When Feelings Replace Allah: Nouman Ali Khan on Qur'an 45:23

Most of us have met someone like this. They pray. They fast. They say alhamdulillah at the right moments. And yet, when you gently point out something they did wrong, when you show them the ayah, the hadith, the plain facts, nothing moves. They do not argue with the evidence. They just answer with how they feel: but you don't know how that made me feel.

If we are honest, most of us have also been that person, at least for an afternoon.

That is the subject of Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan's Friday khutbah Don't Let Your Desires Replace Allah, published on the official Bayyinah YouTube channel. It is built around one ayah in Surah Al-Jathiyah and two companion ayat in Surah Al-Furqan, and it describes, step by step, how a heart can drift so far into its own feelings that it no longer hears anything else. It is a sobering talk. It is also, in the end, a deeply merciful one.

Here is a summary of the khutbah, the ayat at its center, and what it asks of us.

The ayah at the center: Qur'an 45:23

> "Have you seen he who has taken as his god his [own] desire, and Allah has sent him astray due to knowledge and has set a seal upon his hearing and his heart and put over his vision a veil? So who will guide him after Allah? Then will you not be reminded?" (Qur'an 45:23, Sahih International)

Ustadh Nouman opened the khutbah by reciting the two ayat from Surah Al-Furqan that carry almost the same opening words:

> "Have you seen the one who takes as his god his own desire? Then would you be responsible for him? Or do you think that most of them hear or reason? They are not except like livestock. Rather, they are [even] more astray in [their] way." (Qur'an 25:43-44, Sahih International)

He explains that these ayat describe a sickness with stages, one that gets worse and worse, and that the ayah in Al-Jathiyah describes its final stage.

"Have you seen?" A phrase meant to shock

The ayah begins with ara'ayta, "have you seen?" Ustadh Nouman points out that in the Qur'an this expression is used to grab attention for something astonishing. He compares it with Surah An-Nasr, where the Prophet ﷺ is told he will see people entering the religion in crowds, at a time when that seemed unimaginable.

So before Allah even describes this person, the ayah is telling us: what you are about to hear should stop you in your tracks.

Turning God into desire

The usual translation is "the one who takes his desire as his god," and that is correct. Ustadh Nouman draws out an extra layer from the Arabic word order. In the ayah, ilahahu (his god) comes first and hawahu (his desire) second. He reads this as a person who once had the right idea of Allah in their heart, and then slowly reshaped that belief until what they really serve is their own wants. The frightening part is that they may still sincerely think they are worshipping Allah.

He also stops on the word hawa. Arabic has several words for desire, and he notes that hawa carries the sense of an empty space, a void that keeps asking to be filled. Elsewhere the Qur'an speaks of people who follow their desires. This ayah goes further. You can follow a leader without worshipping him. Here, desire is not just followed. It sits on the throne of the heart.

What an ilah really is

This is the part of the khutbah that I found most moving.

Ustadh Nouman mentions that scholars of the Arabic language discuss several possible origins for the word ilah. One of them connects it to walah, an overwhelming love so strong that the person who has it barely feels other pain. Hunger, fear and insults lose their grip, because that love is feeding them.

He gives the example of Musa (peace be upon him) at the edge of the sea, with Pharaoh's army behind him and everyone around him terrified. Musa says:

> "No! Indeed, with me is my Lord; He will guide me." (Qur'an 26:62, Sahih International)

That calm is what devotion to Allah looks like. Ustadh Nouman then describes the way someone who adores you keeps checking your face: are you okay, are you hungry, why do you look upset? That is the kind of attachment a believer is meant to have with Allah. Is my Lord pleased with me? Am I displeasing Him? As long as He is pleased, the criticism of the world does not sting the same way.

The person in this ayah has the same intensity of attachment, but it has been redirected. The question that runs their life is no longer "Is my Lord pleased?" It is "What do I need to feel right now?"

Allah tells us where real stillness is found:

> "Those who have believed and whose hearts are assured by the remembrance of Allah. Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah hearts are assured." (Qur'an 13:28, Sahih International)

Two kinds of drivers: beliefs and feelings

To keep it simple, Ustadh Nouman divides people into two broad types: those mainly driven by their beliefs, and those mainly driven by their feelings. Nobody is purely one or the other, but most of us lean.

