Do Not “Worship Satan”!

                              “Did I not charge you O children of Adam

                               that you should not worship Satan, truly

                               he is a manifest enemy to you, and that

                               (you should) worship Me – that is the

                               straight path? And verily he has led astray

                               a great many of you. Could you not, then,

                               use your reason?” (Qur’an; 36:60-62).

To inform Mankind about the real place of Satan in their life, the Qur’an gives a panorama of the trial scene where God asked two kinds of beings to bow down before Adam (the first human being). The angels (naturally) obeyed God’s order, and Iblis (a Jinn being) refused and disobeyed. His plea was that he was created out of a superior element than Adam’s who was created out of clay (he did not consider the special spirit God has endowed Adam). Thus, the disobedience of Iblis was caused by his arrogance.

Adam made a mistake of disobedience too when he ate from a tree which God had warned him and his wife not to approach. But his disobedience was only caused by his weakness when Iblis manipulated him, whereupon he asked for God’s forgiveness, so God forgave him and his wife. And as a consequence Adam and his wife were ordered to start the habitation on earth.

And when the Qur’an talked about the sluggish response and the refusal of many people to the call of God’s messengers, the Qur’an gives a clear description: “And so it is that, We assigned for each Prophet enemies from among human being and Jinn who inspire alluring words to one another in order to deceive; yet, had your Lord willed, they would never have done it. So leave them with what they fabricate. And (they seduce one another) in order that the hearts of those who do not believe in the Hereafter may incline to it, and that they may be well pleased with it, and so that they may acquire what they are acquiring” (6:112-113).

God gives certain free-will to Mankind and Jinn for the real trial during their life in this world; and that is the meaning of “had your Lord willed, they would never have done it” in the verse I quoted above.

And now what is that charge which God has put upon all descendent of Adam since the very beginning of humanity on earth? “Worshipping Satan” means submitting one’s self consciously to any evil influences, other than God. God wants human beings to submit only to Him, not to any other being.

Evil influences

In fact there are two kinds of evil influences that can afflict any human being: one is from one’s innermost self, and the other comes from outside.

The first one, which is from the innermost self is the free desire. God says: “.. and who is more astray than he who follows his desire without any guidance from God? ..” (28:50).

“Have you ever considered (the kind of man) who makes his own desire as his god, and whom God has (thereupon) let astray knowing (that his mind is closed to all guidance), and whose hearing and heart He has sealed, and upon his sight He has placed a veil? Who, then, could guide him after God (has abandoned him)? Will you not,

then, bethink yourselves?” (45:23).

This innermost self has been given the gift of certain faculties, so that it is capable of receiving instructions and intellectual and spiritual insights. God says: “Verily it is We Who have created man out of a drop of sperm intermingled, so that We might try him, and therefore We made him a being endowed with hearing (= faculties of receiving instruction) and sight (= intellectual and spiritual insight). Verily We have shown him the way: (and it rests with him to prove himself) either grateful (to God) or ungrateful” (76:2-3).

Every one will face good and bad experiences in his life; in both circumstances, one should be well balanced, not too proud, nor distressed, because these two characters will allow Satan to interfere. When difficulties afflict someone, they should be patient. The Qur’an has given us an example: When God tried Prophet Ayoub (Job) with a lot of sufferings and his trial lasted so many years, he started to feel annoyed, then he realised that this weary feeling, which started to arise within him comes certainly from a satanic whisperer, so he immediately called to God asking for His mercy: “And call to mind Our servant Job, (how it was) when he cried out to his Lord: Behold, Satan has afflicted me with (utter) weariness and suffering” (38:41).  “And Job, when he called out to his Lord: Indeed harm has befallen me, and You are the Most Merciful of the merciful. So We responded to him, and removed the harm that had befallen him, and We gave him (back) his family, along with them (other children) the like of them, as a mercy from Us and a reminder to worshippers” (21:83-84).

So if a person wilfully and persistently resists God’s ordinances, and follows the vanities of his desires, he will be punished by God in the Hereafter; and if he is firm in his belief in God and forbids his inner self from base desires, he will be rewarded excellently: “And for him who had transgressed all bounds, and had preferred the life of this world, the abode will be Hell-fire; but as for him who feared the stance before his Lord, and forbid his inner self from base desires, Paradise will truly be the goal” (79:37-41).

All this information about the innermost state of man’s feelings and consciousness is given in the Qur’an by the Creator who says: “And verily it is We Who created man and We know what his innermost self whispers within him, for We are closer to him than his neck-vein” (50:16).

And the second is the satanic influence, which comes from the slinking whisperer, either from Jinn, but also often comes from human whisperer. For that, God has guided the believers to say a special prayer, as follows: “Say, I seek refuge with the Lord of Mankind, the Controller of Mankind, the God of Mankind, against the harm of the slinking whisperer – who whispers into the hearts of people – whether they be Jinn or human beings” (114:1-6).

This evil can acutely afflict only when the person does not care about his function in this life, thus does not make any effort to purify his own self, and lets it become the victim of the free desire or the victim of the outsider evil, the satanic one. God explains in the Qur’an that the successful person in this life is the one who candidly purifies himself and does not let the evil desire influence him (see Qur’an, 91:7-10).

Although this satanic influence afflicts human beings from outside, it however always affects through a slinking whisper to the heart/mind of a person. This comes either from a Jinn being, which is beyond human perception, or from the same human being, but again it will first influence the heart/mind.

That is why Prophet Abraham (God’s blessings be upon him) was so anxious to see that his father did not respond to God’s guidance, so he asked his father: “O my father! Do not worship Satan – verily. Satan is a rebel against the Most Gracious. O my father! I do fear lest a chastisement from the Most Gracious befall you, and then you will become an ally of Satan!” (19:44-45).

The danger of this satanic influence does not face the devotees, as God has stated to Iblis (the Satan who refused God’s order to bow down before Adam): “Truly over My servants you shall have no power, except over those who follow you from among the perverse” (15:42).

Abdullah bin ‘Amr bin al-‘As reported that Prophet Muhammad (Peace and God’s blessings be upon him) said: “None of you (fully) believes until his desires are subservient to that which I have brought (of guidance)”  (from 40 Hadith of Imam Nawawi).

Shaddad bin Aus reported: The Prophet (peace and God’s blessings be upon him) said: “The wise person is the one who calls himself to account (and refrain from doing evil deeds) and does noble deeds to benefit him after death; and the foolish person is the one who subdues himself to his temptations and desires, and (in the same time) longing from God the fulfilment of excellent fate” (Recorded by Tirmidhi).

And among the noble deeds is, of course, to be consistent in purifying one’s self, so to become immune to any possible satanic delusion. God says: “.. and whoever purifies himself does so for his own benefit, and to God is the (end of the) journeying” (35:18).