 We thank Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for allowing us to be here today on this beautiful day of Jumma. Alhamdulillah, to take a few moments out of our busy schedules to come here on a weekly basis to remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is a true blessing. And we know that the benefit of Jumma is that it gets rid of the sins between the two Jummas. So the week that went between Alhamdulillah, it's a means of purification for us. Alhamdulillah. For being with us, for allowing us to be here today. Alhamdulillah. Brothers and sisters in the few moments that we have together today, I would like to discuss the four enemies, the four spiritual enemies that the Muslim has on the path to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. All of us brothers and sisters are on a path to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We're headed towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We have a meeting planned with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and that meeting is coming and it can feel far away, it can feel like it's, you know, not of priority but now and then we get reminded Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sends us reminders, we hear on the announcements that one of our community members passes away and then it all becomes real for us once again that we have this meeting with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and that it is coming. And on this path to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, we have four enemies, we have four spiritual enemies that are trying to deviate us and trying to take us off the path that are trying to distract us from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and trying to distract us from the path that we are on and so inshaAllah in the few moments that we have today I would like to go through these enemies to go through these distractions and there's a saying keep your friends close and keep your enemies closer right and what that saying means is that if you know your enemies you can be prepared for them you can know when to pivot you won't be taken by surprise you can be aware Alhamdulillah. So the first enemy the first enemy that is trying to distract us and trying the first enemy of the movement that is trying to take us off the path of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is shaitan the devil Satan Iblis he goes by many names and in today's day and age people don't talk about saying anymore people don't talk about shaitan anymore you know he's a cartoon character now for most people when you think about shaitan you think about you know a red red person with horns and a tail right people don't believe that shaitan is real but he is real it is baked into our tradition into our religion to always ask for refuge from the shaitan whenever we say Audubillahim and shaitan al-Rajim that's literally what we're saying we're seeking refuge from shaitan and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in the Quran that the shaitan is a sworn enemy of the Muslims and there's a quote and I forget who it is ascribed to but the quote goes that the greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world that he did not exist and this is the day and age that we live in and so shaitan is the first enemy of the believer the first enemy of the mu'min of the Muslim and we need to be aware of him and his minions and his whisperings number two the second enemy the second spiritual enemy on the path to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the ego the nafs the nafus is the plural the ego is the second enemy of the mu'min of the believer and this is the great our scholars tell us that this is actually the greatest enemy out of the four this is the one the nafs is the greatest and most complex enemy why because the nafs is closest to home and it's hard to define the ego it's very hard but the nafs is the greatest enemy and the nafs actually created the shaitan the nafs created the shaitan the nafs created the first enemy that we just talked about how when shaitan was up with the angels when Iblees was up with the angels he used the Iblees used to be a worshipper of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he used to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and do Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's bidding on the earth before humankind was there when it was just the world of the jinn and he was elevated to a level where he was with the angels when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala created our father Adam alaihi salam he told shaitan he told all the angels and shaitan Iblees to bow to Adam alaihi salam to prostrate to him and he said no he said no I'm not going to do it why because he is better than him he felt that he was better than Adam I am better than him you made me out of fire and you made him out of clay this is the ego this is the ego thinking that we're better than other people elevating ourselves above other people and the ego is going crazy in today's day in age everywhere we look it's the ego everywhere we look it's the ego if you look at the worst humanitarian crisis happening right now in Yemen with to our brothers and sisters in Yemen it's because another country feels they're better than them and they can bomb them well we see what's happening with our brothers and sisters in Palestine it's because another people feel that they're better than these people and that these people don't exist and so they oppress them what we see what's happening with the Uighur brothers and sisters in China it's because one people believes that they're better than the other and they can do whatever they want with them this is the ego running crazy in our land and across the world and so this is the second enemy of the believer this ego and we have to be aware of it we have to be aware of it that we all have we all have that experience brothers and sisters when we're talking to someone when we're talking to someone and you know maybe this is for the youth many times the youth college you're asking where do you work where do you go to school and you hear what the person says oh I work here I go to school here and then you have that little itch oh I'm better than that person you don't say it out loud but you think oh I'm at a better company I went to a better school that's the ego that little thing that's the ego it's very hard to describe but we all if we sit with ourselves we all know what it is that is the ego that is the second enemy of the movement that is the second enemy of the believer and we need to be aware of it number three the third enemy of the believer is Shahwad the desires the desires and the ego uses the Shahwad to bring us down so the desires what are the desires it's all it's the natural desires that Allah has put in all of us right the need to sleep the need to eat the need to have intimate relations this is the natural desires that Allah has put in all of us but when it goes to a level when it goes out of hand it can destroy us when it goes out of hand it can destroy us when we oversleep when we overeat it destroys us brothers and sisters it's it's easy to the status quo is easy the status