Satan's Entrances: Lapses, Friends, and Protection

Occasion: A transcription of a lecture (second half) delivered on October 11, 2018 Source: A transcription of a video lecture by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

Let us continue what we began. We agreed in the first half of the lecture that we are speaking about "Satan's entrances," and we have not yet moved beyond the first story: the dialogue that took place between the Lord of Might, glory and exaltation be to Him, and Adam, peace be upon him, and Satan. We drew from it a number of important lessons, and I will recall the ones we need before we move on.

The Moment of Rebellion: It May Come Upon the Best of Us

The first lesson is that moments of rebellion may pass over us in our lives, in which we depart from the foundation we had been on for a long time. We suddenly discover something new in ourselves, and we see that we have become a little worse after having been very good people. So what happened? A prompting struck us, and we departed from the foundation of what we were in. That is why the Prophet ﷺ taught us always to seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our own selves, for within the self there is a part of evil that is originally part of the natural disposition, but it has the capacity to remain evil and the capacity to become good.

Here is a living example: a person who has memorized the whole Qur'an, who leads people in the prayers and whose voice is among the most beautiful one could hear, then suddenly, with no cause or apparent reason, turns away from his memorization and his leading of prayer, and ends up in atheism or shirk, we seek refuge in Allah. It is an extremely grave matter, and everyone wonders: how did this happen? And it is, as we said before, like a cell in the human body that, when it encounters a certain fluid, turns into a cancer cell, and chaos begins to spread through the whole body.

So never think that you can move a little away from Allah and then come back; Satan may catch you while you are away, even slightly. So be with your Lord always. By this we understand why we were commanded to pray five times a day. What does five times mean? Wouldn't once have been enough? It is as if Allah is saying: I want to keep you safe at all times.

Imagine someone following you up on the phone: Peace be upon you, where are you? I am still at the university. Where are you now? Won't you have mercy on us? We told you, at the university! And we all do this with our mothers, praise be to Allah. As for fathers, no one asks about you at all, but the mother calls and calls. And this constant following up did not come from oppression, but from excess love and concern for constant safety. Why does my mother do that? Because she knows that danger may come in a single moment, especially if you are driving. And I know people who stay on the phone from the moment they leave the house until they reach their destination.

So how does a person protect himself throughout life? It will only be through the servant's continuing eagerness to be in the company of Allah, blessed and exalted. And every attempt to leave this company exposes the self to danger, because there is a Satan lying in wait, at the end of the world or at its beginning, beside your self or far from it. And at the same time he knows your weak points perfectly, because he is seasoned in leading humanity astray.

We already agreed on his job: ﴿لَأُغْوِيَنَّهُمْ﴾ (I will surely lead them astray).^[1] Since Satan's only job in the whole of life is "I will surely lead them astray," he has become extremely skilled at it, and has worked on it with the utmost craftsmanship and professionalism; he has no other business, so he is always working on it. So take care of yourself, and always have taqwā of Allah, glory and exaltation be to Him, and be in the company of the Lord of the worlds, constant in the remembrance of Allah, and be a Rabbānī servant whom your Lord, glory and exaltation be to Him, protects by your Rabbānī-ness.

Comparison: By It Satan Was Destroyed

The second matter: beware of comparison. Do not compare yourself with anyone and so grieve over yourself because you are less than others. For comparison, if a devil does it, he is destroyed. And I may not compare myself with people but rather compare my possessions with theirs, and say: so-and-so's college is better than my college, or so-and-so's provision is better than my provision, or so-and-so's children are better than my children, anything of what people have and what I have. So know that the One who created you is the One who created them.

Imagine a father who gives his first son twenty and gives the second three, and you say: What an injustice! He says to you: Why are you angry? This is not equality, and you answer him: Rather, there is a difference between fairness (musāwāh) and sameness (tasāwī). Fairness is that each one takes what suffices him, and sameness is that people take exactly one amount. And why do we not give people exactly one amount? Because the one who took three is in elementary school, and the one who took twenty is at university. The one in elementary school will not go off to sit and drink coffee and tea, when he spends his whole day not making his own decisions, and not knowing where to go or where to come from; as for our university friend, he has an independent life in our present time. And the poor, simple one with the three, at home, if he has lunch he takes it with him to school, and we drop him off and pick him up. So the ceiling of his dealings and his level are limited.

