Title of the Sermon: The Great Deviation
Elements of the Sermon:
True strength is to be a servant of Allah.
The danger of following desires.
The sinister plot and how to escape it.
"Indeed, my Lord is upon a straight path".
All praise is due to Allah, who created everything and measured it with precise proportion, who established the Sharīʿah for His servants as a means of purification and ease. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone, without partner, and I bear witness that Muḥammad is His servant and Messenger. May peace and abundant blessings be upon him.
To proceed:
Fear Allah, O servants of Allah, as He truly deserves to be feared, and be ever mindful of Him in private and in public. Allah says:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ
“O you who believe, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims.” (Āl ʿImrān: 102)
O servants of Allah:
The Prophet ﷺ said: “The Hour will not be established until the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Muslims will kill them, to the point that the Jew will hide behind a stone or a tree, and the stone or the tree will say: ‘O Muslim, O servant of Allah, here is a Jew behind me—come and strike him.’ Except for the Gharqad tree, for it is one of the trees of the Jews.” (Reported by Muslim)
It is an inevitable battle—where the soldiers of al-Raḥmān will confront the wicked Jews. You will see them flee like rats, seeking refuge behind rocks and trees from the wrath of the people of faith. But where can they escape? Even the stones and trees will have suffered from their wickedness.
On that day, the stones and trees will call out to only one type of people: those who fulfilled Islam in submission to Allah, those who embodied servitude to Him alone—those who stand firm when armies meet, who do not flee or retreat.
Do you know why they do not flee from the battlefield?
Because they have been freed from the slavery of their own selves and desires. They have become servants of Allah alone—not enslaved to their own passions or whims.
Do you think someone who cannot control himself before his own lusts and pleasures will stand firm before the forces of disbelief when heads are flying?
The enemies of this Ummah have long known where true strength lies and where the root of our affliction is.
True strength lies in being a servant of Allah alone, free from servitude to anything besides Him. The root of the disease is hearts and souls enslaved to other than Allah—to their own desires and indulgences.
Samuel Zwemer, the Christian missionary, once stood among the soldiers of Shayṭān at a missionary conference held in Jerusalem over seventy years ago, and said:
“Your mission is to bring the Muslim out of Islam, to become a creature who no longer knows any connection to God, nor even desires one; one who has no concern for great matters, who loves comfort and laziness, and spends all his energy in pursuit of his desires—if he learns, it’s for the sake of desires; if he earns money, it’s for desires; if he attains high positions, he sacrifices everything in pursuit of desires.”
End of the vile man’s words.
Do you understand where the danger lies?
The greatest danger in following one’s desires is that a person becomes a slave—captive to his own lusts. True freedom is the freedom of the heart, and real enslavement is the enslavement of the heart.
The one enslaved to his desires is like a drunkard who never sobers up.
Have you not heard the verse in which Allah describes the people of Lūṭ?
لَعَمْرُكَ إِنَّهُمْ لَفِي سَكْرَتِهِمْ يَعْمَهُونَ
“By your life, [O Prophet], they were, in their intoxication, wandering blindly.” (al-Ḥijr: 72)
O servants of Allah:
Allah wants something from you, and those who follow their desires want something else. There is a vast and clear difference between what Allah wants for you and what they want from you. Allah says:
يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ لِيُبَيِّنَ لَكُمْ وَيَهْدِيَكُمْ سُنَنَ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ وَيَتُوبَ عَلَيْكُمْ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌ * وَاللَّهُ يُرِيدُ أَنْ يَتُوبَ عَلَيْكُمْ وَيُرِيدُ الَّذِينَ يَتَّبِعُونَ الشَّهَوَاتِ أَنْ تَمِيلُوا مَيْلًا عَظِيمًا * يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ أَنْ يُخَفِّفَ عَنْكُمْ وَخُلِقَ الْإِنْسَانُ ضَعِيفًا
“Allah wants to make clear [the truth] to you and guide you to the ways of those before you and to turn to you in mercy. And Allah is Knowing and Wise. * And Allah wants to turn to you in mercy, but those who follow [their] desires want you to deviate—a great deviation. * And Allah wants to lighten [the burden] for you; and man was created weak.” (al-Nisāʾ: 26–28)
Allah wants guidance and a good life for you. He explains to you what is good and what is evil, what is righteous and what is corrupt. He reveals to you the state of your own self and uncovers the schemes of your enemy.
