Trust Allah and resist Shaytan's whispers
“You prepare for tomorrow, but you worship Allah today.”
Shaytan attacks believers through anxiety about the future, shame over the past, religious pride, and gradual temptation, but believers can resist by turning their hearts toward Allah with trust, repentance, humility, and refuge.
The khutbah in 6 steps
- The khutbah opens by praising Allah and emphasizing that reflection on the Qur’an continually yields deeper understanding.
- It recounts the Surah A'raf dialogue in which Iblis vows to approach people from ahead, behind, right, and left.
- The front represents anxiety about the future; believers should prepare wisely while worshipping and trusting Allah today.
- The back represents past sins; repentance is available, and a person’s past does not define them.
- The right represents religious pride and superiority, while the left represents gradual temptation and normalized sin.
- The khutbah concludes by directing the heart toward Allah through humility, gratitude, repentance, trust, and seeking refuge.
In the khateeb's words
“You prepare for tomorrow, but you worship Allah today. You prepare for tomorrow, but you trust Allah today. You make the effort, but you leave the outcome to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.”
“Your past may explain you. But it does not define you.”
“Instead of mercy, we start to be judgmental now. We start to be judgmental to people. Instead of gratitude, we feel a sense of superiority.”
For the dinner table
Today's khutbah was about a verse in Surah Al-A'raf where Shaitan tells Allah he will come at people from the front, from behind, from the right and from the left. The khateeb explained that 'in front' means worrying too much about the future, so we should plan but still trust Allah today. 'Behind' means Shaitan reminding us of past mistakes to make us give up, but Allah tells us never to despair of His mercy, because our past does not define us. 'The right' means Shaitan using our good deeds to make us proud and judgmental, so the more Allah guides us, the more humble we should be. 'The left' means ordinary temptations, which creep in slowly, one small wrong at a time, until they stop bothering us. The beautiful lesson is that Shaitan can come from four directions, but he can never stop us from turning in the one direction that matters: towards Allah.
- Why do you think doing good things can sometimes make a person feel better than others, and how can we stay humble?
- What is one small thing you could do this week to turn your heart back towards Allah?
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