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Khutbahs
Training Your Nafs in Sha'ban | Lecture by Dr. Omar Suleiman
Sha’ban is the month of preparation for Ramadan. Every act of worship and every good habit you build in Sha’ban sets the foundation for your best Ramadan yet.
Sha’ban is the month of training the nafs, your lower self. It’s a time to strengthen discipline, resist temptations, and silence the whisperings of Shaytan. By struggling against your desires now, you enter Ramadan spiritually ready and focused.
Listen to the full khutbah by Dr. Omar Suleiman as he explains why Sha’ban is the perfect month to prepare your heart, mind, and soul for Ramadan.
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
We begin by praising Allah, by bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for Him. And we bear witness that Muhammad (ﷺ) is His final messenger.
We ask Allah to send His peace and blessings upon him, the prophets and messengers that came before him, his family and companions that served alongside him, and those that follow in his blessed path until the Day of Judgment. And we ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma Ameen.
Dear brothers and sisters, when we talk about the concept of being at war with the shaytan, or being at war with the devil, or the idea of growth, I wanted us to spend a little bit of time,
especially in light of the fact that we are only one month or so away from the blessed month of Ramadan. Allahumma ballighna Ramadan, may Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to live to see it
and be accepted in it. I wanted us to spend time with this concept that is so unique to our deen.
And I say that very intentionally because there is no parallel in the moderation and proportion and understanding of this concept in any other deen. And that is mujahadatun nafs, jihadun nafs.
This idea of waging war on yourself, of going to battle with yourself, but in a very specific way. SubhanAllah, I was recalling an incident with Sayyiduna Umar (رضي الله عنه),
where Umar (رضي الله عنه), it's narrated that he once called the people to the masjid, from the minbar, as if he was going to give a khutbah about some sort of, you know, policy
address or something of importance to the ummah as a whole. And so he called the people together and he stands up on the minbar and Bismillah, Alhamdulillah, wasalamu alaykum Rasulullah,
is it a time of war? No. He says, my name is Umar, I used to be Umayr, I used to be known as little Umar, Umayr. I used to raise the sheep in the valleys of Mecca
and take a humble wage as a result of that, wasalamu alaykum Rasulullah. And then he comes down from the minbar and he goes back to his room and Ali (رضي الله عنه)
goes to him and says, Ya Amir al-Mu'mineen, ma hamalaka ala hadha? Oh commander of the believers, what caused you to do that? I mean, you gathered everyone together to basically denigrate yourself.
And listen to what he said. He said, haddathatni nafsi. My nafs spoke to me, not shaytan,
my nafs. Remember the Prophet (ﷺ) said that Umar (رضي الله عنه) had such control over his shaytan that if shaytan saw Umar take a road, he took the other road.
I've got no in with this man. He would just go the other route. Haddathatni nafsi, but that doesn't mean that Umar (رضي الله عنه) doesn't have an impulse, a lower impulse, because every
human being does. My nafs spoke to me, bi'anni Amir al-Mu'mineen, telling me that, look at you, you're the commander of the believers, mashaAllah, conquering Palestine, bringing Jerusalem with
glory, spreading Islam throughout the world, establishing global reform. You are the legend of the world and you're living to see the fruit of your effort in such rapid pace to where the
legend is not one that exists after you have passed away. I mean, it's very rare to see someone like Umar (رضي الله عنه) enact and live to see the fruits of his actions so quickly. And his nafs
says to him, look at you, you're Amir al-Mu'mineen, you're the commander of the believers. So I wanted to put my nafs back in its place. I wanted to train my nafs, put it back in its place
and remind myself who I am. You know, there's this concept within the literature of tazkiyah as is narrated that Ali (رضي الله عنه) said, and it's a weak athar, but it has a beautiful
meaning to it, that I had a friend, kana idha bada lahu amran, when he had two affairs put in front of him, two choices put in front of him, what was his filter? What was his decision making process when he had the opportunity to do one of two things?
He looked to see which one of them was closer to his desire, was closer to his lower nafs, and he did the opposite of that. He was constantly in this idea of preferring something else to what
his lower self wanted. And this is a powerful notion. And I want you to think about how Allah frames this in the Qur'an with two surahs that you recite in Juz 'Amma. When you are reading in
Surah Ash-Shams, Allah talks about the nafs and how he proportioned the self, this thing that is our
self, this thing that makes us who we are as human beings, this thing that represents the mixture of a soul that aspires for Allah and a body that was created from the earth and
tends to prefer material things in order to satisfy its cravings. This perfectly proportioned being that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala gave to us. And Allah taught it,
its restraint and its craving, its explosion, its coming out of its lane. Allah 'azza wa jall gave it its guidelines. He gave it the propensity to go either this way or that way.
