Part 23

By Allah, this is a dangerous entry for Satan, and only those who get the success of Allah can free themselves from it. Its only cure is simply knowledge of the despicable value of this life; and one should increasingly say supplications like: “O Allah, place the earthly concerns in our hands and not in our hearts”, and remember the fear of Allah when standing before Him 3 on the Day of Judgment; for He is 4¢ is the One who destroyed the Pharaohs and tyrants who oppressed the world.

' Agreed upon by the scholars. ? Recorded by al-Nasi’i (8/195).

Forgetfulness comes from Satan

Dr. al-Ashqar said: “This is what first occurred to Adam #4; indeed, Satan kept on whispering his evil insinuations, until he made him forget his Lord’s Command (We made a contract with Adam before, but he forgot, we did not find that he had_a firm resolve)’, and the companion to Musa 3 (Moses) said to Musa: {I forgot the fish. No one made me forget to remember it except Satan)”.

Allah 4 and His Messenger 38 had forbidden that the Prophet himself and his Companions sit in gatherings which deride the Signs of Allah; yet. Satan can make mankind forget such Divine ordinance and so you find people sitting in such gatherings €When you see people engrossed in mockery of Our Signs, turn from them until they start to talk of other things. And if Satan should ever cause you to forget, once you remember, do not stay sitting with the wrongdoers)?

Prophet Yusuf % (Joseph) had made a request to one of the prisoners ~ he thought he was going to escape death and return to the services of his lord — to remember him (Yusuf %4) to his master; but Satan made the man forget to mention Yusuf #4 to his lord, so Yusuf 4 stayed in prison for several years (He said to the one of them he knew he was safe, ‘Please mention me when you are with your lord’, but Satan made him forget to remind his lord, and so he stayed in prison for several years)’.

When Satan has full control of a person, he makes him forget Allah 3 completely (Satan has gained mastery over them and made them forget remembrance of Allah. Such people are the party of Satan. No indeed! It is the party of Satan who are the losers)’.

Those are the hypocrites as it is mentioned in the verse that precedes this one; so the only cure for forgetfulness is the remembrance of Allah

" Surat Ta-Ha, verse 115.

? Surat al-Kahf, verse 63.

> Surat al-An‘am, verse 68.

* Surat Yusuf, verse 42.

5 Surat al-Mujadilah, verse 19.

in order to expel Satan; Allah 3€ said: (Remember your Lord when you forget)’.

Satan causes enmity among people

This is one the evil objectives of Satan, for which he enters upon any course and uses any means, and among these means are: wine or any other alcoholic drinks. It leads to the loss of consciousness and balance, allowing Satan to take full control of the individual and guide him/her to obey his wishes. Al-Bayhaqi reported, on the authority of ‘Uthman bin ‘Affan 2, who said: “Keep away from wine; it is the height of every obscenity. There was a man in a nation before you who devoted his worship to Allah, and secluded himself from people; but a temptress woman wanted to test him, so she sent her maid requesting a statement from him, and whenever they entered a door, the maid closed it behind him, until he reached a room where there was a pure woman, a child and a pitcher of wine. She said: ‘By Allah I did not send for you for a statement, but I want you either to have intercourse with me, kill this boy or drink wine.” She poured him a glass and he said: ‘I want more.’ Thereupon, he drank wine, had séxual intercourse with the woman and killed the boy.”

Satan uses the means of gambling to create enmity among people and instill hatred in their minds. He uses stone altars (al-ansab) which are worshipped by some people — instead of Allah 3€ - they represent another mean of allowing to Satan have full control of people and direct them whichever way he wants.

There is also “divining arrows” by means of which the polytheists used to decide their matters; it is similar to what they call in our times, “Luck” or “Inception” (i.e. they open the Qur’an and think that their luck is on the first verse they set their eyes on.)

This is all the work of Satan; Allah 4 warned us: (Wine and gambling, stone altars and divining arrows are filth from the

" Surat al-Kahf, verse 24. ? Tafsir Ibn Kathir.

handiwork of Satan. Avoid them completely so that hopefully you will be successful. Satan wants to stir up enmity and hatred between you by means of wine and gambling and to debar you from remembrance of Allah and from salah. Will you not then give them up)!

A word can also be one of the means used by Satan to stir enmity; it is sometimes perceived in a different meaning in people’s conversation; so it creates an environment of hatred. It is for this reason that Allah 3 has ordered us to utter only good expressions: (Say to My slaves that they should only say the best. Satan wants to stir up trouble between you. Satan is an outright enemy to man)’.

