Those who disbelieve (Part 2) – Iblis and You.

Author: Harris Abdullah

From Part 1 we saw that the matter of disobedience and the punishment for sin is very absolute because we are dealing with an absolute God who is Holy and cannot tolerate sin. That causes the fall of Iblis and also the fall of Adam. After Iblis was rejected by Allah, he was banished from heaven and would relentlessly lead mankind astray. This matter is so serious; what exactly is implied here? What is the Quran trying to say? It is as though mankind in general is literally controlled or influenced by Iblis as stated in Surah 7:16-17; 15:39; 17:62-64; 38:82.

Surah 7: 16,17 He said: “because Thou hast thrown me out of the way lo! I will lie in wait for them on Thy straight way. Then will I assault them from before them and behind them from their right and their left: nor wilt Thou find in most of them gratitude (for Thy mercies).

Even in the Injil (Bible), there is a verse in the first letter of Peter that says about the attack of Satan on Allah’s believers.

1 Peter 5:8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Mankind is in Iblis’ clutches. Iblis said he will surely bring Adam’s descendants under his sway – all except a few i.e. only a few will either survive the attack of Satan or not be attacked.  Allah said those who follow Satan will end up in hell.

Surah 17: 62 – 63 He said: “Seest Thou? this is the one whom Thou hast honoured above me! If Thou wilt but respite me to the Day of Judgment, I will surely bring his descendants under my sway – all but a few!” (Allah) said: “Go thy way; if any of them follow thee, verily Hell will be the recompense of you (all)- an ample recompense.

Did we read the Quran correctly? Only a few will manage to be victorious and enter into Paradise. So, what happen to the multitude? They will fall and end up in hell like Satan. Do we have eyes to see or do we choose to ignore and think that our salvation is sealed/guaranteed just because we had uttered the Kalimat ash-Shahādah (Arabic: كلمة الشهادة) and became a Muslim. If this could save us, then Al-Quran does not need to warn us about Satan’s scheme and put Allah’s people on alert. If it is so difficult for the believers to be saved, how much more difficult it is for the unbelievers to be saved. This is stressed even more in the Injil (Bible) in 1 Peter 4:18 AND IF IT IS WITH DIFFICULTY THAT THE RIGHTEOUS IS SAVED, WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE GODLESS MAN AND THE SINNER? Apparently, we cannot deny that the followers of Isa understand that salvation is not something so easily attained eg. just by professing to believe in Isa. The reminder that only a few will emerge as victorious should not be taken lightly because it just throws light on  many will simply fall along the way in this battle with Iblis.

The irony is many who profess as Muslims, the same goes for the Christians/Jews, do not even realize they are at the side of Iblis. Their love for money, material possession and all kinds of carnal covetousness make them succumb to a lot of temptations and corrupt practices. They have been swayed but do they realize they have been swayed by Iblis? Perhaps we can say that a Muslim who commits sin knowingly is an unreligious person who does not pray, fast, do good works etc. otherwise he should have the power to resist sin. We will see later if these are the reasons. Come to think of it, the Jews have many laws, the Muslims have fewer laws and the Christians have the fewest being the simplest form of religion. Does the observance of religious rituals able to save a person, I wonder?

Another verse that relates to this is found in the Injil (Bible) in the first letter of John, 1 Jn 5:19

1 John 5:19  ¶ We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

From this statement lie some very powerful words of conviction: “We know that we are of God”. How do you know? Is there anywhere in the Quran that mentioned this? I believe there are many places where the Quran had mentioned this matter even by way of implication.  A verse in the Quran mentioning this quite directly that you belong to Allah is in Surah 2:257: Allah is the Protector of those who have faith: from the depths of darkness He will lead them forth into light. Of those who reject faith the patrons are the evil ones: from light they will lead them forth into the depths of darkness. They will be companions of the fire, to dwell therein (For ever). (cross ref.: Surah 2:39).

Therefore, from this verse, we could deduce that you belong either to the light or to darkness; this very much echoes with the Injil (Bible). Allah has brought you out of darkness, the dominion of Satan into the light, the dominion of Allah/Yahweh.

1 Peter 2:9  But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for Yahweh’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Yahweh who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

Another verse is Surah 18:50 which is more indirect or tacit that gives even much more wonderful insight:

وَإِذْ قُلْنَا لِلْمَلاَئِكَةِ اسْجُدُوا لِآدَمَ فَسَجَدُوا إِلاَّ إِبْلِيسَ كَانَ مِنَ الْجِنِّ فَفَسَقَ عَنْ أَمْرِ رَبِّهِ أَفَتَتَّخِذُونَهُ وَذُرِّيَّتَهُ أَوْلِيَاءَ مِن دُونِيوَهُمْ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ بِئْسَ لِلظَّالِمِينَ بَدَلاً

