Paradise, and brought them out of the enduring bliss in which they had been. Allah then sent them all down to the expanses of this earth, so that the stage of struggle between the children of Adam and Satan might begin.
He sent them all down to earth after perpetual enmity and hatred had been sown between them. Iblis is an enemy to Adam and his descendants because he caused them to be expelled from Paradise. And Adam and his descendants are enemies to Iblis because they belong to a race that was been given precedence over the race of the jinn. Allah Almighty said:
إِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ فَاتَّخِذُوهُ عَدُوًّا إِنَّمَا يَدْعُو حِزْبَهُ لِيَكُونُوا مِنْ أَصْحَابِ السَّعِيرِ
Fatir (35) 6: Indeed, Satan is an enemy to you; so take him as an enemy. He only invites his party to be among the companions of the Blaze.
In this verse, Allah clarified two important aspects. First, is Satan’s enmity and that it is a genuine enmity in which there is no room for doubt or uncertainty. Allah has decreed that it will continue until the establishment of the Hour. Yet this remains no more than abstract unless we pay heed to the other important aspect, the practical and applied aspect. Namely, the statement of Allah Almighty:
فَاتَّخِذُوهُ عَدُوًّا
Fatir (35) 6: So take him as an enemy.
We do not fear for disbelieving souls regarding Satan. For those are darkened souls in which Satan has pitched his tent, stretched out its ropes, and roamed freely. Rather, all fear, the utmost fear, is for Muslim souls that have taken no account of Satan in their lives. They falsely regard themselves immune against Satan and his deception. Throughout their conditions and circumstances, they establish a false sense of reassurance. Consequently, they neither recognize what is right nor reject what is wrong.
Some have said that one of Satan’s most cunning tricks is to convince us that he does not exist. Not that he has no existence, but that he has no presence within our own souls. This is moral paralysis in itself, and it stands in direct conflict with the texts of the Qur’an and Sunnah, such as Allah’s statement concerning Satan:
ثُمَّ لَآتِيَنَّهُمْ مِنْ بَيْنِ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِمْ وَعَنْ أَيْمَانِهِمْ وَعَنْ شَمَائِلِهِمْ
Al-A‘raf (7) 17: Then I will come to them from before them and from behind them and on their right and on their left.
And such as the saying of the Prophet ﷺ:
إِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ يَجْرِي مِنِ ابْنِ آدَمَ مَجْرَى الدَّمِ
Indeed, Satan flows through the son of Adam as blood flows.
Sahih al-Bukhari – Hadith 3281 Sahih Muslim – Hadith 2175a
When the enemy of Allah, Satan, learned that the heart is the central point and that everything depends upon it, he rallied his forces against it through whispering and incitement. From the moment the Muslim enters the stage of accountability, their journey of continuous conflict with Satan begins. They must resist and defy him until they drive him out of nine positions that Satan seeks to occupy. The people of knowledge have disclosed the nature of this struggle and explained the stages that the Muslim must traverse to attain victory over this bitter adversary who flows through them as blood flows.
In the first confrontation of this long-lasting battle, Satan attempts to cast doubts into the heart that lead to disbelief. Through these, he fells most people in every generation, although those whom he fells among the followers of Muhammad ﷺ are few. If he succeeds in this against a child of Adam, that person becomes one of his troops, and thus becomes one of the callers and representatives of Iblis:
وَإِنَّ الشَّيَاطِينَ لَيُوحُونَ إِلَى أَوْلِيَائِهِمْ لِيُجَادِلُوكُمْ وَإِنْ أَطَعْتُمُوهُمْ إِنَّكُمْ لَمُشْرِكُونَ
Al-An‘am (6) 121: And indeed do the devils inspire their allies [among men] to dispute with you. And if you were to obey them, indeed, you would be associators [of others with Him].
If Satan does not prevail over the Muslim there, he invites them to doubts involving religious innovations, which are more beloved to Satan than sinful disobedience because their harm spreads beyond the one who commits them.
