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The effect of Elevating Satan’s rank
We had talked about the elevation of the status of Satan previously, without
expounding on that subject matter.
We will today tell you why that is key to understanding the weakening of the
moral bearing of those who hold that view, when it comes to the ability and
willingness to hold themselves in check, stressing acting righteously on the one
hand and firmly rejecting the spread of wrong conduct in any community on the
other. By acting thus we can
objectively agree that one has rejected that part of religious history that our
religious emissaries of scriptural religions have all taught, including his.
Since time of recorded history the struggle between good and bad (evil) has
manifested itself because the rivalry between Adam from which human family came
and Satan (of the invisible Jinn creation) of which devils are a tribe has
remained the destiny of the two.
God did not say fear Satan, he says he is very knowledgeable among his
specie of creation, but he is also as weak as a human. He may be cunning, but he is also on
equal pedestal as a creation, exerting only his limited will power just as a
human. Limited because both humans and Jinn, of which Satan is one are creatures
made by the Creator God, and are subject to the universal law as all other
creation.
Celestial bodies like the Sun and Jupiter are a much bigger creation requiring
much expansive power and ability to regulate, yet they continue to follow their
creator’s laws without fail. We
watch the sun rise every single day from the East and set on the West without
fail for years, and for as long as man existed on Planet earth, millions of
years ago. Yet and still man who as
a creation does not take up any significant percentage of a single planet in a
single solar system of many such planets, among billions and billions of other
systems, arrogates to himself an elevated status as a being. He has the audacity
to even raise his head let alone his voice and reason against the Creator who
not only created and continue to procreate those beings including systems,
galaxies and all, but continues to maintain them in perfect order since then. Unfortunately that is not where the
corruption of the relationship and the idea of who God is stops.
The master deceiver of man has persuaded the greedy, corrupt and oppressive
among the human family to conceal the inner truth of scriptural teachings and
use instead the ignorance of many among the innocently unaware people, in order
to manipulate their inner conscience the seat of religious contemplation. By elevating the status of Satan and
his powers, co-equating his abilities in some instances with his Creator, man
sought to excuse his failings to strive for righteousness. He then sits down and indulge as much
as he can, oppress any community as much as he wants without the barricades of
religious laws and admonition. After all he has succeeded in raising the
barriers of the fight between good and evil up to the godhead.
For those in leadership who usually are the ones who schemed thus to maintain
their way of life, instead of them feeling fortunate to get an opportunity to be
at the apex, so they to do so much good to so many of God’s creatures to gain
God’s approval, salvation, and success in the true sense, Satan persuades them
to feel that now is the opportunity they may never get again, so use it to pile
wealth. They therefore start
competing between people of their class as to who pile more wealth in defiance
of righteousness. As a result again
they withhold from those justifiably deserving, and greed takes over until they
get lost wronging a great multitude of the people. Under Satan’s grip and suggestions as
they willingly cooperate with each other, such leaders steal, oppress, and
withhold from people health, education, welfare, food etc.
We stress authentically because we know many people will have problem with our
assertion of scriptural denials of a man god.
Once again we are looking for solutions to our predicament of the
unceasing vicious circle of financial corruption, after attributing it to
corrupted moral bearing; and moral bearing as a domain of religion. The first time I learnt from a
popular scholar of comparative religion, the Late Ahmad Deedat of South Africa
(may God reward him for such educative works) also, about two decades ago, that
Isa (AS) Jesus, on him be peace has never been authentically reported to have
uttered that he was God or that he asked his followers to worship him, I felt
the same. How can it be when
billions appear to believe he was? I
took up his advice to go and purchase the new standard version of the bible
which had Jesus’s words in red ink, and went through all pages and surely I
could not find those words coming from Jesus directly. And all credible sources, including
the standard encyclopedias have discussed the issue thoroughly. So we are back to that fact that
idolization of humans and their elevation has never been preached by the
emissaries of the Creator God to His followers.
How then did man find himself not only toiling in vain, but justifying the
oppression that has been heaped on him from corrupted humans from all facets of
life, social, political, economic and so on? How did he get deceived into
thinking man could be worshipped and elevated beyond positions sanctioned by
God? The scheming of man to make
others subservient to his wishes and grand designs to manipulate and enslave
them so they toil hard to make him rich and powerful while he pays them only
enough to feed and clothe themselves has been another ancient art. It has been so ancient that it has
actually been spread and communicated sometimes through organized groups,
societies and associations, secret and open. In all of these forms, study of the
personality of the perverted among men and that of the Satan as has been
forewarned by the scriptures will reveal that the two distinct beings always
work in unison to corrupt the concept of worship for ages; i.e. individuals
among mankind and individuals among the devil clan, foot soldiers of Satan.
