Mankind And Satan
Chapter Six
Satan And His Soldiers
In order to
have a full picture, one should know that Satan has his soldiers: physical ones
from mankind and jinn, and other abstract soldiers he employs to mislead
people.
But before we
proceed with our talk and in order to have a thorough view, we should know that
neither Satan, nor his soldiers go beyond the compass of the Decree of Allah
that is dominant in His universe. Allah, all praise and glory is to Him, has
given us a practical proof, and that by subjugating the devils, made of fire,
to a human Prophet, Solomon (Sulaimân, peace be upon him). He made them follow
his orders, and dare not contradict him. Concerning this, The Truth, Blessed
and Exalted be He, says (what means):
“And among
the jinn were those who worked for him by the permission of his Lord. And
whoever deviated among them from Our command – We will make him taste of the
punishment of the Blaze.” [Saba’, 34: 12]
Hence Allah,
all praise and glory is to Him, has subdued jinn – both the devil and the good
jinn – as we have previously said – to a man made of clay, Solomon (peace be
upon him). And if The Truth, all praise and glory is to Him, wanted to
subjugate the devils to us, He would do so; for Allah answered the supplication
of Solomon (peace be upon him) when he invoked Him asking for a kingdom such as
shall not belong to any other after him, as the glorious Ayah relates (what
means):
“He said, ‘My
Lord, forgive me and grant me a kingdom such as will not belong to anyone after
me. Indeed, You are the Bestower.’ So We subjected to him the wind blowing by
his command, gently, wherever he directed, and [also] the devils [of jinn] –
every builder and diver, and others bound together in shackles.” [Sâd, 38:
35-38]
Therefore, when
Allah, all praise and glory is to Him, wanted to subjugate the devils to
mankind He did so compulsorily, against their will. Never think that what the
devils commit on earth is against the Will of Allah in His universe, but as we
have previously said it complements the role of worldly life as a place of
temptation, strife, and faith; a place where believers triumph over the lure of
the devil through their striving and faith, thus meriting Paradise.
As we have
previously said Satan has both material and immaterial soldiers, one of his
gravest abstract soldiers is arrogance; for Satan keeps slinking around man
till he casts into his heart physical and moral arrogance, and tries to fill
him with pride at his wealth, knowledge, strength, or whatever. The chief
concern is to make man swell with conceit, thus falsely think that he has
dispensed with Allah, Blessed and Exalted be He, attributing full credit to
himself, hence he falls into sin and atheism.
Let us shed
light on the way Satan instigated the disbelievers to fight the believers
during the Battle of Badr: the Noble Qur’an relates to us this story through
the glorious Ayah saying (what means):
“And
[remember] when Satan made their deeds pleasing to them and said, ‘No one can
overcome you today from among the people, and indeed, I am your protector.’ But
when the two armies sighted each other, he turned on his heels and said,
‘Indeed, I am disassociated from you. Indeed, I see what you do not see; indeed
I fear Allah. And Allah is severe in penalty.’” [Al-Anfâl, 8: 48]
That was the
role that Satan played during the Battle of Badr, he started by sowing the
seeds of arrogance in the hearts of the disbelievers, telling them: You will defeat and triumph over the Muslims, you are great
in number and powerfully equipped; compared to you they are few, you will
definitely conquer them, and I am with you to champion you.
He kept on
swelling their souls with vanity, beguiling them with the illusory belief that
they are strong and that they are absolutely victorious, till they believed him
and set off to fight the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him
peace) and the believers.
When the
disbelievers reached the battlefield and fighting became inevitable, Satan
looked and saw the power of faith, and the mightiness of the believers, and the
support that Allah gave them, thereof he scrammed away, leaving behind his
allies, whom he promised before that none would overcome them. He thus fled
fast and away, saying as the Noble Qu’an relates (what means):
“Indeed, I
see what you do not see; indeed I fear Allah. And Allah is severe in penalty.”
[Al-Anfâl, 8: 48]
Some say how
come that the devil says: “I fear Allah”, and if he really does fear
Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, why does he sin? And why this persistence in
sinning? And what can scare Satan, while he is already shut out from the Mercy
of Allah, damned, outcast, and dwelling eternally in Hell, together with all
his followers?
The answer is
that Satan fears the torment awaiting him in the Hereafter, such fear
overwhelms him, despite all what he commits in worldly life. He disavows all
sins committed through him; he tries to wash his hands of any responsibility
for a sin before Allah. Therefore, The Truth, Blessed and Exalted is He, says
(what means):
“[The
hypocrites are] like the example of Satan when he says to man, ‘Disbelieve.’
