LYING
IS COOPERATION WITH SATAN
Satan: The first liar
In the Qur'an, Allah informs us about some of Satan's characteristics:
He only commands you to do evil and indecent acts and to say about Allah
what you do not know. (Surat al-Baqara, 2:169)
Lying is one of the bad effects that Satan has on people.
Satan convinces people that lying is an easy way out of their problems
and so inspires them to adopt that forbidden habit. People with weak faith
listen to his whispers. Abdul Qadir al-Jaylani, the eleventh century Muslim
thinker, drew attention to Satan's ability to make lies attractive with
these words: "What has Satan not done to you? He has made you love lies.
He has made evil acts seem attractive to you."9
Another of Satan's characteristics is that he was the first liar. After
Allah created Adam (as), the first man, He commanded all of the angels
to prostrate to him. All of the angels obeyed Allah's command, but out
of arrogance and jealousy, Satan (Iblis) did not obey. And so Allah dismissed
him from His presence and told him that he would be one of those who earned
the eternal torment of Hell in the Hereafter. Satan swore to divert people
from Allah's path, and started by trying to deceive Adam (as) and Eve,
his wife, by lying to them. Allah informs us of these lies in the following
verses:
Then Satan whispered to them, disclosing to them their private parts,
which had been concealed from them. He said: "Your Lord has only forbidden
you this tree, lest you become angels or among those who live forever."
He swore to them: "I am one of those who give you good advice." (Surat
al-A`raf, 7:20-21)
Satan deceived Adam (as) and Eve by lying. In addition, he presented
himself as extremely well-intentioned and said that he had done them a
favor by giving advice, a "fact" upon which he swore an oath. As we have
seen, swearing oaths and claiming to be well-intentioned would later come
to be among all liars' most defining characteristics.
In another verse, Allah informs us that Satan makes many promises to
people, even though he cannot fulfill them:
When the affair is decided, Satan will say: "Allah made
you a promise, a promise of truth, and I made you a promise but broke
my promise. I had no authority over you, except that I called you and
you responded to me. Do not, therefore, blame me but blame yourselves.
I cannot come to your aid nor you to mine. I reject the way you associated
me with Allah before." The wrongdoers will have a painful punishment.
(Surah Ibrahim, 14:22)
Satan lies all the time
While deciding or thinking about something, people listen to both the
voice of their conscience and the whispers of Satan. Believers who possess
wisdom and a conscience, who believe in Allah and the Hereafter, listen
to the voice of their conscience. Most others listen to the voice of Satan,
even though everything he says is a lie. For example, by telling a person
who wants to help the poor: "If you give this money to them, your own
cash will be reduced and you will have no security if something goes wrong
in the future," Satan tries to prevent them from performing good deeds.
Satan lies because whenever people do good deeds, Allah is their helper
and friend. Moreover, Allah is the One Who provides their sustenance.
People can try as much as they like to protect their money by being as
miserly as they wish, but they can obtain a profit only if Allah wills
it.
Satan tells those who intend to begin establishing prayers in accordance
with their conscience such things as: "Whatever happens, you can establish
prayer in the future when you get old. It doesn't matter if you don't
establish prayer now." This is a blatant lie, because nobody knows how
long they will live or when and where they will die. Therefore, instead
of postponing a good act, a person should perform it right away.
Satan also deceives a wrongdoer with empty promises and lies. He says
to a thief, for instance, things like: "You're in need. What's wrong with
your stealing this? Nobody is watching you anyway. This can't be counted
as theft, because it's something trivial." In reality, even if nobody
sees and notices, Allah is watching and listening at all times. In the
Qur'an, Allah warns people against Satan and tells us that he deceives
people and that those who are deceived will wind up in Hell:
He makes promises to them and fills them with false hopes. But what Satan
promises them is nothing but delusion. The shelter of such people will
be Hell. They will find no way to escape from it. (Surat an-Nisa', 4:120-21)
Another one of Satan's lies is that they can sin now and repent later.
A lot of people fall into this trap. In reality, however, this is just
another lie, because Allah informs us that He does not accept the repentance
of those who only repent when death comes to them. Committing any sin
with the intention to postpone one's repentance is a great insincerity,
and a path fraught with peril, for who knows when death will come? Allah
informs us of this in the following Qur'anic verse:
There is no repentance for people who persist in doing evil until death
comes to them and who then say: "Now I repent," nor for people who die
as unbelievers. We have prepared for them a painful punishment. (Surat
an-Nisa', 4:18)
For those who can see Satan's lies and avoid them, the only solution
is to know and live the Qur'an's morality. Doing so will allow them to
clearly see Satan's lies and insincerities, as well as those of their
own selves and of other people, and so they will be able to avoid these.
In the Qur'an, Allah informs us that, for believers, Satan's scheming
is very feeble:
Those who believe fight in the Way of Allah. Those who
disbelieve fight in the way of false gods. So fight the friends of Satan!