So when Allah gave creation, He gave me what suffices me and gave people what suffices them. And never think that the one with abundance is more at ease than the one with little. By the way, the one who has much is not more comfortable, because his responsibilities match the numbers he has, and whoever's responsibilities are fewer has less, in keeping with that.

The Desire for Ownership and the Love of Staying

We also agreed that among Satan's entrances are the desire for ownership and the desire for permanence, or the love of staying, and these are the two entrances through which Satan entered upon Adam, peace be upon him. And we drew attention along the way that the first human incident on the face of the earth combined the two: the son of Adam wanted to obtain the instinctive desire by getting the more beautiful one, and the desire for ownership by snatching it from his brother's hand.

Boldness Before Allah, and Denying One's Error

And we learned from Satan's stance a very important lesson, which is his boldness before Allah, blessed and exalted. This boldness may afflict one of us, so he is deluded by himself and begins to act superior to those above him. And who is above you? You may act superior to your parents; they are above you. Why? Because you are better educated than they are. And this is what I fear for you: that you feel you rise above the one who is above you in something, or that you are distinguished from him by some percentage.

We also agreed that when Satan made a mistake, he did not say: I made a mistake. Had he said it, he would have gone through the same experience that Adam, peace be upon him, went through, and the whole matter would have been over. But he fabricated excuses for himself, and kept searching for an "excuse" for himself: the people around me are the ones who err, not I. Adam is the one who erred when he was created from clay, and I was created from fire, and Adam should have been created from fire... So he kept looking for excuses for himself under the claim of equality.

So if we do something wrong, we must immediately say: We are sorry, we apologize. And before you apologize to people, apologize to Allah, glory and exaltation be to Him. Whatever happens, even if the proctor standing before you in the exam committee did not see you cheating, our Lord sees you. And whatever happens, even if you were able to hide the phone and the things in it, and you wiped the calls and did this and that before the parents or the elders or those who follow you saw this, and you are "clever" and know how to do it, our Lord has recorded it and known it before you erased it or removed it. And here arises an issue called muraqabah, being mindful of Allah, glory and exaltation be to Him.

And this is what Satan tries to do to you: to make you feel heedless, and to make you forget that there is a Lord in existence. As you were told when you were learning to drive: do not switch on anything that could make you forget that you are driving. That is heedlessness (ghaflah). So if heedlessness occurs in the servant's life, he moves away from Allah, and if he moves away from Allah, he follows his whim, and if he follows his whim, he commits sin, so he goes astray and leads astray those around him, and the matter ends with his having judged himself to a different path, unless he returns to the Lord of the worlds, glory and exaltation be to Him.

Choosing Friends

The second point was among your topics, which is choosing friends, and I will count it as a part of our talk today, and we can elaborate on it more. And why did I link it to Satan's entrances? Because Satan, however strong he is, if you say: I seek refuge in Allah from Satan the accursed, he jumps and bangs his head on the ceiling and flies off. But your bad friend (f.) who sits pressing on you and nagging and nagging and nagging, say to her: I seek refuge in Allah from Satan the accursed a thousand times, and bring the slipper and strike her on the head, and she will not move from beside you! This friend of yours who wants to push you toward something, this nagging friend, you do not want to seek refuge in Allah from him; you want to report him!

And these devils are a kind of creation of a different makeup, and a different makeup means that his hardness is greater. If you take the hammer and strike a piece of wood, it breaks, but iron needs you to strike it many times until it breaks, and it softens, and may be straightened, then bends again and is straightened again. As for our other poor friend, she has broken. As for Satan, you say: I seek refuge in Allah from Satan the accursed, and the matter is over. So seek refuge in Allah from Satan the accursed, for he has no authority.^[2] And the matter is very clear, but the human element is not as quick to respond to the seeking of refuge as the satanic element. By Allah, which is lighter in burden now, which is easier: Satan or the children of Adam? So if we reflect well, who is more deserving of caution?^[10] Because I will start listening to him, and try to convince him that what he is saying is wrong, and he insists on not being convinced and not listening.