Allah praises the one who purifies it. And Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala debases the one who gives into it or corrupts it, corrupts what Allah has given us. Then suddenly Allah turns the subject to
Allah talks about a group of people that lost themselves collectively because of their collective
failure to purify their souls. Pride overtook them as a group of people and because you have a bunch of individuals that failed to purify their lower selves, that failed to expel the lower callings and
the lower intuitions, then as a group of people they were destroyed. It's very interesting when you think about that because when you look in Surah An-Nazi'at, when Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala
mentions, that verily the one who goes astray and prefers the life of this world, then verily hell
fire is where they're going to end up. And as for the one who feared the standing before their Lord
and prevented their lower selves from its desires, they prevented the nafs from following its desires.
Paradise is the place where they find rest. Look at this connection, SubhanAllah, between what Allah is saying here of the question of preference. This isn't a question of iman and kufr, belief and
disbelief. This is what do you prefer more? Do you prefer the life of this world more or do you prefer the hereafter more? And will your preference for this life of this world, you love the life of this world because that's how you are, but will your preference for this life of this world cause
you to do something to reduce yourself? Allah 'azza wa jall talked about the collective,
choosing the life of this world. When the Prophet (ﷺ) mentions that the nations will gather against
you and feast upon you because you are like foam in the sea in terms of your numbers. You don't
have substance. Ya Rasulullah, is it because we don't have numbers? No, you have plenty of numbers. What is the condition though?
You love the world too much and you hate death. The condition that puts you in a state of cowardice as a whole, a state of being people of no substance that makes you susceptible to your enemies
is a nafs-y condition. It's a self-condition that you love the world too much. You're preferring the world to yourself that allows you to be pulled into a lower direction is what messes you up as
an individual and what messes up as an ummah as well, as a community as well. On an individual level, on a collective level, it's the preference of this world, the preference of the
comfort of this world to where you don't do the things that the soul actually aspires for but you do the things instead that the lower self pulls you towards. Why is this relevant particularly today?
The word mujahadatun nafs, to strive against the self, realize is not mujahadatush-shaytan, striving against the shaytan even though we do strive against the shaytan.
And the Prophet (ﷺ) says in his authentic narration, it's part of a longer narration, wal-mujahidu man jahada nafsahu fee ta'ala. The Mujahid is the one who does jihad in the worship of Allah 'azza wa jall and it's not a hadith about
you know the greater jihad being the jihad against the self but there are sayings. There's a saying from Ibn al-Jawzi that says that almost the exact same thing. There's a saying from Imam al-Ghazali that's very close in meaning to that. The ulama were not reducing the
jihad against the self. They were not reducing the jihad against the self. The ulama were not reducing jihad to jihadun nafs. That's an improper interpretation.
Reducing the concept of striving and battle to the strive against the self. What they were saying is that if you conquer this battlefield of the self, everything else,
everything else is unable to conquer you. From shayateenul ins wal jinn, from the devils of man and the devils of jinn. Because if your enemy cannot find in you the weakness to exploit,
cowardice as the Prophet (ﷺ) says comes from hubb ad-dunya wa karahiyatul mawt, loving this world too much. Fear. What do you fear? You fear people more than you fear Allah 'azza wa jall. What do you love?
You love something like you should love Allah 'azza wa jall. Your enemy at a collective level and at an individual level is able to penetrate a weakness in the fortress of the nafs or the nufus as a
whole. A fortress within the self that you haven't built yourself, trained yourself to prefer something higher to something lower. Some of you are wondering like where is the practical side of
this? What does this mean? And so I want you to take a few things home inshaAllah and think deeply about this. When Allah 'azza wa jall talks about the shaytan, hamazat ash-shaytan, waswas, whispers. He tries to
attack here or there. Think of shaytan as a pest that's constantly looking for openings within your soul. And in Ramadan you're sealing those all off because shaytan at the end of the day is an
external enemy. He gets put away, chained away. But shaytan is a constant pest looking for an entrance. You repel the shaytan. Dhikrullah, remembering Allah 'azza wa jall, Qur'an, you repel him
when he tries to find an opening. But dear brothers and sisters, listen very closely. You don't train the shaytan. You train your nafs. You train yourself.
