What is the wish of every Messenger? - Mankind and Satan

Before ending this book, we should have a pause to study Satan in regard to the Prophets and Messengers. There is a general and particular rule with regard to a number of the Prophets and Messengers of Allah, the general rule is expressed in the Saying of Allah, all praise and glory is to Him, (which means):

“And We did not send before you any messenger or prophet except that when he spoke [or recited], Satan threw into it [some misunderstanding]. But Allah abolishes that which Satan throws in; then Allah makes precise His verses. And Allah is Knowing and Wise. [That is] so He may make what Satan throws in a trial for those within whose hearts is disease and those hard of heart. And indeed, the wrongdoers are in extreme dissension.” [Al-Hajj, 22: 52-53]

What is the wish of every Messenger? His wish is that the Law of Allah spread and people believe in his Message and he succeeds in reforming the movement of their lives; to attract them towards belief and turn them away from disbelief. That is certainly the wish of the Messenger. But would Satan leave people listen to the Messengers and believe in their Messages? No, he stands in their way and hinders them from the Law of Allah. He starts with those who lead a luxurious life, whom the doctrine might harm their worldly authority and he thus makes them his advocators. They resist the heavenly Messages and implant obstacles. They torture whoever believes to make him disbelief and inflict grievous suffering on the believers. 

But would falsehood triumph? No, Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, abolishes and annihilate whatever falsehood Satan may throw in and He grant victory to His Messenger. Thus, the call of truth prevail and the number of believers grows. The Messenger hopes to succeed in his duty but Satan incites the sinners and disbelievers against him and the battle ends with the triumph of the Messenger over the devil.

Satan was stated in connection with the Messengers in more than one Ayah. In the statement of Ayûb (Job, peace be upon him) which means:

“And remember Our servant Job, when he called to his Lord, ‘Indeed, Satan has touched me with hardship and torment.’” [Sâd, 38: 41]

And the statement of Yûsuf (Joseph, peace be upon him) which means:

“After Satan had induced [estrangement] between me and my brothers.” [Yûsuf, 12: 100]

And the Saying of The Truth, be ever gloried is His Majesty and Might, which means:

“But Satan made him forget the mention [to] his master, and Joseph remained in prison several years.” [Yûsuf, 12: 42]

And also the statement of Mûsâ (Moses, peace be upon him) which means:

“[Moses] said, ‘This is from the work of Satan. Indeed, he is a manifest, misleading enemy.’” [Al-Qasas, 28: 15]

These Ayat are by way of example and are not exclusive. The fact that the Prophets are infallible does not mean that they are kept from striving against themselves, but there must remain for them what they strive against. A messenger is a human soul that has tendencies and wants which he must overcome by striving against himself. If there were not for the Prophets any circumstances or concerns which they must strive against they would have been angels.

Allah, all praise and glory is to Him, made them humans serving as the example that the believers should follow in struggling against Satan, and in striving against the self and defeating it. Therefore, some of them were called “Messengers of strong will.”  Strong will here means firmness in obeying Allah and fighting against the devil.          

Source: (Book) Mankind and Satan

Fear & Desires - Mankind and Satan

Allah, all praise and glory is to Him, has explained to us in the Noble Qur’an what the devil do to his companion, in the glorious Ayah saying (what means):

“For he had said, ‘I will surely take from among Your servants a specific portion. And I will mislead them, and I will arouse in them [sinful] desires, and I will command them so they will slit the ears of cattle, and I will command them so they will change the creation of Allah.’ And whoever takes Satan as an ally instead of Allah has certainly sustained a clear loss. Satan promises them and arouses desire in them. But Satan does not promise them except delusion.” [An-Nisâ’, 4:118-120]

That is what the devil do to his companions:  first he misleads them, meaning to remove them away from the true doctrine, and corrupt this doctrine for them. As for the saying of Satan: “I will arouse in them false desires”, the devil makes sins look attractive in the eyes of man, thus he craves to commit them. He deludes him into thinking that they are not sins, but rather a blessing.  Regarding the matter of cattle, and changing the creation of Allah, all praise and glory is to Him: the perfection of creation is what Allah has created; every creature of Allah has a mission in life, and each is created to find easy the performance of its mission, thus changing creation corrupts this mission.

 

Those who used to slit the ears of cattle based on the belief that they were dedicated to the idols and at their service, had thus removed the creation of Allah from its mission, for cattle are created to be man’s property: on their backs he can carry his burdens, eat from their meat, make use of their leather and wool, but they are of no avail to the idols. It is as if the devil craves to diverge the creation of Allah from the course they were created for, and in order to do so, he employs his companions.

If we look into our contemporary time, we find some experiments that bring the leg of a dog and transplant it in the body of a frog, and such sorts of experiments, which is of no avail  to humanity; what can humanity benefit from a frog with a dog’s leg, the frog was created for a certain mission in worldly life, and being created the way they are is for the perfection of fulfilling its mission. But man came to spoil such mission, without realizing anything, the same applies to all the experiments that are done to produce a maimed human being, these experiments do nothing but corrupt the creation of Allah, to no avail. The same applies to all forms of abuse that occur to dominate the human mind, which rather spoils its mission in the universe.