And accordingly he keeps "nagging" in my head. And this nagging may not be followed by a quick result; he says to me: Let us do such and such, and it is wrong, and it is not necessary that I run after him and do exactly as he does. But we pass through a number of stages. The first stage is the stage of rejection of the words that are said: I reject it completely. One of the preachers used to tell an example about a Muslim man who came from the lands of the East, and the first moment he lands at an American airport he sees women wearing hardly anything, and he says: I seek refuge in Allah from Satan the accursed. And a little later: I seek refuge in Allah from Satan the accursed. And a little later: I seek refuge in Allah from Satan the accursed. And so things go on.

So what happened? The issue of familiarity happened: familiarity with sin, familiarity with habit. Our friend speaks to you with words you do not like because you were not raised on them, so you deny them. But after a little you got used to it, and you started saying: He has become nagging in my head, so let him say what he likes. And at this time you do not understand that a kind of sedimentation of the words has occurred, and that he found channels through which to enter inside, so he begins to take root little by little until you become accustomed to hearing. Then after a little you find yourself, even in a moment of solitude, thinking: Was this so-and-so speaking rightly or wrongly? And as soon as you say: Was he speaking rightly or wrongly, it means you have given up the original principle in which you were saying: wrong, wrong, wrong. So you began to think: is it right or wrong? And the matter became two halves inside you, and if the half that says he is speaking rightly prevails, then after a time you find that you have fallen into the wrong at once without preliminaries. And the impulse has become from within you, so you do not wait for someone from outside to tell you: do it or do not do it. And all of that happened through the friend, the bad friend.

That is why the Prophet ﷺ used to say: «المرء على دين خليله» (A person is on the religion of his close friend).^[3] Can you imagine the sentence? On the religion of his close friend! Not only with him in the sin or the evil deed or the good deed, but even with him in religion.

Should We Not Befriend Non-Muslims?

And someone may say to me: So we should not have American friends, who are non-Muslims? What do you think, Shaykh? Do we go along with these people or not? And my answer: are you full or empty? Is this heart of yours empty or full? And it appears from his words that if the heart is empty, its owner is on the religion of his close friend, as we fear from keeping bad company. But we also want to be the company of good who pour good out over people, on condition that you are strong enough that good passes from you to others. So do not leave a place empty in you.

That is why we must learn, and if we learn, then in a sound, disciplined way, and if we have learned and become cultured, let us be keen that our knowledge pass on to others. The Qur'an that you memorized at school, and praise be to Allah, Allah has completed the blessing upon you, what do you do with it now? Have you forgotten some of it? Or do you review because your father sits and reviews with you? Or are you busy? And in the matter of tafsir and reading, what are you doing? And this amount that Allah gave you of the lessons you sat through with so-and-so, or the lectures you attended at such-and-such mosque, or the scholarly course we took on such-and-such a topic, what do you do with all you took of knowledge that was placed in your head as an honor from Allah to you? Allah, mighty and majestic, honored you and placed some information in your brain, so what do you make of it? Do you pass it on to others, or do you say: Praise be to Allah, I am fine, and put one leg over the other: I am just great? No, no, this is not right. So be the one who carries good to others. And instead of those around you being bad friends, be the one of truth and good, such that when they stick to him, your religion, your character and your knowledge pass over to them.

Satan Employs Those Who Do What He Cannot

And look how Satan employs some people to carry out the task he cannot do. There is no doubt that Satan may speak to you in a different language, but a human speaks to you in your own language, in the language of instinct, in the language of the love of ownership, in your own language. And these people who do that are one of three kinds:

The first: people who are evil in themselves, who want everyone to be like them. And pay attention: any bad person is jealous of any good person. Do you (f.) imagine that because you are a believer, non-believers are happy about your presence and your distinction? No, they are not that happy about your presence and your distinction when you are a person of good character. Imagine the whole class cheating in the exams and you say: No, everyone, this is wrong! They say: Yes, hājjah, let us finish our work, have mercy on us. And you say: No, this is wrong and I will not do it. Here you are kindling the fire of resentment in the hearts of these people against the one who refrains from doing the wrong. The bad person wants everyone to be bad like him, and whoever takes drugs wants everyone to be an addict. So Satan exploits these evil ones and says to them: Your mission now is so-and-so, go to work! They work for Satan by remote control; he sends them to dominate so-and-so, man or woman.