In Islam we learn that there are actually six ways through which Satan typically
works to force humans to follow him and reject their Lord’s worship, thereby
gradually straying away from God regardless of whether they willingly chose that
path outright, or else they were deceived gradually to that destination (a trap)
through a game they thought they could win.
As such games continue, those engaged in it gradually lose their
righteousness as people around them watch them move towards inhumanity and
oppression. Among the human family, those that almost always fall for that are
those who indiscriminately seek power, and those who indiscriminately seek
wealth.
Islamic scholars who touch this subject of Satan man relationship tend to table
the discussion above first as the most outstanding area i.e. the corruption of
the relationship between man and God.
They say that is the number one issue in Satan’s trap of corrupting
humans. The five others include, (a)
pushing followers of a religion to start tampering with their Holy Book, the
revealed text of God; instead of leaving it pure and writing their own
individual interpretations in separate books and attributing such books to
themselves. This second category
they label innovation in religion. (b) He also get people involved in major
sins, such as those mentioned in the ten commandments, which also corrupt the
soul and body of whoever is engaged in it. Making his body and soul not
befitting holy company of those near unto God like the angels etc, and
ultimately bringing himself lower even among humans and therefore not befitting
leadership and power. For even in
our written human laws, those in positions of leadership should be role models,
not perverts.
If one is unwilling to do commit the major sins and has disciplined himself
against them with time, (c) then the enemy of man tries to get them in the next
level which is the minor sins. We
are taught to never minimize a sin, no matter how minor, because by belittling
it and doing it often without awareness, it may pile up also and weigh as heavy
as a major sin on our scale of deeds.
(d) In this level is when Satan convinces people to laze up into
performing the less rewarding even if one is able to do the more rewarding. You may plan your day aiming at doing
beneficial things, but find yourself doing the trivial instead of the major
thing you set to do during the day. (e) If people are so God fearing and God
loving and have moved so far from sinning major and minor, and have also worked
on maximizing our work to gain God’s favors, he throws in the last trap, i.e.
overindulgence in the vain. Such
things are not illegal but permissible acts but one does not work on moderation
in them. They include financial
extravagance, overeating, oversleeping and other excesses that dampens our soul
from being at its optimal level, while taking away rewards we might otherwise
get from using the extra money, extra food, extra time etc. to make the life of
someone less fortunate than us simpler and in the process earn rewards with God,
earn a smile and goodwill and make the community we live in ultimately better
for ourselves and for our children.
Good Conduct is a consequence of moral
rectitude
Overcoming our selfish desires that throw us willingly into the hands of our
eternal enemy, something that had made man ever willing to loose himself and
deceive his fellow beings means we go the whole length of the journey as God
ordained for successful humans. And
that is adding good works to our faith in Him.
Faith without works and effect on the body and soul is worthless as we
have seen in the previous subsection.
So how does one engage and find ways to incorporate good works in
addition to faith? What teachings do
we have that we can rely on to move onto that?
Can we succeed in achieving what we set out to do, while taking the time
to stress good works i.e. “good conduct”?
Will incorporating good conduct help us find our way back to prosperity? And, does that have the potential to
rid our society of corruption, putting us on a paved road towards caring for
each other as our brothers’ keeper? This is what we will explore through several
sources.
The late Sheikh Ja’far Mahmud Adam, a Nigerian Muslim Scholar in one of his
sermons also quoted from a Hadith from Sahih Muslim, that a Muslim whose faith
has affected his character and behavior so much that his community benefits most
from him, is the best of believers more than one that faith has not influenced
his behavior towards good. Belief
(iman) has three places that it must capture in Islam, he explains. The first is his conscience and the
seat of his thoughts and contemplation which has to accept and believe; in
Islamic culture we say within his heart.
Secondly, he has to utter that faith verbally so others can hear and
witness what he believes in. And
finally, he has to act out the true ideals of his belief through conforming to
the edicts of what he believes in.
The third category also should extend to how he acts towards others, so they
also come to confirm that he is a good and righteous person, which is actually
the ultimate goal of religious laws.
Furthermore (al Mu’min al Qawiyy) mentioned by the prophet of Islam in relation
with the Hadith the Sheikh was expounding on, does not mean you have to be
strong physically, but it is an inner strength of belief. The strength required of a believer,
is such that one could suppress temptations to serve self by cheating others who
have trusted him with their lives, or their property. He also becomes reliable through his
testimony. What he says about
events, things, and reports about situations is so reliable that people don’t
question or doubt it anymore. A
strong believer is one that you will find people becoming relaxed in his
presence, and trust him easily with anything dear to them.