As for Shayṭān and his allies—those who follow desires—they want you to deviate, to drift far from the straight path, a great and dangerous deviation.
Allah is the One who created the human being and knows his weakness. He knows that man cannot resist what his soul calls him to—except through faith in Allah, through glorifying and loving Him. Without that, the human being becomes like cattle—no, rather even more astray.
The enemies of this Ummah, those who worship their desires, understood this. They sat together—with their master, the accursed Shayṭān—whispering to one another: how can we make the Muslims deviate from the straight path—a great and disgraceful deviation?
So, the sinister plan was drawn up: to spread immorality among the Muslims, and to inflame their desires by every possible means.
A sweeping torrent, snares laid everywhere, and poisoned claws aimed at all segments of society, so that the sons and daughters of the Muslims would become captives to their desires—until one becomes a lovesick fool wandering after his beloved, or enslaved to some humiliating passion that soils his soul and disgraces his spirit.
O servants of Allah:
There are media networks funded with enormous sums of money, mobilizing talents, gathering around them deviants, effeminate men, and immoral people. Lewd parties, shameless late-night shows, singing, mingling, nudity, and degradation—films and series, fashion and trends, stories and novels, websites and platforms—all operating day and night, broadcasting obscenity among Muslim men and women in relentless attempts to bury chastity, virtue, and modesty.
O servants of Allah:
How will our sons and daughters survive the scheme of evil and the snares of poison? Raising the next generation upon firm faith in Allah is the safeguard and foundation against every trial. That faith which bears fruit in the heart as glorification, love, awe, and hope in His Paradise; constant awareness of Him and preferring His pleasure over the overpowering calls of desire—this is the faith that manifests in the limbs, producing a pure and modest individual.
Just look at Yūsuf, the truthful—temptation was laid before him, and she said, “Come to me!” But he sought refuge in Allah and clung to Him. So Allah turned away from him indecency and sin—because he was a sincere believer and true servant of Allah. Allah said:
كَذَلِكَ لِنَصْرِفَ عَنْهُ السُّوءَ وَالْفَحْشَاءَ إِنَّهُ مِنْ عِبَادِنَا الْمُخْلَصِينَ
“Thus [it was] that We might avert from him evil and immorality. Indeed, he was of Our chosen servants.” (Yūsuf: 24)
We must then close those wide-open doors that invite hearts to be ensnared by forbidden desires. The Prophet ﷺ said: “Allah has written upon the son of Ādam his share of zina (fornication/adultery). There is no escape from it. The zina of the eyes is looking, the zina of the tongue is speech, the soul desires and wishes, and the private parts either confirm all that or deny it.” (Reported by al-Bukhārī and Muslim)
These mobile phones—capable of carrying both good and evil—are overwhelmingly dominated by evil that invades screens and unsettles hearts. How can we allow them to be handed over to our sons and daughters without supervision, then complain later about the decay of morals and the disappearance of virtue?
These platforms streaming films, series, and shameless songs—how can we give them our money so they can use it to demolish the morality of our children?
Let me ask you, O Muslim: whose side are you on? Can a Muslim ever become a link—or even a tool of destruction—helping those who follow their desires?
Indeed, the spread of immorality is an integrated system involving everyone who works to provoke desires and inflame passions, or who assists in doing so.
Did not the Prophet ﷺ describe the woman who discards her hijāb and adorns herself as being both deviated and a source of deviation? He said:
“Two types of the people of Hell I have not seen... women clothed yet naked, deviated and deviating, with their heads like the humps of bent camels—they will not enter Paradise, nor even smell its fragrance.” (Reported by Muslim)
Those who abandon the hijāb, those who call for its removal, those who design and sell indecent, prohibited clothing; those who write romantic novels and glamorize male-female friendships and illicit love; those who belittle the seriousness of unlawful relationships; those who produce or participate in creating videos and media that promote indecency and immorality; those who honor the immoral and effeminate, throw lewd parties for them and broadcast them among Muslims—all of them fall under the category of those who spread immorality among the believers.
