Part 4 (a) Iblis’ Ploy: Heart Therapy

Read the Table of Contents of Heart Therapy

Read Part 4: The Traps of Shatan

Iblis’s ploy is of six types; he perseveres with the human beings until he gets them to do one or more of these six evils:

1. Kufr, Shirk or Enmity to Allah and His Messenger: The first is Kufr (disbelief) and Shirk (enjoining partners with Allah) and enmity to Allah and His Messenger. If he gains this from the person, he has achieved his main goal with this individual.

   Shirk: Is the assigning of one of the rights of Allah to other than Allah.

   This is the first thing Iblis wants from a person and he tries his hardest to convince the person to associate partners with Allah, whether this be by means of negating Allah’s very existence or by directing acts of worship to other than Allah.

   Examples: The Christians follow Isa, and have thus fallen into his trap, as have the Hindus who worship many idols. Likewise, the atheists who believe that there is No God.

   Unfortunately, even some Muslims have fallen into this trap. And yet we are told,

   “the places of worship belong to Allah [alone], so do not make du’a to anyone alongside Allah.” (72:18)

   Moreover, we repeatedly declare in our salat that, “You alone we worship and you alone we seek aid from” (1:5).

   In spite of the Qur’an’s explicit injunctions to direct all worship and du’as exclusively to Allah, many Muslims direct their du’a to the Prophet or to those they consider as being righteous servants of Allah; claiming that this is not worship, even though the Prophet said, “Du’a is worship.” Some slaughter animals, sacrificing them for other than Allah, and others still take oaths by other than Allah, even though the Prophet said, “whoever takes an oath by other than Allah has certainly committed kufr or shirk.” All this is shirk, the first trap of Satan.

2. Bid’ah (Innovation): When unsuccessful in tempting the believer into kufr, shirk, or bid’ah, Iblis resorts to his second ploy and this is to entice the believer into committing bid’ah (Innovation in the religion)

   The Prophet (SAW) said, “The worst of affairs are the newly invented matters in the religion…” as well as, “Whoever introduces in this affair [i.e. religion] of ours that which is not from it, it will be rejected [from him].’

   Important Notes

   Iblis loves bid’ah more than immorality and disobedience because bid’ah harms the religion as well as the person who does it as, with the passing of time, people begin to attribute the bid’ah to Islam. This means that often those who partake in a bid’ah do not repent from it. In fact they think it to be a good and acceptable deed, one worthy of reward and acceptance from Allah, where as it is, in fact, a sin. We do not fully appreciate that the bid’ah is actually against the Message revealed to Muhammad being something other than that which was revealed to him.

   More crucially, however, the bid’ah is a gate to disbelief and polytheism.

3. Al Kaba’ir (Major Sins): If Iblis fails to entice the believer to commit shirk or kufr and cannot get him to practice that which is bid’ah, he seeks, instead, to occupy him with major sins.

   Iblis is all the more eager of getting a scholar to fall into a major sin as he is a person who is followed, in face were such a person to fall into major sins people would be repelled from him and also the religion. Such a person is an agent of Iblis, as without realising it he is, via his sins, directing people away from knowledge and its scholars.

   Major sins include things like adultery, which can ruin families and homes; drinking wine and taking intoxicants, which can also ruins a person’s life and family; gambling; being proud and arrogant; and so on.

   Important Benefit

   Every person sins but we should strive to be the best of sinners. The Prophet (SAW) said, “All the children of Adam are sinners. But the best of sinners are those who repent.”

   Iblis likes a person to fall into major sin and then despair of the mercy of Allah. This is because such a person wil not repent and will persist in his sin. This would be a misconception, however, as Allah tells Muhammad (SAW) to tell the believers

   Say: “O my Servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah: for Allah forgives all sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (39:53)

   However, there is a condition to this forgiveness and the next verse offers it,

   “Turn ye to your Lord (in repentance) and bow to His (Will), before the Penalty comes on you: after that ye shall not be helped. (39:54)

   Repentance and its Conditions

   The scholars mention four conditions of repentance:

   • Desisting from the sin with immediate effect
   • Feeling remorse and regret at perpetrating the sin
   • Firmly resolving not to return to that sin
   • Seeking forgiveness: were the sin to involve the welfare of other than just the perpetrator then the forgiveness of those injured (in honor, wealth, life) must be sought, as well as Allah’s for as we are told, Allah does not forgive a person until the one he has injured has forgiven him.

   The remaining 3 points of Iblis ploy shall be : Part 4 (b) Iblis Ploy which shall be posted tomorrow, insha Allah…