He uses Abu Jahl and Pharaoh as examples of people driven largely by a false ideology. Abu Jahl put the tribe above everything, and he was willing to fight and die for it. Pharaoh framed his hostility to Musa as protecting his nation and its way of life. Wrong beliefs, but beliefs.

Then he turns to Surah Yusuf and contrasts the wife of the minister with her husband. Her response to Yusuf (peace be upon him) is not ideological. She was rejected, and she wants him to feel humiliated:

> "...and if he will not do what I order him, he will surely be imprisoned and will be of those debased." (Qur'an 12:32, Sahih International)

Her husband, by contrast, is mostly worried about a scandal and his position. Ustadh Nouman's point is that once feelings sit in the driver's seat, they start deciding everything: what is true, who deserves mercy, who deserves cruelty. When the feeling changes, reality changes with it. When it does not change, nothing else can.

Knowledge was never the problem

The ayah says Allah let this person go astray 'ala 'ilm, despite knowledge. Ustadh Nouman says one of the most common questions people send him is some version of this: I showed them the ayah, I showed them the evidence, they know it is wrong, and they only dig in harder.

He describes how the ayah can challenge a feeling we are holding onto. It may tell us to turn our anger away from revenge and toward justice, to lower our pride and soften our tone, to take back false words or stop backbiting. And the reply comes from somewhere deep: I don't want to hear this. At that point, more information does not help, because information was never what was missing.

The seal, the heart and the veil

Then the ayah moves through three closures, and Ustadh Nouman walks through each one.

A seal on the hearing. These words were first recited by the Prophet ﷺ himself, in the listeners' own language. No one could deliver the Qur'an more beautifully or more directly. Even so, a person can reach a state where it is as if nothing was said.

A seal on the heart. Sometimes we hear something that does not land at first, then hits us hours later. Here even that delayed impact is gone. Someone can witness another person's pain and feel nothing, and when asked why, the answer again goes back to their feelings.

A veil over the eyes. Even animals run from a fire they can see. Ustadh Nouman describes Pharaoh walking into the parted sea after Musa. The water did not come to him; he went into it, driven by the need to win. A person who has given their heart to their feelings can watch the damage pile up, in others and in themselves, and still keep walking.

Then Allah asks: "So who will guide him after Allah?"

"Then will you not be reminded?" Two lessons

The ayah ends with afala tadhakkarun, "then will you not be reminded?" Ustadh Nouman draws two directions from it, and this is where the khutbah turns from warning to mercy.

1. Keep reminding yourself, so this never becomes you

The only real protection is to keep humbly returning to who Allah is and what He actually says, not what we wish He said. Ustadh Nouman warns that it is possible to wear every outward sign of religion, to have the right words, the right dhikr and even the right quotes, while quietly serving our own feelings underneath. None of us is safe from that by default. He recalls the Qur'an's instruction:

> "...So do not claim yourselves to be pure; He is most knowing of who fears Him." (Qur'an 53:32, Sahih International)

The Prophet ﷺ taught us where this battle really happens. He said that there is a piece of flesh in the body which, if it is sound, the whole body is sound, and if it is corrupted, the whole body is corrupted, and that it is the heart (Sahih al-Bukhari 52). He also said that Allah does not look at our faces and our wealth, but at our hearts and our deeds (Sahih Muslim 2564c).

And he was honest that the path of desire feels easier. He said the Fire is surrounded by desires and passions, while Paradise is surrounded by things we dislike (Sahih al-Bukhari 6487; see also Sahih Muslim 2822). Holding back what the self wants is not a sign of a weak faith. It is the road itself, and the Qur'an describes its end beautifully:

> "But as for he who feared the position of his Lord and prevented the soul from [unlawful] inclination, then indeed, Paradise will be [his] refuge." (Qur'an 79:40-41, Sahih International)

2. You are not responsible for changing everyone

The second lesson is the one many tired hearts need to hear. Some people, Ustadh Nouman says, have gone past the point where any argument, video, counseling session or heartfelt conversation will turn them. That is in Allah's hands now. So stop punishing yourself with why won't they listen? What else can I do?

