Wickedness: Transgressing All Limits Without Fear of Consequences

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 2025-09-21 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

O Allah, we ask You for our people in Palestine: victory, honor, support and steadfastness. O Allah, do not deprive them of their land, O Lord of the worlds, and make their feet firm. O Allah, defend them by Your means and Your soldiers on earth and in heaven, strengthen their hearts and guide them to right guidance and the straight path. O Allah, have mercy on our weakness, mend our brokenness and our shortcomings, inspire us with our right guidance and make us among the guided.

The Word Fujūr

In the recitation we heard the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted: ﴿بَلْ يُرِيدُ الْإِنسَانُ لِيَفْجُرَ أَمَامَهُ﴾ (Rather, man desires to continue in sin [or: to act immorally] ahead of him)^[1]. The matter is extremely serious when you see the Lord of Might, Glorified, using particular words; the word fujūr in itself expresses transgressing all limits without fearing the consequences. I say it once more: transgressing all limits without fearing the consequences. Its owner thinks of nothing and no one, except that he himself should transgress all the limits of the Lord of the worlds, Glorified and Exalted.

And the reality that exists now shows us examples of people in this state: he cares about no one, thinks of no human being, does not distinguish between himself and others, and sees himself alone as the one who influences the whole world, the doer of everything, and in his hand is the button with which he could blow up the world, and he does not care.

Knowledge Is the First Step of the Road

It is well known that the first reason for the advancement of a country is the diversity of knowledge in it and its drawing in thinking minds from the whole world. And this is what we know in Islam from the principles of legislation; Allah, Blessed and Exalted, commanded His Prophet ﷺ, as the first thing He commanded, with His saying: ﴿اقْرَأْ بِاسْمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ﴾ (Read in the name of your Lord who created)^[2], pointing out that knowledge is the first and only path to progress in the world. Then you see that Allah, Blessed and Exalted, in the first association of Adam, peace be upon him, with anything in all of life, joined Adam with knowledge, so He said, Glorified: ﴿وَعَلَّمَ آدَمَ …﴾ (And He taught Adam …)^[3]; for without knowledge there is no place for Adam, and without Adam knowledge has no place of application.

And as I said, I am not the man who analyzes these events, but you see a person who transgresses everything, who sees himself as dominating the world. And the Lord of Might, Glorified and Exalted, speaks of this and says: ﴿بَلْ يُرِيدُ الْإِنسَانُ لِيَفْجُرَ أَمَامَهُ﴾ (Rather, man desires to continue in sin [or: to act immorally] ahead of him), a shattering phrase for the souls that listen to it.

The polytheists in the days of the Prophet ﷺ controlled a piece of land and transgressed in it with every kind of transgression and tyranny, bearable and unbearable, but it was not with this might and this severity.

Before Myself

And our Lord, Glorified and Exalted, tells us with His saying: ﴿أَلَمْ يَكُ نُطْفَةً مِّن مَّنِيٍّ يُمْنَىٰ﴾ (Was he not a drop of semen emitted?)^[4]. It is as if my Lord stands me before myself so that I look at the history of my personal existence: how I was, what I was, to what I advanced, and how I came to sit in this gathering. A child like me who was raised in the village, may Allah honor you, surrounded by a group of people who tended livestock, and all our hope was that we would set off to the Azhari institute to study knowledge there and then return to our homes to tend these things and exert our effort in plowing. Then time moves on with you and conditions change for you until you are sitting now among these noble people in this country, with us these capabilities and before us these challenges. Where were we and to where have we come? Who did this in our lives? Allah, Glorified and Exalted.

But the Lord of Might only tells us that the basic axis in the thinking of such people is that they do not think of the Hereafter in any way, and that is truly the touchstone. For our Lord, Glorified, tied the good deeds of people to whether they look to the Hereafter or do not, and tied the results of their deeds to their good anticipation of what is with the Lord of the worlds or their neglect of it.

Great Tyranny and Small Tyranny

And just as we spoke about the great tyranny whose examples we see, whose owner does what he wishes now and roams and rampages in the world as he likes, with no deterrent and no one to tell him: stop right there, we also have in our simple lives kinds of tyranny. So you see a man who slanders his wife with whatever slander, and you see a person who slanders his brothers, and you see a person who exceeds his limits with his business partners, and you see a person who does not respect his own existence as a human being among people, so he slanders with speech and lies, with the tongue, with deed and with the hand.

And the human tendency that the Lord of the worlds speaks about is an existing human tendency. For He, Glorified, says: ﴿أَوْلَىٰ لَكَ فَأَوْلَىٰ﴾ (Woe to you, and woe!)^[5], as if He says: Use your reason a little, then woe to you, and woe! ﴿أَيَحْسَبُ الْإِنسَانُ أَن يُتْرَكَ سُدًى﴾ (Does man think he will be left neglected?)^[6]; does he not have One who watches his deeds, observes them, knows them, encompasses their causes and stops him at the right time?

And this is very consistent with the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted, when He describes them as saying: ﴿لَيْسَ عَلَيْنَا فِي الْأُمِّيِّينَ سَبِيلٌ﴾ (There is no blame upon us concerning the unlettered)^[7]. Do you know the significance of this sentence? Its significance is that there is no one like me, no one rises to my station, there is no one who can stand against me, I am alone in this life and all of humanity that exists is only to serve me. This mentality, whether on the small level or the large, on the family level or the international, is a mentality driven by the "ego," this inner tyranny, this psychological seething that happens inside human souls, and it is what moves such people in any case.

Yes, He Is Able

And we see that Allah, Blessed and Exalted, tells us with His saying: ﴿أَلَيْسَ ذَٰلِكَ بِقَادِرٍ عَلَىٰ أَن يُحْيِيَ الْمَوْتَىٰ﴾ (Is not that One able to give life to the dead?)^[8]. And the example given in the verse, the Lord of the worlds, Glorified, tells us that He is able to do everything. So the believer must keep his connection with Allah constant, the wise must make his steps good, and the one who reflects must look to where his foot lands. And we must think deeply about a matter of utmost importance, for which we have nothing else and nothing besides, which is the future of Islam in this country and on the earth as a whole. We have no greater concern than to be attached to the Lord of the worlds, Glorified, so that we are not asked about our shortcomings in this world.

I ask Allah, Blessed and Exalted, to make us among those who humbled themselves before Allah, Mighty and Majestic, so He raised their standing, and those who made good their steps on His path, Glorified, so He guided their steps aright, and those who understood their roles on this earth, so Allah, Exalted, granted them success and inspired them. O Allah, amen, O Lord of the worlds. May Allah reward you with good.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Qiyāmah, verse 5. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-ʿAlaq, verse 1. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Baqarah, verse 31. The Shaykh limited himself to «وعلّم آدم», and its completion in the muṣḥaf is «الأسماء كلها». ^[4]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Qiyāmah, verse 37. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Qiyāmah, verse 34. ^[6]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Qiyāmah, verse 36. ^[7]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat Āl ʿImrān, verse 75. ^[8]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Qiyāmah, verse 40. The answer to the verse in the muṣḥaf is «بلى».