Salaam’alykum my dearest brothers and sisters. Hope you are in good state of health and imaan. For the benefit of those who could'nt make it for the recent sharing session, here’s a summary of the topic for you.
NYPMSN Sharing Session
"Beautiful on the outside, Betrayal on the inside." - Rafflesia
Date: 8 June 2013
Sharing Session Led By: Brother Zaki & Brother Syazwan Khan
Topic: Traps of Syaitaan
The Traps of Syaitaan
1) Makes sins seem nice
"Satan has made their deeds seem pleasing in their eyes." (an-Naml: 24)
The greatest activity of Satan is to present sins as nice and attractive things to people. The presentation of sins as good deeds by Satan can be likened to this: Someone puts bad things in good packing and makes people eat them as if they are sweet.
2) Causes delusions in prayer (salah)
Satan is disturbed when people do positive deeds; therefore, he struggles with people when they worship. If he can, he will prevent people from performing prayers. When he cannot do it, he tries to depreciate and harm prayers. He makes people delay performing prayers or makes people think about unnecessary things while performing prayers.
The Prophet stated the following:
“When the call for the prayer is pronounced, Satan takes to his heels, passing wind with noise, When the call for the prayer is finished, he comes back. And when the Iqama is pronounced, he again takes to his heels, and after its completion, he returns again to interfere between the praying person and his heart, saying to him. 'Remember this or that thing.' till the person forgets how many rakahs he has performed.” (Bukhari, Bad’u’l-Khalq, 11)
3) Proceeds to the target step by step
"O ye who believe! Follow not Satan's footsteps: if any will follow the footsteps of Satan he will (but) command what is indecent and wrong..." (an-Nur: 21; al-Baqarah: 168, 208; al-An’am:142)
Satan has a road map about everybody. Satan knows how to approach a person. For instance, he will not say to a person who performs prayers regularly five times a day, “That is enough. Do not perform prayers anymore!” Instead, he will persuade him to perform the morning prayer at home instead of the mosque; he will say, “The weather is cold; it is also your duty to take care of your health. Perform the prayer at home today.” In another phase, he will try to make him perform all his prayers at home. In the next phase, he will cause him not to wake up for the morning prayer. If he can, he will make him abandon prayers completely.
4) Shaytan makes people forget
Forgetting is one of the weaknesses of man. The most terrifying is to forget Allah, not to keep his promise he made to Him and to forget the orders and prohibitions of Allah. Such forgetfulness is complete heedlessness.
Allah states the following about such heedless people:
And be ye not like those who forgot Allah; and He made them forget themselves souls! such are the rebellious transgressors. (al-Hashr: 19)
They no longer look at their own souls; they keep themselves busy with others. For instance, they never notice their own faults but they always see the faults of others. They regard themselves as free from mistakes. They never remember that they will die one day. They daydream as if they will live in the world eternally.
5) Disbelief in the Oneness of God
The foundation of Islam is the belief in the Oneness of God - having no partner, equal, son or rivals. Conversely, the greatest sin is to ascribe partners or equals with Allah.
Examples include:
- Directing worship to other than God (e.g. prostrating or supplicating to other than God).
- Delegating some of God’s attributes to other objects or beings (e.g. idols/lucky charms).
- Claiming that God has a son, mother or any other partner.
Thus, tempting mankind into disbelief is Satan’s main focus. However, if Satan cannot mislead people to commit clear acts of disbelief, he resorts to more subtle means, such as the belief in superstitions, good luck charms, astrology and fortune telling. Such beliefs contradict the fact that Allah alone has power and knowledge over all things, and is the Only One Who can bring benefit or harm.
6) Neglecting Obligatory Deeds
“...Indeed, prayer prohibits immorality and wrongdoing...”(al-Ankabut:45)
Satan wants to
“...avert you from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer.” (al-Maidah: 91)
Allah has made certain actions obligatory on every Muslim, the most regular of which is the five daily prayers. Therefore, Satan seeks to make us neglectful of prayers so that we fall further into sin.
7) Gradual Deception
Similarly, in desiring to make people cease their obligatory religious acts, Satan initially convinces people to give up their optional acts of worship, which leads them to become lazy with the obligatory ones. He also tries to trivialise small sins, which eventually leads them down a slippery slope to major sins.
8) Beautifying Evil Deeds
“...And Satan made attractive to them that which they were doing.” (al-'Anam: 43)
"Satan has made their deeds pleasing to them and averted them from [His] way" (an-Naml: 24)
Satan presents sins to people in a favourable light, such as how he deceived Adam and Eve into eating from the tree. Satan whispered to Adam, saying:
“ ‘O Adam! Shall I lead you to the Tree of Eternity and to a kingdom that will never waste away?’ ” (Taha: 120)
Although Adam was surrounded by many permissible foods, Satan convinced him to eat from the tree which was forbidden. Similarly, Satan tricks people into forbidden acts instead of those which are permitted, such as fornication over marriage, music over the Qur’an, haram income over halal, and into the small percentage of prohibited food and drink over the vast majority that is wholesome and pure.
9) Wasting Time
If Satan cannot trap someone into sinning, he keeps them busy with trivial acts which have no benefit. Instead of using our time wisely, fulfilling our priorities and reaching high goals, Satan occupies us with useless actions.
Ways to Overcome
“Indeed, Satan is an enemy to you; so take him as an enemy...” (Fatir: 6)
1) Seek Help with Allah
Surah Al-Falaq and An-Nas of the Qu’ran may be used to regularly seek protection from Satan and we should recite them. We must realise that as long as we are alive, Satan will never give up attempting to mislead us. We must always be on our guard and constantly ask Allah for guidance and protection.
2) Seek Forgiveness
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “He who repents from sin is like one without sin.” (Hadith Ibn Majah)
If we succumb to Satan’s plots, by the Grace and Mercy of Allah we still have the opportunity to rectify our mistakes by acknowledging our wrongdoings and repenting to Allah.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “Satan said to the Lord of Glory, ‘By Your Glory O Lord, I will keep trying to misguide Your slaves so long as their souls are in their bodies.’ The Lord said, ‘By My Glory and Majesty, I will continue to forgive them so long as they ask My forgiveness.’ ” (Hadith Ahmad)
For repentance to be accepted, it must be sincere, with the intention of never committing that same sin again.
3) Avoid Sinful Environments
When Allah forbade Adam from one particular tree, He did not say, “do not eat from this tree” but rather, “do not come close to this tree.” (al-Baqarah: 35). We must therefore distance ourselves from anything that may lead to committing sin.
4) Keep Good Companionship
The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) advised, “A person is on the path of his close friend, so be careful whom you befriend.” (Tirmidhi)
5) Do Good Deeds
Keeping busy with religious deeds, especially prayer, is an excellent means of defeating Satan. If one occupies their time with good, they are less likely to be influenced by Satan’s tricks.
“And if an evil suggestion comes to you from Satan, then seek refuge in Allah. Indeed, He is Hearing and Knowing.” (Al-'Araf: 200)
Conclusion
The first step is to recognise Satan as our enemy. Satan’s power consists principally in his ability to deceive, so we need to understand his cunning tactics and approach, in order to better protect ourselves. We can only win if we are aware of his traps, and if we apply the strategies to defeat him.
May Allah protect us from the traps of syaiitan.
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