Being Sincerely Religious Without Deceiving Yourself

In the previous chapter we began by looking at what is around us, at
all the living and non-living things on the face of the Earth and in
the universe and as a result of these reflections we arrived at the
truth that the purpose of a person's creation is to serve Allah. Let
us begin this chapter by pointing out a very important matter.
http://www.harunyahya.com/books/fait...f/deceive2.php
How old are you now? Let's say you are 30 years old and that we go
back in time 30 years and 10 months. You did not yet exist on the face
of the Earth and neither was there any sign that you ever would.
Later, a sperm came together with an ovary and after a 9-month period
of growth you arrived in the world as a baby. That is, you came into
existence from nothing. First you were a single cell. Then the cell
divided and became two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two… Finally, you
came to be a living being made up of millions of cells with hands,
limbs, eyes, ears, a nose, blood circulation, a respiratory system,
and others. Although you were once a single cell, you turned into a
thinking, intelligent, seeing and feeling being with information,
knowledge and the capacity for pleasure. When you think about it, you
can easily understand what an extraordinary process this is.

How, then, did this miracle happen? How was an intelligent creature
produced by the combining of two parts, invisible to the naked eye,
and how did this creature come into the world as a baby complete in
all its parts? The answer to this is given in the following verses:

It is He Who created you from earth, then from a drop of sperm, then
from a clot of blood, then He brings you out as infants, then so you
may achieve full strength, then so you may become old men - though
some of you may die before that time - so that you may reach a
predetermined age and so that hopefully you will use your intellect.
It is He Who gives life and causes to die. When He decides on
something, He just says to it, "Be!" and it is. (Surah Ghafir: 67-68)

In these verses we are reminded that the Creator of all people
(including ourselves) and all living creatures is Allah, and when
faced with this truth people need to use their intelligence. A person
who uses his intelligence will arrive at the real purpose of creation
and give himself over to the religion of Allah. He will devote his
life to gaining His approval and mercy. In the Qur'an, Allah tells
people to stay away from delusions by reflecting on how they were
created:

O man! What has deluded you in respect of your Noble Lord? He Who
created you and formed you and proportioned you and assembled you in
whatever way He willed. Yes indeed! But still you deny the Judgment.
Standing over you are guardians, noble, recording, who know what you
do. (Surat al-Infitar: 6-12)

However, despite all these truths, man is prone to deluding himself
and straying from the true path by means of self-deception, and of
wasting his efforts on worthless things. Although every detail of the
world is miraculous in the extreme, he is inclined to fail to see and
feel this or, by ignoring the voice of his conscience, feign ignorance
about what he sees and feels. If a person does not think about the
existence and greatness of Allah, and does not use his intelligence,
he will be plunged into eternal regret because of his experiences in
the world. Because of this, people need to stop deceiving themselves
and bear in mind the fact that everything in the world was created for
a purpose, that all the good things they possess are given them as a
blessing and that they will be called to account for everything they
have done on the Day of Judgment.

Sincerity

People with a true and sincere faith neither deceive themselves nor
evade the truth on any subject because they have a powerful fear and
respect of Allah, and so they strenuously avoid jeopardizing the
chances of His approval and neglecting their duties to Him. However,
those defined in the Qur'an as "people who have sickness in their
hearts" are reluctant in their worship of Allah. Allah points these
people out in Surat an-Nisa': 72 by saying: "Among you there are
people who hang back." These people know the lifestyle and morality
that conform to the Qur'an but they show reluctance in this matter
because they are not sincere. They always find excuses for failing to
perform their worship. Because they are involved in this constant
search for excuses, they come up with false realities which will
deceive them or divert them from the truth whatever the situation or
circumstances. As Allah tells us in another verse, they "worship Allah
right on the edge" and do not devote themselves to Allah as they
should. The truth is that they only deceive themselves with their
insincere concept of worship. Allah explains this in the Qur'an:

Among the people there are some who say, "We believe in Allah and the
Last Day," when they are not believers. They think they deceive Allah
and those who believe. They deceive no one but themselves but they are
not aware of it. There is a sickness in their hearts and Allah has
increased their sickness. They will have a painful punishment on
account of their denial. (Surat al-Baqara: 8-10)