Such a believer becomes so strong against such temptations that he can even
withstand the cheating of others against him even after he knows. And that even after finding out that
others are not as reliable and trusty towards him and others, he still acts
right and true towards them. He does
right and continue to act likewise knowing that humans are accountable to their
Lord for all their actions. He does
that because he loves God, and desires that his acting rightly earns him God’s
love in return. He looks up to higher ideals more than physical momentary
worldly indulging.
Another Imam from California in the United States who appears on International
Television presentations on Peace TV has also contributed to this discourse. Yassir Fazaga explains a Hadith where
the Prophet of Islam, peace be upon him, once answered an inquirer about the
difference between sin and good deed, he replied, righteousness is having good
character. Sin is that which pricks
your heart and you do not want people to see you while doing it. To the Prophet and according to his
teaching, when you want to measure the religiosity of a person, watch his
character. In explain this, Fazaga says “If what we believe in does not impact
how we behave, then what we believe is not important.” That is why good conduct always
follows the requirement to believe in the Quran. Religion is supposed to make
you righteous and if you say you are a believer and that religion is not
impacting how you behave and how you also treat others in your community, then
your religiosity has no worth for yourself or anyone else. Also the Prophet was reported to have
told a people he came upon during fasting that if their fasting does not stop
them from lying, and fabricating lies and slander, they might as well eat.
Al Hassan Ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet of Islam was reported to have
said the annihilation of people lie in three.
When they become common among a people, their destruction as a society is
imminent. They are arrogance, greed and envy.
When people are arrogant they are so haughty that they have to push
someone down. And when they are
envious they are not bothered about their vices and bad character but disturbed
and working against the success of other people. And when greedy they do not
care about the suffering of their fellow beings but only care about themselves,
so the concept of community and its prosperity in abandoned and the community
disintegrates. The Prophet was once asked what arrogance was and he says It is
to reject the truth when you know it is the truth, and it is belittling people.
He was also reported to have said of all things that are not befitting of a
believer the most atrocious is arrogance.
Arrogance is a habit of exalting one’s importance above others because of
something one proclaims as having better than what others have. But that is a counterproductive
manner. In Islam good conduct is not
conditional. One does not have to
demand that others are good to him in order for him to practice his own
righteousness or good character towards them.
And it is partially because of that that the three vile behaviors
mentioned by Imam Hassan are that bad. And there is a saying that right is right
even if no one engages in it, and wrong is wrong even if everyone engages in it. And the best among the people is the
one who stands on the right even if alone.
It was said that at one time a Sheikh was invited to an occasion to deliver an
address but not many people turned up so the organizers were ashamed and wanted
to apologize. The sheikh says do not
be disappointed, in religion it is not the quantity that matters but the
quality. A few handful dedicated in
a society can achieve much towards reforming their people, with commitment. It has proved itself time and time
again in history.
The word Saleh (Amala salihan) for
“good conduct” and its derivatives in the Quran occurred 181 times. Islam is a set of beliefs, which have
to be acted out. In time it affects
the character of the individual. The
difference or effect shows not only towards what one does to self, but to
others. If you study the manners and
actions that have the most rewards they are those that gear towards working for
and protecting others in the society.
Not only does your acting in a godly way gets you reward and makes
someone happy, it encourages others to act likewise. In the same manner one has to watch
displaying bad actions, for he might encourage someone else to act likewise and
he gets a share of the sin.
As humans, living in families, groups, and communities is part of our lives, and
in trying to live the best of it, we have to agree to curb our actions that may
hurt others. And if seeking or
nominated for a position of responsibility to the community, one has to act in
consonance to laws of righteousness and brotherhood, a kind of do unto others as
you would like others to do unto you.
Every individual usually trains and specializes in one profession, while
he relies on others for other professional services he needs for himself and his
family. Without brotherhood and
serving each other’s need honestly, we collectively fail.
Marmaduke Pickthall’s Analysis
Straying from engaging in righteous conduct towards our fellow beings is not
new. Almost all communities since
Adam the first human have gone off track at some point in time. But how one approaches the situation
is the difference between a community that was successful in getting back on
track and one that did not. And it
is the seriousness with which such communities rise to tackle the issues that
allows them to find various avenues for overcoming the challenges they face. The more they seek, the more they
find. This is supported by the verse
from the Holy Quran “Allah changes not the condition of a people, until they
change what is within themselves.”
