“…then I will come to them from among their hands…”: during a person’s work, when they are unaware due to absorption in their labor, the devil will hurry to them. He will whisper evil ideas about Al’lah and his messengers (ptt) to their spirit, stirring up mean yearning. His aim is to make them fall into adultery or into other things that will lead to evil outcomes for them.
But “If those who see by Al’lah’s light were touched by a passing shade of devil, they will remember Al’lah, and then they will discern the truth.”: the answer is to reflect truly on the signs, and then straighten upon the orders of God and communicate with Al’lah, to derive perfection from Him; and then to bind up with the owners of perfection and enter into God’s Presence with those true men in order to get a brand of Al’lah’s light by which it is possible to see. If a person does so, they will resort to Al’lah in their heart when being unaware and tempted by Satan to commit wrongdoing, and so they will witness the reality lying behind this satanic temptation and so be able to avoid it.
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 7, Al-A’raf (The Heights), verse 201
Piety, which is the seeking of illumination by Al’lah’s light through the shining lamp (cpth), aims to make you remember Al’lah. By so doing, you will witness the evil that is folded within the devil’s insinuation, thus preventing you from following it and allowing yourself to keep away from it. Therefore it is necessary to adopt the way of true belief, so as to escape from satanic temptation and prevail over Satan. Faith is not a hollow, false pretence uttered by the tongue, but is achieved on the basis of seeking the truth honestly, and by searching oneself for the existence of Al’lah through the contemplation of God’s creation and His universal signs. This is similar to the searching that was carried out by our master Abraham (peace is through him). If a person follows this method, creation will lead this thinker to know the Great Creator. They will witness the signs that lead to God with the eye of their heart after first seeing them with their physical eye. They will witness His light and the existence of the Almighty, and then they will become infatuated with Him because of the graces He offers to them and to all the worlds. Such a person will know well the way that leads to their Provider, and so will resort truly to Al’lah and will always put death and the meeting with God in front of their eyes.
The third way mentioned in this verse is: “…and from behind them …”: and it means: I incite them to work for the future. That is, Satan deceives people with vain hopes and false golden dreams of collecting and saving money for the future, so warning them against charity and spending money generously, for fear of falling into poverty. Satan wants people to be miserly and not to do the good deeds for which they have been created.
God says: “Satan threatens you with poverty and orders you to commit what is indecent…”
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 2, Al-Baqara (The Cow), verse 268
Faith and miserliness never gather together in the heart of a believing person who is obedient to God. Satan orders his followers to be extremely stingy with money, and to seek their own personal advantage, without caring about whether the money is legal or ill-gotten. With this attitude, people become niggardly and humble-spirited, looking at what people possess and yearning for it, and they are stinting with what they possess. They envy people for what favor Al’lah has granted them, and wish to dispossess others of their graces in order to possess them themselves.
They deprive people of their natural rights and suppress themselves and their families so that hatred, aversion, and problems are present among them. Their chests boil with grudges whenever they see a man whom Al’lah has obliged. Consequently, quarrels, sedition, and competition will occur about this worldly life, and then enmity and evil will arise, and the links of cordiality and brotherhood will be cut. Eventually, this niggardly one will become a beast, hiding behind the shape of a human.
The fourth way is “…from their right…”: that is, through the path of righteousness, while communicating with Al’lah and doing good deeds, or through performing high deeds so as to drive a person into conceit. Thus, when a person does good deeds, Satan will adorn them to themselves in order that they will admire themselves. One who becomes conceited in this way will consider themselves to be better than other people. Then their conceit will gradually increase to the point that Satan will possess them through their megalomania, making them turn him away from the path that leads to Al’lah.
The fifth is “…and from the left…”: and is in reference to passing through the way of harm or of vice:
1) Passing through the way of harm takes place when a slip occurs due to inattention on the part of the follower of the path of righteousness, and so Satan drives them to despair of the mercy of God, the Merciful, the Most Forgiving.
2) Passing through the way of vice takes place when such a follower commits a wrongful deed, and Satan magnifies it in the perspective of its doer. This is to drive them away from Al’lah and make them become despondent about Al’lah’s compassion. This will lead them fail to repent, although the gate of repentance is wide open, even for those who do not believe. God says: “Tell those who disbelieve that if they stop their tyranny, their past shall be forgiven...”
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 8, Al-Anfal (Spoils of War), verse 38
How can this Muslim believe their enemy, the devil, even though Al’lah forgives even those who do not believe when they repent and refrain from committing errors?![36]
God has revealed to us how the devil acted with his followers after he was released to his own free choice when He says: “(Al’lah) said: ‘Go on your way; if any of them follow you, verily hell will be the recompense of you (all): an ample recompense’.”
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 17, Al-Isra’ (The Night Journey), verse 63
Some adopt the guidance of the devil and do deeds like his, and then become unable to distinguish between their own goodness and evil. Such people start to mistrust Al’lah, and they are indeed followers of the devil, since they have pursued his way and behaved like him.