He ties this back to the Furqan ayah: "Then would you be responsible for him?" The Prophet ﷺ grieved over the people who rejected him, so much that Allah consoled him:

> "Then perhaps you would kill yourself through grief over them, [O Muhammad], if they do not believe in this message, [and] out of sorrow." (Qur'an 18:6, Sahih International)

> "Indeed, [O Muhammad], you do not guide whom you like, but Allah guides whom He wills. And He is most knowing of the [rightly] guided." (Qur'an 28:56, Sahih International)

If the best of creation was told he was not responsible for every heart, then neither are you. Keep making dua for them. Keep the door open. But you are allowed to put down a weight Allah never asked you to carry.

More lost than cattle

The khutbah closes on the image in Surah Al-Furqan: like livestock, rather even more astray. Ustadh Nouman points out that sheep and cattle at least have a shepherd. When a storm comes, they run for shelter. They eat what they are meant to eat and stop. A person ruled by their feelings may see the storm and run straight into it, and they do it by choice, with no pen around them and no one forcing them.

It is a hard image, and it is meant to be. But it is spoken by the One who also tells us that He turns hearts.

A dua for a heart that stays open

The Prophet ﷺ said that the hearts of all the children of Adam are between two of the fingers of the Most Merciful like one heart, and He turns them however He wills. Then he prayed: "O Allah, Turner of the hearts, turn our hearts to Your obedience" (Sahih Muslim 2655).

That dua is the quiet answer to this whole khutbah. We are not asked to be people with no feelings. Feelings are part of how Allah made us. We are asked never to let them take His place.

A few questions for honest reflection

These are not tests. They are small mirrors to hold up, privately, in front of Allah:

1. Is there an ayah I avoid? If a particular reminder always makes me defensive, that may be exactly where my heart needs attention.
2. When I am corrected, do I answer with evidence or with how I feel? Both matter, but only one should decide what is right.
3. Who decides who deserves my mercy? Is it Allah's standard, or my mood today?
4. Am I carrying someone I was never asked to carry? Make dua for them, keep good manners, and hand the outcome back to Allah.
5. What reminds me daily? Even a few ayat read slowly with meaning keep the hearing and the heart from closing.

Closing thought

What makes this khutbah heart-touching is not the warning about other people. It is the mirror. The person in Qur'an 45:23 did not start out lost. They knew Allah. They simply let their own feelings move, inch by inch, into the place that belonged to Him.

The way back is just as gradual: one reminder at a time, one honest question, one dua asking the Turner of hearts to keep ours turned toward Him.

If you want to sit with these ayat more deeply, Taha Utopia's tafsir resources and the Understand Qur'an course are good places to begin, and the free Quranic Arabic with examples course can help words like hawa and ilah come alive for you. You can also browse the hadith collections to read the narrations above in full. Earlier reflections on Ustadh Nouman's khutbahs include Your Pain Can Make You Unfair and Nouman Ali Khan on being overwhelmed, and if you would like a gentle method for reflecting on the Qur'an yourself, see how to do tadabbur.

May Allah keep our hearts open, our hearing soft and our eyes clear, and may He never let anything take His place in us.

Sources and further reading

The khutbah

• Nouman Ali Khan, Don't Let Your Desires Replace Allah (Friday khutbah), official Bayyinah YouTube channel.
• English transcript of the khutbah, Nouman Ali Khan Indonesia. The transcript notes it was AI-generated, so this summary paraphrases rather than quoting at length.

Qur'an

• Translations: Sahih International, via Quran.com. Ayat cited: 45:23, 25:43-44, 26:62, 13:28, 12:32, 53:32, 79:40-41, 18:6, 28:56.

Hadith (all via Sunnah.com)

• Sahih al-Bukhari 52: the heart as the piece of flesh that sets the whole body right or wrong.
• Sahih Muslim 2564c: Allah looks at hearts and deeds.
• Sahih al-Bukhari 6487 and Sahih Muslim 2822: the Fire surrounded by desires, Paradise by hardships.
• Sahih Muslim 2655: "O Allah, Turner of the hearts, turn our hearts to Your obedience."

On Taha Utopia

• Quran Tafsir Online
• Understand Qur'an and Reflect
• Quranic Arabic With Examples (QAWE)
• Hadith Collections Online