 People lose their way. One of the ways by which they lose their way is what is stipulated in the verse that I recited earlier Sometimes what happens as I mentioned earlier is that I commit one sin and the very nature of sin is that one leads to the other That's how it works We have traditions about this and we have real-life examples of this as well No murderer stands in a court of law before a jury or a judge And tells you that I decided to become a murderer when I was 10 years old Nobody says that Because at that age when they're still young when they're still fresh when the slate is still clean Nobody decides to be a murderer Nobody sets out to be a thief But the way it works is that you make one mistake followed by another mistake followed by a slightly bigger third mistake Followed by an even greater fourth mistake And at some point down the line the law of causality stipulates that you will Finally commit a mistake that's big enough that you'll get caught and justice will have to be served It'll catch up with you Inna sayyad I'm paraphrasing one hadith here Every sin Is holding another sin It's like a series of chains a series of rings that make up a chain When you pull one ring you're thinking i'm pulling a ring, but in fact you're pulling the entire chain If you lie once and this is something that many people can probably relate to one lie You will have to lie again to cover up the first one or at least to cover up The trail or any flaws within the first lie And then we'll have to lie a third time to cover up The footprint left by the second one And so on and so forth, which is why somebody came to the prophet I have these filthy habits These debilitating things that I do in my life that are self-destructive that are sinful that anger And I don't know what to do Where do I start? Where do I begin? A lot of people have this question The prophet in this case gave him a very simple Order he said to him if you avoid one thing that'll actually help you avoid all of those other Sinful habits of yours. What's that the prophet said to him do not lie As simple as that. Yes, it's as simple as that And so this guy He's about to go and engage in that bad habit of his And so he's already made up his mind because that's the first step you need to Take you make a solemn commitment not to lie So he's about to go and engage in that sinful Act of his He said to himself but hang on a second if I go back then and people ask me, where were you? What were you doing? If my father asks me if my mother asked me if my wife or husband asked me, what am I going to do if my friends ask me Usually the way it works is I would lie to cover up what I did But I've already decided not to lie I can't lie. So I'm not going to go And then he realized By the time the day was over that because he decided not to lie He in fact avoided all of those sinful things that he used to engage in Prior to making this commitment the point being that a sin Is usually not just an isolated incident It's oftentimes the case that one sin is connected to another And another and another and it's a whole series of sins and by the time you get to the last one You've pulled the entire chain and you're now free falling from the rooftop So the verse that I recited says that the ultimate Abode and conclusion of those who commit sins one after the other Is this There will come a point when because of the massive amount of sins that they have engaged in And They will in fact Deny God's signs Thumma kana aqibata ladina asa'u su'a And kathabu It'll get to the point where they'll say there is no god. There is no prophet. There is no religion. There is no I don't want anything to do with islam And that everything you say is a lie. The quran god forbid is a lie. The hadith is a lie And kathabu bi ayaatullah Who says this that and the other This pseudo intellectual argument who says Is proof as far as they're concerned? And kathabu bi ayaatullah, then there is a step That's even lower than that They will begin to mock and ridicule The signs of Allah the religion of god Why? It starts with a small sin But if that sin If you don't repent from it if you don't try to correct it if you don't try to fix it What happens in the process is that that sin will be the beginning. It's like taking one step off of a cliff It's easy It's just one sin But then once you're slipping from the edge of the cliff You really can't control it anymore And before you know it you're rolling down And falling to your detriment And kathabu bi ayaatullah wakanu biha yas-tahzioon Which is why the holy prophet says Things are judged by how they end Not by how they start As I said there were ulama even in this day and age I don't want to name names But there are ulama Who set out as good people Students of the faith scholars in fact And yet now they're in the camp of the wahabis One of them actually just moved to Saudi Arabia He went there took off the turban put on one of those Arabian Shrouds over his head And he openly declared and he claims to be it wasn't it wasn't a marja But he probably had the credentials To claim to be a jurist He was probably able not jurist in its spiritual sense Or definition But rather He was probably able to look at the hadith in the Qur'an and extrapolate rulings from it But he moved to Saudi Arabia and then declared tasannan to bismillah I became a wahabi So there's no guarantees That Where you are right now? You will stay there that you will die as a believer. That's why we have Texts and supplications like dua'il adila. Allahumma inni a'udubika minal adilati andal Moat. Oh, Allah. I seek refuge in you from what? From turning away at the 11th hour at the last minute When i'm about to die I turn away from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Is that possible? Absolutely In fact, the shaitan will intensify his efforts to strip you away from your faith and your belief at those exact moments He will use your most susceptible vulnerabilities Your weaknesses will be exploited to the max at those Times when you're about to die Which is why those susceptibilities have to be Strengthened We need to embolden ourselves Which is why for example traditions tell us that one of the ways you can avoid Losing your faith at the point of death Is to give zakat in your lifetime Giving zakat giving khoms giving sadaqah Giving from your wealth and the way of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is one of the ways with which you protect yourself. Why? Because the more you give The more From your wealth you take and offer in the way of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala The less attached you will be to the material world So at the 11th hour when shaitan comes to you and says i will burn down your house Unless you believe in me unless you worship me or whatever trickery he wants to use at that point you already You've weakened those attachments enough Not to fall victim to his deception Give zakat in the way of Allah make sure that your khoms is paid every year If you don't have a Beginning or an end of your khoms fiscal year make sure you do Scholars say in fact if you don't have a fiscal year visa for your homes You must give homes from everything you earn So to make things easier to make things more palatable if you like easier to manage The ahlul bayt are divine Divinely inspired leaders have given us a solution Make sure you have a day in the year whether it's the day of ashura. Make sure it's something memorable Ashura the 15th of shaaban the night of qadr or whatever it is The beginning of muharram make sure you have a day In which you calculate all of your funds all of your savings any savings that you have that you haven't already spent Take a fifth of that and give it To the imam of your time because it belongs to him It's not even mine or yours to begin with It belongs to the imam by doing so you weaken those attachments And those susceptibilities and vulnerabilities that the shaytan will undoubtedly exploit at the point of death Will become more manageable