IOK Ramadan 2025: A Believer Preserves Their Humanity | Sh Tarik Ata

This Ramadan, MuslimMatters is pleased to host the Institute Of Knowledge‘s daily Ramadan series: Ramadan Reflections. Through this series, each day we will spend time connecting with the Qur’an on a deeper, more spiritual, uplifting level.

Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, Episode 7

Transcript

It’s very important for us to study Iblis. As our enemy, he exposed himself and he made it very clear. He announced to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala and all of the creation. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala documented all this for us. He announced what exactly he’s going to do to try to get you and I into hellfire. He exposed himself and he exposed his plan. And this is why Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala documents so much of what Iblis has said and what Iblis seeks to do. And he’s constantly telling us, Iblis is a clear enemy. He clearly has announced his animosity towards you and I. His goal is clear. He wants to subdue us, to make us subservient to his cause, to his cause, his corruption, and his poisons, so that he can easily drag us to hellfire with him. That’s the reality. And in one set of verses where Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala captures what Iblis is announcing in his plan,  

 Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala says the following about Iblis (in Quran 7:16-17): 

قَالَ فَبِمَآ أَغْوَيْتَنِى لَأَقْعُدَنَّ لَهُمْ صِرَٰطَكَ ٱلْمُسْتَقِيمَ ١٦ ثُمَّ لَـَٔاتِيَنَّهُم مِّنۢ بَيْنِ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِمْ وَعَنْ أَيْمَـٰنِهِمْ وَعَن شَمَآئِلِهِمْ ۖ وَلَا تَجِدُ أَكْثَرَهُمْ شَـٰكِرِينَ ١٧ 

 Iblis says, O Allah, because You deceived me – look at his animosity, look at his hatred, look at the evil. He’s accusing Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala of deceiving him. He says, O Allah, because You deceived me, You made this creation better than me. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala never said that. Because You did this, I am going to wait for them on their path to You, on that straight path you keep talking about, O Allah. That straight path You keep talking about, how it’s easy to get to You, how it’s simple to get to You, how it’s the most efficient way of life, I’m going to sit for them and wait for them on that very path You created in spite of You. And then I will attack them from all angles, from their right, from their left, from above them, from in front of them, and from behind them. 

 In other words, Iblis is saying, I will employ anything and everything at my disposal to corrupt Your creation which You have favored over me, so that what You want for them and of them never comes about. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala wants mercy for us. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala wants paradise for us. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala wants us to submit to Him. He wants a relationship between Him and us. That, Iblis says, he’s going to do everything He can to make sure it never happens. This is his plan. Now, Iblis essentially wants to turn you and me into animals. He wants to take away from us what makes us unique. When Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala told the angels, ‘I know about humanity what you don’t know’.  

 Well, some of the things that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala gave to humanity that distinguishes the human being; there are three main things, all of which are mentioned in the Qur’an. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala gave the human being rational capacity, and this is in no particular order. Human beings are distinguished as humans from other creations because of our mind, our ability to use it, what we can use it for. The mind is a blessing from Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. And He gave us our mind with its uniqueness and its capacity, far beyond any animal, far beyond the jinn as well, so that we have a tool to getting to know Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala; so that we know right from wrong; so we know what is good for us from what is bad for us; so we can make better decisions. That’s there. That’s number one. Number two, language, communication. What makes human beings unique in comparison to animals is our ability to communicate our thoughts, our ability to express ourselves, our ability to link with other human beings and connect with them. 

 So, our language is another thing that distinguishes us from animals. And notice Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, the crux of our relationship with Him is through what? The Qur’an. And the Qur’an is what? It is a book of communication. It uses a beautiful language to communicate to us from Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala beautiful messages. So, our tongue. And then finally number three, last but definitely not least, what makes a human being distinguished from animals is their akhlaaq. Their manners, their ethics, their values. Animals have no conception of this. They don’t. The male, the father of animals, rarely ever sticks around, only a few species. But normally the father has no presence in the life of its offspring. And the mother’s presence is ‘til the animal or the babies can be self-sufficient on their own independence. 