Sincerity is fundamental to the religion of Allah. If a person carries
out certain forms of worship reluctantly just out of habit or so as
not to attract criticism from others around him, he is deceiving only
himself, as we are told in the above verses. He cannot expect what he
does to have any value in the sight of Allah. In the Qur'an, Allah
warns us that acts of worship which are carried out reluctantly will
not be accepted:

Nothing prevents what they give from being accepted from them but the
fact that they have rejected Allah and His messenger, and that they
only come to prayer lethargically, and that they only give
reluctantly. (Surat at-Tawba: 54)

Insincere people have endless, inexhaustible excuses for avoiding
their responsibilities to Allah and wasting their lives on worldly
ambitions. In childhood, during their school years, when they enter
working life, while they are enjoying themselves, when they are happy,
when they are sad, the whole year round… Under all circumstances they
can come up with manufactured reasons for not worshipping and for
failing to follow Allah's instructions. In the chapters to come we
will illustrate the excuses people put forward with examples from
everyday life. What is important is that it should be realized that
people are insincere when they make these excuses because there can be
no reason whatsoever for people not to carry out Allah's instructions
while they are in this life. If a person tries to put forward such an
excuse, this just demonstrates his insincerity or lack of conviction.

A person who knows that Allah is with him at every moment, that He
sees and hears everything and knows and brings to light all that
people try to keep secret, will never attempt any insincerity in
serving Him. Such a person knows very well that if he tries to put
forward an excuse, Allah is aware of it before it even crosses his
lips and that He is aware, too, of the reluctance within a person who
is hesitant in his service to Him. He understands that such insincere
behavior will not go unpunished, so he also knows that self-deception
is no escape but will, on the contrary, cause him great harm. A person
like this never strays from seeking Allah's approval under any
circumstances because he has no weakness thanks to his firm faith in
Allah. He is unconditionally sincere at all times.

People who have sickness in their hearts do have a weakness in their
faith even if they do not deny Allah openly. That is to say, their
faith is dependent on certain conditions. They do not hesitate to
deviate from their religion the moment it comes into conflict with
their own comfort or their own advantage. At other times they try to
ease their consciences by carrying out whatever worship comes easily
to them.

These people very obviously deceive themselves but they can in no way
arrive at an awareness of this. If you do not want to fall into the
state of insincerity these people exhibit in the sight of Allah, be
careful not to deceive yourself. If your knowledge is not enough, you
can get to know our Lord best by reading the Qur'an because in this
Book, Allah introduces Himself to His servants. In this way, you will
be able to understand Allah's might and become a believer with a
complete and sincere faith. However, if you evaluate Allah and His
religion from a position of ignorance of the religion, you will fall
into errors from which there is no recovery. Do not forget that you
will only find salvation when you believe in Allah with a firm faith
and serve Him sincerely. This truth is also stated by our Prophet
(saas) thus:

Whoever meets Allah, without associating partners with Him, will enter
Paradise. (Sahih Muslim)

Faith in the Hereafter

As we have pointed out in previous chapters, a person who spends his
life pursuing his own desires and passions, doing worthless deeds and
failing to recognize the instructions and prohibitions of Allah does
not want to consider that in the Hereafter he will be resurrected,
called to account for everything he has done and treated accordingly.
Because of this, no matter how much his conscience is aware of the
existence of the Hereafter, he prefers to suppress his conscience and
deceives himself. This is, for example, one of the reasons people
adopt the belief in reincarnation which has become widespread in
recent times and according to which people return to the world after
death many times, in different places, at different times and with
different identities. This is because people who know that in the
Hereafter the punishment of Hell awaits them for what they have done,
or who at least grant the possibility of this, are made uncomfortable
by the fact that on dying they will enter the Hereafter. As a result
they joyfully accept such perverted beliefs or ideas, which are
completely outside of the truth, even though they are not supported by
the slightest evidence.