God the Almighty says: “And rouse whomsoever you are able with your voice, and muster against them all your deceptive actions and your forces, and be their partner in their riches and in their offspring, and make promises to them. However, Satan makes promises to them only to deceive them.”
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 17, Al-Isra’ (The Night Journey), verse 64
“And rouse…”: he whispers evil; “…whomsoever you are able…”: he incites them as much as possible; “…with your voice…”: he calls to them; “…and muster against them all your deceptive actions…”: he lets them see fancies without reality to make them become distracted. However, although he cannot affect everyone with these deceptions, he approaches and affects those from whom he gets a smell of malignancy and shunning of Al’lah, as Satan is blind and only has a sense of smell; “….and your forces…”: he uses the utmost might and determination, and works through those humans who are his, and who are subjugated in order to fulfill his aims – which means the magicians.
“…and be their partner in their riches and in their offspring…”: if there is a person who draws far away from Al’lah, and does not mention His Name when eating so as to think of the grace by which they eat, and does not think of how Al’lah, the Almighty, created food for them, and how He directed the sun, the moon, the wind, the soil, the seasons and all of the universe in order that they be created, grow, and ripen: then He has provided them with these things for nothing. However, if this person mentions the Name of Al’lah and thinks of the favors bestowed upon them, they will love their Provider and incline to Him. Then they will become glad and will achieve spiritual nutrition through their directing themselves towards Him, and by delighting in their food both spiritually and physically.
This is the purpose of mentioning the Name of Al’lah: to think of what you eat and to praise Al’lah for His graces, showing that you love Him and acquire happiness from this. However, if people do not do this, Satan will always be with them, and will eat and copulate with them.
“…and make promises to them. However, Satan makes promises to them only to deceive them”: here we see that Satan deceives with wishes, fancies, and vain false hopes. This is similar to the way that all magicians throughout the world ask people to give them money for what they do, and cannot save themselves from being humiliated.
We have already clarified how and when magic arises, and how a person can descend to the lowest level in order to become a magician, or one of their supporters who is attracted to their world. Such matters are not limited to a certain period of time, but have occurred since the beginning of creation, when humanity turned away from Al’lah and committed actions that were forbidden.
In fact, we have two choices before us:
1) To be with Al’lah
2) To be with the devil (may God protect us and you from this spiritual disease).
When a person man forgets to mention Al’lah in his spirit, Satan rushes to them, whispering evil, so as to destroy them step by step, as we have mentioned previously.
As for the believer: they pay attention to whatever satanic temptation the devil has sent into their spirit, and remember the reason that has made Satan approach them: that they have forgotten to mention Al’lah and to communicate with His messenger (cpth). As soon as they remember God and communicate with His messenger (cpth), making their spirit become overwhelmed with Godly light, the devil will flee and will avoid them.
Those who draw far from Al’lah and indulge in forbidden deeds are exposed to such destructive states, and are apt to follow the devil in this dirty course. They then become an instrument in the hand of Satan, who controls them however he wants through the authority of their mean, prohibited lusts. God says: “Shall I tell you upon whom the devils descend? They descend on every lying sinner.”
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 26, Ash-Shu’ara’ (The Poets), verse 221-22
Therefore we see that magicians are always the enemies of righteousness, of humanity, and of all humankind, except those who are like them. There is nothing mentioned anywhere in the Holy Qur’an that contradicts these facts. God says: “The magicians were gathered on the appointed day, and it was said to people ‘will you be assembled, for we shall follow the magicians if they win?’ And when the magicians came, they said to Pharaoh: ‘shall we be rewarded if we win?’.”
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 26, Ash-Shu’ara’ (The Poets), verse 38-41
These verses indicate that the magicians were enemies of righteousness and faith, in contrast to our master Moses, God’s messenger (pth), because they were dealing with magic before they were defeated at his hands. They then abandoned their way, admitting its falsehood. As he (pth) showed them a real Godly miracle, they believed, and said: “We have put our faith in our Provider so that He may forgive us our sins and the witchcraft you have forced us to practice. Better is the reward of Al’lah, and more lasting.”
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 20, Ta Ha ‘Ta-ha’ (Pure), verse 73
They then began to despise their magical knowledge, and prostrated themselves before our master Moses (pth), but Pharaoh and his people thought that this miracle was one of the magicians’ actions because of their blind–heartedness. They saw it as similar to the deceptions and illusory, profitless magical actions that they had seen from the magicians of their time. God says: “…the magician shall never prosper whatever he does.”
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 20, Ta Ha ‘Ta-ha’ (Pure), verse 69
At any rate, religious and moral impotence or regression is always associated with the emergence of magic and conjuring. For example, the period of religious impotence and the abandonment of Al’lah’s law, ‘Al-Torah’, led the Israelites themselves into a period of frightful descent into a dangerous spiritual whirl, which was a case similar to that of Pharaoh and his people before them, when magic had prevailed due to their retrogression (as we have previously noted).