The nafs of a human being is only concerned with attaining pleasure and enjoyment.  The nourishment of the nafs is pleasure and enjoyment, but there is no specific form of pleasure and enjoyment that the nafs requires.  It will not discriminate between this type of enjoyment and that type of enjoyment.  It merely wants pleasure and enjoyment period.  We have made the nafs addicted to evil enjoyments and pleasures, hence it fiends for these types of pleasures.  Get it addicted just once to the obedience of Allah and the worship of Allah.  There is nothing that matches up to Allah and so there is nothing that matches up to the pleasure derived from the worship and remembrance of Allah.  Once the nafs becomes addicted to this type of pleasure and enjoyment, insha Allah, it will never go back to evil enjoyment.

Hazrat Thanwi (RA) said:

“Sometimes involvement with the Qu’ran Shareef also becomes unlawful. For example: a man wishes to do Hifz but has the responsibility of providing for his family. It will be unlawful for such a man to involve himself with hifz of the Qur’an which is Mustahab, since it is his obligatory duty fardh-e-ayn to provide for his family.”

NOTE: This prohibition will only apply if involvement in the pursuit of Hifz results in the neglect of the Huqooq of one’s family. If a man possesses the ability to execute both tasks simultaneously, it will not be unlawful.

SubhanAllah. This shows the great status of fulfilment of rights of the fellow slaves and those who are under our guardianship and responsibility. Unfortunately, in our day and age, Deen has become a platform of fulfillment of fantasies, feeling a good vibe, and getting a name.

Many a time you see people whose household situation is such which is in dire need of spiritual, financial, or emotional support. There is no one else to look after the household affairs and be there for the assistance of the family. In that time of dire need you see that a person gets a sudden urge (out of nowhere) to go to study overseas, become the next Imam Ghazali, or go on an adventurous journey to seek out the Shaykh of his dreams who will make him the next Shaykh Abdul Qader Jaylani.

It should be understood well, that these types of sudden bursts of energy are nothing but a deception from shaytan. Shaytan knows that “I can never make the practicing believer drink wine, abandon salah, commit zina, etc. But I can deceive him into other such predicaments by which he becomes deprived of Allah’s mercy and grace, and eventually I make him a “bankrupt destitute” (as far as imaan and a`maal is concerned).

One of the ways shaytan makes a believer a “bankrupt destitute” is through mixing up priorities for him and making him become oblivious of his obligatory duties and magnifying the unnecessary actions. An example of this is a person who prays tahajjud all night and does zikr, and then sleeps through fajr prayer which is an absolute fardh.

He feels very pleased with his great feat of spirituality, but he doesn’t know that shaytan is laughing at him at that moment.

By this, he also becomes deprived of Allah’s mercy and grace and incredibly loses out spiritually, turning into a “bankrupt destitute” as it has mentioned extensively in the ahaadith.

It is mentioned in a famous and known hadith of Sahih Muslim:

Rasulullah (salallahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “Do you know who is the bankrupt destitute?” So the Sahabah (ridhwanullahi alaihim) answered, “He is the one who has no money and possessions.”

The Messenger of Allah (salallahu alaihi wa sallam) then said: “The bankrupt destitute of my Ummah is the one who will come on the Day of Judgmennt with lots of prayer, fasting and charity in his account. But he will come (in such a state) that he had abused a person physically, or slandered someone, or usurped the wealth of someone else, or shed the blood of someone, thus, each person will be given his due right on that Day from his good deeds to make up for the rights of theirs which he had violated. When all of his good deeds will be finished and wiped out before fulfilment of everyone’s due rights (which he had violated), then the people will cast their sins upon him, then he will be thrown headlong into the fire.”

Mullah Ali Qari (rahimahullah) comments on this hadith saying: “From this hadithh it is understood that in the matter of huququl-ibaad (due rights of the slaves), there is no pardon from Allah Ta`ala nor any intercession which will be accepted, unless He wishes to satisfy the opposing party which demands their rights. (Mirqatul Mafatih ; Vol. 9, pg. 314.)

May Allah Ta`ala save us from not fulfilling our rights which are due to others, and save us from oppression and grant us a correct understanding of our priorities in this path. Aameen.