People who seek to deceive themselves in this way by making themselves
believe that there is no Hereafter have existed in every period of
history. Indeed, in the Qur'an Allah warns us about the way these
people avoid intelligent reasoning and common rationality, simply so
as to evade accepting the existence of the Hereafter and coming face
to face with its reality. These are some of the relevant verses:

They will say, "Are we to be restored to how we were when we have
become perished, worm-eaten bones?" They say, "That will clearly be a
losing restoration!" (Surat an-Nazi'at: 10-12)

As we can see from the verses above, people who reject the Hereafter
and resurrection are actually aware that the fact that they will be
resurrected will not be to their benefit, so as far as possible they
try not to let it cross their minds and using sophisticated speech and
twisted logic they attempt to cover it up and encourage others to do
the same. The Qur'an gives us this example:

He makes likenesses of Us and forgets his own creation, saying, "Who
will give life to bones when they are decayed?" Say, "He Who made them
in the first place will bring them back to life. He has total
knowledge of each created thing." (Surah Ya Sin: 78-79)

People who choose this method of deceiving themselves on the subject
of the Hereafter reflect this rationale in all their thinking and
behavior. There are no bounds to the excesses of a person who makes
himself believe that there will be no Judgment Day after death and no
eternal life in Paradise or Hell, because one of the reasons for
people to fear and avoid excess is the knowledge that what they do
will have its consequences in the Hereafter. By letting go of this
belief, they begin to belittle and neglect their responsibilities
towards Allah. Only people who believe in the Hereafter can be aware
that its repayment for ignoring the truth through self-deception
during the life of this world is great pain and suffering.

When you think a little, you can also easily see that everything
around you is not the work of chance but exists because of Allah's
boundless power, knowledge and control. In addition, as we are told in
the verses above, creating the Hereafter is an easy matter for our
Lord; and there can be no doubt whatsoever that it conforms to divine
justice. Be careful, and do not under any circumstances ignore these
truths and try to deceive yourself, because those who do so and avoid
facing the truth of the Hereafter will be unable to compensate for
their errors there and will live in eternal pain.

Obedience to Satan

The great majority of people do not know the true characteristics of
Satan and picture him as an imaginary being according to what they
have heard from other people and seen in the movies. So while some
people believe Satan has an independent power of his own (surely Allah
is beyond this) and grossly exaggerate him, others regard the
existence of Satan with scepticism and are unable to accept it. Even
if they grant the possibility that he may exist, they do not believe
that Satan has any effect on them whatsoever. Neither of these
positions are based on any information or evidence but result from
ignorant superstition. On this subject, as on all others, we can
obtain the most correct and reliable information from the true Book of
Allah. As our Prophet (saas) states, "The best word is the word of
Allah and the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad." (Sunan Ibn
Majah, Muqaddima, 7)

As we are told in the Qur'an, first and foremost Satan possesses no
independent power. He is a being created by Allah and wholly under His
control. Everything which happens in the world does so only because
Allah wills it. After being dismissed from Allah's presence, Satan
asked Allah to grant him a period until the end of the world. We are
told of his dismissal from Allah's presence and the period he was
granted as follows:

We created you and then formed you and then We said to the angels,
"Prostrate before Adam," and they prostrated - except for Iblis. He
was not among those who prostrated. He said, "What prevented you from
prostrating when I commanded you to?" He replied, "I am better than
him. You created me from fire and You created him from clay." He said,
"Descend from Heaven. It is not for you to be arrogant in it. So get
out! You are one of the abased." He said, "Grant me a reprieve until
the day they are raised up." He said, "You are one of the reprieved."
He said, "By Your misguidance of me, I will lie in ambush for them on
your straight path. Then I will come at them, from in front of them
and behind them, from their right and from their left. You will not
find most of them thankful." He said, "Get out of it, reviled and
driven out. As for those of them who follow you, I will fill up Hell
with every one of you." (Surat al-A'raf: 11-18)

After being condemned to the eternal torment of dismissal from Allah's
presence, Satan swore an oath to mislead people into his own perverted
ways and began his cunning operations. Allah made Satan's activities a
means of distinguishing between His faithful believers and those who
did not serve Him. Thus Satan's crafty games, traps and schemes are
aimed at every living person, that is, to everybody who is still
undergoing the test of life in this world. Satan will attempt to
deceive everybody, without exception. As a result, nobody should
regard himself as being immune to Satan's influence. If a person is
aware of this, he behaves with care and is able to detect even the
smallest of Satan's traps. However, if he regards Satan's influence as
something far away, he may very easily fall under this influence.
Because of this, Satan cannot influence Allah's sincere servants
because they never forget that he will try to divert them from the
true path, and so guard themselves carefully against him.