quo is easy it's easy to over it's easy to oversleep it's hard to get up in the morning early and to take care of your business it's easy to overeat it's hard to say you know what that one meal was enough I don't need to go for seconds or third it's easy to be overweight it's hard to be in shape it's hard to go to the gym every day and lift weights the status quo is easy so this is what we're talking about the desires it's hard to be it can be difficult at times to be committed to one person but you have to be committed to one person right this is the desires that if they go out of straight out of line they destroy relationships they destroy marriages they destroy your health they destroy the way you operate this is the desires that the nafs uses and the shaitan uses to get us down into a black hole and to destroy us on our path to Allah upon with Allah it ruins our spirituality and so we have to be very careful of the third enemy the desires and then the fourth enemy the fourth enemy of the believers is love of the dunya love of the dunya this idea of chasing the dunya when we know that the dunya is nothing the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam told us in authentic hadith that the weight of the dunya that the benefit of the dunya is that of the weight of a Natswing it's the weight of a Natswing how much does the Natswing way we we can't even you can't even it's so it's so tiny this is how much the dunya is worth it's worth nothing in the eyes of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and this love of the dunya is destroying ours is our our community the Muslim community actually because we're competing with things that don't matter we compete about who drives the nicest car who wears the best name brands who went to the fan sophistication and this is destroying us what matters is Allah's the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam told us in his last and final lecture on Arafah his last sermon to the people he told us that the only thing we should be competing in is in good works and in good deeds this is what matters not what school you went to not what name brands you wear not what car you drive and unfortunately this is what we tell our youth and we tell them that this stuff matters and then we complain that they're not praying that they're not fasting well you're the they're being told by our society that what matters is the dunya so this is a problem and we need to understand our scholars give us many different analogies to understand what the dunya is like and they're very powerful so what some of the scholars tell us that the dunya is like your shadow the dunya is like your shadow if you try to grab your shadow hug your shadow shake your shadows hand it always you're never able to do it it always moves out of the way if you try to interact with your shadow you never do it it's always one step ahead of you but if you walk away from your shadow if you walk your shadow follows you subhanallah that's the dunya your dunya is like the shadow if you care about it so much it's always going to evade you but if you walk away from it it'll follow you another example that the scholars give us another analogy is that the dunya is like drinking salt water the dunya is like drinking salt water you're so thirsty you're so parched you drink the sea water and that satisfies you for a few moments but then you actually end up more thirsty you actually end up more thirsty because we know that salt right salt makes you more thirsty and salt water actually kills you so the scholars tell us that the dunya is like salt water drinking salt water this is a second analogy that they give us obviously we're not saying that Muslims shouldn't be successful we're not saying that our youth shouldn't get into the best schools we're not saying that Muslims need to be ballers we're not saying that Muslims need to be successful and we are successful in this community but at the same time we need to understand that that the dunya is not the definition of success the definition of success is worshiping Allah is your relationship with Allah is what truly matters because what we mentioned at the beginning of the we have a meeting with Allah and that meeting is coming brothers and sisters to recap we are all on a journey to Allah we are all on a path to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala our meeting with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is coming and on this path to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala we have four spiritual enemies that are trying to take us off the path the first is shaitan the devil the second is the ego the nafs the ego the third is your desires the shahwad and fourth last is love of the dunya these are the four enemies that are trying to take us off the path to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and we need to be aware of these enemies so that we can pivot properly so that we can pivot properly and be aware and so now when we live our lives inshallah after knowing the four enemies now when as we're living our lives as we're going through society in our lives we can be aware of what's going on right so when you're talking to somebody and having that conversation and you feel that itch of i'm better than that person you know no that's the ego that's enemy number two it's trying to take me off the path of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala if i allow this narrative to continue to continue to play in my head it's going to destroy me Allah there is a principle in our religion that if you submit yourself to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he will elevate you but if you are arrogant in the eyes of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he will debase you right so this is a principle that we need to be aware of we're living our lives we're going for that third plate where it's it's 12 p.m and it's 12 30 p.m it's noon past noon on a Sunday and you're still in bed like no i need to get up and this is first and foremost to myself right oversleeping we're aware of the of this enemy of the desires wanting to oversleep we're taking that third meal that third plate and we don't need to take it we're talking to someone that we shouldn't be talking to whether it be through a social media medium or whether it be in person i don't need to be talking to this person this person is not halal for me these are the things that we need to be aware of brothers and sisters these are the enemies so that we can be aware how much love of dunya you haven't seen your mom in like three days four days because you've been so busy cooped up in your room doing your homework in your work no i need to take some time love of the dunya i need to take some time i need to sit with my mother right these are the examples of how we can be aware now of the four enemies that are trying to take us off the path of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allahumma inna kaafoon tuhibbu al-afwafu anna ya kareem amin ya rabb al-alamin alhamdulillah please forgive me for any of my mistakes anything that was a benefit was from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and anything that was incorrect was for my own self