You don't train the shaytan. You train your nafs. You repel the shaytan. You train your nafs. You
build your nafs to a point that the shaytan's whispers no longer land. They don't find openings anymore. Because you fill it with something that shaytan can't find a void. And so you keep on
shrinking his openings. You keep on shrinking his ways. So he's trying to find a way and he's not finding a madkhal. He's not finding an entrance into the soul to poison the soul anymore because
you've trained your nafs up. You've built your nafs up to a point that shaytan no longer has that entry. You know what that looks like? If there is one word and there are multiple words
to deny the self when it calls you to a lower craving, to a lower desire. What that looks like. Khalif nafsaka tastaqim. Khalif nafsaka tarshud.
Refuse your lower self when it pulls you to something and you will find guidance. Refuse your lower self when it pulls you down and you will find firmness and steadfastness. Make yourself uncomfortable for the sake of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
The key words of mujahadatun nafs. The key practices of mujahadatun nafs all revolve around this idea of making yourself intentionally uncomfortable for the sake of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Embracing discomfort for the sake of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. When two things are put before you on a daily basis. Do you prefer sleep or do you prefer
waking up? Your body tells you stay sleeping. Your soul tells you get up. Mujahadatun nafs is I'm tired. I want to sleep these extra 20 minutes. I'm going to force myself up. Mujahadatun nafs means that when you're getting into a heated argument.
When you want to be quiet, say something. That means speaking a word of truth in the face of falsehood. When you want to be quiet, when your lower self says be quiet, you say no I'm going to speak the truth because my nafs is telling me be quiet.
But Allah is telling me speak up. I'm going to speak the truth. When you want to say something, because your ego is being bruised or you're in the midst of an argument,
at that point, faskut, prefer silence. Mujahadatun nafs. Mujahadatun nafs is everything telling me don't call that person and reconcile. Don't forgive that person because if you forgive them,
then they're going to take advantage of you and they're going to think that it's okay to do this and do that. You're going to put yourself down. Don't reconcile. It's okay. Keep it going. You can find all these ayat and ahadith to justify your position of strength to not reconcile with
someone, to not forgive someone. When you don't want to forgive, forgive. When you don't want to make the call, you call. When you don't want to send the text message, you send the text message. This is your daily mujahadatun nafs. Mujahadatun nafs is not simply not drinking alcohol,
not committing zina. Mujahadatun nafs, to oppose the self, is to think in every single daily situation, what does the lower self call me to? What is the higher aspiration of the soul? How do
I prefer the higher aspiration of the soul to the lower self? That way shaytan has no madkhal with you. He has no entrance with you. How is he going to penetrate a person that's thinking at that
level? This is a person that's trying to grow, not just trying to survive. That's trying to spiritually condition themselves for the sake of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala to be the best version
of themselves. The second thing I want you to think about here, dear brothers and sisters, is that when you think hubb ad-dunya, the love of this world, hubb ad-dunya is not just loving money.
Hubb ad-dunya is loving anything that is worldly, that gets in the way of where you want to be in the hereafter. Hubb ad-dunya could be your ego. Hubb ad-dunya could be your friends. Hubb ad-dunya could be your attachment. The love of this world could be anything that holds you down, that weighs
you down from a worldly perspective, from becoming the best version of yourself. Hubb ad-dunya could be loving sleep. Hubb ad-dunya is anything, the love of this world is anything that gets in the
way of you aspiring to your higher self. Mujahadatun nafs, mukhalafatun nafs, spiritually conditioning. When you condition your body, you tear your muscles and then you let them rest. You tear
your muscles and then you let them rest. You tear your muscles and then you let them rest. You have to tear your soul and then let it rest. Tear yourself and then let it rest. Tear yourself and then let it rest until it keeps on growing in the sight of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. You think
the Prophet (ﷺ) learned overnight how to pray until his feet would swell up? No. There was a process even for the Prophet (ﷺ) to get to that point of capacity and there's no doubt that Allah increased
his capacity. But there's a process of mukhalafatun nafs, of choosing discomfort for the sake of
