it sucks, doesnt it :(

it sucks how much the needs of your nafs are so integrated and a part of you that you are unaware of where they may have lead you already. whether its your craving for wealth, your hunger, your need to be seen/known whatever it is for you personally that is a fitnah for you, its scary how they are so much a part of you that you are/have become oblivious to them, despite the fact that you live with it all the time and you don't know at which point they will drive you over the edge. they are such a fitnah, we dont even realize it most of the time. all these things have the potential to lead us astray.

its so much more easier to give in and go with the flow, but there's always that thing holding you back...there's always that rahmah (mercy). but what if we do give in? how do we know that we haven't already since these weakness are so integrated within our nafs that we cant see them.

but we've got to keep going, right? its saddening and frightening that it may be at any moment where we do actually give in-if we haven't already. but how do we avoid that? when we need to see our appearance physically, we look in a mirror, but what is the spiritual mirror we can look into?

its scary when sometimes you catch yourself out doing the wrong thing or intending to do the wrong thing. and you wonder what else you could be concealing that hasnt become apparent to you. the nafs and thoughts like to torment, dont they =(

the question: as bolded/underlined above.

Just remember to repent after. Nobody is perfect and nobody is expected to be.
You know if you've already given in by seeing if you do anything which breaks the rules, and also by looking at the actions of people we know are/were good.
(imo)

what if we do give in? how do we know that we haven't already since these weakness are so integrated within our nafs that we cant see them.

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We are destined to sin. None of us is perfect, we all have our flaws.

We can always make dua for guidance sincerely and try our best to adhere to the commands of Allah. At the same time, seek forgiveness for all sins we know we have committed and those we are unaware of.

Just remember to repent after. Nobody is perfect and nobody is expected to be.
You know if you've already given in by seeing if you do anything which breaks the rules, and also by looking at the actions of people we know are/were good.
(imo)

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how does one repent for something that they aren't even aware that they doing? that's the point of this thread-the stuff that we aren't aware of that could/have lead us astray.

and about perfection, what about those imperfections, not the ones that lead us to the minor sins, but the ones that lead us to the major sins. do we just sit back and think "well, who says we can ever attain perfections."

but come to think of it and speaking of which (the major sins) you dont just go a drink alcohol, or steal or disobey your parents. you don't suddenly commit zina and all the rest of them. those things are pretty major if you think about them and its not like one day you wake up thinking that you're going to steal, etc. i mean something would have lead you to do those things. a deeper feeling, a stronger than normal weakness, a deeper motivation. no-one in their right mind does do those things and imo they are easy to avoid.

if you steal, drink, etc couldn't that be indications of something more? (i dont know, islamically, is it?) i mean like a weaker iman. what my point is, is that maybe we need to concentrate on combating the smaller things that lead us to these greater sins. perhaps if we tried to work around those first, then anything greater wouldn't be all that problematic for us?

how does one repent for something that they aren't even aware that they doing? that's the point of this thread-the stuff that we aren't aware of that could/have lead us astray.

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"Oh Allah, forgive me for the sins I have committed that I am unaware of and guide me to the right path always". No need to overcomplicate the issue sister.

do we just sit back and think "well, who says we can ever attain perfections."

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Of course not. That's complacency. We are to strive. It's just that we shouldn't lose hope if we do sin, that we say nobody is perfect.

To give a loose analogy, we can all try to win at an annual competition but if we don't, then there's always next year and instead of losing hope, we work harder to compensate.

Ummu Sufyaan said:

do we just sit back and think "well, who says we can ever attain perfections."

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Just to add to Mr. Alpha; we have also been told we are not perfect, I even recall something about us being replaced if we were perfect, and lastly to repent.

Ummu Sufyaan said:

but we've got to keep going, right? its saddening and frightening that it may be at any moment where we do actually give in-if we haven't already. but how do we avoid that? when we need to see our appearance physically, we look in a mirror, but what is the spiritual mirror we can look into?

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i agree with the title of this thread and what i'm guessing is you'd rather have suggestions about how to avoid these things than what to do if you fall prey to them.

"...at any moment where we do actually give in-if we haven't already..."

Perhaps by even entertaining the thought, we fertilize this seed and allow it the conditions to grow. Once it takes root and grows we can hack at it ... maybe killing it from above. But what must happen is it must be killed at the root. Basically always be on guard and ask Allah to not allow the seeds of wickedness to even germinate. And through more and more ibadah, and constant vigilance and remembrance, perhaps it's possible.

What you said about stopping the little things can really apply to this because, in a way, maybe the major sins are the rotten fruit of the seeds of minor sins. Allah knows best.

As far as a spiritual mirror? The Quran and sunnah, imo. Whatever we think we know about Islam or ourselves is so little, in reality. And there is always so much more to learn. Try imagining yourself reading verses of the Quran with the eyes of a hypocrite. Or better yet don't.