If the person frustrates Satan in this, Satan resorts to a prolonged campaign. He assails the Muslim by making the major sins arising from desires appear attractive, followed by the minor sins which, if gathered together, may destroy the one who commits them. How could it be otherwise when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
إِيَّاكُمْ وَمُحَقَّرَاتِ الذُّنُوبِ، فَإِنَّمَا مَثَلُ مُحَقَّرَاتِ الذُّنُوبِ كَمَثَلِ قَوْمٍ نَزَلُوا بَطْنَ وَادٍ، فَجَاءَ ذَا بِعُودٍ، وَجَاءَ ذَا بِعُودٍ، حَتَّى جَمَعُوا مَا أَنْضَجُوا بِهِ خُبْزَهُمْ، وَإِنَّ مُحَقَّرَاتِ الذُّنُوبِ مَتَى يُؤْخَذُ بِهَا صَاحِبُهَا تُهْلِكُهُ
Beware of sins that are regarded as insignificant. The likeness of sins regarded as insignificant is that of a group of people who stopped in the bottom of a valley. One person brought a stick, and another brought a stick, until they gathered enough to bake their bread. Indeed, when the one who commits sins regarded as insignificant is taken to account for them, they destroy him. Musnad Ahmad – Hadith 22808 – Grade: Hasan – Graded by al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani.
If Satan loses this round, he takes the path of procrastination and delay. He presents a person with obstacles and impediments that prevent them from performing an act of obedience. This takes many forms, though their essence remains one.
He makes the merchant imagine that their uprightness and repentance will become clearly manifest in their life as soon as they complete this deal or that one. A father imagines that it will be realized once his son marries and his worries are lifted. A son believes it will occur once he has completed his studies and become free of them. I would not be going too far if I said that Muslims today have not escaped this satanic snare. Allah Almighty said:
يَعِدُهُمْ وَيُمَنِّيهِمْ وَمَا يَعِدُهُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ إِلَّا غُرُورًا
An-Nisa (4) 120: Satan promises them and arouses desire in them. But Satan does not promise them except delusion.
If the Muslim survives this stage, Satan slips in under the guise of a sincere adviser. He urges the person to engage extensively in permissible activities, so that he becomes immersed and weighed down by them.
For this reason, the approach of the scholars, may Allah have mercy upon them, both in earlier and later times, has been clear in limiting permissible activities that distract a person. Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, may Allah have mercy upon him, said: “Indeed, I fear indulging in that in which there is no harm, lest I fall into that in which there is harm.”
If the person frustrates Satan at this stage and safeguards their time, Satan moves them to the stage of becoming occupied with a less virtuous deed at the expense of a more virtuous one. He disrupts the person’s ordering of priorities and flips their understanding of the principles of the Shariʿah by which deeds of faith are ranked in merit.
Few people notice this because they do not realize that Satan may command a person to enter a hundred doors of goodness, either to use them as a means of leading them to one or more doors of evil, or to cause them to miss a good deed that is greater and better than all those hundred. But whenever the person holds firmly to the superior and weightier deed, they have defied and humiliated Satan to the fullest extent.
Yet even this is not sufficient to corner Satan into a state of despair and defeat. Satan presents the person with a shadowy illusion through which the individual and society come to feel that there are no grounds requiring rectification and nothing needing improvement. Once a Muslim has performed the obligatory duties, and society has contented itself with a few superficial manifestations of Islam, they becomes reassured and satisfied and reach the point of feeling that they have attained perfection.
They consequently remain in a state of complacency, excessive security, and self-delusion, thereby becoming one of those who feel secure from the plan of Allah:
فَلَا يَأْمَنُ مَكْرَ اللَّهِ إِلَّا الْقَوْمُ الْخَاسِرُونَ
Al-A‘raf (7) 99: But no one feels secure from the plan of Allah except the losing people.
If the person survives this stage, then their victory over Satan has been achieved, or has nearly been achieved, were it not for that final onslaught, from which the Muslim cannot be spared except through mercy of Allah. Satan sets his party from among the jinn and humankind upon the person, and assail them with vile forms of harm and abuse. Through this, Satan seeks to disturb the heart of the Muslim and prevent people from benefiting from them.
However, one thing that consoles the soul, is that no human being is spared from this stage, not even the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. How often was he was and reviled, and how often was he was fought and opposed ﷺ.
Therefore, whoever has escaped Satan throughout the preceding stages and pitfalls is all the more likely and deserving, by Allah’s permission, to prevail in this one. May Allah protect us and you from Satan’s incitements and cunning.
