Secrets of the Hypocrites
Continuation of the book by Harun Yahya, The Secrets of the Hypocrites.
Satan Causes Them to Forget Allah
Satan has gained mastery over them and made them forget the remembrance of Allah . . .
Al-Mujadala: 19
In order for someone to be a hypocrite, he must first and foremost live within a community of believers and on whom he seeks to inflict harm, either openly or in secret.
The hypocrite works his way into a group of believers, as can be seen from the way he manages to adapt to their way of living, albeit on a temporary basis. Together with them, he recalls Allah and learns to read His verses. Nonetheless, he has turned from belief to denial. The position of hypocrites is revealed in one verse, thus:
That is because they have believed and then returned to disbelief. So their hearts have been sealed up and they cannot understand.
Al-Munafiqun: 3
But if someone believes in the existence and oneness of Allah and obeys the Qur’an, how can he suddenly deviate into denial of Allah?
Naturally this does not happen instantaneously. The hearts of the hypocrites are more prone to denial than to belief. Inciting these people of weak faith is, once again, the work of satan, who sets various snares in order to influence them and distract them away from the true path and into his own. The greatest of these traps is causing people to forget Allah.
Seeking to make the hypocrite forget Allah, satan approaches him with various strategies. Yet from reading the verses of the Qur’an, the hypocrite should know these strategies very well. He is therefore willingly caught in satan’s snare because, as is revealed in the Qur’an, he has the sickness of rebelliousness in his heart. That affliction of the hypocrites is revealed in one verse, in these terms:
There is a sickness in their hearts and Allah has increased their sickness. They will have a painful punishment on account of their denial.
Al-Baqara: 10
At this point, however, what must never be forgotten is that satan can influence only the weak in faith. He can never ensnare true, sincere believers in any way. The difference between the deviants and sincere believers is related in another verse:
[Allah said:] “You have no authority over any of My servants except for the misled who follow you.â€
Al-Hijr: 42
Satan, who constantly seeks to encourage the hypocrite toward arrogance, lack of submission and insincerity, will soon achieve his aim. The hypocrite, who has gone along with him unbelievably quickly out of the weakness of his faith, now stops even bothering to imitate the behavior of a true believer and starts displaying satanic behavior. He begins to display negative behavior towards believers, of a kind he had never exhibited before. For example, he flies into a sudden rage, panics, or behaves in a way that he thinks will harm believers. The influence of satan becomes especially apparent in times of difficulty or in the face of any damages he has suffered himself. The hypocrite who encounters a sudden unexpected difficulty fails to realize that this is taking place under the control of Allah, that he needs to be patient, and that Allah will hear his prayer. He starts to exhibit the exact opposite of the behavior any believer will display in times of difficulty. In the face of a test of his faith, the hypocrite displays a side of him never seen before. But this is the true face of the hypocrite, who has forgotten Allah and submitted to satan.
You see that it is by no means difficult for satan to turn a hypocrite away from the true path. In fact, satan merely calls people to the path of wickedness; it is the hypocrite himself who heeds that call and later fails to repent—and who does all this of his own free will:
He [satan] 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.
Saba’: 21
In the Hereafter, satan will slander those who followed after him and will declare, once again, that he never obliged them to do so, but that they followed him of their own desire:
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.
Ibrahim: 22
Satan Sows in Them the Seeds of Doubt
Anyone who believes in Allah with a sure and certain knowledge never doubts his faith for even a single moment, and seeks refuge in Allah against such a failing. The hypocrite, on the other hand, has doubts on the subject of faith. It is satan, of course, whom he has taken as his friend and in whose path he follows, who inspires these doubts in his heart.
[Satan said:] “I will lead them astray and fill them with false hopes. I will command them, and they will cut off cattle’s ears. I will command them, and they will change Allah’s creation.†Anyone who takes satan as his protector in place of Allah has clearly lost everything.
An-Nisa’: 119
As stated in this verse, satan seeks to instill in people doubts that are utterly hollow and ridiculous. However, those whose faith is weak regard these as extraordinarily important and adopt them with ease. Since they are far removed from the teachings of the Qur’an, they fail to display the kind of behavior it recommends in such situations:
If an evil impulse from satan provokes you, seek refuge in Allah. He is All-Hearing, All-Seeing.
Al-A‘raf: 200
Therefore, while believers are victorious over satan, hypocrites are inevitably overcome by him.
Satan Deceives Them with Promises
He makes promises to them and fills them with false hopes. But what satan promises them is nothing but delusion.
An-Nisa’: 120
Satan makes people empty promises, all of them directed towards the transient life of this world. Satan, who is rather clever despite not having the sort of wisdom given as a blessing to believers, looks for the gaps in everyone’s armor. These weaknesses are the “idols†that an individual may prefer over the approval of Allah.
By “idols,†one must not think only of the stone images before which pagans bow down and worship. An idol in this sense can be any concept, ideal, or even human being that one chooses in preference to religion. It can be rank, wealth, fame or beauty, or any persons whose possession of those qualities magnifies them in one’s esteem—or any of the transitory baubles of the life in this world. Satan’s promises can come in still other varieties, but are still nothing more than empty promises. That is because all of them are transient. On the day that a person is resurrected, he will find that nothing and nobody he valued in this world remains alongside him.
For hypocrites, however, with their lack of depth of understanding, it is not difficult to be taken in by such empty promises. Blindly devoted to the attractions of this world, hypocrites imagine that satan’s promises will come true and that they will benefit from going along with him. In fact, however, satan’s promises are merely intended to lead a person to Hell. They are of no use in this world, and especially not in the Hereafter. In Surat al-Hashr we are told:
They are like satan when he says to a human being, “Disbelieve,†and then when he disbelieves, says, “I wash my hands of you. Truly I fear Allah, the Lord of all the worlds.†The final fate of both of them is that they will be timelessly, forever in the Fire. That is the repayment of the wrongdoers.
Al-Hashr: 16-17
The only community that is not taken in by satan’s promises, and does not go along with him, is that of the believers. They are not open to the deceptions satan constantly whispers. Since they evaluate all events within a framework of reason and conscience, they never put any trust in his baseless promises.
11-19
2009
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