 There is no akhlaaq, there is no ethics. There is no set of morals. There is no set of ethics. There is no set of morals, what animalsconduct themselves by. It’s basically instinct so Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala gave the human being this fitrah. And we know this word is fitrah, this natural disposition. And part of the fitrah is that we have a general idea of what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad. Animals don’t have this; it’s just instinct. If they’re hungry, they eat. If theyre tired, they sleep. Right? So these three things.  

 So, Iblis because he hates us for our humanness, he wants to corrupt the things that make us human. So he wants to attack your mind; he wants to attack your tongue, your language; he wants to attack your ethics. Now, things are probably coming together when you look at the world today, right? He corrupts the mind by getting us not to use it, right? Either way, there are many ways he does this. One way is by cultural blindness or blind following. Oh, why do you behave this way? Because this is how we found our forefathers behaving. Oh no, no! You can’t ask questions because that’s not part of our culture! Or how dare you challenge the way of our forefathers, the way of our society, right? You know, we see this in America; it’s this concept of, ‘We’re right because we’re so sophisticated as Americans and we’re so advanced.’ You know, and anyone who challenges the way we live-oh, you can’t do that! 

 A lot of people behave this way, right? Or sometimes it’s through false premises, through a lot of these ideologies like feminism, Red Pill movement; all these isms, right? They are built on premises, a certain foundational belief, a foundational principle that the rest of the ideology is then structured upon. And if that’s wrong, the rest of the structure is wrong, isn’t it? So Iblis will try to get humanity to develop new isms to enter, to be convinced by certain isms and to follow it because that ism is wrong from the very start. Like this notion that the male and the female are equal; that’s a wrong premise. 

 So, Iblis tries to incapacitate our minds by getting us to believe in certain things that are wrong so that it misinforms our behaviors and our conclusions. Another way, by destroying the brain through intoxicants, through weed, for example, through drugs, right? As Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala says, these are poisons from the behaviors or the actions of the shaytan. So, he wants to destroy our brain. That’s one way. The tongue. He wants our tongues to be corrupt. So, he wants us to use vulgar language. He wants us to be corrupted. He wants us to be lewd in how we communicate. He wants us to attack one another with language. He wants us to label one another with language. He wants us to put one another down with our tongues.

All of these things are mentioned in the Qur’an, as Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala says, لَا يَسْخَرْ قَوْمٌۭ مِّن قَوْمٍ (Quran 49:11). And He says, وَلَا تَنَابَزُوا۟ بِٱلْأَلْقَـٰبِ ۖ (Quran 49:11). Don’t use your tongues to put each other down. Don’t label each other with labels, which is a means of putting people down, right? Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala tells us, don’t backbite, right? أَيُحِبُّ أَحَدُكُمْ أَن يَأْكُلَ لَحْمَ أَخِيهِ مَيْتًۭا فَكَرِهْتُمُوهُ (Quran 49:12). Don’t backbite. It’s a disgusting thing. It’s like eating the flesh of a dead person. Among other ways, the Prophet, ﷺ , tells us, a believer is not someone whose tongue is lewd, whose tongue is foul, among other things, so be careful of your tongue. And just take this hadith in regards to the tongue.

The Prophet, ﷺ , says, the thing that gets most people into hellfire is the tongue. So most of humanity’s sins is coming from their tongue. And the last thing, ethics. He wants to corrupt our ethics. And in our times, we see it everywhere, from LGBT, to the Zionist movement, to other types of movements, racism, etc. The eroding of values and ethics is of the actions of Shaytan, because when human beings are not principled, they behave in ways that aren’t befitting to the human beings. They’ll begin to kill one another. They’ll begin to steal from one another. They’ll begin to exploit one another.  

 I mean, look at CEOs of companies. They will stop at no expense to take anything and everything you have that is of value and monetary. They can care less how it will ravage society, how it will keep society behind, how it will erase the middle class, how it will destroy the middle class, how it will destroy the middle class. They can care less because capitalism isn’t driven by ethics. It’s driven by profit. So be careful of these three things. And Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala gave us a Sharia that preserves these three things. So we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala to help us preserve them. Allahumma ameen. 

 So we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala to help us preserve them. Allahumma ameen. Wassalamu alaikum assalam. 

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