The Greater Striving (Striving of the Self)

The Greater Striving (Striving of the Self)

The human heart lies between two fingers (influences)^[9] of the Abundantly Merciful:^[10] one is Satan, darkness, and ignorance; the other is an angel, light, and intellect.

Since the heart lies between these two fingers, striving against the self means moving with the angel, the light, and the intellect toward God while rejecting Satan, darkness, and ignorance.

These weapons range from the obvious to the hidden and from the weak to the powerful. Each person is targeted through the means most effective against them, for every type of person has a weapon particularly suited to leading them astray.

Following the principle of “Know your enemy,” I will discuss these weapons so that those who wish to engage in the greater striving may come to know their enemy and thereby save themselves from the Fire, fortify themselves, and equip themselves with what is necessary, so that they do not become easy targets for Satan (may God curse him).

It is necessary to know first-before all else-that the motives that lead human beings astray are intertwined and complex. Satan draws upon this complex mixture in whatever way suits each individual in order to mislead them. Human beings live in this material world and are tested through it during this present life. Therefore, the human self and its surroundings are the focus of our discussion regarding Satan’s weapons, for Satan (may God curse him) uses the self and its surroundings as the means by which he deceives human beings and casts them into the abyss of Hell. The human being’s surroundings consist of the material world, or worldly life.

The discussion focuses on two aspects: the worldly life along with the human self and the human self alone. This is because Satan’s weapon is either:

(1) the material world in combination with the human self; or (2) something that arises from within the human self.

In the first case, the weapon is the material world together with the human self, like a knife and a body into which it is thrust. Take, for example, a man and a woman who commit fornication. Satan uses either the woman or the man while also exploiting the sexual weakness within the person he seeks to seduce and cast into the abyss. In the case of a man who disobeys God through fornication, for instance, the woman is the knife Satan uses to strike him, and his sexual weakness is the point at which the blow lands.

In the second case, the weapon comes from within the human self. Here, the knife and the point of injury are one and the same: the self. Nothing external from the material world is involved in this case. An example is self-admiration.

Therefore, we need to understand the knife (the world), the body into which it is driven (the self), and the inner knife, which is a weapon taken from the self and thrust into the self.

If we are granted success, we will come to know Satan’s weapons in detail now that we have recognized them in a simpler form. We need both kinds of knowledge: the basic understanding, namely that the self and the worldly life are Satan’s weapons, and the more specific understanding, which I leave aside here because it develops out of this overall picture.

With this in mind, it is reasonable to first examine the worldly life and the human self from the perspective that they both serve as weapons of Satan.

1. The Knife (The Worldly Life)

The physical world surrounding the human being consists of inanimate objects, plants, animals, and people.

The human being’s relationship with these things may be one of harmony or conflict. For example, a person may love owning land, gold, silver, crops, livestock, and fulfilling his desire with the opposite sex. “Beautified for people is the love of desires: women, children, heaps of gold and silver, fine branded horses, livestock, and cultivated land. That is the enjoyment of the worldly life, but with God lies the best return.”^[11]

He may also dislike exposure to harm, such as being killed on the battlefield-which is among the possible outcomes of striving: “Fighting has been prescribed for you, though it is hateful to you. Yet it may be that you hate something while it is good for you, and it may be that you love something while it is bad for you. God knows, and you do not know.”^[12]

One must also understand that the worldly life is, in relation to the Hereafter, a rival that can never coexist with the Hereafter in a person’s heart.^[13] The two face opposite directions: when a person turns his attention to one, he necessarily turns away from the other. No one can hold both the worldly life and the Hereafter in his sight or his heart. God said: “Whoever desires the harvest of the Hereafter, We increase his harvest for him; and whoever desires the harvest of this world, We grant him from it, but he will have no share in the Hereafter.”^[14]

God also said: “Whoever desires this immediate life, We hasten for him therein whatever We will, for whomever We will. Then We appoint Hell for him, where he will burn, condemned and rejected. But whoever desires the Hereafter and exerts the effort it deserves while being a believer, it is those whose effort is appreciated.”^[15]

Satan’s weapon is formed from the material world surrounding a person and from the human self, especially its vulnerabilities and points of weakness.

2. The Self

The self is the root of affliction and the dwelling place of disease. If it had no vulnerabilities that the desires of this world could exploit, and if it did not harbor the root of every illness, namely the ego, Satan would have no way to reach a person. When the self is sound, the son of Adam is sound; when it is diseased, he becomes diseased; and when it dies, he dies.

Satan uses what is inside the self (the ego) to strike it. Thus, his weapon comes from the self, and the blow lands within the self. At other times, Satan exploits things in the world to strike the self through its vulnerabilities.

Now that we understand Satan’s weapon and how it is formed from the self and its surroundings, we can see why striving against the self is the greater striving: fortifying the self in this battle leads to victory over Satan, his defeat, and the breaking of his weapon.

As for a detailed account of the weapons of darkness, ignorance, and Satan, I leave that to this precious gem from the treasures of the Family of Muhammad. In it, they explained the soldiers of intellect and the soldiers of ignorance so that the believer may adorn himself with the soldiers of intellect after freeing himself from the soldiers of ignorance, complete his intellect, and seek refuge in God from the weapons of Satan.