Satan's evil cunning can show itself anywhere. As a result of his
wiles, a person may fall into error on any matter he encounters in his
everyday life whether he is aware of this or not, and if he is not a
sincere believer this influence can take over his entire life so that
the outcome is that it drives him straight to Hell. That is exactly
Satan's purpose. Satan wants people to rebel against Allah and suffer
eternal torment. He never stops chasing them until they enter the
Fire. The purpose of all his traps, whether big or small, of his
watching and waiting for an opportunity, is to draw people to Hell
with himself. In one verse, Allah warns people against the enmity of
Satan:

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)

Obviously in this verse Allah informs us about a great danger. From
the dawn of humanity to the present, Satan has achieved his purpose
with countless people who do not believe in Allah. These verses of the
Qur'an tell us so:

Iblis was correct in his assessment of them and they followed him,
except for a group of the believers. He had no authority over them
except to enable Us to know those who believe in the Hereafter from
those who are in doubt about it. Your Lord is the Preserver of all
things. (Surah Saba': 20-21)

However, let us note right away that Allah has also told us that
Satan's power of deception is very weak (Surat an-Nisa': 76). As we
can see from the above verse, it is out of the question for Satan to
compel people. He does not have the power to do so. Satan merely
speaks to people and those who do not have a sincere faith in Allah
and reject the truth of the Hereafter heed his call and harm
themselves. We are told in the following verse of the Qur'an that
Satan himself will confess:

When the affair is decided Satan will say, "Allah made you a promise,
a promise of truth, and I made you a promise but broke my promise. I
had no authority over you, except that I called you and you responded
to me. Do not, therefore, blame me but blame yourselves. I cannot come
to your aid nor you to mine. I reject the way you associated me with
Allah before." The wrongdoers will have a painful punishment. (Surah
Ibrahim: 22)

Just as Satan's deception is weak, protection against the influence of
his harmful wiles is very easy. Allah tells us the ways of escaping
this influence:

If an evil impulse from Satan provokes you, seek refuge in Allah. He
is All-Hearing, All-Seeing. As for those who fear Allah, when they are
bothered by visitors from Satan, they remember and immediately see
clearly. (Surat al-A'raf: 200-201)

As we can clearly see in these verses, it is impossible for Satan to
have any influence on believers. The way to escape the negative
influence of Satan is to take refuge in Allah, the Possessor of
infinite power, and to reflect on what He has said in His Book. A
person who can think with a clear mind and see the truth without
falling into error is extremely careful in the face of Satan's
deception and instead of falling into his trap he destroys it with his
faith, determination and devotion to Allah.

However, most people do not think that such a danger to them exists.
For this reason, they cannot think of taking refuge in Allah when
faced with Satan's wiles. Satan approaches these misguided people with
guile, and whispers his blandishments in their ears and into their
hearts. One of the reasons why some people deceive themselves about
the truth is that they listen to these deceptions and blandishments
and follow the path to which Satan summons them.

So how can Satan persuade so many people who appear to be intelligent
to such unintelligent behavior? In what ways can he cause them to
deceive themselves and follow the path that leads to Hell?

In the coming pages, we will explain the situation of those people who
succumb to the wiles of Satan and the reasoning they use to deceive
themselves, and we will bring to light the shameful position into
which these people fall. We will draw attention to the ways in which
Satan deceives such people and drives them into Hell, and we will also
make it clear to sincere people that they should be careful in the
face of his cunning stratagems.

Making Excuses

In order to divert people from the path of Allah, Satan uses many
tactics to prevent them from worshipping Allah as He has instructed,
and from living the life of moral excellence taught in the Qur'an. One
of these tactics is to ensure that people put forward various excuses
for not being able to worship. In other words, Satan hands a person
excuses that make what he does seem reasonable. For example, to a
young person who knows that he has to worship Allah, he whispers that
he still has many years ahead of him in which to meet his
responsibilities fully but that at the moment, time and circumstances
are not suitable because he is away from home all day at work or at
school and that his friends may view him with contempt.

If the person does not have a sincere and powerful faith, he is
deceived 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
convince 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 related 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
what needed to be done, they had heard the teaching of our Prophet
(saas) and knew the religion of Allah well. However, in spite of
knowing the truth and continuing to carry out every other act of
worship that was incumbent on them, they still fell into Satan's trap.
Even though they knew that Muslims needed to be protected, they tried
to deceive themselves and other believers by claiming that they did
not know.

