Khutbah - Delivered by the Devil

Allah tells us in the Qur’an about a khutbah that will be delivered by Iblees on the Day of Judgement. Yes, that is right. Shaytan will deliver a sermon on the Day of Judgement. Before we go over that sermon, you might ask the question, what is the purpose behind Allah telling us about the sermon of Shaytan? The response is that Allah is warning us in advance so then we don’t fall short on the Day of Judgement. Allah is telling us about the future so then we can prepare for it now.  

The khutbah of Shaytan is summarised in Surah Ibrahim:
وَقَالَ ٱلشَّيۡطَٰنُ لَمَّا قُضِيَ ٱلۡأَمۡرُ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ وَعَدَكُمۡ وَعۡدَ ٱلۡحَقِّ وَوَعَدتُّكُمۡ فَأَخۡلَفۡتُكُمۡۖ وَمَا كَانَ لِيَ عَلَيۡكُم مِّن سُلۡطَٰنٍ إِلَّآ أَن دَعَوۡتُكُمۡ فَٱسۡتَجَبۡتُمۡ لِيۖ فَلَا تَلُومُونِي وَلُومُوٓاْ أَنفُسَكُمۖ مَّآ أَنَا۠ بِمُصۡرِخِكُمۡ وَمَآ أَنتُم بِمُصۡرِخِيَّ إِنِّي كَفَرۡتُ بِمَآ أَشۡرَكۡتُمُونِ مِن قَبۡلُۗ إِنَّ ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ لَهُمۡ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٞ 
“And Satan will say when the matter has been concluded, "Indeed, Allah had promised you the promise of truth. And I promised you, but I betrayed you. But I had no authority over you except that I invited you, and you responded to me. So do not blame me; but blame yourselves. I cannot be called to your aid, nor can you be called to my aid. Indeed, I deny your association of me [with Allah] before. Indeed, for the wrongdoers is a painful punishment." (14:22) 

So, on the Day of Judgement, when people are desperately looking to Shaytan for help, the first thing Shaytan will say is, “Indeed Allah promised you and it is a truthful promise”. Subhanallah, isn’t that amazing. People are being told about something we really know deep inside the heart - that the promises of Allah are true. If I was to ask everyone, who thinks Allah’s promises are not true. None of us will agree to that statement. So when Allah says, pray and I will give you paradise. Don’t you think that this promise is true? When Allah says, fast and I will open a door to paradise. Shouldn’t we believe in that promise of Allah? Respect your parents and you will enter paradise. Study the Quran and things will slowly, slowly become clear. Do good deeds so then you will earn a huge amount of reward. These are some of the promises of Allah and we should all firmly believe in them.    

Shaytan carries on with this khutbah: “Verily, Allah promised you a promise of truth. And I too promised you, but I betrayed you”. So, the promises of shaytan are all false and once again he is owning up to it, but it is too late for his followers, as realising the deceptive nature of Shaytan won’t benefit them on the Day of Judgement. Now is the time to realise that the promises and whispers of Shaytan are all lies. When he promises you that swearing would make you sound cool, or sleeping and missing prayer will give you extra energy or looking after your parents is socially not cool; well, you reply back to the inner whispers by saying if I use good words then I will get reward, if I pray on time then I will get reward and if I help my parents I will get Paradise InshaAllah. When Shaytan tries to trick you into doing shameful things, promising enjoyment and delight, you tell yourself that the enjoyment might be very short term but the regret and guilt might last forever. You try to defeat Shaytan inwardly and outwardly to the best of your ability, knowing that his promises are all false. 

Shaytan will carry on with his khutbah by saying, “I had no authority over you except that I called you, and you responded to me. So blame me not, but blame yourselves.” I did not have the power to force you and so why are you blaming me. I did not physically move your lips for you to swear and so why are you blaming me. I did not physically move your hands to do wrong things and so why are you blaming me. I did not force shut your eyes during Fajr time. I did not make you eat haram food. I did not force you to disrespect your parents. The only thing I did is call you, whispered to you and you acted upon them, so blame yourself and no one else.  

The khutbah carries on by Shaytan saying, ‘I cannot help you, nor can you help me.’ Imagine following Shaytan for 10, 20, 30 years of your life and the day you need him the most, that one day, he will say he deny he knows you. Move away from me. You can feel the anger level increase amongst those who followed him. But guess what, it is too late. And blaming others won’t help on that day. Regretting on Day of Judgement will not be of any benefit. This world is where you regret and ask for forgiveness. This world is where you blame whatever is keeping you away from the basic things like prayer and studying the Quran. You blame the distractions and try to replace them.  

Shaytan ends the khutbah by saying, “Indeed, I deny your association of me [with Allah] before. Indeed, for the wrongdoers is a painful punishment." Basically, now I cut off all ties from you and what you used to do. I have nothing to do with you. I will mind my own business and you mind your own. I cannot help you and you cannot help me, we are both going to Jahannam.  