Satan's scheming is always feeble. (Surat an-Nisa', 4:76)
Lying demonstrates devotion to Satan
Lies and empty promises are among Satan's most defining traits. Given
that he is the source of all lying in people, any person who lies is listening
to Satan at that moment and showing his or her devotion to him. The reason
for this devotion is explained in the following verses:
What they call on apart from Him [Allah] are female idols. What they
call on is an arrogant Satan whom Allah has cursed. He [Satan] said: "I
will take a certain fixed proportion of Your servants." (Surat an-Nisa',
4:117-18)
Nobody wants to admit that he or she serves Satan or shows devotion to
him. However, those who spend their lives ignoring their conscience and
heeding the voice of Satan, which is always within them, are always true
to Satan. In the Qur'an, Allah gives us the following information about
such people:
If someone shuts his eyes to the remembrance of the All-Merciful, We
assign him a devil who becomes his bosom friend-they debar them from the
path, yet they still think they are guided-so that, when he reaches Us,
he says: "If only there was the distance of the two Easts between you
and me!" What an evil companion! It will not benefit you today, since
you did wrong, that you share equally in the punishment. (Surat az-Zukhruf,
43:36-39)
One of Satan's most telling characteristics is his constant belief that
he is always right. Therefore, he incites those people to whom he speaks
to believe that they are always right as well. As we can see in the verses
above, Satan's friends believe that they are guided.
People who lie always see justice and truth in themselves. They believe
that their lies are told for a very good reason. When such people say
that they are admitting their lies, they are serious only on a few minor
points and insist on not admitting any others, for they have not abandoned
their devotion to Satan.
Many people who read these lines may be unable to properly imagine what
devotion to Satan is. Those who are loyal to Satan are bound to their
ego, pride, personal interests, and wishes. Thus, they evade justice and
truth. Satan deceives people through such weaknesses, and uses various
methods to divert them from Allah's path. Given this, those who do not
behave honestly and confess their lies are serving Satan and displaying
their attachment to him. This means that Satan can deceive such people
on matters other than lying, thereby binding them to himself because their
self is not strong enough to make them abandon their lies and adopt the
Qur'anic morality. After a while, Satan can prevent them from getting
up for morning prayers, behaving in a self-sacrificing way, and performing
those tasks of which Allah approves.
Consequently, people need to sever all ties with Satan. A lot of people
think that heeding Satan from time to time is harmless. In fact, this
is one of Satan's methods. He accepts those who follow him on one point,
even though they conform to Allah's will on every other matter. For example,
if such people cannot exercise their willpower in order to stop lying,
this is a gain for Satan.
Those who obey Allah and show their devotion to Him at every moment hope
that He will be pleased with them. If they perform all types of worship,
sacrifice themselves, and show steadfast morality while still being capable
of lying, they are nevertheless showing their devotion to Satan in at
least one area of life.
Allah informs people of an important truth in the following verse:
They assign to Allah a share of the crops and livestock He has created,
saying: "This is for Allah,"-as they allege-"and this is for our idols."
Their idols' share does not reach Allah, whereas Allah's share reaches
their idols! What an evil judgment they make! (Surat al-An`am, 6:136)
Allah informs people who assign a share of their possessions to Him and
a share to their idols that they have made an evil judgment. People who
adhere to the morality and faith of which Allah approves can never give
any of their devotion or obedience to Satan, for such sincere believers
conform to His will at all times. They place Allah's will and mercy, as
well as Paradise, above any advantage that they might obtain by lying.
In the Qur'an, Allah tells us that religion belongs only to Him:
Indeed is the sincere religion not Allah's alone? People who take protectors
besides Him [say]: "We only worship them so that they may bring us nearer
to Allah." Allah will judge between them regarding the things about which
they differed. Allah does not guide anyone who is an ungrateful liar.
(Surat az-Zumar, 39:3)
In addition, sincere and obedient believers never engage in behavior
that would justify Satan, because Satan has said that a great majority
of people will follow him. Thus, he has started a war against the path
of Allah, and the more people who follow him, the greater he believes
his victory to be. Allah tells us about this satanic logic in the following
verses:
Iblis was correct in his assessment of them and they followed him, except
for a group of the believers. He had no authority over them, except to
enable Us to know those who believe in the Hereafter from those who are
in doubt about it. Your Lord is the Preserver of all things. (Surah Saba',
34:20-21)
As can be seen in Allah's verses, Satan is greatly deceived. He believes
that he gains by drawing people to his side. In fact, he can divert as
many people as he likes, but he will never gain anything from doing so.
He will live in the torment of Hell for eternity, along with those whom
he deceived. In addition, he plans his activities without realizing that
he has already fallen into a very big plan devised by Allah. As Allah
informs us in the verses above, He allows Satan to separate good people
from bad people. In other words, Satan is only a tool for testing people
in this worldly life, a means of revealing people's true faces, and thus
has no authority over people. However, he will not benefit in any way
even if he leads countless people away from Allah's path. On the contrary,
he will only ensure that more people are driven into Hell along with him.
Regardless of how deft Satan's methods are, the believers never engage
in any behavior that would justify them. They behave and speak in such
a way that they always show clearly and definitely that they are on Allah's
side.
According to their lives and their speech, as described in the Qur'an,
the Prophets are the best example of this. They always made Allah their
Friend and Protector, and were Satan's greatest enemies. Allah states
the difference between those who believe and those who do not in the following
terms:
Allah is the Protector of those who believe. He brings them out of the
darkness into the light. But those who do not believe have false deities
as protectors. They take them from the light into the darkness. Those
are the Companions of the Fire, remaining in it timelessly, forever. (Surat
al-Baqara, 2:257)
|