The second: people who are simply naive, who do not understand anything, so they are set upon you because life for them is all scattered.

The third: someone with envy and jealousy, who sees a blessing with you and tries to change it. And Satan exploits that because he saw this weak point in him, so he sets him upon you, and you fall into sin without realizing it.

Protection From Satan Is a Bounty From Allah

And I conclude this talk with a very important matter that we understand after all we have said: that protection from Satan is a bounty from Allah, and not cleverness on our part. ﴿وَلَوْلَا فَضْلُ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَتُهُ لَاتَّبَعْتُمُ الشَّيْطَانَ﴾ (Were it not for the bounty of Allah upon you and His mercy, you would have followed Satan).^[4] So our not following Satan is because of Allah's bounty and His mercy toward us. So how do we obtain Allah's bounty and the mercy of the Lord of the worlds?

Beware of forgetting the prayer, not even once. Beware of being lazy about one, beware of dropping it.

And pay attention also to filling this heart with the Book of Allah, blessed and exalted. Is there any among us who has a problem downloading an app on the phone with which to read the Noble Qur'an? When you (f.) go out in the morning in your car and put your trust in Allah, glory and exaltation be to Him, and before you set off you play the Qur'an at a gentle volume that lets you concentrate, and at the same time fills the place around you with blessing, until you arrive and find yourself reassured and calm, with a kind of stillness, of sakīnah, so you enter the row comfortable in spirit and attentive. But if you left the house upset, quarreling with whoever is there because he did not prepare breakfast for you, or I don't know who spilled the cup of tea you had prepared two hours earlier, anything that happened at home so that you left troubled from the morning, then if you listen to the Qur'an you find yourself completely relaxed as you go into your new work, and that was something different in your life.

The company of Allah, glory and exaltation be to Him, the Book of Allah, mighty and majestic, constant uninterrupted prayer, and the remembrance of Allah as far as you are able. And Allah, glory and exaltation be to Him, protects and grants well-being.

A Question About Cutting Hair

A question came about the ruling on a matter related to hair; it seems from its context that it involved cutting off a part of it in order to donate it, and the lecturer was asked: Is it forbidden? He answered: I do not think there is any prohibition in it. For hair is a renewable element in the body and does not affect the basis of well-being, and its absence is like its presence, and its effect is aesthetic. And there is no doubt that everything Allah created in the human body has a health effect in some way, but it is among the renewable elements; hair comes out, and may break or fall out on its own.^[9]

Question: Friday Prayer and Studies

I was asked about the Friday prayer, and the origin of the question was a conflict between studies and it. I said: We have strictness regarding the Friday prayer. If you are compelled by a compulsion with which no excuse is fitting, there is no harm. But we should put alternatives in place for all the things we need as a Muslim community. So instead of saying: I will miss Friday prayer, is this lawful or unlawful? I divide myself into two groups. We have two or three Friday prayers: a prayer at twelve-thirty, for example, and a prayer at three-thirty, for example. So whoever has a conflict between studies and twelve-thirty prays at three-thirty, and whoever has such-and-such does such-and-such, and so on. And people who are keen on the Friday prayer, because it is a direct command from the Lord of the worlds, glory and exaltation be to Him, and because it is a prayer with a particular distinction in the world of Muslims, will not neglect it. Agreed? ﴿إِذَا نُودِيَ لِلصَّلَاةِ مِن يَوْمِ الْجُمُعَةِ فَاسْعَوْا﴾ (When the call is made for prayer on the day of Friday, then proceed [to it])^[5]. A matter with no discussion in it.

And I am speaking to the men in principle; for in our legislation women are not charged with performing the Friday prayer. And may Allah reward you (f. pl.) well if you attend the prayer and benefit from new information and gain provision of obedience and good deeds; a wonderful thing, and it appears that he said that you thereby drop from yourselves the Ẓuhr prayer on that day.^[6] But the obligation and the ruling in its origin, I am speaking in it about men. And I do not think that men have a problem dividing themselves into two groups according to the studies they have. And praise be to Allah, we have skilled young preachers, mā shā' Allāh.