Have they not heard Allah’s warning:
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يُحِبُّونَ أَنْ تَشِيعَ الْفَاحِشَةُ فِي الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ وَأَنْتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ
“Indeed, those who like that immorality should be spread among those who have believed will have a painful punishment in this world and the Hereafter. And Allah knows, and you do not know.” (al-Nūr: 19)
And what do we expect when indecency spreads among Muslims and is openly displayed without objection—when we call it “art” and “creativity”?
Are they waiting for what the Prophet ﷺ warned of when he said:
“Whenever obscenity appears among a people to the extent that it becomes openly practiced, plagues and diseases never seen before among their predecessors will spread among them.” (Reported by Ibn Mājah)
May Allah protect us and the Muslims from all harm.
May Allah bless me and you through the Noble Qur’an, and benefit us from its verses and wise reminders. I seek Allah’s forgiveness for myself and for you—so seek His forgiveness, for He is the Most Forgiving, Most Merciful.
Second Sermon
All praise is due to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, his family, his companions, and all who follow him. To proceed:
Allah, the Exalted, says:
فَاسْتَمْسِكْ بِالَّذِي أُوحِيَ إِلَيْكَ إِنَّكَ عَلَى صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ
“So hold fast to that which has been revealed to you. Indeed, you are upon a straight path.” (al-Zukhruf: 43)
Indeed, this religion and this Sharīʿah are the Straight Path—there is no crookedness or deviation in it. Everything that Allah has permitted, legislated, and prescribed establishes uprightness in life and within souls. And everything that Allah has forbidden—when its sanctity is violated—leads hearts astray, debases the soul, and turns life into hardship and misery.
Allah has made marriage lawful for us and legislated it as a means of purity and well-being, and He has forbidden all forms of immorality: fornication, sodomy, and everything that leads to them, every step toward such acts. He has blocked all paths that lead to them—under a divine principle:
ذَلِكُمْ أَطْهَرُ لِقُلُوبِكُمْ وَقُلُوبِهِنَّ
“That is purer for your hearts and their hearts.” (al-Aḥzāb: 53)
O servants of Allah!
Indeed, Allah is protective (ghayyūr). The Prophet ﷺ said: “No one is more protective than Allah, and for that reason He has forbidden all immoralities—those that are apparent and those that are hidden.” (Reported by al-Bukhārī and Muslim)
The time has come for the Ummah to recognize its enemies, their agents, and their mouthpieces, and to repel this filthy flood and seeping poison.
Allah has already exposed their schemes. He said regarding the Jews and Christians:
وَلَنْ تَرْضَى عَنْكَ الْيَهُودُ وَلَا النَّصَارَى حَتَّى تَتَّبِعَ مِلَّتَهُمْ
“Never will the Jews or the Christians be pleased with you until you follow their religion.” (al-Baqarah: 120)
And He said regarding the hypocrites:
وَدُّوا لَوْ تَكْفُرُونَ كَمَا كَفَرُوا فَتَكُونُونَ سَوَاءً
“They wish that you would disbelieve as they have disbelieved, so that you would be alike.” (al-Nisāʾ: 89)
None will stand firm against these enemies—none will liberate al-Aqṣā from captivity or defend the religion and sacred honor—except the servant of Allah: the one who is truly free, who is not enslaved by any forbidden desire, who is not bound by any disgraceful urge.
As the poet said: None shall lift the dark calamity but the son of a free woman,
Who stares into the waves of death, then strides into them.
O Allah, grant victory to Islam and honor the Muslims. Destroy the criminal Jews. O Allah, send tranquility into the hearts of those striving in Your cause. Deliver Your oppressed servants and raise high the banner of this religion by Your might, O Mighty, O Strong.
O Allah, grant us safety in our homelands, and rectify our leaders and those in authority over us. Place our leadership in the hands of those who fear You, are conscious of You, and seek Your pleasure.
Our Lord, grant us goodness in this world and goodness in the Hereafter, and protect us from the punishment of the Fire.