Allah Almighty said:
وَقُلْ رَبِّ أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ هَمَزَاتِ الشَّيَاطِينِ
Al-Mu’minun (23) 97: And say, “My Lord, I seek refuge in You from the incitements of the devils,
وَأَعُوذُ بِكَ رَبِّ أَنْ يَحْضُرُونِ
Al-Mu’minun (23) 98: And I seek refuge in You, my Lord, lest they be present with me.
أَقُولُ مَا تَسْمَعُونَ وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللهَ لِي وَلَكُمْ مِنْ كُلِّ ذَنْبٍ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ
I say what you have heard and I seek forgiveness from Allah for me and you from every sin. So seek forgives from Him, Verily He is Oft-Forgiving, the Most Merciful.
Second Khutbah
الحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ, وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى رَسُولِ اللهِ , وَ أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَاْ إِلَهَ إِلَّاْ اَللهُ وَحْدَهُ لَاْشَرِيْكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدَاً عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُوْلُهُ
All praise is to Allah, and peace and blessings upon the Messenger of Allah, and I bear witness that there is no deity other than Allah and I bear witness that Mohammad is His slave and messenger.
Oh Muslims:
When Satan was granted respite until the Day of Resurrection, he began setting forth his plan and disclosed his objectives:
قَالَ رَبِّ بِمَا أَغْوَيْتَنِي لَأُزَيِّنَنَّ لَهُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَلَأُغْوِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ
Al-Hijr (15) 39: [Iblees] said, “My Lord, because You have put me in error, I will surely make [disobedience] attractive to them on earth, and I will mislead them all
إِلَّا عِبَادَكَ مِنْهُمُ الْمُخْلَصِينَ
Al-Hijr (15) 40: Except, among them, Your chosen servants.”
From the very moment of their birth, he declares war against them. For this reason, it is authentically established that the Prophet ﷺ said:
مَا مِنْ مَوْلُودٍ إِلَّا نَخَسَهُ الشَّيْطَانُ، فَيَسْتَهِلُّ صَارِخًا مِنْ نَخْسَةِ الشَّيْطَانِ، إِلَّا ابْنَ مَرْيَمَ وَأُمَّهُ
No newborn is born except that Satan pricks him, whereupon he begins crying out because of Satan’s prick—except the son of Mary and his mother.
The narrator then said: “Recite, if you wish”:
وَإِنِّي أُعِيذُهَا بِكَ وَذُرِّيَّتَهَا مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ
Ali ‘Imran (3) 36: And I seek refuge for her in You and [for] her descendants from Satan, the expelled [from the mercy of Allah]. Sahih al-Bukhari – Hadith 3431 Sahih Muslim – Hadith 2366a
Continually remaining in obedience to Allah and remembering Him constantly in every circumstance are sufficient to lessen Satan’s effects or eliminate them. Listen to what the Messenger ﷺ said to ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab:
وَالَّذِي نَفْسِي بِيَدِهِ، مَا لَقِيَكَ الشَّيْطَانُ سَالِكًا فَجًّا إِلَّا سَلَكَ فَجًّا غَيْرَ فَجِّكَ
By Him in Whose Hand is my soul, Satan never encounters you traveling along a path except that he takes a path other than yours. Sahih al-Bukhari – Hadith 3683 Sahih Muslim – Hadith 2396
Look at the strength of Iman (faith) and how it affects Satan, to the point of fear and flight.
Therefore, have consciousness of Allah. Dedicate your worship sincerely and exclusively for your Lord. Hold fast to the Jamaʿah ( Muslim community), adhere firmly to the Qur’an and Sunnah, seek Allah’s help against Satan, perform abundant acts of obedience, and frequently seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the expelled, on the occasions to which the Prophet ﷺ directed us. In this way, you will prosper, and that which Allah Most High has mentioned will be realized for you:
إِنَّ كَيْدَ الشَّيْطَانِ كَانَ ضَعِيفًا
An-Nisa (4) 76: Indeed, the plot of Satan has ever been weak.
