Canary, with her sweet voice, sang,
Lily was a little girl
Afraid of the big, wide world
She grew up within her castle walls
Now and then she tried to run
And then on the night with the setting sun
She went in the woods away
So afraid, all alone
They warned her, "Don't go there!
There's creatures who are hiding in the dark"
Then something came creeping
It told her, "Don't you worry!
Just follow everywhere I go!
Top over the mountains or valley low
Give you everything you've been dreaming of
Just let me in, ooh
Everything you wantin' gonna be the magic story you've been told
And you'll be safe under my control
Just let me in, ooh!" *)
Then she said, "O eagle, please continue!" The eagle said, "O my brothers and sisters, know that the heart is like a fenced fortress attended by angels. The fence has doors and cracks. The mind resides inside the fortress. Next to the fortress, there is a barn in which there are lusts, and devils attend the barn. There is a war between the residents of the fortress and those of the barn. Devils patrol the fortress hoping for the guard to become lax, or to enter through the cracks. So the guard must know all the fortress doors to which he was assigned, and all cracks as well. He must not lower his guard for even a moment, for the enemy is never lax.
lblis influences people as much as possible. His influence depends on how alert, negligent, ignorant and knowledgeable they are. Deception (talbis) is to present falsehood in the image of the truth.
And misleading (ghuruur) is a form of ignorance that causes you to believe falsehood to be the truth, and bad to be good. It is caused by the presence of doubtful matters.
A man asked al-Hasan, "Does Iblis ever sleep?' He answered, 'If he did, then we would find some rest.'
The fortress is lit with remembrance of Allah and faith (iman). In it, there is a shiny mirror that reflects the images of everything passing by. The least that the devils do is to generate smoke to blacken the fortress walls and rust the mirror. But the winds of remembrance of Allah repel smoke, and the polisher of remembrance of Allah removes the rust off the mirror.
The enemy conducts campaigns against the fortress. Sometimes, he attempts to enter the fortress but the guard attacks him, forcing him to retreat. Other times, he enters the fortress to cause mischief, or stays around because the guard is negligent. Sometimes the wind that repels the smoke calms down and the walls blacken and the mirror becomes rusty. So, the devil passes by unnoticed. Sometimes the guard leaves his position out of negligence and is captured by the enemy.
One of the Salaf said, "I met the devil, so he told me, 'I used to meet people to teach them (evil), but now I meet people to learn fom them." The devil might attack an alert person by bringing with him the bride of desire. The alert person becomes occupied with looking at her and falls captive. The strongest chain with which captives are chained is that of ignorance. The chain of medium strength is that of lust. And the weakest is that of negligence. And as long as the believer is wearing the shield of iman, then the arrows of the enemies will never strike his deadly spots.
Al-Hasan ibn Salih said, 'The devil opens ninety nine doors of goodness in font of a believer in order to be able to open a single door of evil.'"
Al-A'mash said, "A man who used to interact with Jinn told me, 'Nobdy is tougher on us than a follower of the Sunnah. As for those who follow their lusts, we play with them easily.'"
Iblis has deceived many people to believe that there is no god or creator, and that all things came to existence without a maker. They are called al-Dhariyyah or the Secularists. These people denied Allah's existence because they filed to sense Him with their senses, and failed to use their intellect to recognise Him. Could any person with a sound mind doubt the existence of a maker? If a person passes by a piece of land with no buildings, then returned to find a wall built there, he would realise that there must have been a builder who built the wall.
This wide expanse earth, this raised ceiling (the sky), these amazing buildings and these running laws that imply wisdom, do not they prove the existence of a creator?! A desert-Arab once said, "Truly the camel extract points to the existence of a camel, so an upper structure that is this pleasant, and a lower center that is this dense; do not they point to al-Lateef (the One Who is above All Comprehension), al-Khabeer (the One Most Acquainted will Things). In fact, if a person only contemplates over himself, that would be enough of a proof. The human by contains wisdoms that may not be compiled in a book."
He who ponders on the sharpness of teeth to enable it to chop food, the flatness of molars to grind food, the tongue that rotates what is being chewed, the liver that ripens food, how nutrition flows to each part of the body as needed, these fingers that have knuckles so they can bend and open to perform work; they never become hollow from work, otherwise they would break, how some fingers are longer than others so they all become the same length when bent, and how the most hidden of the body is that which holds it together, the soul, once it goes the body become corrupt, and intellect that leads to welfare community, whoever ponders on all of these things must surely call, 'Can there be any doubt about Allah?'
He who denies Allah is confused because he sought Him through the senses. Others denied Allah because they were unable to sense Him after he had proven His existence in principle. So he went back and denied the principle itself. Had these persons used their intellects, they would have realised that there are things that can only be determined in principle, such as: the soul and intellect, the existence of which was denied by nobody. What else is the objective other than proving Allah's existence in principle? And how can anyone ask, 'How is He? or what is He? When He has no "howness" or "whatness".
Among the clear proofs of His existence is that the world is accidental became afer it was not because it is never free from accidents. Anything that is never free fom accidents is, itself, accidental. There must be a causer for these accidents, and the causer is the Creator, the Mighty and the Majestic.
Another devil's deception is devil's deception on Diverse Philosophies. Abu Mulammad al-NibakhtI said, "A group of ignorant people claimed that things do not have only a single reality to them. Instead, things have multiple realities according to the people's perspective. For example, honey is sweet to most people, but bitter to those suffering fom disease. Similarly, they say, this world is ancient has always existed to those who believe it is ancient, and accidental to others who believe it is accidental. Colors are bodies (physical creatures) to those who believe they are bodies and, qualities (only attributes) to those who believe they are qualities."