Sayyid Qutb said, interpreting the verse, that people should say what is best all the time and regarding every matter; they should select the good expressions, in order to prevent Satan from disturbing their love and friendship. Satan creates enmity between brothers with just one vulgar word slipped, which would be followed by a bad reply; so a spirit of love and affection would change into one of controversy and enmity. A good word heals any injury of the heart and encourages everyone to respect one another.

The Prophet # endeavoured to close any gap by which Satan used to slip in. Abu Hurayrah 2 said: “The Prophet # said: ‘None of you should point towards his Muslim brother with his weapon; for he does not know that Satan may tempt him to hit him, and thus he would fall into a pit of fire (Hell).

He # said: “Save yourself from the Hell Fire even with half a date (given in charity), and he who can not afford that can even do this with a good word”,

This is to block one of the gravest and most critical means of Satan — i.e. instigating envy and hatred between Muslims, and setting fire and enmity between them.

’ Surat al-Ma’idah, verse 90, 91.

? Surat al-Isra’, verse 53.

3 Recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim.

* Recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim, on the authority of ‘Udai ibn Hatim &.

Jabir ibn ‘Abdillah 4 said: “I heard the Messenger of Allah 4 saying: ‘Verily, Satan has lost all hope that the worshippers would ever worship him in the Arabian Peninsula, but he is hopeful that he would

sow the seed of dissension among them”!.

The place of Satan in man

The Prophet % said: “Verily, Satan circulates in the children of Adam as does their bloodstream”. Al-Hafidh said: ‘It was said that, indeed, Satan runs in the blood of mankind, as it is referred to in the explicit meaning of the Hadith, and that Allah 4 gave him this ability. Yet, it was also said that it has a figurative meaning — i.e. because of his constant temptations and whisperings, it is as if he (Satan) does not separate from the blood of man”.

Ibn ‘Abbas - said: “Satan is perching on the heart of the children of Adam; whenever they are distracted or negligent, he whispers to them, and if they remember Allah 3é, he withdraws”.

Therefore, it is clear that Satan has the ability to infiltrate the body of man, and chooses the heart because he knows it is the “leader” and the limbs are its soldiers; so if Satan takes control of the heart, all the limbs of the body will come under his command as well. The Prophet % said: “There is a piece of flesh in the body; if it becomes good (reformed) the whole becomes good, but if it gets spoilt, the whole body gets spoilt, and that is the heart.”*

Nevertheless, there are those hearts surrounded by ‘walls’ of /man and shields of Taqwa, and upon them there are guardians of dhikr (supplication and remembrance of Allah); so Satan cannot break into them except in a stealthy manner, but still gets driven away by the guardians of dhikr, expelled and rejected.

' Recorded by Muslim.

? Recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim.

3 Fath al-bari (4/280).

‘ Tafsir Ton Kathir.

> Recorded by al-Bukhari, on the authority of al-Nu‘man ibn Bachir #.

The Power of Iman weakens Satan

The Messenger of Allah 3 said to ‘Umar bin Al-Khattab 2: “By Him in Whose Hands my life is, whenever Satan sees you taking a path, he follows a path other than yours.”!

Al-Hafidh: “In this Hadith, there is a sublime merit for ‘Umar 2, which is that Satan has no way over ‘Umar, yet the statement here does not denote infallibility (which is only given to the Prophets) because it was all about Satan running away and refusing to share the same path with ‘Umar, due to the power of his Iman which even shielded him even from the devil’s whispering.

Al-Tabarani quoted a Hadith, on the authority of Hafsa, with the words: “Whenever Satan méets ‘Umar — since ‘Umar embraced Islam —he falls on his face.”

So you see — brother and sister in Islam — the effect of the power of Iman upon Satan makes him scared and run away.

It was narrated that Abu Hurairah # said: “A devil attached to a mu’min (believer) met a devil attached to a kafir (disbeliever); the one of the disbeliever was fat and dressed, while the one of the believer was weak and naked. The kafir’s one asked the one attached to the mu’min: ‘Why are you so weak?’ He replied: ‘I am with a man who mentions the Name of Allah when he eats, so I stay hungry; he mentions the Name of Allah when he drinks, so I stay thirsty; he mentions the Name of Allah when he dresses, so I stay naked.’ So the kafir’s devil said: ‘I am with someone who does not do any of these, so I share with him his food, drink and clothes.’”

Ibn Abi al-Duniya reported that Qays ibn Hajjaj said: “The devil attached to me said: ‘I entered into your body while J was like camel, and now I am like a bird.’ I asked: “Why, what happened to you?” He replied: “You dissolve me with the Book of Allah (the Qur’an).”