In order to reveal to us the triviality of what Satan can do, Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, informs us that the devil uses the weapon of fear to enslave man, saying (what means):

“That is only Satan who frightens [you] of his supporters. So fear them not, but fear Me, if you are [indeed] believers.” [Âl-‘Imrân, 3: 175]

But how does the devil dominate man through fear? If man gives charity, the devil will frighten him of poverty; if he wants to give a truthful testimony, he will intimidate him by the despotism of his unjust employers; if he wants to go to perform prayers, he will frighten him with the idea that he will lose such and such worldly interests; if he fights for the Cause of Allah, the devil will frighten him with the power of the disbelievers, casting into his heart the fear of getting killed at the beginning of the battle; if he wants to perform benevolent deeds, the devil will cast into him fears of wasting his time and interests; even if he wants to forbid people from doing evil, the devil will cast into him the fear that he would be harmed. 

Thus, any benevolent act that occurs to the self, Satan frightens man away from doing it, by scaring him with the idea that it will get him into trouble; whether this trouble be in his wealth, his self, his children, job, trade, or any other worldly concern. Through this weapon, namely that of fear, Satan casts terror into the human self as regards good deeds.

Source: (Book) Mankind and Satan

No Punishment Because of Coercion - Mankind and Satan

No Punishment Because of Coercion

Among the signs of the Endless Mercy of Allah upon His servants is the fact that He remits any deed man may commit under coercion, for the justice of judgment. Consequently, on the Day of Judgment man will not be called to account for whatever he is forced to do against his will, in conformity with the Saying of Allah, all praise and glory is to Him, (which means):

“Whoever disbelieves in Allah after his belief… except for one who is forced (to renounce his religion) while his heart is secure in faith.” [An-Nahl, 16: 106]

Hence, the one who is forced to declare disbelief, while his heart is a believer, will not be called to account for this. Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, has made the domain of accountability – which is what the heart believes – impossible to yield to any coercion. For you can force a man to do what you want against his will, but you can never force his heart to show you love, while it hates you, neither can you compel a heart to believe in what it rejects to believe in.

Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, informs us that the devil has no sway whatsoever over man, for sway can either be a coercive one, meaning to force man into doing something against himself by force, or it can be the sway of persuasion, where he can prevail on man to do something, so he does it voluntarily. But the devil holds neither the sway of coercion nor the sway of persuasion, he rather – as we have previously said – sneaks to man from the points of his weakness, thus adorning to him what the self yearns to, till he falls into sin. The glorious Ayah says:

“I cannot be called to your aid, nor can you be called to my aid.” [Ibrahîm, 14: 22]

Satan says that he does own the power to eliminate the reasons behind their screaming out of torture, to which he himself together with them is going. Then he disowns those who disbelieved because of his seduction, he tries to shirk his responsibility, saying as the Noble Qur’an relates, what means:

“Indeed, I deny your association of me (with Allah) before.” [Ibrahîm, 14: 22]

Hence, the first among Satan’s soldiers is ego, which makes man think he can achieve what he desires independently, and makes him worship himself, his mind, or means, or he thinks that he is more capable of legislating than Allah, all praise and glory is to Him, thereof he abandons the Doctrine of Allah, thus making his own laws, which they call positive law and so forth. We should know that Satan has material soldiers, who are Shayâtin (devils) from among mankind and jinn. They are those who have followed Satan, and adopted his doctrine, fighting for the sake of falsehood, combating sedtruth, and deriding the believers. Concerning those people, Allah, all praise and glory is to Him, says (what means):

“Satan has overcome them and made them forget the remembrance of Allah. Those are the party of Satan. Unquestionably, the party of Satan – they will be the losers.” [Al-Mujâdilah, 58: 19]

The party of Satan are those who try to spread atheism, resisting any call of truth, standing against Divine Messages, shunning people away from them, to the extent of waging war, and this in conformity with the Saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, (which means):

“Those who believe fight in the cause of Allah, and those who disbelieve fight in the cause of Tâghut So fight against the allies of Satan. Indeed, the plot of Satan has ever been weak.” [An-Nisâ’, 4: 76]

As we have said there are devils from among mankind and jinn, as for those among mankind, they are the ones whom Satan has become their companion, that is to say closely associated with man. When Satan is close to a man and is adhering to him, it is a sign that this man has reached the utmost degree of sinning, and as long as the devil becomes an intimate companion to a person, he will never push him to goodness, but rather he will always push him towards evil, for he is an evil companion.

Such is the case with all evil companions, they aid one another and prop up each other’s heart to commit iniquity. One sees them unite in sinning, gather each night in a house where they drink liquors, commit adultery and all what incurs the Anger of Allah. Sinning binds them together with a firm bond in worldly life, but in the Hereafter things alter, and they turn enemies to one another.

Source: (Book) Mankind and Satan