And I answered a question that contained some confusion: people among us say they are compelled to miss Friday prayer, and if you ask another person he says: No, you are not compelled, you can make the effort. And another says that Friday prayer is obligatory upon him but... So we are speaking about two matters. The first is commitment to the Friday prayer as an obligation, and this is expressed by your friend who says to you: This is a must, this is an obligation; and this is the origin of the matter. And the second is our friend who says: I can or I cannot, so does he have an excuse or no excuse? If he has an excuse, it is his own excuse, not the excuse of the community. So I am speaking about the personal excuse.

So you can go because you are able to make up the subject and study it after you return, or you have your older brother who studied it last year and he reviews it with you, or so-and-so whom you call on the phone and he explains to you, or your father has a friend specialized in this field who helps you. That is, you have the ability to do so. And another person may be different; if there were ten in the class, nine of them may be able to leave the class and go, and one cannot leave it. So this one, does he have an excuse before Allah, glory and exaltation be to Him, or no excuse?

That is why I said at the beginning: Can you replace the time of this class with another? Are we, from the start, religious people who put our plan so that the prayer time is taken into account, or not? If the subject is the last chance, or an important subject I must take this year to enter such-and-such specialization next year, then this is a different person.^[11] Then we come to the person himself and ask him: And can you find three or four of your friends so that you pray Friday prayer in the place, or not? Is there not a place in all of America? You will go to a place of study, knock on a door and say to them: I want a room to pray, and they will not say no. Is it not so, or am I mistaken? So you can do that with utmost simplicity.

And the form of the question as I understood it, if I am not mistaken, is that you are speaking about a group of people gathered together. So these who are together in the same class, instead of my telling you: I can, and I show off and go pray with Shaykh Ahmed at such-and-such place, take it easy, my friend; go and sit with Ahmed at the end of Tuesday and understand from him how a Friday sermon is delivered, and speak to one of the brothers who are preachers and say to him: Help me, I want to pray Friday prayer in the place where I am. If he has time he will say to you: Yes, I have time, and if he is busy he will say to you: Do such-and-such. So you pray Friday prayer while you are present with the people, and you have discharged the obligation and also done your work.^[7]

Work and the Friday Prayer

As for the matter of work, it is a little different, for I have kinds of work. This friend of ours, God willing, when he finishes with the medicine topic with which he torments us, and stands in the operating room from seven in the morning until five in the evening without breathing and without drinking a sip of water, with a patient in his hand who is about to die, let him not come and say to me: Shaykh Ahmed, shall I pray Friday prayer on this day or not? I might say to him: I can make Friday prayer "delivery" for you after the ʿIshāʾ prayer, my dear! But this patient should not die in your hands because I want to go out and pray Friday prayer. So if you are keen on that, do not take patients on that day, or divide yourself, so you plan accordingly and your schedule is built on that basis.

And in the matter of work too: someone who comes with nothing, and knows no one in the community, and works at such-and-such a place, and the employer says to him: Don't tell me Friday prayer, forget this illusion you are in. So what does this one do? We ask each one: Are you at the stage of compulsion and being excused before Allah, glory and exaltation be to Him, or not? If so, then well and good and Allah accepts it from him, and if not, then his matter is with Allah if he falls short of performing the prayer.

A Ruling for Each Case on Its Own

And pardon me, but when we issue a fatwa, my son, may Allah protect you, this randomness does not exist. You are speaking about cases, and about conditions for each case, and about assumptions that can be made about each case, and about possible excuses, and about very many things before a ruling or fatwa comes out. The matter is not like this. I am now giving you the basis, the principles of the matter. But if you come and speak to me and I say to you: perhaps you may not pray once, or miss one Friday and another Friday...^[12] So let us simplify the matter with another question: Is the distance within his capacity or not? Because it may be thirty minutes, but he does not drive well, so is it within his capacity? A person may not drive well at all, so the thirty minutes for him is like fifteen hours for another, he almost dies of terror until he reaches the place where the mosque is. Imagine, so what does he do then? Does he have an excuse or not?

