An-Nas (Mankind)

In the name of Allah the most gracious, the most merciful.

Say: "I seek refuge with (Allah) the Lord of mankind,
The King of mandkind---
The Illah (God) of mankind,
From the evil of the whisperer (devils who whispers evil in the hearts of men) who withdraws (from his whispering in one's heart after one remembers Allah)
Who whispers in the breasts of mankind.
Of jinn and men"

I missed usrah this week because of work and so I decided to make up time to read a little bit of tafseer. This is the last surah in the series of surah in the Quran and one that I always recite in my solah. Before this I knew a little bit here and there the meaning of the ayahs, but today, after opening a few books and qurans, I realised that there is a deeper meaning to ayahs.

If you flip open the quran with tafseer, Mushaf Uthmani is the one we could easily get in Malaysia, yes the one with the zip or even the clip button, the meaning of Surah An-Nas is a wee bit different from the above. The above meaning was taken from an English tafseer published in the Saudi and meant to be distributed during my university's Islamic Awareness Week in 2011. (I took one of them for future references because the translation is clearer and of course, because they had extra at the end of the week).

So anyways, I realised that I am often in this situation mentioned in the surah. Where one gets drifted and sunk into the pleasure of sin, and then, woken by the fear of Allah's wrath and consequently saying his/her istighfar. Yes, I've been in that situation countless times that even before writing this post, I find that there is a need to reset my intention every single second so that the feeling of "oh I'm so good for writing this"is not going to be there as I write.

I strongly believe that if one has this realisation that the feeling mentioned above needs to be pushed aside, Allah has definitely shone His light towards him/her. Believe it or not, the whispers of shaitan comes in a very subtle, most invincible way. They would whisper into our hearts that you're doing this wrongly and you're intention is unclear and what nots. Which could become a challenge and sometimes stop you from collecting rewards from your ibadah.

One thing that we often do when we are faced with such a challenge is we stop doing the things we did due to the overwhelming feeling of riya'. Sebab kita taknak terus menerus dalam keadaan dosa? Am I right?

Guys, this is not the way to go. Because when we stop ourselves from doing good, just because of the feeling, doesn't that mean that shaitaan has finally become the winner there? First they're successful making you believe that all the feeling you had was riya'and secondly, you've stopped doing good, which is what the shaitaan wanted from the very beginning.

My situation lately, is I was always being reminded about my past. How fun it was and how I was free and happy. I could not stop myself from listening to the whispers of shaitaan but I know that Allah has put me in a better place now even though it may not be as fun as it was in the past. I persuaded myself with countless ayahs in the Quran saying that this world is nothing but a playground and the hereafter is the real world. I know that I must win this battle against the shaitaan.

in your face, shaitaan!

So here's a counter attack for that wretched being: You (and me) are going to fight that feeling. Whenever that feeling comes, quickly say your (and my) istighfar and always keep reminding ourselves that all of these, the ibadahs, are for Allah. That we are just His slaves and none but He can receive compliments. And also, always recite aúzhubillahiminash shaitonnirrajim. It doesn't hurt to do a little bit of dua before starting any action.

Try this for a day or two and let's see how amazing this will work. InshAllah, everything put forth for the sake of Allah, He will help us and make it easy for us :)