Page 34 - Why Do You Deceive Yourself ?

32 WHY DO YOU DECEIVE YOURSELF?

ceived by these whisperings, but Satan is not easily satisfied with this
and does not leave the person alone. As we said earlier, he will not
leave him until he is in Hell. He persuades the person that what he is
doing is reasonable and that he is right in acting this way until finally,
the person ends up as one who no longer observes the duties imposed
by Allah and who firmly believes he has good reasons for not doing so.
In fact, as we have pointed out before, everybody knows in his
conscience that it is necessary to serve Allah, Who created him.
However, for reasons presented by Satan as valid, he may at times con-

vince himself that it is not necessary. To put it another way, although
his conscience knows what should be done, he deceives himself for
various reasons and convinces himself of what is not correct.
In the Qur'an, Allah gives a number of examples of such people
who lose their sincerity as a result of Satan's blandishments. Amongst
these, we are given examples of people who lived in the time of our
Prophet (saas) and had weaknesses in their faith. Under the conditions
of the time, a war was in prospect and our Prophet (saas) urged people
to fight for what was right according to the instructions of the Qur'an,
but those classified by Allah as "people who have sickness in their
hearts" put forward all kinds of excuses for not going to war. This is re-
lated in the Qur'an as follows:
… They were told, "Come and fight in the way of Allah or at
least help defend us." They said, "If we knew how to fight,

we would certainly follow you." They were closer to disbelief
that day than to faith, saying with their mouths what was not
in their hearts. And Allah knows best what they are hiding.
(Surah Al 'Imran: 167)
It is blatantly obvious that those people had come under Satan's
influence, because in addition to being aware in their consciences of