Surviving the Temptations in the 21st century as a Muslimah- This is the highlight of the lecture presented by Hajia Haleemah Alli Bankole at the just concluded Muslimah’s Summit organised by MSSN OAU.

“Temptation is all about the desire to sin which comes in stages which are;

• Thoughts: Temptations steers from an ordinary thought which generates to
• Idea: thought forms into ideas which would then move to
• (Either being abandoned) or (being executed).

If abandoned, one would be rewarded by Allaah but if executed, it attracts punishment from Allaah.

21st century is also referred to as digital age whose basic characteristic is advancement in technology. Technology is not an evil but can best be described as a two-edged sword pointing at us, an edge is beneficial and the other edge is destructive.

Who Is A Muslimah

A Muslimah is a female who submits totally to the will of Allaah, is she who fully understand the dictates of her religion and is fully aware of her purpose of creation.

Facts About Temptations.

You might wonder what is bad in temptations.

Temptations are addictive: People wallows in sins because they derive pleasure in them and dropping those sins will be hard. Sins get accumulated by trivializing small sins. The fact is, every small sin has a potential of becoming a bigger sin. Don’t overlook a sin that is small, we must fight temptation really hard because Shaytaan is never going to relent. So, inorder to be safe from the claws of Shaytaan, we have to block every ways that will make us vulnerable to his traps. And the reward of living according to the dictates of Allaah worth struggling for.

Shaytaan will not come to us with full force but will tactically trick us and lure us to commit sins. Also, do not put your Eemaan to test and thinking you are pious therefore, Shaytaan can not lure you into sinning. Everywhere Allaah warns us against committing a sin, He didn’t exempt anyone. When He warned us to not move close to Zinaa (fornication), He didn’t put “except you are pious”.

The tragic story of a pious man who later died a Disbeliever was recounted… Burṣeeṣah was a pious man who lived in a sanctuary and devoted his entire life in the worship of Allaah. There were three men from Banu Israel who were called to fight for the sake of Allāh. They accepted the call, but they had concerns for their sister as she would be left behind with no-one to look after her. After some discussion, they agreed that the best place to leave her would be with the most trusted person in town (I.e Burṣeeṣah). They went to him and explained to him but he rejected. Shaytaan came to him and whispered to his heart saying “Burṣeeṣah if you don’t look after her, she might be left with someone who is not trustworthy! You have to take this responsibility”. Then he later accepted and so the brothers left their sister in his custody. The lady was kept in a separate house so not to distract him from his acts of worship.

During the day he would leave food on his doorstep so the woman would have to leave the house to collect the food. This also ensured they never saw one another and Burṣeeṣah never even left his place of worship. As time passed by, Shaytaan came to whisper to him again telling him it would be stressful for the lady to be getting his food from his doorstep, he should rather be taking it to her doorstep, he agreed and thought this was the right thing to do, and followed the bait that Shaytaan masked in a cover of righteousness. This was how he kept whispering to his heart till he started going inside her room and later committed adultery with her which got her impregnated.(From being a devoted worshipper of Allaah to being a fornicator). Shaytaan didn’t stop here but still whispered to him to kill the child then the lady herself and buried both mother and child under the house and covered it with a rock in order to cover up his atrocity.(From being a pious servant of Allaah to becoming a murderer)!.

The brothers got back and were simply told their sister has passed away. They were saddened by the news and accepted the qadar of Allaah. That night when they went to sleep, Shaytaan came to them in their dreams and told them all what had happened. “Burṣeeṣah has lied to you! Burṣeeṣah has killed your sister! Burṣeeṣah has fornicated with her! She is buried under the rock inside the house.” As they all woke up in the morning, and talked about their dream, they began relating the same dream and thought there must be some truth in it. They went to the false grave Burṣeeṣah showed them and found no body buried there then they stormed his house and found the rock in the exact place Shaytaan showed them, dug up the grave and found their sister and her child buried there. Burṣeeṣah was taken to court and was to be executed. Once again, Shaytaan came to Burṣeeṣah and told him to bow in prostration to him so as to save him from the humiliation. He succumbed, fell in sujuud to Shaytaan who ran away at that instance and Burṣeeṣah was executed. This was how a once pious man died as a disbeliever! Just imagine the transition! May Almighty Allaah safeguard us from the traps of Shaytaan.