Behold! We said to the angels, “Bow down to Adam”: They bowed down except Iblis. He was one of the Jinns, and he broke the Command of his Lord. Will ye then take him and his progeny as protectors rather than Me? And they are enemies to you! Evil would be the exchange for the wrong-doers! (Yusuf Ali)

And when We said to the angels: Make obeisance to Adam; they made obeisance but Iblis (did it not). He was of the jinn, so he transgressed the commandment of his Lord. What! would you then take him and his offspring for friends rather than Me, and they are your enemies? Evil is (this) change for the unjust. (Shakir)

And [mention] when We said to the angels, “Prostrate to Adam,” and they prostrated, except for Iblees. He was of the jinn and departed from the command of his Lord. Then will you take him and his descendants as allies other than Me while they are enemies to you? Wretched it is for the wrongdoers as an exchange. (Saheeh)

The Arabic word that we are looking at is أَوْلِيَاءَ (awliyāa). It has been translated into three different words: Protectors, Friends and Allies. Another Arabic word used for the same idea is خَلِيلاً (khalīlan) that can be found in Surah 4:125:

وَمَنْ أَحْسَنُ دِينًا مِّمَّنْ أَسْلَمَ وَجْهَهُ لِلَّهِ وَهُوَ مُحْسِنٌ واتَّبَعَ مِلَّةَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ حَنِيفًا وَاتَّخَذَ اللّهُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ خَلِيلاً

Who can be better in religion than one who submits his whole self to Allah, does good, and follows the way of Abraham the true in Faith? For Allah did take Abraham for a friend.

Awliyāa implies that Allah becomes the protector and allies, more incline towards a picture of war situation, for those who follow or choose Allah. Khalīlan is to stress Allah’s close friendship such as with Abraham. Isn’t this amazing and wonderful that Allah/Yahweh wants us to choose Him to be our protector, ally and much more than these, as a friend just like Abraham’s faith that leads him into a closer friendship type of relation with Allah/Yahweh. Other scriptural verses that echo with the Quran are found in the Taurat and the Injil that repeatedly mention our forefather’s important relationship with Allah/Yahweh:

Isaiah 41:8 “But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, Descendant of Abraham My friend,

James 2:23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS,” and he was called the friend of God.

The Quran keeps on stressing to follow the faith of Abraham. We will look closer about this faith later on and let us come back to the question of warning from the Quran. A rhetorical question from Allah:  “Would you take Iblis as friend/ally….rather than Me?”  How could you see Iblis and purposely choose to be allied with him or take him as protector? Could the masses of people see Iblis and follow him? How to understand this? There is also another verse that is found in the Injil in the Book of John, where Isa Al-Masih rebuked the Jews (mainly referred to the religious authorities – the Pharisees/Scribes/High Priests) at that time with shocking words:

John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

So, from the Injil (John 8: 44), does it mean that these Jews were conceived through the devil? That somehow throughout the Jewish history, the devil has been busying himself through physical relationships, impregnated a lot of Jewish women and thus having the generation of Jews from the devil? I believe this idea is quite outrageous, absurd and could not be what the scripture is revealing to us at all. This is very important in order to get the answer to the question: How does a person choose Iblis and allow him to be the ally instead of Allah? Could anyone see Iblis and purposely choose him? Furthermore, in what way would you have chosen Iblis without even knowing it? Precisely the Jews were not aware of that, as they said previously “Abraham is our father” – (ref. John 8:39).

Who were the Jews? They are the chosen race of God. The Jews observed the law of Allah given to them through prophet Moses; they are religious; they are the people of the law. You might fall in the same category as the Jews saying that you have prophet Muhammad S.A.W. as your ancestor. However, why is it Al-Masih Isa said that they were the sons of devil and they wanted to do the desires of devil, their father? Does not this statement send shivers down our spines? And you even consider yourselves religious because you perform all the requirements of religion but to your horror, you are told in the last day that being religious is not what it takes to get to the Garden of Paradise. How pathetic are the religious people like the Jews (or even yourself) as mentioned by Isa Al-Masih who were very religious! Could it be that being religious is the subtlest kind of deception by the devil to sway people from Allah? Otherwise, why would Isa Al-Masih make such a strong and direct statement without mincing words towards the Jews? (It also applies to the Christians and Muslims).  Let us look at another remark made by Isa Al-Masih towards the scribes and Pharisees in the Injil, Matthew 23:27-28,33

²⁷ ¶ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.  ²⁸ “So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. ³³ “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?

