The Fitnah (Trials) of Passions and Desires

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Every Merciful…

From the Book: The Never-Ending Trials of LIFE: Islamic Guidance From a Brief Thematic Study of Soorah al-‘Ankaboot, by Shaykh Saalih Aal Shaykh, Translation and Commentary by Moosaa Richardson

…Allah mentions the story of Loot (Lot, peace be upon him). In it is mention of the fitnah of the desires of men which go against man’s very nature. This was along with a number of other passions and their outward declarations of them. They claimed that there was no harm in them. They would refute anyone who prohibited them from their actions.Yet he still forbade them:

You are practicing [all kinds of] evil in your gatherings! (29:29)

But all they said to him in response was:

Bring us Allah’s Punishment if you are indeed from the truthful! (29:29)

It was great fitnah for Loot that his wife, from his own household, had given in to their evil and become like them, encouraging the men to have intercourse with the men who would come to visit Loot, and similar crimes.

So we saved him and his family, except his wife, as she was from those who stayed behind. (7:83)

Desires are indeed a form of fitnah. How can one escape his desires and passions? He escapes them by Continue reading

“…Before Fitan (Trials and Tribulations) of Pitch-Black Darkness Appear…”

In the Name of Allaah, the Most Merciful…

The great scholar, Shaykh ‘Abdul-‘Azeez ibn Baaz (d.1420), may Allaah have Mercy on him, was asked: [1]

What is the meaning of the disbelief mentioned in the hadeeth, “A man will wake up as a believer, and be a disbeliever by nightfall; and a man will go to bed as a believer and wake up as a disbeliever, selling out his religion for some small worldly commodity”?  And what is meant by “selling out his religion”?

HIS ANSWER: Continue reading