Page 64 - Faith: The Way to Happiness

FAITH: THE WAY TO HAPPINESS

In addition to this, the effect of Satan on people is closely con-
nected with their closeness to Allah and their devotion to Him, in
short, with the sincerity of their faith. Satan can have no effect on
Allah's sincere servants. His effect is only on people who resist A l l a h
and ascribe partners to Him. In order to understand this better, we
need to know why Allah created Satan. As we are told in the verse, " . . .
to enable Us to know those who believe in the Hereafter from those
who are in doubt about it..." (Surah Saba: 21) Allah created Satan to
separate the believers from the unbelievers. On this point, it emerg e s
clearly which people Satan will have a more powerful influence on
and which he will be able to divert from the path of A l l a h .
Allah tells us that Satan is the open enemy of humanity and
that people should make Satan their enemy in the verse, "Satan is
your enemy so treat him as an enemy. He summons his party so
they will be among the people of the Searing Blaze." (Surah Fatir:
6) A person's ability to succeed against an enemy and defeat him is
connected to his knowledge of the enemy and of the methods and
tactics he employs. In short, a person should know his enemy very
well. Because of the Qur'an which Allah Himself sent down, believ-
ers know Satan very well and they know very well how to fight him.
This is an indication of how weak and ineffective Satan's influence
on believers is. Satan will try to corrupt sincere believers as he tries
to corrupt all of humanity, but he will never be successful. Because
believers base their lives on the facts communicated by Allah in the
Qur'an which He sent down, they can see the traps of Satan and the
best ways to avoid them. Allah describes this committed and sincere
behavior of believers in the Qur'an:
If an evil impulse from Satan provokes you, seek refuge in
Allah. He is All-Hearing, All-Seeing. As for those who guard
against evil, when they are bothered by visitors from Satan,

62