Reforming our homes

بسم الله والحمد لله والصلاة والسلام على رسول الله ، وبعد

All praise is for Allaah alone, the One who is a Guide to the Right Path. He guides from His slaves – those who repent – to the Straight Path, and He brings them out of darkness into light. And He sends astray those who turn away (from His obedience) and follow their desires.

وَمَا ظَلَمَهُمُ اللَّـهُ وَلَـٰكِن كَانُوا أَنفُسَهُمْ يَظْلِمُونَ

{And Allaah wronged them not, but they used to wrong themselves}

[Surah al-Nahl (16): 33]

I bear witness that none has the right to be worshiped except Allaah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger, who came with clear signs from Allaah. Through him, Allaah تعالى guided the blind hearts, mended broken souls. May the peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him, his family, and his Companions.

 

فَاتَّقُوا اللَّـهَ وَأَصْلِحُوا ذَاتَ بَيْنِكُمْ ۖ وَأَطِيعُوا اللَّـهَ وَرَسُولَهُ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ

{So fear Allaah and adjust all matters of difference among you, and obey Allaah and His Messenger (Muhammad ﷺ), if you are believers.}

[Surah al-Anfaal (8): 1]

 

O Slaves of Allaah! How are your homes? And what is taking place inside them and around them? Are our homes filled with sufficiency, calmness, tranquility, and mercy, and with Angels surrounding them? Or are our homes overshadowed with darkness, filled with wickedness and iniquity, and which are a resting and dining place for Shayaateen?

 

If we want to know that, then we have to contemplate on how were the houses of the Prophet ﷺ? His ﷺ houses were places where Allaah’s Names were glorified and praised a lot throughout the day, in the mornings and in the evenings. His ﷺ houses were a place where the Aayaat from the Book of Allaah was recited and al-Hikmah (the Prophet’s Sunnah) was followed. His ﷺ houses were filled with mercy, love, and kind treatment towards the family members. There were no objectionable things in his ﷺ houses. Rather, if something were to enter his ﷺ house which was displeasing to Allaah, he ﷺ would have it removed immediately, and he ﷺ would hasten towards that which would be pleasing to Allaah سبحانه وتعالى.

 

Except for the Fardh Salaah (obligatory prayers), the Prophet ﷺ would perform most of his prayers at home. He would stand up in the nights for prayers till morning, he would offer the Sunnan al-Rawaatib (Sunnah prayers associated with obligatory prayers) at home. This is one Sunnah that has been abandoned by many people.

 

The Prophet ﷺ said: ❝You should pray in your houses, for the best prayer of a person is that which he prays in his house except for the obligatory prayers.❞

[Saheeh al-Bukhaaree and Saheeh Muslim]

 

The Prophet ﷺ was a kind husband inside the house. He would help his family around the house and would tend to their needs. So, you O Muslim! Compare your home with the home of the Prophet ﷺ. Are you trying to follow him ﷺ in this? Do you desire the same in your house? If you do, then you are upon Khair (goodness). But if you oppose him ﷺ, then what a miserable place is your house!

 

O slaves of Allaah! Be keen in remembering Allaah تعالى at the time of entering the homes. Allaah’s Messenger ﷺ said: ❝When a person enters his house and mentions the name of Allaah at the time of entering it and while eating the food, Shaitaan says (addressing himself): “You have no place to spend the night and no evening meal”. But when the person enters without mentioning the name of Allaah, the Shaitaan says: “You have found a place to spend the night”; and when the person does not mention the name of Allaah while eating food, he (the Shaitaan) says: “You have found a place to spend the night and an evening meal”.❞

[Saheeh Muslim (2018)]

 

So, whoever remembers Allaah at the time of entering the houses and while eating food, they have protected themselves from the Shaitaan, so that Shaitaan does not sleep with them inside their homes, nor does he participate with them in eating food. But if the people are negligent and careless in remembering Allaah, then Shaitaan lives with them, sleeps with them, and eats with them. We seek Allaah’s refuge from the accursed Shaitaan.

 

A Muslim should illuminate and beautify his home with the recitation of the Qur’aan. He should himself recite the Qur’aan and should make his wife and children do the same, every day. He should make it a habit of reciting the Qur’aan in his house, especially Surah al-Baqarah, because as the Prophet ﷺ said: ❝Do not make your houses like graves, for the Shaitaan runs away from a house in which Surah al-Baqarah is recited.❞

[Muslim (780)]

 

So, if our homes are like this, then receive the glad tidings of houses filled with sufficiency, with tranquility descending upon it, and Allaah’s Mercy encompassing it, and the Angels surrounding it, and it is protected from the Shaitaan.

 

If the homes are distant from the remembrance of Allaah and filled with objectionable stuff (music, pictures, dogs), then what do you expect the condition of such homes to be? They would become a perfect, fertile, breeding ground for the Shayaateen. And so many Muslim homes have become an abode for the Shayaateen.

 

Some of the reasons which lead to this are as follows:

 

1. Negligence in the remembrance of Allaah at the time of entering the house and before eating.

 

2. Hanging pictures on the walls, or placing them on the shelves, and in places where it is easy for everyone to see. Hanging pictures of themselves or their families, or their parents, or some famous personalities.

 

3. Having idols, sculptures, and statues of human beings, animals and birds in the house.

 

4. Wearing clothes that have pictures of players, famous personalities, or other animate things in the front or at the back. All of this is not allowed.

 

5. Having dogs inside the homes for no other purpose except for having as pets.

 

6. Bringing magazines, newspapers and other dailies inside the house which has pictures in them.

 

All these things are an invitation for the Shayaateen to enter the homes while they prevent the Angels from entering them. When pictures and statues of animate and living things are placed in high places and hanged on the walls, then Angels do not enter such homes.

 

The Prophet ﷺ said: ❝Angels do not enter a house that has either a dog or a picture in it.❞

[Saheeh al-Bukhaaree and Saheeh Muslim]

 

7. Similarly, in many homes, one hears the sound of music and singing, and people watching movies. From some places, one hears the sound of music day and night.

 

8. Excessive use of insults, cursing, and profanity among the members of the family. This is mostly because of the negligence of the parents in regards to the proper upbringing of their children. The children imitate their parents the most, so in most cases, their habits are a reflection of their parent’s behavior.

 

O slaves of Allaah! We are in a need of reforming our homes and cleansing them of all such objectionable matters and calamities. Follow the example of the Prophet ﷺ, do as he did when he entered his house and found therein a curtain with pictures on it, so he tore the curtain.

 

Narrated `Aaishah رضي الله عنها: The Prophet ﷺ entered upon me while there was a curtain in the house having pictures (of animates) on it. His face got red with anger, and then he got hold of the curtain and tore it into pieces. The Prophet ﷺ said: ❝Such people as paint these pictures will receive the severest punishment on the Day of Resurrection.❞

[Saheeh al-Bukhaaree and Saheeh Muslim]

 

`Aaishah رضي الله عنها said: “We tore it into pieces and made a cushion or two cushions out of that.”

[Saheeh Muslim]

O slaves of Allaah! We need to stop the music and singing from being played in our homes and we need to replace them with the recitation of the Qur’aan and reading the Ahaadeeth. Let’s make our homes illuminating with Qur’aan and a place for the Angels, and not a place overshadowed with darkness and oppression and a residence for Shayaateen.

And our success is only from Allaah alone.