Samaah ibn Mihran said:

I was with Imam Abu Abdullah and a group of his followers when the intellect and ignorance were mentioned. He said: “Know the intellect and its soldiers, and know ignorance and its soldiers, so that you may be guided.”

Samaah ibn Mihran said: “May I be of service to you-we know only what you have taught us.” Imam Abu Abdullah said: “God, Mighty and Exalted, created the intellect. It was the first creation from among the spiritual beings, created from the right side of the Throne from His light. Then He said to it, ‘Turn back,’ and it turned back. Then He said to it, ‘Come forward,’ and it came forward. God then said: ‘I created you as a great creation, and I have honored you above all My creation.’ Then He created ignorance from the dark, salty sea. He said to it, ‘Turn back,’ and it turned back. Then He said to it, ‘Come forward,’ but it did not come forward. So He said to it: ‘You have acted arrogantly,’ and He cursed it. Then He granted the intellect seventy-five soldiers.

When ignorance saw the honor that God had given the intellect and what He had bestowed upon it, it harbored enmity toward the intellect and said, ‘My Lord, this is a creature like me. You created, honored, and strengthened it, while I am its opposite and have no power against it. So give me soldiers like the soldiers You gave it.’ God said, ‘Yes, but if you disobey after this, I will cast you and your soldiers out of My mercy.’ Ignorance said: ‘I accept.’ So God gave it seventy-five soldiers:

Goodness, which is the minister of the intellect, and its opposite: evil, which is the minister of ignorance.

Faith and its opposite: disbelief.

Affirmation of truth and its opposite: denial.

Hope and its opposite: despair.

Justice and its opposite: injustice.

Contentment and its opposite: wrath.

Gratitude and its opposite: ingratitude.

Aspiration and its opposite: hopelessness.

Reliance upon God and its opposite: greed.

Compassion and its opposite: cruelty.

Mercy and its opposite: anger.

Knowledge and its opposite: ignorance.

Understanding and its opposite: foolishness.

Chastity and its opposite: moral shamelessness.

Asceticism and its opposite: worldly desires.

Gentleness and its opposite: harshness.

Reverent fear and its opposite: audacity.

Humility and its opposite: arrogance.

Deliberation and its opposite: haste.

Forbearance and its opposite: foolishness.

Silence and its opposite: pointless talk.

Submission and its opposite: prideful refusal.

Acceptance and its opposite: doubt.

Patience and its opposite: distress.

Pardon and its opposite: revenge.

Contentment and its opposite: neediness.

Remembrance and its opposite: heedlessness.

Retention and its opposite: forgetfulness.

Kindness to others and its opposite: severing ties.

Contentment and its opposite: greed.

Sharing and its opposite: withholding.

Affection and its opposite: enmity.

Loyalty and its opposite: betrayal.

Obedience and its opposite: disobedience.

Humility and its opposite: insolence.

Protection and its opposite: affliction (or harm).

Love and its opposite: hatred.

Honesty and its opposite: lying.

Truth and its opposite: falsehood.

Trustworthiness and its opposite: treachery.

Sincerity and its opposite: hypocrisy.

Courage and its opposite: cowardice.

Comprehension and its opposite: idiocy.

Recognition and its opposite: disavowal.

Tactfulness and its opposite: harsh bluntness.

Integrity toward others in their absence and its opposite: betrayal.

Discretion and its opposite: divulging secrets.

Prayer and its opposite: neglecting prayer.

Fasting and its opposite: breaking the fast.

Striving (jihad) and its opposite: cowardice.

Pilgrimage (Hajj), meaning belief in the divinely appointed authority, and its opposite: rejection of the covenant.

Safeguarding speech and its opposite: malicious gossip.

Honoring parents and its opposite: disobedience to them.

Truthfulness and its opposite: hypocrisy.

Enjoining good and its opposite: forbidding good.

Modesty and its opposite: immodest display.

Prudent concealment and its opposite: public disclosure.

Fair-mindedness and its opposite: blind partisanship.

Preparedness and its opposite: transgression.

Cleanliness and its opposite: filth.

Moral modesty and its opposite: indecency.

Moderation and its opposite: exceeding limits.

Ease and its opposite: hardship.

Blessing and its opposite: deprivation.

Well-being and its opposite: tribulation.

Moderate sufficiency and its opposite: excessive accumulation.

Wisdom and its opposite: following desires.

Respectful composure and its opposite: frivolity.

Happiness and its opposite: misery.

Repentance and its opposite: persistence in sin.

Seeking forgiveness and its opposite: complacent self-delusion.

Carefulness and its opposite: negligence.

Supplication and its opposite: arrogance (or refusal to ask God).

Diligence and its opposite: laziness.

Joy and its opposite: sorrow.

Harmony and its opposite: division.

Generosity and its opposite: stinginess.

All of these qualities belonging to the soldiers of the intellect come together only in a prophet, a prophet’s successor, or a believer whose heart God has tested for faith. As for the rest of our followers, none of them is free from some of those soldiers until these qualities [of the intellect] are complete within him and he purifies himself from the soldiers of ignorance. When that occurs, he will be in the highest rank alongside the prophets and successors…”

(That is, if he perfects his intellect, he will be among the inhabitants of the seventh heaven, the Heaven of the Intellect).

This rank is attained only by knowing the intellect and its soldiers, and by shunning ignorance and its soldiers. May God grant us and you success in obeying Him and attaining His pleasure.”^[16]