And when I say this to you and it appears on the screen and people hear it and say: Ahmed said that everyone has an excuse in such-and-such, it becomes a generalization of the fatwa, and I do not like that. We lay down the basic rules and the way of thinking about the matter, but the fatwa for each case must be for each case on its own.

Question: Sadness, the Unseen, and Mental Health

Then someone asked to return to the point of Satan's entrances, and the question was about sadness that leaves a person in a state of sadness. I said: Very nice. By the way, to stress: we did not speak today about all of Satan's entrances, but about a part of the topic.

And the questioner clarified: The topics related to mental health and mental illnesses among Muslims we did not used to speak about much in the past, and the topic has been opened up strongly recently and much is said about it. And in the discourse circulating around it there is a kind of cancelling of every idea, so do not let anyone tell you that you have sadness or depression because you are far from your Lord, or because Satan is playing with your brain, or because you are envied; all this talk is not correct, and if you are ill you need a doctor, you need to speak to someone. And he is not against this idea, for sometimes a person really needs to go to the doctor. But his question: that by this we cancel the idea of the unseen matters related to Satan's interference in our lives, and our selves' interference in our lives, and the interference of things such as envy. And all of us, or most of us, pass through hard stages in our lives, so if I am going through a stage like this, how do I balance between turning to my Lord, glory and exaltation be to Him, and seeking refuge in Allah from Satan the accursed, and between taking the means, without forgetting my Lord entirely and going to worldly ways alone?

So I said: Unfortunately we have exaggeration from both sides. We have people who speak in the language of religiosity and say that the servant must be attached to Allah in order to be saved from everything, and that this fear and psychological disturbance has no cause except distance from Allah, glory and exaltation be to Him, and that any person who is troubled while being with our Lord and praying is lying to himself, or a hypocrite, or a deceiver, or showing off, and so on. So they greatly exaggerated the matter of attachment to Allah, and denied, as you kindly mentioned, all other causes around this matter. And the other direction fell into the same trap and also exaggerated, and said: This is merely chemistry present in the brain in some form, so do not talk to us about prayer or fasting, and do not give us a headache with this empty talk of yours; you go to the doctor and he writes the medicine, you take the medicine and you become fine, and carry on with your life and we are done. So these exaggerated in this matter, and those exaggerated in this matter.

So we come to the middle course in the matter and say: We were commanded by Allah, glory and exaltation be to Him, to establish the prayers, and by the act of the Prophet ﷺ these prayers were five times a day, by Allah's command to him, and by his action ﷺ, and by Gabriel's guidance, peace be upon him, on how to time them, and so on. So in principle I have contact with Allah five times a day. And I have from the Prophet ﷺ a very great counsel, which is the counsel to keep to the adhkār that I practice morning and evening. So we have prayers, and we have adhkār every morning and every evening. If we took a special session in which we understood the adhkār that the Prophet ﷺ taught us every morning and evening, and understood their educational and psychological dimensions within each self, it would be something utterly wonderful. So if you believe every word said in the morning adhkār while you picture its dimensions: «أصبحنا» (we have reached the morning), and we might not have reached the morning, «وأصبح الملك لله، والحمد لله، لا شريك له، له الملك وله الحمد وهو على...» (and the dominion has reached the morning belonging to Allah, and praise be to Allah, He has no partner, His is the dominion and His is the praise, and He is over...).^[8] That is, the dominion belongs to no one; not to the president nor to the prime minister nor to the king, to no one, the dominion has reached the morning belonging to Allah. I feel I am in a blessing, don't I? And He has no partner, so no one will make a decision in my life today other than our Lord. I am going along very well. His is the dominion and His is the praise. How wonderful! Can you imagine these partial dimensions?

So you have prayers, and you have adhkār, and you have the Qur'an flowing through your body, heart and feelings, and this amount suffices to protect the believer from any psychological illnesses that could come upon him and have no organic causes. And the one far from Allah, glory and exaltation be to Him, is exposed to Satan and to envy and so on, for he has put himself outside the fortress and left his chest open to whatever stabs may come to him.

