28/08/2026
Friday Khutba (summary), 28/09/26
By Imam Ensar
Disobedience to Allah (maʿṣiyyah), usually does not begin with the sin itself. A sin is the final outcome of a certain condition of the heart, a flawed way of thinking, or a weakness of will. The Qur’an points to several fundamental causes:
Following desires – الهوى (al‑hawā)
A person knows what is right, but his desire becomes stronger than his obedience to Allah.
“Have you seen the one who has taken his desire as his god?”
(Al‑Jāthiyah, 23)
This is perhaps one of the most dangerous causes: ignorance says “I do not know,” but desire says “I know, yet I still want otherwise.”
Arrogance – الكِبْر (al‑kibr)
The first great example of disobedience is Iblīs. He did not refuse the command because he failed to understand it, but because of arrogance:
“I am better than him; You created me from fire and him from clay.”
(Al‑Aʿrāf, 12)
This is why arrogance is especially dangerous: a person no longer asks, “What does Allah want from me?” but rather, “Why should I submit to this?”
Heedlessness of Allah – الغفلة (al‑ghaflah)
A person may believe, yet live as if there is no death, no grave, no reckoning, and no meeting with Allah. The Qur’an says:
“Their reckoning has drawn near, yet they, heedless, turn away.”
(Al‑Anbiyā’, 1)
Many sins do not arise from openly rejecting faith, but from forgetting the Hereafter.
Satan’s deception – وسوسة الشيطان
Satan beautifies the sin, minimizes its seriousness, and especially encourages delaying repentance: “Just this once… you are still young… you will repent later.” Allah warns:
“Indeed, Satan is an enemy to you, so treat him as an enemy!”
(Fāṭir, 6)
Ignorance and weak knowledge of Allah – الجهل
The better a person knows Allah—His greatness, blessings, mercy, and punishment—the harder it becomes to consciously oppose Him. Knowledge that enters the heart produces khashyah, reverent fear:
“Only those of His servants who possess knowledge truly fear Allah.”
(Fāṭir, 28)
Love of the worldly life and short‑term gain-- حب الدنيا
A person sometimes chooses what is immediately pleasant over what is eternally beneficial. The Qur’an strikes at the core of the problem:
“But you prefer the life of this world, while the Hereafter is better and everlasting.”
(Al‑Aʿlā, 16–17)
If we were to summarize the roots of disobedience most often return to three major sources:
Satan – calls to and beautifies the sin;
The nafs and desires – want the sin;
Heedlessness – makes us forget the consequences.
There is an important lesson here: a person rarely commits a sin while his awareness of Allah is fully awake. This is why the Qur’an often ties the cure to dhikr—remembering Allah. When the heart awakens, the sin that moments earlier seemed attractive begins to appear exactly as it truly is.