But when he disbelieves, he says, ‘Indeed, I am disassociated from you. Indeed,
I fear Allah, Lord of the worlds.’” [Al-Hashr, 59: 16]
In this manner
Satan would try to free himself of any responsibility for luring mankind into
disbelief and sin. Even on Resurrection
Day when Satan shall stand in the presence of Allah he will cast the
blame on man, trying to shirk his responsibility. The Truth, all praise and glory
is to Him, gives us a picture of this scene in His Saying (what means):
“And Satan
will say when the matter has been concluded, ‘Indeed, Allah had promised you
the promise of truth. And I promised you, but I betrayed you. But I had no
authority over you except that I invited you, and you responded to me. So do
not blame me; but blame yourselves. I cannot be called to your aid, nor can you
be called to my aid. Indeed, I deny your association of me [with Allah] before.
Indeed, for the wrongdoers is a painful punishment.’” [Ibrahîm, 14: 22]
Satan, who
decks out fair to people committing all kinds of sins and atheism, comes on the
Day of Judgment disavowing what he has done, trying to cast all the blame on
man, saying: “I had no authority over you except that I
called you, so you responded to me, and had not your selves been inclined to
disbelieving and committing sins, I would not have been able to derive you into
disobeying Allah. Hence blame me not, for you have no one to blame but
yourselves, because you have given ears to my whisperings, while I had no
subjugating power over you to force you to sin”, which is true, because
the devil does not have the power to force man into disobeying Allah, Whose
Majesty reigns Supreme.
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:
{ãøóÇ ÃóäóÇú ÈöãõÕúÑöÎößõãú æóãóÇ ÃóäÊõãú ÈöãõÕúÑöÎöíøó}
[ÅÈÑÇåíã:
14-22]
Which means:
“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 truth, 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 Tâghūt(12). 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.
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.
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.
Allah Championed His
Messengers
As for Mûsâ
(peace be upon him), he was not yet commissioned for Prophethood when he struck the man with his fist and
killed him but within him was faith and fear of God, thus he immediately
realized that what he committed was from Satan’s doing, thus he turned in
repentance to Allah, all praise and glory is to Him, begging His Forgiveness.
As for Yûsuf
(peace be upon him), the Saying of the Truth, Blessed and Exalted is He, (which
means): “But Satan made him forget the mention [to] his master” can have
two possible meanings: the first is that the one who got out of prison, was the
one whom the devil made him forget mentioning Yûsuf to Al-Aziz(13), and ask him to set him out of
prison, thus he (Yûsuf) stayed in the prison for a few more years, or it was
Yûsuf who forgot. But the stronger meaning is the first.
What
substantiates the first meaning is that Yûsuf asked from that person to mention
him to his lord - the king, whom he would go to serve – and to tell him that
there was an aggrieved man in prison. This serves to clarify that the glorious
Ayah does not mean that Satan made Yûsuf forget remembering Allah, Blessed and
Exalted is He.
When Ayûb
(peace be upon him) invoked Allah saying: “Indeed, Satan has touched me with
hardship and torment”, he was complaining to His Lord that Satan was
whispering to him, telling him: “How come while you are
a prophet to get inflicted with such tribulations? How come you fall ill and
all this befalls you, from losing your children, and the disobedience of your
wife, and such sorts of afflictions, should not Allah, all praise and glory is
to Him, honor you!” But Ayûb (peace be upon him), who got spiritually
hurt by the whisperings of Satan, did not pay heed to Satan, but he rather
turned to Allah, all praise and glory is to Him, in supplication, begging Him
to relieve him of what he was suffering from, thereupon Allah, Blessed and
Exalted is He, answered his supplications.
Furthermore, we
should also point out to the Hadith of the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless
him and grant him peace) in which he said: “Satan
circulates in the human being as blood circulates in the body.” Some orientalists try to cast doubts concerning
this hadith, we say to those skeptics, who try to find a gap through which they
can spit out their venoms and never will they succeed: many components run
through blood, among which are iron, phosphate, calcium, and other components
revealed by modern analysis, even microbes and germs – which are material
bodies – they penetrate the skin and infuse in the blood, where they remain
during their incubation period till they reproduce, and battles occur between
them and the white blood cells. As for the devil, he is not created from clay,
but he is rather created from a material far more transparent, that is
extremely fine and delicate, how come then that we find it hard to believe that
he penetrates the skin, and circulates with the blood, as many other solid
substances, which we cannot feel them.
We ask Allah to protect us from
sinning, and not to make a way for Satan over our hearts.