Sheikh Uthman Hadi - Preparing Your Nafs for Dhul Hijjah | Friday Khutbah

Episode Date: May 1, 2026

- Nafs al-Ammarah (The Commanding Self): This is the base self that inclines towards evil and desires. It often leads us to sin and distracts us from our duties to Allah.- Nafs al-Lawwama (The Self-Reproaching Self): This self is aware of its shortcomings and feels remorse for its actions. It strives for improvement and seeks forgiveness from Allah.- Nafs al-Mutma'inna (The Tranquil Self): This is the highest state of the nafs, characterized by peace and contentment in the remembrance of Allah. It is the self that is fully submitted to Allah's will.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sheikh-uthman-hadi--6689369/support.https://sheikhuthmanhadi.beam.lyhttps://open.spotify.com/user/315hadqmwxllibu6ubi5us2cbn2y?si=572b4d8898284e9ehttps://open.spotify.com/show/3MQHfrpjj3XXcqoPbN5Dl8?si=v6YQ42kpSx-VONBFhT3CzA

In the name of the God, All right, Alhanna, and all right and all the Ration and all right and allah

alhah Inhah Allah, we're tohine and we're and we'lle and we allude

by our our own of our and from our Migh'u'u l'u'u and who'll Hiae'Lah

andhhah L'Hiulah Allah, and I shhidhid that Muhmah Abduhah I'ma'a'a'a'a'a'a'a brothers and sisters. I pray that everyone is doing well and I ask Allah, Safan Nahua T'a'a'a'a'a

if we goes for our sins of our shortcomings and grants his special mercy not only in this life, but mainly the next. Allah, Allah, my brothers and sisters, we've spoken so far about Dilhidja and Hajj in the beautiful season of Hajj and Dilhijja twice so far. I want to kind of make this talk about the hijja, but mainly about your nefs, because one of the common things that happens after Ramadan is we've been training our nef, we've controlling our nefts and then now we start heading out of Ramadan we start heading in the shawah we fast those six days and for everyone who fast those six days we ask Allah subpoena

who has accepted all from us you fast these six days and then now we head into the continuation of the rest of this year and in chala to the next well some things that happen is that we feel as though we are closing that gap between Allah supanahua a la and Allah during the month of Ramadan but after the month of Ramadan it starts to separate again and sometimes it could just be because of our nefts which is ourselves and we've also spoken about this before and there are let's see if we anybody can remember when we said this in shaban how many categories are nefs are there can you just hold the number three yes there are three

there are three categories now before I get into this I want to name I'm gonna say what it actually is and I'm gonna name the three the term nefs is refers to the self or to the soul right and it plays a crucial role in our spiritual journey back to Allah, and in Islam, these nefs can be categorized into three. The first one,

Nafs al-Amarra, which is the commanding selves, Nafs al-Lawama, the self-reproaching self, and Nafs al-Mutamain, which is the tranquil self. Now, there's actually,

I want to mention here about the tranquil self, but before I get to that, I'm going to mention Nafs al-A-Mra and Nafs al-A-Mra. Nafs al-A-Mra is the base self, right? This is the self that inclines

towards evil and desire. So you're feeling any desire to do anything that's displeasing to to Allah, subhannahu, is coming from Nafs al-Ahmara,

and it often leads us to sin and to disobey Allah, and it also distracts us from our duties to Allah. Now, Nafs al-Lawama is the self-reproaching self.

This is the self that wants to seek that forgiveness. It feels the regret. And this base is aware of the shortcomings, and it feels remorse for its actions.

And it strives for improvement and seeks forgiveness from Allah, and the third and final and best of these nefs is Nafs al-Mutamai-in, right? This is the tranquil self. And this is the highest state of

nephs categorized by peace and contentment in that remembrance of Allah, and it is the self that is fully submitted to Allah-Suphanahu-ta-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a. Right? So what does he mention? He says,

Allah will say to the righteous, O tranquil soul, or own tranquil self. Now, one of the things I want to mention here is if you go on, Yeah, Ayyatah, Nafsumutamahina, I will be pleased with you, and you will be pleased with me. So, you will say, Allah will say that to us to give you context of what he actually will say to the believers and to those who have Nafsaamuamint. Now, as we are preparing for the hijad. One of the things we want is we want to connect. back to Allah Sufanao'u'u'a. You want to gain

closeness back to Allah Sufanao'u'a and one of those practical ways is to strengthen your nef's right? And we find that many of us sometimes have the desire to sin. That comes from nefsalamara. Some of us have the desire to seek the forgiveness of Allah Sufanao'u'u'u'a which we ask Allah sa'u'u'a

to give us all that desire and also accept it all from us. We have this desire and what does that come from? Nefsa lewama. I'm asked the last one. The tranquil state, the state in which you're content with the plan of Allah, the decree of Allah, you want to worship Allah you want to believe. What is that one? Nafs al-Mutamain. It is Nafs al-Mutamain. Now, the thing is I want to mention here about the importance of your

nefs, the importance of duqadha, and the importance of Zul-Hijja. Three things here, all in one, very short. The first thing I want to mention here is the importance of your nefs. These nefs play a crucial role in gaining closeness to Allah, Sufanao-u-a-a-a-a-a-and there's actually an eye on the Quran in which Allah-Supana-a-Tal mentions that he test the believers to see who are the true ones and who are the false ones. One of those characteristics comes from your nefs to see if you are a true believer or if you are not a true believer, if you are a willing to sacrifice for Allah believer or if you're not.