Another group amongst these people tried to escape by telling our
Prophet (saas): "Our wealth and families kept us occupied, so ask
forgiveness for us" (Surat al-Fath: 11). This was a statement made
under the influence of Satan. This is the only explanation for the
complete lack of conscience shown by those who were more preoccupied
with their own private concerns while all so many Muslims were in
danger of losing their lives.

The people in question knew perfectly well what they needed to do to
conform to Allah's instructions and earn His approval. In fact because
they knew that they were insincere, they tried to salve their
consciences with words by saying that they wanted our Prophet (saas)
to ask forgiveness for them. Although they were acting contrary to
their consciences, they managed to convince themselves of their own
lies to such an extent that they ended up feeling quite at ease with
their behavior. In the following verse of the Qur'an, Allah relates
the situation of insincere people who feel justified in their
avoidance of their religious obligations:

Those who were left behind were glad to stay behind the messenger of
Allah. They did not want to strive with their wealth and themselves in
the way of Allah. They said, "Do not go out to fight in the heat."
Say: "The fire of Hell is much hotter, if they only
understood." (Surat at-Tawba: 81)

Satan was able to seduce people with these excuses under the
conditions and in the atmosphere of the time of the Prophet (saas),
and there can be no doubt that he is trying to do the same thing to
people today with different blandishments and different excuses
because he is aware of everybody's weaknesses. He can make different
plans according to any circumstances and conditions. The people he
challenges may be scientists, professors, men of ideas, leaders,
common people, artists, in short people of every level of culture and
material wealth. Satan knows by which means he should approach all of
these people.

The only people Satan cannot influence despite his trying every
opportunity to do so are the sincere Muslims, as Allah mentions in the
Qur'an. Since they fear Allah and do whatever they can to avoid the
Fire, they take very deliberate precautions against Satan's trickery.
In addition to this they make the best use of their intelligence,
listen to their consciences and rely upon their faith in Allah.

The stratagems and tactics of Satan that we have described above are
aimed at everybody. In other words, you, too, are a person in danger
of coming under Satan's stealthy influence. This being the case, be
sincere in your faith, and do not fall into Satan's trap. Do not
forget that Satan is waiting for the opportunity to drag you into the
Fire along with himself and is making plans for you. At the first
opportunity he will cunningly go into action. Do not give Satan that
opportunity. He will whisper every possible excuse in your ear to
prevent you from following Allah's path and serving and worshipping
Him. Moreover he will try to present his case as very sensible and
reasonable. In this way he will try to persuade you by making you
deceive yourself.

By listening to your conscience you can easily detect what is
happening and protect yourself from the influence of Satan by
responding instead to the impulse which directs you to gain Allah's
approval. In this world, nothing is more important or urgent than
protecting yourself against the fire of Hell, so do not listen to the
suggestive persuasions with which Satan encourages you to deceive
yourself, because on the Day of Judgment no excuse will be acceptable.
As Allah tells us in His Book, He will not accept the presentation of
excuses.

This is the truth, so beware! Do not under any circumstances fool
yourself by imagining you can offer excuses for not living according
to the religion of Allah.

Diversions and Distractions

Another of Satan's tactics is to divert people into empty and
purposeless tasks. He paints activities and tasks that have nothing to
do with the approval of Allah in pretty colors and makes them appear
in an attractive and positive light. A person who falls for this ends
up devoting himself entirely to worldly plans, rewards and targets.

While he is diverted by these projects, it does not cross his mind
that one day his life in the world will end and that he will be called
to account in the presence of Allah. As we stated at the beginning of
this book, he wastes his entire life on fleeting ideals such as a
higher position, more money and investments and a brighter future. It
is obvious what a great mistake it is for a person who does not know
where and how he will die and has no guarantee that he will still be
alive from one second to the next, to pursue such fruitless ambitions
and calculations.