May Allah protect us from Shaytan and his tricks and keep us steadfast in this world and the next.  Ameen. 

I will start the second khutbah by repeating the verse which we started with
. وَقَالَ ٱلشَّيۡطَٰنُ لَمَّا قُضِيَ ٱلۡأَمۡرُ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ وَعَدَكُمۡ وَعۡدَ ٱلۡحَقِّ وَوَعَدتُّكُمۡ فَأَخۡلَفۡتُكُمۡۖ وَمَا كَانَ لِيَ عَلَيۡكُم مِّن سُلۡطَٰنٍ إِلَّآ أَن دَعَوۡتُكُمۡ فَٱسۡتَجَبۡتُمۡ لِيۖ فَلَا تَلُومُونِي وَلُومُوٓاْ أَنفُسَكُمۖ مَّآ أَنَا۠ بِمُصۡرِخِكُمۡ وَمَآ أَنتُم بِمُصۡرِخِيَّ إِنِّي كَفَرۡتُ بِمَآ أَشۡرَكۡتُمُونِ مِن قَبۡلُۗ إِنَّ ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ لَهُمۡ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٞ 
“And Satan will say when the matter has been concluded, "Indeed, Allah had promised you the promise of truth. And I promised you, but I betrayed you. But I had no authority over you except that I invited you, and you responded to me. So do not blame me; but blame yourselves. I cannot be called to your aid, nor can you be called to my aid. Indeed, I deny your association of me [with Allah] before. Indeed, for the wrongdoers is a painful punishment." (14:22) 
This verse and various other ones show that Shaytan lies and tricks people. The promises Shaytan makes are false. He said to our father Adam, eat from this tree and you will live forever. That is a blatant lie. So if he lied to our father Adam, don’t you think he will lie to us? He tricked our father Adam, don’t we think he will try to trick us?  

Shaytan will say at Fajr time, sleep more you need to rest, you can pray later. Shaytan will say, add random people on your social media they’ll become your friends for life. Don’t share good videos, your friends might say bad things. In fact, share useless videos, you’ll get more followers and likes. Shaytan will also trick us by saying life is too busy, you can study the Qur’an later, when you are a bit older. Play games for few hours and then you can pray. Watch movies for few hours and at the end of the day you can pray all your prayers. These are all whispers and tricks of Shaytan.     

There are many ways we can guard ourselves from Shaytan and his followers, but before we mention them, it is very important to emphasise the fact that no one is perfect; we just need to try our best to find ways to avoid the traps of Shaytan. Following are few suggestions on how to protect oneself from the tricks of Shaytan: 
1) Guard your prayers to the best of your ability. Put that alarm on for Fajr prayer. Have wudu or do wudu in school so you can pray Dhur. Remind each other about prayers. Go to the mosque for one or two prayers and enjoy the Jama’ah experience. Don’t just pray at home on your own as that will get very boring. One of the reasons why we enjoy Friday prayers, Eid prayers and Taraweeh is because there is a blessing in doing things together.  
2) Spend some time reading and understanding the Quran. Study the meaning of the last few surahs. In fact, go one step further and watch a video or two about the reasons behind why the surah revealed. For example, did you know that Surah An-Naas and Surah Al-Falaq was revealed because the Prophet was bewitched? Surah Ikhlas was revealed because some people wanted to know who Allah is. Every surah has a meaning and a reason why it was revealed. So make some time to study the Quran.  
3) Make friends with good people – they may be in your class, in your local mosque, your relatives. Start spending a bit more time with people who remind you of Allah, who would remind you to do good and would remind you about Paradise. No one is telling you to leave your friends, just make few more good ones. Maybe add some well-respected up-right good role models that will help you gravitate towards your own Paradise.    
4) There are various other pieces of advice one can follow, such as ask someone knowledgeable any questions you have about Islam; say Aa’odhobillahe minashaytannir rageem “I seek refuge in Allah from the outcast Shaytan; say Bismillah before doing something so then the barakah from Allah is there; say Alhamdulillah and be grateful for things you have and so on. The main thing is, the more good you do the higher the chance that Shaytan is having less effect on you.  

To conclude, on the Day of Judgement, Shaytan will deliver a khutbah whereby he will question everyone as to why they didn’t believe in the promises of Allah. He will also disown all those who followed him. We should look for ways we can protect ourselves from the whispers of Shaytan, to the best of our ability. No one is perfect, but we should all strive and help one another to move towards attaining the pleasure of Allah and enter Paradise through the mercy of Allah.   

May Allah protect us from the whispers of Shaytan and may Allah give us the tawfeeq to do more and more good deeds. Ameen.