If you are a loving believer, if you're a loving believer, if you're a kind believer, if you're a believer that wants to gain close to Allah, subhannahu, Tala, or not. It shows in your nefs, right? Because nafsa al-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-wama-draves you to sin. Nafsa al-a-waamaha drives you to forgiveness. And nefsaamun drives you to Allah. There's three different bases of which it drives you to. The first one is one in which we all have on a day-to-day basis.

And what's crazy is you really think about it, Nafz al-A-A-Mara actually go hand in hand. Because Nafz al-A-Mara wants you to sin. It wants you to commit mistakes and to follow those desires that you have. And Nafsa-Lawama wants you to seek forgiveness. When you make a mistake, you seek forgiveness. So Nafs al-A-A-Wama. When you have Nafs al-Wama, no matter what sin it is,

immediately you want to seek forgiveness. It could be a glaze. It could be something that you did physically. It could be something that you thought, whatever it may be. That state wants you to seek forgiveness from Allah, Sufana, Hewitz-Ara, and it wants you to actually gain closeness to Allah through that forgiveness. And also, this self wants to redeem itself, saying, oh, I made a mistake. Let me redeem myself.

Yeah, Allah, please forgive me. I'm going to do better. With this thing, I'm going to focus mainly on that and trying to do better. Nefsalmoutamain is one that is the highest and most tranquil state that you can be in. The only way to achieve it is going through the levels. You start off with Nafz al-Amara. You make a mistake. You sin.

You follow a desire. Then you have Nafs al-a-Wama. You seek forgiveness for that sin or for whatever that thing was that you did, which is a self-reproaching. And then you have Nafs al-Mutamain. The more you seek forgiveness, the closer you come to Allah, Sufana-Hu-Tal. When you start to seek forgiveness, when you start to want to patch up those holes and those mistakes that you made. And also, one of the other things I mentioned was it strives for improvement. So you strive for improvement as well.

It also helps gain nafsa al-mutamain. There are three steps and they all aid in each other. The first step is in a need we in us. The second step has to also be earned. And the third step is one that it has to be earned, but also has to be tried. You also have to work on that. And it has to be through improvement

and through love of Allah, Sufanao'u, Tala. You're not going to sin, seek forgiveness, sin, seek forgiveness. You want to sin, you seek forgiveness, you improve. And you continue doing this over and over again. and eventually you will get to the state of nafsaamemain. But what else is there about nafsaamuamain that I will finally mention before going to the next point? The other thing about nafsaamu'ta'in

is it a state, it is a state in which you are content with the decree of Allah supranahua'u'u'u'a. When something befall you, something happens, you're content with it. When something doesn't happen, you're content with it. It's the same as how we make the dua of istakara. If you make this dua, you have to have have to have nefsaamain.

Why? Because you have to be content with whatever comes out. if it's good for you or if it's not. If it is what you want or if it is not. If it is something that's going to uplift you in your life or it's something that's going to feel as it's going to take you down. No matter what it is, you have to be content with the decree of Allah, and you have to know that this is the decree of Allah.

So this is where it comes to the point of Nafs al-Mutemain. And Allah, Sufran, Hew-Tal-Ten and the tranquil state many times in the Quran. But what you really want to realize here, and I want you to realize about these three, like I mentioned before is that they all go hand in hand. In order for you to have one, you have to have the other. If you have nefsa al-Amara like we all do, the desire to sin, the desire to make a mistake

and the disobey Allah subpoena-ah-ah-ah-ta-a that needs to be toned down, right? You have to work on it. When it comes to the nefsa al-awamaama, you want to improve upon that. And when it comes to nafsa al-a-a-a-in, you want to improve and you want to become better and you want to come closer to Allah-Supana-a-h-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a. And this neffffffis is characterized by peace

contentment in the remembrance of Allah, Suhphanahua Tada. Now the other thing I wanted to mention was when it comes to these points of how we actually gain and how we get the steps to gain these nefs, right? And how we train our nefs, right? Especially in this month of Dulaqadha

as we transition into Dahlhā, and inshallah the rest of the year. First thing I want to mention is using this month of Dulaqada to enhance your worship. So that includes starting off by praying more, reciting more, trying to make it a daily habit to gain more closeness to Allah, suhpana-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a part of your Iba'a as well

is also doing things for Allah. That becomes a baseline. Once you start doing that, you start to build upon it. If you say, you know what, even though I might only be closing the blinds upstairs, it's making a joke, you're closing something, you're doing something, maybe you're cooking, maybe you're cleaning, maybe you're cleaning something out, maybe you are working on a project at work, or maybe you're doing something specific. I'm not going to go into specifics about that. whatever it may be that you're doing, if you're doing it for Allah supranahua then he will accept that from you if you're only doing it for him. That's also an act of ibada and it's also a means of gaining reward.