However, the great majority of people persuade themselves that it is
necessary for them to live like this. To console themselves, they opt
not to think about any of the things we have said in this book and
would rather continue their lives of self-deception. In line with
this, they regard every target they set for themselves as the most
important thing in the world. For instance, the most important aim of
a secretary is not to forget the boss's meetings; of a student, to
earn the highest possible marks; of a shop assistant, to sell the most
shoes on a given day; of a businessman, to win a major tender; of an
athlete, to take the biggest prize in his event; of a singer, to have
more people listen to his CDs; of a young girl, to wear the most
beautiful dress at a party she is going to; of a high school student,
to become the boyfriend of the school's most beautiful girl; of a
translator, to find the perfect words; and of a writer, to write the
most successful books and articles. Of course, in all these things it
is natural for a person to want to do and be the best but as we said
at the outset, they are not the most important tasks in a person's
life. There is no more important task for a person than earning
Allah's good pleasure and becoming a servant of Allah who deserves
Paradise.

If a person deceives himself, ignores the truth and believes that his
worldly desires are the sole purpose of life, he will suffer great
regret when suddenly, he finds himself face to face with death. Up to
that moment he has believed that the most important things were his
house, business, wife, car, diplomas, friends, family and circle of
business acquaintances; but at his first sight of the angel of death
he realizes how fleeting they were and that they were just parts of
his test in life. Immediately afterwards, with the boundless blessings
of the Garden on one side and violent physical and mental torment of
the Fire on the other, he suffers an insupportable helplessness and
regret when he gives the account of his deeds to Allah.

At that moment all that is important is what he has done to earn
Allah's approval; but this person has done nothing of the kind during
his life. He has not attempted to gain the approval of Allah. Then he
comes to understand with the greatest possible bitterness that all the
effort he devoted to the goals for which he grew old and wasted his
life, had neither meaning nor importance. The truth is that this is
not something he did not know. He knew in his conscience exactly what
would become of him but he chose to evade this by deceiving himself.
Allah tells us about the position of people like this in the verse:

.... Satan made their actions seem good to them and so debarred them
from the way, even though they were intelligent people. (Surat
al-'Ankabut: 38)

In other words, although they are capable of seeing the truth, these
people fall prey to Satan's deceptions and waste their lives on empty
tasks.

Allah tells us in these verses that accepting that they have done
wrong will do these people no good in the Hereafter:

And your Lord arrives with the angels rank upon rank and that Day Hell
is produced, that Day man will remember; but how will the remembrance
help him? He will say, "Oh! If only I had prepared in advance for this
life of mine!" That Day no one will punish as He punishes and no one
will shackle as He shackles. (Surat al-Fajr: 22-26)

In order not to be one of those who says, "if only… " in the
Hereafter, think right now about the real purpose of your life and
consider to what extent what you are doing serves this purpose. Be
careful! Do not deceive yourself into thinking that the empty and
purposeless tasks you do are worthwhile. This applies to everything
you do, every task you undertake throughout the day. Naturally, you
are going to work hard for many different things but your basic
purpose in doing all of them should be to earn Allah's approval and
His Paradise. If, in any task, you see no likelihood of Allah's
approving, and do not believe it will be to your advantage in the
Hereafter, give it up. Devote yourself only to tasks that you can see
are good and beneficial. Your conscience makes the distinction for you
in the best way possible. Listen to your conscience and take heed. Do
not let Satan divert you by making valueless and fleeting things seem
attractive.

False Promises

In his task of diverting people from the path of Allah, Satan does not
stop at making useless tasks seem attractive. He also makes a variety
of promises. Allah tells us about Satan's falsehood in this verse:

He [Satan] makes promises to them and fills them with false hopes. But
what Satan promises them is nothing but delusion. (Surat an-Nisa':
120)

People who come under the influence of Satan make themselves believe
they have long years ahead of them and pursue long-term plans.
Behaving as if they will live in this world forever, they lose Allah's
approval by devoting themselves to worldly ambitions such as money,
property, rank and position. In another verse, Allah relates that this
is another deception of Satan's:

Those who have turned back in their tracks after the guidance became
clear to them, it was Satan who talked them into it and filled them
with false hopes. (Surah Muhammad: 25)

Every person has wide ranging plans and schemes for thousands of
matters according to the situation and circumstances in which he finds
himself. Even if the plans of people from different professions, age
groups and social strata vary, they are all fundamentally worldly. For
example, a businessman's greatest ambition for the future is to own a
large factory. After he has achieved factory ownership, his greatest
ambition is to be able to market his goods worldwide. Or an artist
aims to be well known by everybody in his own country, loved and
respected and recognized as a great talent. When he succeeds in this,
his next target is to achieve the same thing on a world scale. We can
give examples of this type that concern many different people. In the
life of the world, these people work day and night to realize their
ambitions. They make many sacrifices, suffer many difficulties and
struggle to overcome problems and obstacles of all kinds.

