Shaytan's whispers

At Islamic Life Coach School , I have created a service where I combine mental health services and religion and I try to help you guys make it into a daily practice . Today , we're going to talk about how the lower brain and shaitan's whispers are connected .

I have been giving you guys examples of the formula CTFAR C is circumstances , t is thoughts , f is feelings , a actions , r results . What I'm also teaching is that circumstances are out of our control and each circumstance leads to one or more thoughts , and thoughts are of two origins the higher brain or the lower brain .

Practicing thoughts of either part of the brain creates results in our life that are in line with that thought . Higher brain thoughts create higher , massive results . Lower brain thoughts create low , negative results . What I'm going to elaborate on today are the lower brain thoughts , and my main message is that lower brain thoughts are a source of whispers of shaitan .

As a side note , what I refer to , as shaitan is the same as the devil satan . Big shaitan is iblis , and all of us have our own smaller shaitans .

So I'm not the first one to make a connection of lower brain thoughts being the whispers of shaitan Nafs being the lower self of the humans and being the source of shaitan's misguidance has been a part of Islamic tradition since the beginning .

It has actually been a part of every major religion , and even people that don't identify themselves belonging to a religion acknowledge that sometimes people do things out of pure pleasure , rage or lust , and it's like they don't act like themselves .

The idea of carnal desires and nafs is as old as humanity , but what I am offering here is the extent with which it affects us . Our religion provides us clear guidance in this regard , and I will just be explaining it . In the CTFR model , you'll see that shaitan's whispers are more common than you think . Some simple examples Circumstance I have a C in math .

Thought I am not good at math , feeling Inadequate . Action I have a C in math I am not good at math , feeling inadequate . I do not try hard , I stay bad at math . I have two children I am not a good parent . Feeling guilty , practice poor parenting I stay a bad parent . I have a job . I am not a good employee .

Feeling deficient in skills Action not practicing the skills Result I stay a bad employee . Thought I am not a good Muslim . Feeling incompetent . Action not finding concentration in prayer . Result I prove to myself , I'm not a good Muslim . All of these formulas are examples of the lower brain thoughts , also known as the whispers of Shaitan . I'm not a good parent .

I'm not good at math . I'm not a good employee . I am not a good Muslim . We can determine that these are lower brain thoughts because of the results they're getting us , and we can determine a lot by the results we're getting .

According to the formula CTFAR , each thought creates a result for you that you are currently living , whether you are aware of it or not .

If you are under the impression that you are not thinking any lower brain thoughts because you are an otherwise intelligent person and you know when shaitan is trying to sneak in there and feed you thoughts I mean , after all , you are a law-abiding , tax-paying citizen who prays five times a day and believes in the oneness of Allah .

Shaitan is for people who are committing sins like rape , murder , thievery , alcohol , interest . You are clearly not one of them . If you're thinking this , then I will ask you to consider these two concepts . First , it always starts small . The person that commits zina , murder , deals in alcohol or interest wasn't born like that .

He got like that because he didn't pay attention to his seemingly small lower brain thoughts and , over a period of time with other life experiences , it molded him into a person that he is . Everyone has an aps desire for pleasure , but Shaifan enhances it through his whispers .

And secondly , and in my opinion more importantly , that just because you cannot identify your actions coming from waswasa or lower brain does not mean that it is not coming from Shaytan . That is his best trick . French philosopher Charles Baudelaire in 1960s said the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist .

And later Kevin Spacey won an Oscar for a movie where this was a famous line . But think about it . How true is that ? So you thinking you're not under the influence of Shaitan's whispers is his best trick . As an attempt to absolutely make sure you're not living under the whispers of shaitan , I will ask you this what results are you currently living ?

For example , you have a talent in photography or baking , but you're too afraid to ask for appropriate fee for your services because you don't think you're good enough , or you're thinking what will happen if people say no and you have that fear of rejection . You are creating a result of nothingness .

This result is a proof that you're operating from a lower brain thought , also known as the whispers of shaitan or waswasa . You think your mother-in-law is the source of all of your misery . You have a very difficult situation in your marriage because of it . That is a lower brain thought , again , waswasa .

You are in your seventh year of taking college courses and finally give up because you think to yourself who takes this long to finish a bachelor's degree ? You stop taking courses , never getting a degree . This result is from a lower brain thought , also known as the whispers of shaitan .

Being stuck in traffic , stomping the steering wheel , saying why am I the one with this long commute ? Lower brain Attempting to gain social media following and frustrated . It's not happening fast enough . Lower brain Taking care of your elderly patients and sacrificing your self-care in the process Lower brain .

If you think about it in this context , there's no one that is free from the whispers of Shaitan , because everyone has some result in their life that they want to change . So telling yourself that you are not under the effect of the lower brain is the best trick devil ever pulled on you .

Every child attending Sunday school could tell you that we are under the influence of shaitan . When we commit sins , you're acting on your nafs . We can easily identify that , but what I am offering you here is that what you're actually acting on are those whispers in your daily life , and you do not even know it .

