The Deceptions of Satan

The answer: because devils and those who follow them deviate from the right path, they can cause immense destruction through a small act. With a simple act, they violate the rights of many creatures.

For example, on a great merchant ship belonging to a sultan, a person may, by a simple act or a minor neglect, cause the loss and nullification of all the efforts and achievements of all those connected with that ship. Therefore, the sultan, who owns the ship, complains severely about that rebel on behalf of all those connected with it and threatens him with great severity. Moreover, he considers not the simple act itself, but its grave consequences, and the illustrious owner of the ship inflicts punishment not on his own behalf, but on behalf of the rights of those concerned.

In the same way, the followers of Satan, also known as the people of misguidance, are on the ship of the Sultan of pre-eternity and post-eternity, called the earth, together with those who follow the right path. Since, through their apparently small offences and rebellions, they violate the rights of many creatures and cause the destruction of the results of the important duties performed by other beings, it is both a manifestation of eloquence and entirely reasonable, wise, and fitting to respond to them with overwhelming complaints, very severe threats, and repeated emphatic warnings. In other words, such speech displays the eloquence of the Qur’an in speaking according to the requirements of the situation, while remaining free from exaggeration, which would amount to wastefulness in speech.

It is well known that those who do not take refuge in a very strong fortress against such enemies, who cause so much harm with so little effort, will surely fall into a wretched state.

O believers! That indestructible and heavenly fortress is the Qur’an. Enter it, and be saved!

The Fourth Sign

The muhaqqiqīn and the ahl-i kashf are in complete agreement that existence is pure good, while non-existence is pure evil. Goodness, beauty, and perfection are based primarily upon existence. Even when they appear outwardly negative and non-existent, their foundation is in reality affirmative and existent. On the other hand, the essence and substance of all negative matters—such as misguidance, evil, calamities, sins, and afflictions—is non-existence and negation. The badness and ugliness within them arise from non-existence. Although, outwardly, they may appear positive and existent, their foundation is in fact non-existence and negation.

Moreover, it is visibly established that the existence of something such as a building is secured only through the existence of all its parts. Its ruin, destruction, and non-existence, however, may occur through the absence of a single essential part. Furthermore, existence always requires an existent cause; it necessarily rests upon a reason. Non-existence, on the other hand, may rest upon non-existent things; something non-existent may become the cause of another non-existent thing.