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]On the authority of Abu Malik al-Harith bin 'Asim al-Ash'ari, radiyallahu 'anhu, who said: The Messenger of Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam, said:[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]

"Purification is half of iman (faith). Saying 'Al-Hamdulillah' (Praise be to Allah) fills the scales. Saying 'Subhanallah wa al-Hamdulillahi' (Exhalted be Allah and Praise be to Allah) fills the space between the heavens and the earth. Salah (prayer) is a light. Sadaqah (charity) is a proof. Sabr (patience) is a shining glory. The Qur'an is an argument either for you or against you. Everybody goes out in the morning and sell themselves, thereby setting themselves free or destroying themselves."​

[/FONT]


As soon as we've allowed ourselves to sin, the verses that gave us comfort would soon condemn us.

May Allah give us all the wisdom, confidence and tawfiq to fight our nafs.

Ummu Sufyaan said:

if you steal, drink, etc couldn't that be indications of something more? (i dont know, islamically, is it?) i mean like a weaker iman. what my point is, is that maybe we need to concentrate on combating the smaller things that lead us to these greater sins. perhaps if we tried to work around those first, then anything greater wouldn't be all that problematic for us?

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this is the problem the ummah has i believe. they see small sins as nothing, they do not even believe smaller sins are a sin half the time.

for example every one prayed in the time of the prophet (saw) even the hypocrites prayed. now people only pray three or four times a day and don't think its a big thing this will automatically lead to other sins that a person will take lightly

of course its weak imaan but i believe the strongest of us can fall in to major sin but the believer does it once and final and then repents and does not go back to it.

i believe to achieve a good life free of major sin a person has to start from there salah. your prayers must be perfect because if your so laid back about this important pillar.. you are going to fall in to sins. there is no doubt about this.

now i sometimes hear people saying ''well people pray 5times a day and they still do sins'' DUH! obviously there is something missing in there salah. :hmm:

no concentration, no fear that one day your going to die and you will meet your creator. pray every prayer like its your last.

make sincere dua constantly everyday after every prayer. in fact i was listening to a good lecture about this too and honestly i am making extra dua everyday then i was before.

so yeh this is what i believe anyway because even all the scholars say salah prevents u from doing sin.. well lets say you think twice about doing it

another question sort of related: do your sins that you accumulate prevent you from the blessing of other deeds you could potentially implement for example giving charity, getting up for tahajjud and even khushoo in prayer...is that really all related? i cant remember where i heard that, but say i wanted to get up for tahjjud (i dont, its just an example) one thing that could prevent me, could be because of my sins?

Ummu Sufyaan said:

another question sort of related: do your sins that you accumulate prevent you from the blessing of other deeds you could potentially implement for example giving charity, getting up for tahajjud and even khushoo in prayer...is that really all related? i cant remember where i heard that, but say i wanted to get up for tahjjud (i dont, its just an example) one thing that could prevent me, could be because of my sins?

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I am not too sure about previous sins preventing you from doing good in the future, but I have heard that if you do not act on good thoughts that you may get eg. You may suddenly feel like reciting quran which you normally don't recite, but then you don't do it and put it off for whatever reason, every time you get a feeling of doing some good action you just put of for some other time, then soon you will stop getting these thoughts of doing good. They say good thoughts are like a visitor, the better you treat it, the more often it will come, and if you treat it badly it will stop coming. So if you get a thought of doing something good, carry it out immediately, for not doing it is treating it badly.

Ummu Sufyaan said:

another question sort of related: do your sins that you accumulate prevent you from the blessing of other deeds you could potentially implement for example giving charity, getting up for tahajjud and even khushoo in prayer...is that really all related? i cant remember where i heard that, but say i wanted to get up for tahjjud (i dont, its just an example) one thing that could prevent me, could be because of my sins?

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I read it somewhere that if someone sleeps with the intention of offering Tahajjud and doesn't wake up, even then he gets the reward for offering tahajjud. Allah (SWT) is so merciful that he rewards you the entire thing only for the intention.

Coming to the question, it really is interdependent. I've observed this is in my life and was both shocked and relieved to know that it is that way. Rasoolullah :saws: said "Whenever Allah wishes good for a slave, he gives him understanding of the deen." I was being a very lazy guy for sometime and then I really started getting active and saw the above mentioned hadeeth unfold in my life. The iman's ups and downs keep happening but I made an observation this time and saw that when I started to avoid all the sins I could and devoutly serve Allah, I was able to do a lot more of good deeds and I was slowly losing interest in the world's pleasures. Its like if you take a step up, the next steps become easier and easier but when you take a step down it becomes difficult to stop yourself from going down further. Iman is the most delicate thing in the world, I believe, because men with the greatest amount of piety in their hearts have fallen for trivial trials ( a simple example would be iblis). When you keep doing good, you can do lots more of it but when you go bad, its not easy to do even the simple deeds pleasing to Allah.

Even I have a question (kind of related to this topic), what if a person does both good and bad and both have consequences of their own. which one would take place? Like, I read that a person who consumes haraam, his dua is not accepted for 40 days. If this individual during those 40 days, makes dua at a time when it is confirmed that dua will be accepted, will his dua be accepted or will the sin prevent it?