Now we have a clearer picture of the true condition of the teachers of the law and Pharisees. Externally they appeared righteous but internally they were actually full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. For this, Jesus described them as whitewashed tombs and hell is awaiting them. (Note: For our Muslim brethren who are adamant that the Gospels have been changed, common sense should tell them that of all things the Jews ought to change are these kinds of verses. Why would the Jews want to abase themselves so terribly except that the Jews and the disciples of Al-Masih Isa wanted to be faithful to the truth). Allah is not concerned with the external; He looks at our hearts, the inward part of us.  We cannot use the external to cover the ugliness of the internal because Allah knows all and sees all. Here, it is clear that Isa Al-Masih was talking about nature; that they shared the same nature or characteristics and values with the devil – full of hypocrisy and sin-bound heart. That is the reason as to why the devil or Iblis can and will be able to influence the masses of people.

If you do not choose Allah/Yahweh, you have chosen Iblis without even knowing it. As a result, there is a saying “Good tree bears good fruit, bad tree bears bad fruit” which is taught by Al-Masih Isa in the Injil, Matthew 7:17-18 ¹⁷ “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.  ¹⁸ “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. The same teaching is repeated in Luke 6:43-45  ⁴³ ¶ “For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, nor, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit.  ⁴⁴ “For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush. ⁴⁵ “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.

That is why very unfortunately there are a lot of Muslims believers as well as Christians and Jews who do a lot of things which are unacceptable because they just could not control it. Hence, religion does not save anyone. You could even be a follower of Buddhism which I believe is a very much purer form of religion than many mainstream religions but you still share the same nature, values and characteristics of Iblis within you. There are powers inside you that you know you are unable to control. For example, pride. There was a Buddhist monk who spoke honestly to a friend that whenever people called him teacher, he would float on cloud 9, he just could not control the pride in his heart, he felt so good to hear whenever people called him teacher, he was full of himself, which was ironically a complete contradiction to his belief that was to deny himself. Hence the saying goes, knowing is one thing; to do it from the heart is another thing.

Alright, you might want to say that just by believing Allah and His prophets, you belong to Allah. It is no different from the devil who believes in Allah’s existence and also the prophets’ existence but that neither saves him nor does he belong to Allah. I would again remind you that when Isa Al-Masih rebuked the Jews, they too believed in the one and only Yahweh/Allah, there is only one God.

Another excuse you could say, “It is Allah who made me with this nature, whether we win or lose the battle/fight with the devil is all dependent on Allah because that is the way He made me.” Is this type of mindset correct? In addition to this mindset, you could do all the religious obligations but you still do not belong to Allah, except that you belong to a religion because that is what religion does, just as the Jews were doing when Isa Al-Masih rebuked them so strongly. It is not what you do externally that you belong to Allah. It is ‘who you are’ that you belong to Allah. Let us see what the Al Quran says.

The words of Al-Masih Isa in the Injil are echoed in Surah 14: 24-26 Seest thou not how Allah sets forth a parable? – A goodly word like a goodly tree, whose root is firmly fixed, and its branches (reach) to the heavens. It brings forth its fruit at all times, by the leave of its Lord. So Allah sets forth parables for men, in order that they may receive admonition. And the parable of an evil Word is that of an evil tree: It is torn up by the root from the surface of the earth: it has no stability. Surah 14: 27 Allah will establish in strength those who believe, with the word that stands firm, in this world and in the Hereafter; but Allah will leave, to stray, those who do wrong: Allah doeth what He willeth.

I remember when I was young our home had a few of mango trees. The trees could not grow healthily and looked sick because there were termites making nests in those trees. We had no choice but to chop down and uproot those mango trees. We went to the extent of changing the soil in the garden and engaged professional service to get rid of termites so that we will not have problem with termites anymore. Later we had new soil and planted new trees that grow healthily. Sin is like those termites and the tree is a symbolism for people. When sin infests our lives, it basically ruins our lives like the termites ruined the trees. The only way to treat the issue of sin is to uproot it, like uprooting the trees. When we say uproot, we are putting to death the trees because they are no longer treatable. The trees have to die, likewise we have to die but we cannot die physically like the trees. I remember watching movies that depicted movie characters that are bad but eventually turned good. The actors will say something like “I am a new person, the old me has died”.  The person who has died to the old life is a new person. The sick tree cannot kill itself, someone has to kill it. You cannot put your old sinful life to death; Allah has to do it for you. The new life like the new tree would be able to flourish, it is established in strength with Allah’s word (Surah 4: 27). In order to be strengthened by the word, one has to first receive the word.

Isa Al-Masih said in John 8:31-32   ³¹ ¶ So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;  ³² and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”  As true Muslims, we ought to know that Isa is the Word of Allah and Ruh from Allah (Surah 4: 171). The word of Isa is the word of Allah, is it not? The word of Isa is the word of truth which will set us free. Experientially, it has to be applied into your life and transform your life.

These are the revelations that were given to Prophet Mohammed S.A.W. May Allah S.W.T guide and lead you to the truth.

Note:

1. All Al-Quran verses are sourced from English Translation of Al-Quran by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, with thanks.
2. All Injil and Torah verses are sourced from New American Standard Bible with Codes (1995), with thanks.