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PURIFICATION OF HEART SERIES- part 2
topic: Harmful effects of sin
Date: April 5, 2010
Venue: Main Campus, IBA
Speaker: Sobia Qasim

We have to understand that we have to leave sins of the zahir and the sins of batin. Some of us think that it is okay if I don’t lie or if I don’t do gheebat etc but since our actions stem from inside, we have to take care of our baatin as well.

We are protected by Allah SWT through a chaadar. Everytime we sin, a hole gets in that protection of Allah SWT. The effect of the sin can be immediate or it can be delayed. One of the sahabaa said that everytime he disobeyed Allah SWT, then immediately, something or the other would disobey him as well, be it his wife, his animal. So the effect of the sin can be immediate or delayed.

There are several effects of sin:

The first effect of Sin is that it makes us restless. Sins suck out the itminaan from our lives. Allah has said in the Quran: “Only in the remembrance of Allah can the heart find peace.” (Qur'an, 13:28)
The reason we sin is because we are negligent of Allah SWT and then Allah gives the ability to shaitan to overpower us. There is a very famous incident that a person was praying to Allah SWT and prayed to Allah that “O Allah, I have been sinning all my life, and You have still not taken my ibadaat from me, You have still not taken my tahajjud from me” and then Allah replied that O my beloved, I have taken the sweetness of ibadat from you…

When we put our heads on the ground for Sajda, how many of us feel the sweetness of ibadat? if we ask this question from anyone, he or she would say “ hello, I don’t even know what I am saying in namaaz, what are you talking about?!!?!?”

The real itminaan can only come from ibadat. Most of us when we get a day off or get holidays, we say “oh now, I will download movies and seasons and watch those” but all these things make us numb. We laugh when the fictional character is laughing, we cry when the character is crying. And some of us are even starting to have mushaahibat with those fictional characters with the way we talk, walk, etc. These things only give us temporary satisfaction and make us oblivious to our real problems. Only from the ibadat and obedience of Allah SWT can we find everlasting itminaan and peace

Haven’t we noticed that every single time we miss out on Fajr or be disobedient to Allah, our entire day becomes cranky. And when we are involve in ibadat of Allah, say we are fasting, there is a strange kind of happiness around us. To a person of true imaan, “depression” and all sorts of psychological illnesses are foreign because he or she has the true imaan.

The second effect of sin is that we become mehroom of Ilm-ul-Nafey (knowledge that benefits) Someone asked a scholar what is ilm? The scholar replied “ ilm woh nur hai jis per amal kiye baghair chain naa aye” knowledge is a light which can transform the heart. If our taqwa is not going up, it is not ilm, it is only maloomaat.

Some of us say that “whenever I want to attain knowledge of the deen, or want to attend that bayaan etc, some problem always come up” but instead we should be saying “what is it about me that is so displeasing to Allah SWT that He is not providing me the Fazaail of Rememberance. What is it about me that is going wrong?” So then Allah will automatically ease up matters

The third effect of sin is that it causes decrease in rizq . Rizq is an all encompassing term. It is anything that we need. It can be different for different people. It can be “good career” “good spouse” “good grades” etc. Whenever we sin, our rizq decreases.

We have heard a lot of people saying “we earn in lacs but we also spend in lacs” or “we earn in thousands but we also spend in thousands and there is no saving” or “ I work so hard, but don’t get good grades and the result was just not what I expected” . This is because of the sins that Allah takes away barakaah from their lives.

As for the person who is pleasing to Allah, Allah puts so much barakaah in his or her time or money that the entire amount will suffice for him or her. There is a hadith of Prophet S.A.W that “Allah says Take one step towards me, I will take ten steps towards you. Walk towards me, I will run towards you." -Hadith Qudsi

The fourth effect of sin is that we get deprived of worship “ta’at sey mehroomi”. Most of us say that “before entering college, I used to pray 5 times a day”, or “I used to wear much decent clothes” or “I used to pray tahajjud, now I have trouble with offering my compulsory prayers as well. I have so much work, duties, etc” So instead, we should question ourselves that “what is it about me that Allah does not want my name to be included in the ranks of those who pray 5 times a day or in the ranks of those who perform tahajjud?” “why is Allah SWT taking away the taufeeq to pray from me?”

The fifth effect of the sin is that our health starts deteriorating “sehat sey mehroomi” health is one of the blessings of Allah. Nowadays, we hear young girls and boys saying that he or she has knee problem or the doctor has told him or her that he or she will have to be on drip. Such young people are having Blood pressure problems, depression and stress issues that it is really one of the effects of sin.

The sixth effect of sin is “bantey kaam ka bhigarna” so many of us say that “Oh, I was about to get an A but then I ended up getting A minus” it is just like to say “ A aatey aatey reh gaya” or “kaam hotey hotey reh gaya”.

We have to understand that sins affect not only our deen but also our dunya. Sahaaba used to lead such lives that they had kheir for not only Akhira but also dunya. And the more they used to forsake dunya for Allah, the more Allah ta’ala used to throw world at their feets.

So now, if anyone of us has these effects, what is it that can be done to cure it?

The first step is to do “kasrat sey astaghfar” Our prophet Mohammad S.A.W used to do astaghfar 70-100 times a day. You and I probably need to do astaghfaar more than 1000 times a day! We should do astaghfaar not only for sins we have already done but also for sins we are unable to leave at the moment. And we can do astaghfar whenever we have free time, for example during break from one class to another, when we are in the coaster etc.

The second step is to make sure we offer nafl prayers or nafl ibadat. In order to save our Faraaid, we have to offer nafl. This is to make sure that if anytime shaitaan attacks our ibadat, it is done on our nafl prayers and not on farz. Although nafl are very important but we have to make sure that if there is any lapse, let the lapse be in nafl.

Also, whatever good deeds we do, however much small, we have to make sure that we do them on a regular basis because Allah SWT loves deeds done on a regular basis more than the deeds which are not done regularly.

The third step is to make sure that we keep a good company. Nowadays we have cyber friends: we have cell phones and ipods. So why don’t we use these for the remembrance of Allah by keeping good lectures in them. Earlier on, people had to travel miles from one place to another to listen to a bayaan by a famous scholar. Now all we need to do is download and put it on our laptop or in usb etc.

Insha Allah, if we follow these small steps, we will be able to overcome the effects of sin, with the help of Allah SWT. May Allah SWT help us all. Ameen