Page 48 - Why Do You Deceive Yourself ?

46 WHY DO YOU DECEIVE YOURSELF?

order to think deeply about realities and not fall into error. What
should not be forgotten is that everybody has an enemy: Satan. Since
Satan does not want people to turn to Allah by reflecting and thereby
discerning the truth, he will definitely try to prevent them from doing
so. He will start by presenting people with cunning blandishments.
Amongst the most effective of these is the lie that they can be ex-
empted from responsibility by not thinking. People who fall for this
imagine they can protect themselves by saying, "I didn't know" or
"Nobody told me," but they are deceiving themselves.

While people are playing this trick on themselves, Allah, Who is
closer to them than their own skin, is aware of everything they do and
of their every heedless thought. As a result, a person who avoids see-
ing his responsibility to Allah is really falling into a trap of his own
making. By failing to think, he is only fooling himself. When he goes to
the Hereafter, he will see the truths he has been evading and will
clearly understand that insincere excuses such as, "I didn't know, it
didn't cross my mind, I didn't think about it," are worthless when he is
called to account in the presence of Allah.
In a verse of the Qur'an, Allah warns people that the Day of
Judgment is, "The Day when the excuses of the wrongdoers will not
help them" (Surah Ghafir: 52). We are also informed of this truth in
other verses:
On that Day the excuses of those who did wrong will not

help them nor will they be able to appease Allah. (Surat ar-
Rum: 57)

People who say: "I knew but the time and
the conditions were not right"

Allah has sent the Qur'an as a book to guide people. Until the Day