growth every single day. Restrain your tongue, restrain your desires, restrain your eyes, restrain your ego. Do what's uncomfortable every single day. Now here's what I want to leave you
with in conclusion as we're getting into the month of Sha'ban in particular. I often hear, and I might have even used this example in the past, Ramadan is training camp. It's a boot camp
for the soul. It's training camp for the soul. I'm going to retract that statement. Ramadan is not training camp. Ramadan is the match itself. Ramadan is the arena. Ramadan is when you've
entered into the game. Sha'ban is training camp. Sha'ban is the warm-up. Sha'ban is the spiritual conditioning. I'm using that word very intentionally. The spiritual conditioning of the
nafs before Ramadan. The Prophet (ﷺ) would fast Sha'ban. The Prophet (ﷺ) would do things in Sha'ban in anticipation of the month of Ramadan. You don't just show up to the match, not stretch,
not warmed up, not conditioned, and then get where you need to get. It doesn't work that way. Every, I'm going to challenge you with this, every single good habit that you cultivate in Sha'ban
will have an impact in Ramadan, and every single bad habit that you leave unremitted in Sha'ban will impact your Ramadan negatively. There is no doubt about it. Everything you do in this month
will affect something about Ramadan. Your sleep schedule, your fasting or lack of fasting, whether you started reading the Qur'an or not. All of these things are going to have an impact
on the quality of your Ramadan. So every single day, your assignment for the month of Sha'ban
is what am I doing today that is mukhalafatun nafs? That's against my nafs. How am I making
myself uncomfortable for the sake of Allah today? As the ulema mention, Allah talks about the greed
of the soul. As shaytan promises you poverty, the meaning is that the soul is greedy, and shaytan is promising poverty. How do I make my soul less greedy so that when shaytan promises
poverty, it has no impact? You're speaking into an empty vacuum. You have no entrance here. Build and condition your soul. Build and condition yourself by asking yourself every day,
how did I make myself more uncomfortable today for the sake of Allah? What's the tear in my nafs today that I grew myself? It's that when Ramadan comes, you're going. You're going
because you've already warmed up. You've already spiritually conditioned. And if you're listening to this khutbah and it's not Sha'ban, the whole point of it's Sha'ban or
it's Ramadan is to get to the point of I'm Muslim. It's Islam. This is my daily life and this is how I'm supposed to be. This is the path that Allah called me to. May Allah allow us to choose him
over ourselves so that anything that the shaytan plows on of an insecurity or a comfort becomes absolutely irrelevant and falls upon deaf ears. May Allah allow us to choose the akhirah
over the dunya so that the sins which tempt with the poison of worldly promise are drowned out by the comfort and the tranquility of the promises of the hereafter. May Allah allow our greatest
joy to be found in what he prescribes of the medicine of the Qur'an and the sunnah of the Prophet (ﷺ). May Allah purify ourselves to the best version of themselves and may Allah
allow us to go through this month of Sha'ban in preparation of Ramadan and have an accepted Ramadan and have an accepted life and make every day of our lives a day that is pleasing to him
and make the best day of our lives the last day that we live on this earth.
Alhamdulillah, salatu wasalamu ala Rasulillah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. Dear brothers and sisters, I always would say in the last two years,
do your Ramadan ka annaka bi Ghazza, as if you're in Gaza. I'm gonna say right now, do your Sha'ban ka annaka bi Ghazza, as if you're in Gaza. And I, subhanAllah, I was looking at one of the
messages from one of the brothers in Gaza and he was talking about how a group of young people just finished their sard, they finished reading the Qur'an all in one sitting because they're preparing
themselves for the month of Ramadan. It's not even Sha'ban yet. Live your Sha'ban ka annaka bi Ghazza, as if you're in Gaza. You talk about a people that conquered hubb ad-dunya wa karahiyat al-mawt,
loving this world too much and hating death, they conquered that already. Live your Sha'ban as if you are in the tents of Gaza, preparing yourself for once again a season of steadfastness
because every single day of your life is preferring a higher call and preferring a higher mission. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala give victory to our brothers and sisters in Gaza, in Sudan, in Yemen, in every single place of the world where our ummah struggles. May Allah 'azza wa jall
allow us to struggle against our lower selves as they struggle against the shayateen of this world. Allahumma ameen.


































































































































































































































































































