Keeping Satan at Bay

Keeping Satan at Bay

1987 9 September 3 Keeping Satan at Bay (279) There is a Hadith in which the Prophet Mohammad relates a conversation between Satan and one of the prophets of old. This tradition is of some length, but we reproduce here its most salient point:

When Satan asked the Prophet where he would seek refuge from his onslaughts, the latter replied that when he felt the slightest influence of Satan, he would seek refuge in God. God’s enemy said, “You have spoken the truth, that is the way to save yourself from me.” “Tell me,” said the prophet, “how is it that you are able to overpower the son of Adam?” Satan replied, “1 seize him when he is angry, or in the grip of carnal desire.”

How vulnerable is man to the attacks of Satan when he falls a prey to fits of fury or overwhelming desires. It is then that Satan !exploits man’s weakness to turn his footsteps away from the path which would lead him straight to Paradise and to set his foot on the downward slope to the raging inferno of Hell. Once on this slippery descent, it is well-nigh impossible for a man to retrace his footsteps.

Man should be ever wary of his own baser instincts, for, if they exist, it is at the instigation of the devil. Every strong craving, every fit of anger is a dangerous pitfall set there in front of man by Satan. The only way to avoid such perils is to turn to the Almighty, and seek His help in all sincerity. Then the devil is sure to be balked of his prey; it is God and God alone who can snatch man from the clutches of Satan.

The Key to Social Harmony

1987 9 September 3 The Key to Social Harmony (425) All men are from Adam and Adam was from earth,

-Hadith

Although we are all equal in the eyes of God when it comes to justice, mercy and obedience to the Divine Will, it becomes distressingly clear as we progress through life, that many individuals are less well-equipped than others to succeed in any material or spiritual sense. Philosophers, medical men, sociologists, educationists are still arguing as to the roles of heredity and environment in producing this inequitable state of affairs, and, as yet, are far from producing a solution to the problem. There is no wishing it away, and much as governments and philanthropists have striven to redress this imbalance, we have only to look around us to see with what seeming permanence this situation is stamped. Many countries have attempted to provide equal opportunities for all; but even where material assistance is the greatest, there is always a small group of individuals who stand head and shoulders above the others; there is always, beneath them, a large body of quite average performers, and sometimes an equally large, or even larger group at the foot of the ladder who make very little of their lives, many of them being what modern educationists would call “under-achievers”. That is, they do have a certain potential, but they do not make serious efforts to live up to it.

This is a situation which capitalism has always exploited, in the process, exaggerating the differences between the different classes of people. Socialism, on the other hand, has tried to eliminate such differences, in the interests of both the state and the individual. But whatever the political objectives, individual psychology has remained fundamentally the same. There is still the same friction caused by one individual doing better than another, the same resentment at success being the lot of one’s neighbour and not of one’s own self, the same reluctance to give honour where honour is due. Sometimes this takes the extreme form of character assassination of genuinely superior individuals.

This is when we must stop short of such baseness, This is when we must discount the effects of whatever political and educational systems we live under. This is when we must discard hardened attitudes of envy, bitterness, spite, and, returning to a pure mental state from which all acrimony has been banished, look upon ourselves and our fellow-men as being equal in the eyes of God. It is this aspect of human existence upon which we must keep our attention firmly focussed, irrespective of its material trappings. It is then and then only that we shall live in true social harmony.