Surely, Satan is your enemy, so take
him on as an enemy. Indeed, he invites his party
to become the companions of the inferno 11
We know that the Road to the eternal garden of bliss
has traps and obstacles been laid by our arch enemy,
the unseen entity who we know by the name of Shaytan.
To vanquish any enemy, we need to know his strategy
so that we can effectively counteract his evil designs.
God has given us the necessary means and intelligence
to defeat him, but first we must be fully aware.
The enemy’s strategy is geared towards accomplishing
one objective: Diverting us from the straight path
of God.
From the beginning of the conflict, Shaytan has
been implementing the same tactics to achieve his
evil objective - to mislead mankind. Looking back
at the story of Adam and his wife is a reminder
of the major weakness which affects all humanity
- gullibility; our susceptibility to lies. Shaytan
did not ask Adam and Eve to disobey God directly;
instead he fabricated a nice-sounding lie to mislead
them.
Another device Shaytan used to influence Adam and
Eve was to bring out their natural inclination to
want more than they already had - in other words,
Greed.
We all have weaknesses and that’s the way
human beings are made. But we are in serious danger
if we have no counterbalance to those weaknesses;
no virtues.
Here is a list of the deadly weaknesses, or obstacles,
used by the arch deceiver to remove us from the
path of Grace and ultimate happiness:
Pride is excessive belief
in one's own abilities, which interferes with
a person’s appreciation of God’s grace.
It has been called the sin from which all others
arise and it is why Iblis refused to bow before
Adam and became Shaytan.
Envy is the desire for
others' traits, status, abilities, or situation;
again it was why Iblis became so infuriated with
the creation of Adam.
Anger is manifested
in the individual who spurns love and opts instead
for fury, a tool used by Shaytan to get one human
being to try and eliminate or murder another.
Greed is the desire
for material wealth or gain, which leads a person
to believe that the blessings of God are limited,
so he endeavors to grab as much as he can for
himself and forget about others.
Laziness is the avoidance
of physical or spiritual endeavor or work, making
progress towards self improvement, impossible.
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The Holy Qur’an: 35:6 |
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