One of the other things is practicing fasting, right? Fasting prevents immorality. It prevents this pleasure of Allah supranahua'u'u'a because you're in a state in which you're depriving yourself so that you can uplift your soul. You're depriving your physical to uplift your spiritual. So one of the other things you should try and do is, especially in this month of Dulaqadha, especially in the month of Dahlhidja on the specific ninth day,

on the day of Arafa, try your absolute hardest to fast. Fast throughout Dulaqada like you did in Ramadan. Fast throughout du Kada, like you did in Shawal, and fast throughout the rest of the year. As much as you can, even if it's just Mondays and Thursdays, even if it's just Mondays, or maybe it's just Thursdays. Even if it's just two times every single month, try and fast as much as you can,

for it brings you closer to Allah, suhpaniahu, Tala. The other thing I want to mention is seeking forgiveness, Seeking forgiveness is a very powerful tool and gaining closeness to Allah, Sufanao'u'u'u'a'a is an excellent tool in an excellent time, especially in D'Al Qaida, heading and transitioning into Dulhijja

to seek forgiveness for our sins. And the Prophet of Allah Allah al-Aliu-Salam said, the one who repents from sin is like the one who has no sin. So if that repentance is sincere for Allah-Supanao-Talai characterized by Nafsala-Lawama, Allah will accept that from you. So make it a habit to engage insincere repentance and insincere

tauba and ask Allah for forgiveness as this purifies your heart and elevates your neps. And the final thing I want to mention here as well are reflection and self-assessment and so in setting true, clear intentions. So when it comes to reflection, take time to reflect every single day,

every single moment you have, even if it may be in Dulcada, if it's in du Hijja, if it's in Muharram, inshachal, any of the time that it's in. Take time to reflect each moment. today doesn't have to be long period of time, four or five hours. It can just be 10 minutes, five, ten minutes, maybe even 30 if you want to make it that long. You can still go and

reflect and assess yourself. How are you? What mistakes have you made? How can you get better? How can you get closer to Allah, Sufana, and what can strengthen your relationship with Allah, Sufana, hoadallah? Questions like you're asking yourself of how can I improve my Ibad? And most importantly, how has the satan gotten me this year? Because we're closing out the year, inshallah, and muhram. So ask yourself the question, how has Shaitan gotten me? How can I become better? How can I seek forgiveness for those sins that I did? What has he gotten me with? What are the main things that I continue to get gotten with with those sins? And finally, setting intentions. Make sure that your intentions are only to please Allah, Sufano and

ensure that your intentions are solely for Allah, subanao, and the Prophet of Allah, Allah, Allah, He will say that actions are judged by intentions, and every person will have that, the reward of what he has intended. So if your intentions are pure, and your intentions are for Allah, and your intentions are only to please Allah, then this is also a means of becoming among those who are nafsa al-mutemain or among the tranquil self and tranquil state. So my brothers and sisters, training your nefs in Dula'a, like we did training your nests in Sha'aban.

Also, trying your absolute hardest to prepare your nefs for Dul-Hijja is very important. It is a vital step in preparing for the beautiful and blessed first 10 days of D'Ull-Hijja, and also for the rest of the year by increasing your ibada, practicing your fasting, seeking forgiveness, engaging in charity, and fostering a sense of gaining closeness to Allah

through every means you can by your iBada. This also will help close the gap as well because many of us feel that gap of Ramadan's over. I'm starting to feel further away from Allah. I don't know why, right? This is one of the reasons and one of the ways in which we can is that we can elevate our spiritual state and draw closer to Allah,

upon a hua a lax by practicing our nef's and closing closing the gap between us and allah supanahua aught a so accept our efforts from us for our sins of our shortcomings and bless us with his beautiful and special mercy and to send mercy upon this whole entire umma ame and iqu da'an and alhahmdhraim bismu'llah rhaman arrahimdh alhah alhahmah and alhulahehleh and alhraehraehrae and alhah alhahlihah aishaehahehahehahehah andhululah and we're in his, we're in

and we'll trust of it, and we're by Allah, from shorourour of our our own of our own his Allah, for la Muddlidl, and who'llelh, and who'llelh, and shirrikh, and no, Allah, and I shoddhann, Abduh, and

Abduh, and Rasmuth. Allah, humah, haqat, abat, abat, and abat, asunate, Allah, Allah, and Iu'll be Allah, from the shaitan, Ration. Allah, the rhamman, and

your soul, the untae your unto your rabidia, and dhul me

in my badee and goly jannet Allahh Allahe Alhah bade the

badele bade abat abat to buntlet Islam and Islam and Muslims Allah Allahh Islam and Muslims

Abad of Allah Allah Allah Allah Allahe amur Mour bin alin and the Hisan and itai to the koreba and he anhae and the fashai and the menkely and the beg of allah you, you'llhury you should give to you, and l'idhulah, and God ishaw yeh,

and Allah, and Allah, he'll know what heathamun Akeem al-a-Qa-haean, my brothers and sisters. Asamu-a-a-a-rahmatilah and your Allahi, and abacati.