Even so, we are still speaking about the psychological states; the connection of psychological illnesses relating to the inside of the self and the tranquility of the heart with acts of worship is a given. But when we speak about the mind and the chemistry of the mind and the circulation of thoughts within the mind and the mood level occurring inside the person, I am speaking about an organ called the brain. Accordingly, everything that concerns this organ, with respect to the disturbance we call a psychological disorder, and the naming itself may be mistaken, and we need to ask the specialists: do we say this wrongly or rightly? Everything connected to the brain is connected to a doctor, connected to the measured proportion of certain chemicals and substances in the brain, connected to medicinal pills that a person takes, praise be to Allah. And as for the psychological matters related to worship, they are connected to attachment to Allah, glory and exaltation be to Him.

So if we can combine the two, this is the skill of the believing person, who can give people a fatwa that combines the good of this world and the hereafter. And Allah knows best.

--- ^[1]: The lecturer cited the phrase in truncated form. Editor's documentation: Its completion is in His words: ﴿قَالَ فَبِعِزَّتِكَ لَأُغْوِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ﴾ [ص: 82] (He said, "Then by Your might, I will surely lead them all astray") [Ṣād: 82], and what is given here is limited to what he uttered. ^[2]: The lecturer said "he has no authority" without specifying the verse. Editor's documentation: His words ﴿إِنَّهُ لَيْسَ لَهُ سُلْطَانٌ عَلَى الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَلَىٰ رَبِّهِمْ يَتَوَكَّلُونَ﴾ [النحل: 99] (Indeed, he has no authority over those who believe and rely upon their Lord) [al-Naḥl: 99] is the closest to this meaning, and this is an estimate by the editor, not a specification by the lecturer. ^[3]: The lecturer's wording: «المرء على دين خليله». Editor's documentation: The ḥadīth in full is «المرء على دين خليله، فلينظر أحدكم من يخالل» (A person is on the religion of his close friend, so let each of you look at whom he takes as a close friend), narrated by Abū Dāwūd and al-Tirmidhī from the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him). ^[4]: The lecturer uttered the verse in this form without attribution. Editor's documentation: The verse in its wording is close to what is in [al-Nisā': 83], together with its ending ﴿إِلَّا قَلِيلًا﴾ (except for a few), so I recorded only what he uttered, and the passage should be checked. ^[5]: The lecturer recited it in abbreviated form. Editor's documentation: It is in [al-Jumuʿah: 9] and its completion is ﴿… إِلَىٰ ذِكْرِ اللَّهِ وَذَرُوا الْبَيْعَ ۚ ذَٰلِكُمْ خَيْرٌ لَّكُمْ إِن كُنتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ﴾ (… to the remembrance of Allah and leave trade. That is better for you, if only you knew). ^[6]: Editor's documentation: The lecturer's phrase in the transcript is slightly garbled («ونسقط عن أنفسنا صلاة الظهر في اليوم ده»), and this is the closest understanding of it. ^[7]: Editor's documentation: This passage is garbled in the transcript, and in it there is an address directed to a particular student and a suggestion of attending the preacher and learning the sermon; only what became clear of its meaning was retained. ^[8]: The lecturer cited the dhikr in truncated form. Editor's documentation: It is from the morning adhkār, and its completion is «… وَهُوَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ» (… and He is over all things capable), and it is attributed to Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim from the ḥadīth of Ibn Masʿūd (may Allah be pleased with him). ^[9]: Editor's documentation: The text of the question is garbled in the transcript; its topic is understood from his words «لما بنقطع جزء منه عشان نتبرع بيه», and the jokes with the audience that follow were omitted. ^[10]: Editor's documentation: The lecturer's phrase here is garbled in the transcript («هنصح ب مين»), and the wording above is a cautious approximation, not a spoken text. ^[11]: Editor's documentation: In the transcript there is garbled speech here (a question about «سد تطلع» and an answer to it) that was omitted because it could not be understood, and the phrase «فإذا كنت صلاة الجمعة أصلًا وعملت أي حاجة» was not clear and so was also omitted. ^[12]: Editor's documentation: The lecturer's phrase at this point is garbled in the transcript («ممكن ما تصليش واحد تان لازم تصلي واحد»), so no answer or ruling was recorded for it.