هَذَا وَصَلُّوا وَسَلِّمُوا عَلَى نَبِيِّكُم كَمَا أَمَرَكُمْ بِذلِكَ رَبُّكُمْ , فَقَالَ
I conclude with this and send prayers of blessings and peace upon your Prophet as your Lord commanded:
إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ ۚ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا صَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِيمًا
Al Ahzaab (33) 56: Indeed, Allah confers blessing upon the Prophet, and His angels [ask Him to do so]. O you who have believed, ask [ Allah to confer] blessing upon him and ask [ Allah to grant him] peace.
اللَّهُمَّ اهْدِنا فِيمَنْ هَدَيْتَ وَعَافِنا فِيمَنْ عَافَيْتَ وَتَوَلَّنا فِيمَنْ تَوَلَّيْتَ وَبَارِكْ لنا فِيمَا أَعْطَيْتَ وَقِنا شَرَّ مَا قَضَيْتَ إِنَّكَ تَقْضِي وَلاَ يُقْضَى عَلَيْكَ وَإِنَّهُ لاَ يَذِلُّ مَنْ وَالَيْتَ تَبَارَكْتَ رَبَّنَا وَتَعَالَيْتَ
O Allah, guide us with those whom You have guided, grant us well-being among those You have granted well-being, be an ally to us along with those whom You are an ally to, and bless what You have bestowed upon us, and save us from the evil of what You have decreed. For verily You decree and none can decree over You. He whom You support can never be humiliated. Glory is to You, our Lord, You are Blessed and Exalted.
اللَّهُمَّ إِنَّا نَسْأَلُكَ مِنَ الْخَيْرِ كُلِّهِ عَاجِلِهِ وَآجِلِهِ مَا عَلِمْنا مِنْهُ وَمَا لَمْ نَعْلَمْ وَنَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ الشَّرِّ كُلِّهِ عَاجِلِهِ وَآجِلِهِ مَا عَلِمْنا مِنْهُ وَمَا لَمْ نَعْلَمْ اللَّهُمَّ إِنَّا نَسْأَلُكَ مِنْ خَيْرِ مَا سَأَلَكَ عَبْدُكَ وَنَبِيُّكَ وَنَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ شَرِّ مَا عَاذَ بِهِ عَبْدُكَ وَنَبِيُّكَ اللَّهُمَّ إِنَّا نَسْأَلُكَ الْجَنَّةَ وَمَا قَرَّبَ إِلَيْهَا مِنْ قَوْلٍ أَوْ عَمَلٍ وَنَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ النَّارِ وَمَا قَرَّبَ إِلَيْهَا مِنْ قَوْلٍ أَوْ عَمَلٍ وَنَسْأَلُكَ أَنْ تَجْعَلَ كُلَّ قَضَاءٍ قَضَيْتَهُ لَنا خَيْرًا
O Allah, We ask You for all that is good, in this world and in the Hereafter, what we know and what we do not know. O Allah, we seek refuge with You from all evil, in this world and in the Hereafter, what we know and what we do not know. O Allah, we ask You for the good that Your servant and Prophet has asked You for, and we seek refuge with You from the evil from which Your servant and Prophet sought refuge. O Allah, we ask You for Paradise and for that which brings one closer to it, in word and deed, and we seek refuge in You from Hell and from that which brings one closer to it, in word and deed. And we ask You to make every decree that You decree concerning us good
عِبَادَ اللّهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالْإِحْسَانِ وَإِيتَاءِ ذِي الْقُرْبَىٰ وَيَنْهَىٰ عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالْمُنكَرِ وَالْبَغْيِ يَعِظُكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَكَّرُونَ
Servants of Allah. Indeed, Allah orders justice and good conduct and giving to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression. He admonishes you that perhaps you will be reminded.
اُذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ الْعَظِيمَ يَذْكُرْكُمْ واشْكُرُوهُ يَزِدْكُمْ واسْتَغْفِرُوهُ يَغْفِرْ لكُمْ واتّقُوهُ يَجْعَلْ لَكُمْ مِنْ أَمْرِكُمْ مَخْرَجًا وَأَقِمِ الصّلَاة
Remember Allah, the Great – He will remember you. Thank Him for His favors – He will increase you therein. And seek forgiveness from Him – He will forgive you. And be conscious of Him – He will provide you a way out of difficult matters. And, establish the prayer.
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