بسم لله الرحمن الرحیم
For any of the brothers and sisters who may feel as though this letter is being too harsh, please at
least read the last paragraph before closing it.
وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَشْرِي نَفْسَهُ ابْتِغَاءَ مَرْضَاتِ اللَّهِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ رَءُوفٌ بِالْعِبَادِ
And there are those who would dedicate their lives to Allah’s pleasure. And Allah is Ever Gracious to ˹His˺ servants.
Surah al-Baqarah: [2:207]
For one century, the Muslims have lived without a central unifying Imam. Along with that, colonization of our homelands has taken the prizes of our Ummah and stored them in the banks of their occupiers. After taking our lands and wealth, those imperialists slowly began to chip away at our Iman. When we see old photos of the Muslim lands, whether it is Bosnia, Egypt, Turkey, the Arabian Peninsula, India, or any other countries, almost always we would see images of men with beards and women veiled. Our youth were taught the book of Allah from a young age, and the practice of Islam was a lot more widespread. Then came the occupiers, and they humiliated our people. The amount of people who prayed Salah, let alone prayed Salah in the masjid, has dropped.
Despite how bad the situation is in our homelands, the Muslim community in the West is in a far worse situation. Our glory has been brought down to nothing but an aesthetic. Our fear of being blamed by those around us has led to us watering down the deen. Our love for this life has caused us to give an impression of Islam as a lifestyle no different than the one followed by our peers in the West.
The two main reasons for this is the taking of those who disobey Allah as our closest companions, along with the prevalence of ignorance among our communities. As a brother who went to a high school in the United States with a considerable population of Muslims, it is a matter of sadness when I saw how lax some Muslims were in their lives. Just to name some of the things I experienced is here:
- A brother tried to argue with me that the girlfriend he had (who at the very least herself was a Muslim) was permissible in Islam
- A sister wearing a hijab was close friends with a mushrik boy whom she used to spend time alone with
- Another brother claimed that the close friendship he had with a mushrik girl was permissible so long as they did not date
- There was one brother who used to give and sell drugs to his friends (again, often kuffar)
- The worst was a boy who I cannot even tell was a Muslim or not, who had multiple girlfriends, did zina with many of them, one of which on the bus regularly, who took both marijuana and alcohol
I used to tell my younger brother who was in middle school at the time about how prevalent drugs were, specifically mentioning the last boy, and he genuinely did not believe me. Mockery of the deen was something else that was widespread at the time, something that many of us took lightly. Alhamdulillah, I made two friends in the Muslim Student Association who ended up being the friends who I am closest to after graduation, who helped fix me when I myself was a jahil student.
The sad thing is, many of those people I listed (except obviously the last boy I doubt was Muslim anymore by the time I met him), were also exposed to the type of friends I had. I remember seeing that there were sisters wearing the niqab who were apparently the daughters of scholars, and some of the brothers were hufaadh of the Qur’an. Sadly, without a close attachment of the deen to begin with, it is hard to give advice to those who go far in their sins.
Abdullah ibn Mas’ud, may Allah be pleased with him, said:
“Remember Allah Almighty often. You must not accompany anyone unless they help you remember Allah Almighty”.
This is in the form of our closest friends and relatives. Yet, if the ones closest to your hearts are those that distract from the remembrance of Allah, then it is not something that can reap good for you. This does not mean an extreme that you may not be with someone unless they are in a constant state of dhikr, rather we know the Sahabah رضي ﷲ عنھم used to work in their businesses and also used to enjoy themselves. Rather, the point of this Hadith is that our closest companions should not be those who cause us to compromise our obligations to our creator.
Every example I gave prior is a result of what happens when the remembrance of Allah is not important for our closest companions. Obviously for the brother and the sister who were close with the mushrik of the opposite sex, they partook in sinful activities (though there was no discernable evidence that zina was committed by them). The brother who argued with me about his girlfriend was among the group of popular kids, who were by and large not Muslims, and thus did not have care to not cross the boundaries of Allah ﷻ. Similarly, the brother who sold drugs was also in this group. The final boy whose Islam I doubt had me was the only Muslim he regularly ever talked to outside his own home, and by the time I started taking the deen seriously I was already starting to move away from him.
All of these examples show how important your closest companions are. The excuse can not be made that dawah was being made, because how can dawah be made if you are following in the footsteps of those you are giving dawah to? When our Nabi ﷺ gave dawah to the mushrikeen of Makkah and Madinah, they offered to him that while the mushrikeen would acknowledge Allah ﷻ, the Muslims would have to acknowledge their false pagan gods. Muhammad ﷺ absolutely refused this offer, and instead continued to call upon the worship of Allah ﷻ alone. Similarly, the Prophet ﷺ did not take part in the sinful actions of the idolaters like gambling, drinking, etc. He kept doing what was allowed of him to do, and refused to do what was forbidden.
