Page 17 - What the Qur'an Says about Liars and Their Methods

WHY PEOPLE LIE

Out of pride and conceit:
Conceit, one of Satan's characteristics, causes people to
distance themselves from upright morality and to adopt a
morality resembling that of Satan. Due to his arrogance, self-
love, and groundless pride, Satan disobeyed Allah and was
thrown out of His sight.
Satan, whose pride revealed itself in his clear disobedi-
ence and low morality, actually suffered even greater damage
to that pride and was cursed, discredited, and dismissed from
Allah's presence.
In the following verse, Allah tells us that Satan's disobedi-
ence only caused him to abase himself:
He [Allah] said: "Descend from it. It is not for you to
be arrogant in it. So get out! You are one of the
abased." (Surat al-A`raf, 7:13)
Satan's greatest abasement is that he will live in Hell,
where He will be tormented forever, because he set his pride
above all else.
Satan decided to guide people away from the true path,
just as he himself had deviated from it. For this reason, he uses
all of his power to entice people into sin. He encourages pride
and conceit, just like his own, so that people will end up harm-
ing themselves. Due to this attitude, arrogance, self-love, fail-
ure to admit errors or defects, and regarding oneself as

15