But are their lives long enough to achieve what they want? Everybody
needs to think about this as a priority because success in none of the
plans outlined above is guaranteed. By contrast, it is certain that
death comes to everybody. In spite of this, these people make no plans
and preparations for the Hereafter. They devote the whole of their
lives to the realization of their worldly ambitions. They never even
consider that one day death will come and with it all their plans will
be abandoned incomplete, because Satan has made them promises as
described in the Qur'an, and they waste their lives by allowing
themselves to be deceived by these promises.

Instead of chasing long-term targets, a person should live in the way
Allah has shown us in the Qur'an, knowing that he is responsible to
Allah and will be called to account in His presence on the Day of
Judgment. If not, he may find himself excluded from the Garden because
of failure to prepare for eternal life and missing the opportunities
given to him. A person who wastes himself on worthless tasks during
the period that Allah has granted him will suffer great regret in the
Hereafter. We are warned of this:

… Did We not let you live long enough for anyone who was going to pay
heed to pay heed? (Surah Fatir: 37)

As we are told in the verse above, everybody is granted a period in
which to take advice and listen to the voice of his conscience. No
matter how much Satan tries to drive him onto the wrong path, a person
has the opportunity to ignore his call and follow the path of Allah.
The only means of doing this is sincere faith and trust in Allah. In
the Qur'an we are told that every effort Satan directs towards people
with these characteristics and every promise he makes will prove
futile:

[Allah said:] "Stir up any of them you can with your voice and rally
against them your cavalry and your infantry and share with them in
their children and their wealth and make them promises! The promise of
Satan is nothing but delusion. But as for My servants, you will not
have any authority over them." Your Lord suffices as a guardian.
(Surat al-Isra': 64-65)

Be careful and do not let Satan make you forget the place for which
you really need to prepare by having you pursue worldly ambitions and
long term plans. Do not deceive yourself by adopting worldly ideals
and fleeting ambitions and believing that you are doing something
worthwhile. Apply the following instruction of Allah without ever
letting it slip your mind at any moment of your life:

You who believe! Fear Allah and let each self look to what it has sent
forward for tomorrow. Fear Allah. Allah is aware of what you do. Do
not be like those who forgot Allah so He made them forget themselves.
Such people are the deviators. (Surat al-Hashr: 18-19)

Hamady wrote:
In the previous chapter we began by looking at what i

Such zeal to show you are a religious idiot.

Being sincerely 70's without deceiving yourself.

http://www.geocities.com/gmbajszar/sounds/70s_music.mp3

Being sincerely 70's without deceiving yourself.

http://www.geocities.com/gmbajszar/sounds/70s_music.mp3

Religion is music and art, as they call the Bible: The greatest work
of art ever made.

Being sincerely 70's without deceiving yourself.

http://www.geocities.com/gmbajszar/sounds/70s_music.mp3

Religion is music and art, as they call the Bible: The greatest work
of art ever made.

Religion is spiritual arts and humanities to be precise. Never mind,
that was stupid of me.

please don't send this to sci.anthropology.paleo - thanks


Op 30-10-2008 21:53, in artikel
,
schreef:

Being sincerely 70's without deceiving yourself.

http://www.geocities.com/gmbajszar/sounds/70s_music.mp3

Religion is music and art, as they call the Bible: The greatest work
of art ever made.

Religion is spiritual arts and humanities to be precise. Never mind,
that was stupid of me.

*please don't send this to sci.anthropology.paleo - thanks

Since when is music a problem? God damn you Americans, right original
poster?

*please don't send this to sci.anthropology.paleo - thanks

Since when is music a problem? God damn you Americans, right original
poster?

Americans are not romantic.

*please don't send this to sci.anthropology.paleo - thanks

Since when is music a problem? God damn you Americans, right original
poster?

Americans are not romantic.

End a synthetic world. New Direction finally after decades.

*please don't send this to sci.anthropology.paleo - thanks

Since when is music a problem? God damn you Americans, right original
poster?

Americans are not romantic.

End a synthetic world. New Direction finally after decades.

I am not saying America is not one of the most open and musical
countries in the World.
You know what I mean. Music is not a sin. A synthetic world is.