As a result, Muslims should be very careful with who they take as their closest companions. There is sadly not enough care taken in this, and it leads to such disasters for the Iman of our fellow Muslim brothers and sisters.
The next great catastrophe for this Ummah is the lack of knowledge. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,
“Verily, Allah does not withhold knowledge by snatching it away from his servants, but rather he withholds knowledge by taking the souls of scholars, until no scholar remains and people follow ignorant leaders. They are asked and they issue judgments without knowledge. Thus, they are astray and lead others astray” .
Never like before have we seen this like we see it today. Muslims, especially in the West, have taken to justify so many sins. There was already the defense of the Haram relationship from that boy mentioned before, but I have seen Muslims defend or try to normalize abortion, homosexuality, not wearing hijab, even zina. SubhanAllah it is shocking to me to what extent things have gone. People have gone so far with sinning that they want to delude themselves into thinking they are not sinning, so they try to contort the deen in a way that makes them seem as though they are not sinful, which rather ends up becoming kufr.
The Muslims do not go to respected scholars, male or female, for their opinions. Instead, they rely on journalists, bloggers, TedTalk speakers, and more. With all due respect to the education that these thinkers may have, something that they do not have is knowledge of Islam. On TedTalk for one, I saw a speaker claim that the word “hijab” is never mentioned in the Qur’an, despite the fact that the word “ بخمرھن ” in Surah al-Noor, Ayah 31, refers to covering of the head and the fact that there are multiple Sahih Ahadith regarding the Hijab. What these people have in PhDs, Masters degrees, etc. is empty in what they have in terms of actual knowledge of Islam or the Arabic language that the Qur’an was revealed in. People now completely disregard scholars over mistakes, not realizing the mistakes they make themselves are far greater than the mistakes of these scholars.
More dangerous than these intellectuals are surprisingly random people without any fame on apps and websites like Twitter, Discord, TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, etc. I have seen the worst opinions on the deen from these places. I have seen people argue that Christians and Jews are not actually kuffar, that Islam is apparently a communist religion, that alcohol is okay, that the Hadith are not necessary, etc. It is genuinely shocking how much some of these people water down the religion, because some of these things are absolutely clear cut, but instead they choose living in this world’s pleasures rather than truly submitting to Allah.
Without knowledge, obviously you have people defending having girlfriends, or thinking that it is okay to spend time alone, have physical contact, and have close companionship with a mushrik of the opposite sex. They were never able to learn this in the first place. No knowledge without good friends is a dangerous concoction which destroys Iman.
The question now is, how do we solve this issue?
For those who are not reverts to Islam whose parents still live, a lot of blame lies on parents for not teaching their children. Were parents more involved in teaching their children about the deen of Allah ﷻ, these issues would not occur. Parents oftentimes get so caught up in the worldly success of their children, they forget about the afterlife. To those parents I say, be patient. It is okay to worry for your child’s success, but it will not go away with remembrance of Allah ﷻ . Encourage your kids to practice at a young age, as only Allah ﷻ is al-Razzaq, the provider of sustenance. There are thousands of doctors, engineers, businessmen, and other successful Muslims who not only practice the deen with deep sincerity, but many times are also scholars of the religion, like the case of Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan رحمھ ﷲ who famously translated the Qur’an and Sahih Bukhari into English. To this day, not only did he become a doctor and win in this life, but he was a scholar, and every time a Muslim gains knowledge from reading his books, he wins more in the afterlife.
Along with that, one very important thing to do is to remember and pray the five daily prayers. The prayers are a medicine for those who are sick with their faith and are the best way to return to Allah ﷻ . Do not fear that you will be seen as a hypocrite, as Allah ﷻ does not see his righteous slaves the way the general people do.
The final message I have to give is to those this letter is most dedicated to, whether you read in entirety, or skipped to the end. From the bottom of my heart, as your brother in religion, as someone who went through the same experience in a West which is trying to destroy Islam, I ask you to please think of your akhira. It pains my heart to see Muslims do certain things, and know that those things are not permissible in Islam. Please, turn to Allah ﷻ. I know how hard it is for those who are attached to something not good for them. I know it is hard to give that thing up, but for you I have this Hadith,
“You will never leave something for the sake of Allah, but Allah will give you something better in return”
Many of us may have close friends who are bad for us, many of us may give up an item that is prized to us, and I know it will hurt. I know there will be tears and sadness. Stay strong, and know that for every bit of sorrow you feel, every pain you feel, every time you fight a desire to return to what is forbidden, Allah ﷻ only forgives your sins and rewards you.
“Nothing afflicts a Muslim of hardship, nor illness, nor anxiety, nor sorrow, nor harm, nor distress, nor even the pricking of a thorn, but that Allah will expiate his sins by it”
Sahih Muslim and Sahih al-Bukhari.
May Allah allow us to be on his righteous path, forgive our sins, protect us from the punishment of the grave and the fire, and allow us to enter his blessed paradise . Ameen.