Commentators say it means transforming their corrupted beings right from within
their souls with righteous intentions and thoughts, and obeying divine and
righteous laws outwardly which shapes their conduct. It is only then, while they are
cleaned up and motivated towards the right, that they deserve the assistance of
their All Powerful creator with His unseen forces, zealously working in harmony
with them towards the right and equitable.
Our initial premise, from the previous article, that Religion from the Creator
God is the same for humans, and that He had sent individual prophets and
messengers throughout time to deliver basically the same message; and that the
wrangling and antagonism is usually created by the followers after the teachers
have left their midst, seems to be shared by Marmaduke Pickthall when he went as
far as saying that God is One for all humanity. Pickthall is a renowned British
convert to Islam who earlier during the last century devoted a lot of his time
to the study and propagation of Islam.
He further stated “There is not one standard and one law for the Muslim
and another for the outsider. In the
kingdom of Allah there are no favorites.
The sacred law (of God) is one for all, and non-Muslims who conform to it
are more fortunate than professed Muslims who neglect or disobey its percepts.”
Pickthall supported that statement by verses from the Holy Quran that says
everyone will be judged by God on the Day of Judgment in accordance with his
conduct while living among fellow beings on earth. The one who fails to meet a
certain level of conformance to divine laws preached by His Emissaries, and has
also hurt and violated his fellow humans is the loser. Under that premise he also described
how careful study of the teachings of Islam itself and its effect on the world
in its early days of propagation shows just how much potential it holds for
freeing the mind and body from subjugation.
Its obligation on seeking knowledge, inquiry and contemplation of
creation and creatures opened the world to truly scientific inquiry that
advanced the world. But then he says, the Muslim world has, even at his time has
down the road some thousand years from its root, abandoned half the Shari’ah,
and those not obligated to follow it, found use in its teaching, adopted it and
found prosperity. What then is found
within its teaching?
“The culture of Islam aimed not at beautifying and refining the accessories of
human life. It aimed at beautifying
and exalting human life itself” writes Pickthall.
When you talk of culture today the stereotypical image is focused at the
material artifacts of a people, mode of dressing, their paintings, types of
buildings and other things outside of the individual as a human being. That concept is contrary to what
Islam brought to the world one thousand four hundred year ago (1400). With the
coming of Islam, for the first time and on a wide scale, people were practically
obsessed at working on themselves as individuals in trying to inculcate a
befitting moral state that simplifies for them on the individual level, the
ability to put a stiff resistance to the temptations that leads one to sinning
against self and others.
The brotherhood Islam forged as a result of that focus on training the soul and
spiritual part of man in order to make him a righteous person of good conduct
since that time, is still palpable in any Islamic community today regardless of
which continent, race, or ethnicity Islam touched. The first thing Malcolm X noticed and
spoke about, for example, after his visit to Saudi Arabia for Hajj and to Egypt
for tourism, is the overwhelming sense of brotherhood. It was overwhelming for
him also for the fact that the issue of racial differences that has become the
focus of his activism was a non-issue as he mingles in equality, brotherhood,
and friendship with people of various hues including those of the whitest skin.
It is that discipline of the spiritual that forces one to belittle the
significance of physical appearances such as color of skin and other attributes
that differentiates physically. Such
discipline that leads to higher ideals is assisted by obligated five timely
fixed daily prayers to God (a reminder about Him and His laws), obligated
complete daylight fasting for a whole month every year regardless of one’s
position of power or wealth (forcing one to live the life of the hungry, poor
and homeless), plus obligated charity and care for the poor amidst the
community, that helps in building that fortitude and discipline of the soul.
There are many other practices that are recommended not obligated as part of the
covenant of a Muslim with his Maker. That sense of being righteous to self and
others by working on the spirit, even in communities like Nigeria that is mostly
mixed, seems to help relieve it from vices by significantly higher percentage
than in other parts of the country.
These are clearly visible not only in conduct, but in contrast to some other
non- Muslim communities of
especially Southern Nigeria in terms of the rate of crime, inability of
individual state governments to govern themselves and maintain peace, and the
rate of corruption. Weeks ago, Dr.
Aliyu U. Tilde in his three part article titled “Poor Northerners” for example
presented a current table of ongoing investigations and prosecutions for corrupt
practices in Nigeria which shows that about 93% of those ongoing cases pursued
by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC are from Southern Nigeria,
not the “Muslim North.”
Mr. Pickthall seems to have an answer and
analysis for that difference which we will bring when next we write on it.