Chapter X: Remembrance of Death
Some may ask: What is devil ? Has he got body? If he has got body, how can be enter into the soul of a man? These are useless talks. He who raises such arguments is like the man who, instead of removing a snake from his cloth, argues as to the shape, form, length and breadth of the snake. This is sheer foolishness. When you know that evil thoughts arise in your mind and that they lead you to ruin, it is then clear that they are your enemies of whom you should take care. God says: The devil is your open enemy.
35:6. God says: Have I not told you : Don't follow the devil as he is your great enemy — 36 : 61 ? So everybody should take care of him and not ask about his birth death and other particulars.
THREE KINDS OF THOUGHT: (1) Bad thoughts lead to evils, (2) good thoughts lead to good and it is called Ilham and (3)
thoughts mixed with good and bad lead to doubt and it is not known whether they come from angels or devils. The devil cannot call majority of the pious men towards evil deeds. He presents doubt to them in the form of good and that is a great deception which destroys many people. For instance, he advises a learned man to make sermons, and to adorn his lectures with ornamental words. His objects is to throw him to a show of deeds and to generate in his mind greed for name and fame. He is then "
included among those men about whom the Prophet said : God will help this religion with such men who will have no share in religion. There is in another Hadis that God will help the religion by a transgressor.
DECEPTION OF DEVIL: It has been narrated that the devil once came to Jesus and told him : Say : there is no deity but God.
He said : This is a true word, but I will not utter it in obedience to your dictation. Every man should know the source of thought, whether it comes from the angel or from the devil. He should examine it by deep insight and not by dictates of passion and low desires. It will not be disclosed to him except by the light of God-fear arid deep knowledge. God says : When a party of devil attack the God-fearing, they remember God — 7 : 201. In other words, they return to the light of knowledge.
The means of saving oneself from the machinations of the devil is to shut up the doors of thoughts which are the five senses,
Vol-M The Book of Destructive evils 35
secret sexual passion and worldly connections. The doors of five senses are shut up if he stays alone in a dark room. The secret door of the devil is shut up if he lives separate from his family members and his properties. In this way, the door of ideas remains open in soul. It will not be closed if the soul is not kept engaged in the remembrance of God. Even the devil tries to make him forgetful of it. This fight continues till his death. So long as he lives, he does not get released from the devil. The door of passion, hatred and greed remains open towards the soul.