Our response, 'Is what you say true?' They will surely answer, 'It is true to us, false to those who disagree with us.' We respond, 'Your claim that your opinion is true i not true in itself' And your confession that your opinion is false to your opponents is proof against you. And whoever confirms that his opinion is false to his opponents, then he has saved his opponents the effort of proving the falsehood of his opinion.
lblis was able to deceive Philosophers by making them have opinions and intellects that are independent of the teachings of Prophets. They spoke based on assumptions. Some of them adopted the opinions of secularists: that the world has no maker. This was attributed to them by al-Nubakhti.
In Ancient Greek era, the Philosophers or al-falasafah, attempted to conceal their belief by advocating that Allah is the creator of the world. They only say so in the metaphoric sense not in reality. An actor must have the will to act, but to them, the universe existed by defult, not that Allah had done actively made it. They also believe that the world will always exist, just as it has always existed. Their justifcation of this belief is that the existence of the world was due to a pre-eternal cause. So, it will continue to be associated with its cause. Had the existence of the world been only possible, not obligatory, then it could not have been pre-eternal or associated with a cause.
Philosophers who denied the existence of a Creator had tree different opinions, some claimed that afer the Creator perfected this world, He liked it, and feared that if He added or deleted anything to it that it may become corrupt. So, He destroyed Himself, and the world became vacant of Him, although His creation continued to operate as He had planned for it.
The second group claimed that the universe appeared within the Creator and continued to take fom His strength and light until all of the strength and light was transferred to the universe. The Creator depreciated until He became the size of a cat! They claimed that one day, the Creator would regain His light fom this world until He becomes as He once was. And that due to His weakness he neglected humans, so oppressions became prevalent.
The third group said that after the Creator perfected the world, He disseminated Himself in it, so every form of power present in the world resulted fom this dissemination.
Most Philosophers believed that Allah, the Mighty and the Majestic, knew nothing except fir knowing himself. It has been proven that a creature knows himself as well as his Creator. So they made the creature of a higher status than the Creator, a concept which is too disgracefl to be discussed. Look at lblis's deception of these idiots who claim to have perfect minds.
Philosophers denied resurrection and the return of souls to bodies. They also believed that heaven and hell were not physical places, and that they were only mentioned in the Qur'an and Sunnah as metaphors given to the normal folk to understand spiritual reward and punishment. In addition, they claimed that the soul remains eternally after death, either enjoying indescribable bliss for perfect souls, or suffering fom indescribable anguish for polluted souls. The amount of pain varies fom one soul to another. Some souls might have some or all of their pain eliminated.
lblis has deceived groups of Muslims by creeping to them through their high intelligence! He made them think that the right thing is to follow Philosophers because they claimed to be wise men who had sayings and actions that demonstrated high intelligence.
Some early Muslims were told that those Philosophers denied the Creator and rejected religions and claimed that they were only metaphors and tricks. So those Muslims believed them, so they, in turn, rejected religion, neglected prayers, indulged in prohibitions, and disregarded the limitations set by the religion. Jews and Christians have more of an excuse because they are holding to religions that were proven by miracles. Innovators in religion also have a better excuse because they call for contemplating proofs. Those followers of Philosophers on the other hand, have no backing for their disbelief, except that they thought Philosophers to be wise. Have they not known that Prophets were wiser also?!
Some Muslims extended their hands to hold on to philosophy and others to monasticism. Some folish persons when contemplating matters of creed tended towards philosophizing. Others when contemplating matters of asceticism tended towards monasticism. We ask Allah's steadfastness on our faith, and security fom our enemy.
Many people claim that for each spiritual entity fom the heavenly world, there is a horoscope, which is a celestial by that connects to the spiritual entity in the same way that our souls connect to our bodies and control them. Some celestial bodies are moving others are still.
They say that the bodies try their best to come near the spiritual entity by performing al kinds of worship and sacrifce. Others claim that for each horoscope there is a person fom the under world that resembles it. This group painted images and sculpted idols and built houses for these idols.
Yahya lbn Bishr al-Nahawandi said that some sects claimed that the seven planets: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury and the moon were the controllers of this world acting upon orders from the heavenly public. They envisioned an animal image for each planet and made a statue for it. They manufctured a huge idol for Saturn constructed from lead.
They made Saturn as a blind man accepting a sacrifce of an old bull that was brought to him to a house with a pit underneath it. Above the pit, there was an iron rail. The bull was beaten until it entered the house and walked on the rail. His legs sank into the iron rail. Underneath the rail, a fire was lit unti the bull was fully burnt. Those submitting the sacrifce said, "Glorifed you 0 blind god, who is evil natured and never does any good. We have sacrifced to you that which resembles you, so accept our sacrifce, and prevent us your evil and wicked spirits."
As for Jupiter, they sacrificed a baby boy.For Mars, they sacrifced a blond man with feckles. Then they sacrificed to the sun the mother of the child who they had sacrificed to Jupiter while circumventing the sun's image. And they sacrificed for Venice an old lewd woman. As for Mercury, they sacrifced a dark youth who knew literature and mathematics, and was well mannered. To the moon they sacrifced a black man with a large face. And Allah knows best.
[Al-Jahiliyyah]
*) Credit to Alan Olav Walker / Didrik Handlykken / Emelie Hollow / Kenneth Nilsen / Lars Kristian Rosness / Magnus Bertelsen / Oda Evjen Gjovag