Take a second to explore what life you're living right now in your relationships , in your career , in your religion . If there is something you want and you are not getting there , it is because of your lower brain .

Shaytan being so ubiquitous in our thoughts is a scary proposition , but it is actually very good news because , as always , we have agency over this entity because of our thoughts . I am offering you a way to recognize your inner shaytan's voice . In the Quran , surah Araf , ayah 16 and 17, .

One translation is we also find evidence from a hadith where Prophet peace be upon him says that shaitan runs in the bloodstream of the human , and we have so much more evidence in the Quran and Sunnah about how close shaitan actually is to a human . Dr Sheikh Asim Yusuf is a traditionally trained sheikh and a practicing psychiatrist in Britain .

He states that one trick of shaitan is that your negative , automatic thoughts hide behind the first person . In other words , shaitan speaks to you in first person I am not a good wife , I hate math , I eat too much . And then not only is he speaking to us in the first person , he is coming at us from all different directions .

Shaytan will never say you are not a good person . He will say I am not a good person . Then for an average person , this makes it very difficult to dissociate from your negative thoughts because it is being told to you in the first person .

Someone outside of you might tell you oh , but you're just thinking that you're really not a bad person , or you're really not a bad Muslim . And you say to them yeah , I know you believe that , but I am all of it because I have all of these thoughts . So it becomes nearly impossible to dissociate from these negative thoughts .

And what a gift Islam has given us in a concept that these thoughts are actually whispers of shaitan . There is an outside third-party entity at play . When your parents told you you're a good person , inside you're thinking good thing they don't know my thoughts , because if they really knew , they'd know I'm not .

Or your therapist told you you have nothing to feel guilty about and you say yes to their face . But deep down inside you're thinking if they could only see my thoughts , they would know I am guilty .

Your spouse or your friends tell you that you're capable of great things and you don't believe them , telling yourself I have all of this evidence that I cannot do anything because of these thoughts . Islam gives you a gift of being able to dissociate yourself from your negative cognitions .

So if you choose to do the slightest amount of work in this direction , you will recognize that you are not your negative thoughts . It is actually shaitan , and just that dissociation gives you so much agency over it . If you forget everything in this podcast , I hope you remember this you are not your negative thoughts , it is shaitan's whispers .

Allah put this design in place for us so we can work towards recognizing this design and overcome it and truly attain his blessings and a place in Jannah . Every human has a higher self and a lower self . Shaitan perpetuates the lower self so that we actually act on it .

If we take shaitan out of the picture , lower self becomes powerless , because Allah , subhanahu wa ta'ala , created us with a strong higher brain .

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala asked the angels to bow down to Adam alayhi salam , same Adam alayhi salam that , when went to Jannah , committed a sin of eating from the forbidden tree , and he did that acting under the whisper of shaitan , where Iblis told Adam that eating from this tree will make you immortal . Angels bowed to that Adam , your ancestor .

Don't you think that when Allah created Adam , he knew what he was capable of making mistakes and committing sins ? And angels even asked Allah , you want us to prostrate to Adam when he will create mischief in the world ? And we are created so perfectly . We carry out all of your commands and are in your constant worship .

You want us to prostrate to a human who will be making mistakes ? And ? And the answer was yes , adam alayhi salam , with all of his humanness , all of his ability of making mistakes and repenting for them and asking for forgiveness , was bowed down to by the perfect creation that are the angels .

Allah , subhanahu wa ta'ala knew what a struggle that would represent for humankind , and he had angels bow down to Adam , who embodied that struggle . Allah knew that a human struggle will be his constant battle of good and bad , staying on the straight path and slipping away from it .

But he also knew that we can always come back to the straight path by following his guidance and by being our higher selves and practicing our higher brain thoughts . If you take your lower brain thoughts out of the way , it is human instinct to follow a higher path , also known as the fitrah , and that is the true path to Allah SWT .

We are all but guaranteed that we will make mistakes , starting from Adam AS to the last human . Yet we act surprised and aloof when it happens to us . We avoid , we try not to look under the surface because we might not like what we see . My friend , you are guaranteed to make mistakes . It is a part of your programming .

If you are human , you will act on shaitan's whispers . But the only way to try and get out of this trap is to actually recognize the origin of your thoughts .

That , my friend , is how I follow this religion by recognizing that we will always be challenged with these negative thoughts that shaitan presents to us as being our own , and that we use our consciousness , our taqwa , our belief in God to overcome these thoughts .

We always have had a choice , because if we didn't , the concept of heaven and hell doesn't make sense . With that , I pray that Allah protects us from the effect of Shaytan and help us recognize if we are acting on his whisperings . I seek refuge in thoughts that are seemingly mine but are actually whispers of shaitan , where he hides behind the first person .

I thank allah in helping us recognize this that he has created us with , because it is only through the struggles that we can find our highest believing selves . Thank you so much , and I will talk to you guys next time .