There are many temptations in this century among which are;

• Music
• Addiction to social media
• Ikhtilaat (Intermingling/free mixing with the opposite gender)
• Beauty
• Arrogance etc.

How To Survive These Temptations;

• Be intentional about knowing Allaah by seeking knowledge about His religion, striving to memorize His Noble Book, studying beneficial Islamic texts. Do not accumulate sins and follow a bad deed with a good one. Know that Almighty Allaah is the ultimate judge who sees everything we do and will take us to account for them.

• Stay close to Allaah and you can’t know Allaah without wanting to get close to Him. You might be struggling to get close to Him but once you know where He wants you to be and you desire to be there, all you have to do is to be focused and pray to Him to ease it.

• It is worthy of being noted that, you shouldn’t stay close to Him alone but with the right ‘Aqeedah (ideology). Some people are truly striving to get close to Allaah but not in the right way which amounts to futility in the sight of Allaah. Follow the Qur’ān in its pristine form, follow the teachings of His Prophet (Salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) and take his companions as role models.

• Identify your enemy and keep far away from him. Our most merciful Lord has declared Shaytaan-the accursed as our obvious enemy therefore, we must be wary of his tactics. After all, if just our fellow human being is to tell us to beware of a certain person, we would do our best to keep our distance from such person. Why then would Allaah who is our creation and directs all our affairs, tell us to beware of someone and still not take it serious?

We are always told Music is among the tools of Shaytaan, why then do we not keep totally off from it? The tick-tock where music is almost unavoidable to hear, must you be there? There are definitely no excuse for listening to music. Some people also hide under Islamic Nasheeds with musical instruments whereas they are of the same category.

Ways to develop our Faith

• Fall in love with the Qur’ān, reconnect with it if you have already being disconnected, rebound with it, strive in memorizing the Noble words of your Lord and teach it for the best among us are those who knows the Qur’ān and teach it to others.

• Make sure you are on the right methodology ( which is what the Prophet and his companions were upon). Don’t be an extremist nor a laxist but be moderate.

• Be conscious of your daily Adhkār, no matter how busy you claim you are, try doing it regularly and you will know it doesn’t really take much time as it seems.

• Think about death, thinking about death often will humble us and make it easy to drop our sins.

• Be mindful of your sense-organs, what you use them for. Because every of our organs will serve as witness for or against us on the Day of resurrection. What do you gaze at with your eyes? Watching comedies that portray series of indecencies ? Also, are your ears only for listening to Music? Be careful of your utterances, a Muslimah is not lousy or vulgar. It is like a magnetic force, you attract people of same behavior.

• Be with good companions as the Prophet (Salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) has said “an individual is upon the religion of his companion”. And he also likened a good companion with visiting a perfume seller, either he gifts you a perfume or you smell pleasantly after leaving his place and a bad companion with visiting a goldsmith, if you leave his place, you surely will smell of smoke.

• Be careful of the use of social media. Treat it like a toilet that requires you to quickly do what you have to do and leave.

• Don’t throw your chest at temptations. Don’t be full of yourself. Be intentional so as not to be caught off guard.

Ultimately, all these are easier said than done, you have to perspire to persevere! You have to know that this life is a test so it requires patience. For verily, after hardship comes ease.

This lecture among many others are greatly educating and enlightening. May Almighty Allaah bless the organizers of this Muslimah’s summit immensely. May Almighty Allaah accept it from them as an act of ‘ibādah and make it weigh heavily on the scale of their good deeds. May He overlook our shortcomings and perfect all our affairs.

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