The Deceptions of Satan

Later, the truth explained in the preceding Signs became manifest and illumined many dark points. By that light, and all praise be to Allah, I understood that the powerful encouragements and exhortations of the Wise Qur’an are perfectly in place; that when the believers are taken in by satanic deceptions, this does not arise from unbelief or from weakness of īmānFaith; belief in the six articles of faith: Allah, His angels, His revealed scriptures, His prophets, the Hereafter, and divine decree (qadar).; that one who commits major sins does not thereby enter unbelief; that the MutazilahAn early Islamic theological school that emphasized reason and human free will, maintaining that human beings are responsible for their own actions. and certain KhārijitesAn early Islamic movement that separated from Ali (ra) during the conflict following the Battle of Siffīn and became known for declaring grave sinners and certain Muslim opponents to be outside the faith. were mistaken in their ruling that “one who commits a major sin becomes an unbeliever, or remains between īmānFaith; belief in the six articles of faith: Allah, His angels, His revealed scriptures, His prophets, the Hereafter, and divine decree (qadar). and unbelief”; and that my poor friend’s sacrificing a hundred lessons of truth for the worthless flattery of some man was not, as I had thought, such a terrible fall and dreadful abasement. I gave thanks to Allah and was saved from that perilous mistake.

For, as we said earlier, Satan casts the human being into grave dangers by means of a slight non-existent matter. Moreover, the human nafsThe aspect of the soul associated with lower desires and negative traits. is always ready to listen to Satan. The quwwa-i shahawiyyaThe faculty of desire or appetite. and the quwwa-i ghadabiyyaThe faculty of anger or defensive impulse. function as two instruments that both receive and transmit satanic deceptions.

It is for this reason that two of Allah’s Names, Al-GhafūrAllah, the All-Forgiving, whose forgiveness is boundless. and Ar-RahīmAllah, the Most Merciful., turn toward the believers with their most perfect manifestations. In the Wise Qur’an, He also shows that His most important favour to the prophets is forgiveness, and He calls them to seek forgiveness.

By repeating the sacred phrase:

بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحٖيمِIn the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate

at the beginning of every surahChapter of the Qur’an., and by commanding that it be recited in every blessed undertaking, He shows His all-embracing mercy, which encompasses the universe, as a place of refuge and a stronghold. And through His command:

فَاسْتَعِذْSo seek refuge.

He makes the phrase:

اَعُوذُ بِاللّٰهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِI seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the accursed.

a shield.

The Sixth Sign

One of the most dangerous deceptions of Satan is this: he causes certain sensitive and pure-hearted people to confuse imagining unbelief with affirming unbelief. He presents the conception of misguidance as though it were the confirmation of misguidance. And concerning sacred persons and pure matters, he causes extremely ugly thoughts to appear before their imagination.

By presenting imkān-i dhātīIntrinsic possibility; the state of something being possible in itself, meaning that its occurrence is not inherently impossible. as imkān-i aqlīRational possibility; a possibility that the intellect regards as possible on the basis of certain indications., he gives rise to a form of doubt that appears contrary to their certainty in īmānFaith; belief in the six articles of faith: Allah, His angels, His revealed scriptures, His prophets, the Hereafter, and divine decree (qadar).. At that moment, the poor sensitive person imagines that he has fallen into misguidance and unbelief, and supposes that his certainty in īmānFaith; belief in the six articles of faith: Allah, His angels, His revealed scriptures, His prophets, the Hereafter, and divine decree (qadar). has vanished. He falls into despair, and through that despair becomes a plaything of Satan. Satan then exploits both his despair, that vulnerable point of his, and this confusion, until he either loses his sanity or says, “Whatever happens, let it happen,” and goes into misguidance.

As we have explained in certain treatises how baseless the nature of this satanic deception is, we shall mention it here briefly. It is as follows: