Today I would like to talk about traps of Satan (shaitan) for new Muslims.

What are the traps of Satan for new Muslims?

First of all, to begin with, in the majority of the cases a person comes to Islam because they have investigated, they have researched, maybe they come from another religion after they realized that the other religion may not have all the truth, it may have some of the truth, but not all the truth.

They come to Islam, they research, they realize this is the only true religion with the holy book, Quran, untouched, untampered, reserved, preserved all the way from the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

The person comes to Islam with open heart, excited to embrace this religion; they embrace it, they know this religion they want to live the rest of their life practicing it.

So what happened? Why is it that some people leave Islam?

Let’s take a look.

There are many elements that cause a Muslim to leave Islam:

The first thing we have to realize: our minds, our hearts is one thing

We also have other elements called Satan.

Satan doesn’t want people to believe in Allah, in one and only God. He wants to stray us from the religion. So what does he do?

He affects our feeling, he affects our way of thinking. And some of the things includes as I’m going to tell you now.

For example, the media all around is against Islam, anti Islam. So if we listen to the news over and over again and we’re not in the community of Muslims; if you’re not reading, you’re not practicing enough, then you’re out to be weaker.

The other things are family. We become Muslims, our family are attacking us, irritating us, are putting us down.

They do all of this, this may be: “Oh, I’m just fed up… I’m just gonna leave Islam to just have peace with my family..” or “My wife is leaving me or my husband… my children are going to leave me..” it’s basically family and society pressure.

I met a man, a very strong Muslim, an American, who just like “Islam was his life.” He had no intention of leaving it, but he worked for a very large company and he said: “I don’t want to be called Muslim because I don’t want to be hassled.” He was concerned to be hassled, to be bothered.

So all of these elements exist. Your life is like you’re flowing against the current, i.e. against God, against Islam, against belief. How are you going to survive in this current? How are you going to be strong enough to not get swept away with this current?

My advice is several: the first thing you have to learn and understand the book of Allah, the Quran. The more you understand, the more you learn; the more you understand how the Creator is communicating with us, the more you realize that this is the only true message… you learn it, you put it into practice.

You have to know Prophetic teachings, the Sunnah, that adds the second step to your strength.

You have to live among the community of Muslims. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said:

“A Muslim who lives alone is like a sheep that strays away from the flock and the wolf catches it and eats it.”

So you have to be among the community of Muslims that practice.

Take friends that encourage you to be closer to Allah, rather than inviting you to parties and listening to music and do things like these that displease Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala.

And lastly, the relationship between you and Allah is between you and Allah, nobody else can force you, push you or take you away, push you into, push you out of it except yourself.

Who would we surrender to?

Do we surrender to Allah the God of the worlds?

Or do we surrender to society pressure, to temptation, to Satan?

Naturally you know the answer.

I hope this would strengthen you and help you become stronger and also help others who want to be strong in religion.