Iblis operates on two levels – on the level of each person and on the level of society. In other words, Iblis has a program for each of us individually and has a program for all of humanity. Let’s look at both of these levels.
Imam Baqir (A) says: “Every heart has two ears. Near one is an angel who guides to the straight path, and near the other is a shaitan who leads astray.”
The structure of a person is such that he has a center that controls the side of light and good – and this is the mind, akl.
And there is an opposite center that controls the side of evil and darkness – nafs ammara, which the Quran speaks of, “the soul that commands evil.”
The mind can be compared to a mirror facing the heavens, the first mind, the mind of Ahl al-Bayt… And this is a long question, here I just want to describe in general terms how everything is arranged and through what the shaitan can influence a person… That is, the mind of each of us is like a mirror in which the rays of the common mind of Ahl al-Bayt are reflected to one degree or another, which is the white light of the Throne, the name of Allah, “by which the heavens and the earth were illuminated,” or the Writing reed in Surah Nun. And this is the spirit that Allah breathed into Adam. Allah installed this mirror on the right side of the heart.
At the right ear of the heart is an angel called “muwakkal,” who helps it in all matters facing the light, that is, in submission and good, and behind him are armies of angels according to the number of types of good deeds.
Nafs ammara is also a mirror installed on the left side of the heart, facing the shaitan world, ignorance and darkness. And on the left ear of the heart stands shaitan, who helps nafs ammara in all bad deeds, and behind him are the armies of shaitans, equal to the number of evil deeds and abominations, whose number no one can count except Allah…
And so, while a person is alive, a war occurs between these two sides. If the side of light wins, the angel-muwaqqal kills the shaitan assigned to him. And if darkness wins, the angel leaves, and the shaitan begins to control this person alone, like a rider controls a horse.
So, the shaitan makes suggestions through the left ear of the heart… And it is clear that the “ear” here is just a symbol, do not think that the heart has real ears… In the du’a narrated by Sheikh Tusi in “Misbahu l-mutahajjid” from Imam Javad (A) it is said: wa auzu bika min kulli hiss – “and I seek refuge with You – that is, with Allah – from every hiss”. What is hiss? Hiss in this case is unclear, weak, sounds or voices that come from nowhere. They can even be indistinguishable, and usually they are. That is, the shaitan suggests something to a person, and he does not even understand it. Min kulli hissin wa Aein – “from every hiss and eye” – in this case, it means the evil eye, and special types of shaitans are responsible for it. Wa min sharri kulli suratin au hayalin au bayaazin au sawwaadin au misaal – “and I seek refuge with Allah from the evil of every image” – that is, those images that the shaitans, “or illusions – hayal – white or black or example” evoke in a person’s consciousness.
That is, the main means of shaitan is the impact on the human soul. He works with our psyche, so that we ourselves do not notice it. Shaitan is a weak and insignificant creature in himself, he is not comparable in strength with angels, for example. His strength comes from some of his abilities, from the connection with the human psyche. For example, the microbe of smallpox or plague can kill us. But what is this microbe in itself? A small, insignificant creature that, if left outside the human body, will immediately die. The same is shaitan. You should not imagine shaitan as almost an opponent of God, as something huge, monstrous, majestic. This is also the influence of Christian culture…
In reality, shaitan and his army, his descendants – this is … They are like clots of energy that we cannot see. For example, there are electromagnetic waves that we do not notice. Some parts of the spectrum are hidden from our senses. The same is shaitan and his army. These are intelligent clots of energy that we do not see.
And, for example, those people who worshiped idols and claimed that the idols communicated with them, in fact, they talked to them. Allah says in the Quran that We will ask those whom you worshiped besides Allah. What does this mean, Allah will ask a piece of wood? In fact, the shaitans spoke to people from these idols. It was not like the shaitan made the idol, that is, the piece of wood, talk. Iblis has no wilayat over the universe, he cannot create or change what Allah has created. All he has is influence on our soul.
“Say: I seek refuge with the Lord of the people, the King of the people, the God of the people from the evil of the whispering of the one who hides.” Khannas – Iblis and his army. “The Hidden One”, khannas is one of his names…
And just as there are suggestions of shaitan, there are also suggestions of angels from the right side of the heart. Suggestions of angels are such that when they happen, a person experiences peace, calm, a feeling of completeness… This means that an angel told you something. Usually then, as if a pleasant smell, aroma is felt… I think every believer has experienced this at some point. And it is amazing, at the mourning events for Imam Hussein, what happens there! In the hadiths it is said that everything there is filled with angels. And when you come there, you really think that you have ended up in some middle place between earth and heaven. The smell, the atmosphere, the state of mind – everything changes. These are the traces of the presence of angels.
So, the means of shaitan is what is called tahayulat. Impact on the psyche, causing fantasies, illusions, mistakes. For example, several people simultaneously begin to see something unusual… This does not exist in reality, but through the psyche it becomes real. If a person thinks about his skin bursting, it will actually burst. The psyche influences the outside world. Shaitan acts through this. He creates illusions in a person’s consciousness. For example, a person became a follower of false mysticism, and suddenly began to see something, say, the sins of other people, some events of the past and future, or some light phenomena. And he thinks: wow, my basirat has opened, now I’m almost a saint… And he misleads others, who also begin to consider him a saint. But neither one nor the other understands that all this is from Shaitan, because Allah is sattaru l-uyub, “The Concealer of Sins.” This is one of His names. If Allah conceals the sins of people, then how do you suddenly begin to see them? Who shows them to you? Iblis! Or a person believed in some idol, some pagan god, for example, Mars or Venus, and now he actually sees Venus, talks to her… There is a lot of this in India. Yogis can heal, they can give children, move quickly in space… All this is done through work with consciousness.
Shaitan seeks an approach to each of us. He sees our weaknesses. Someone loves leadership and power, someone loves women, someone wants to be praised…
Abu Khattab was a close companion of Imam Sadiq (A), his representative, faqih, abid, ascetic. He ended up calling first the Imam, and then himself, god. Then a sect called Ismailism grew out of this. Shaitan led him astray through his love for leadership, for people’s recognition…
In Ravandi’s “Navadiru”, the Messenger of Allah (S) says: “Whoever acts in accordance with bid’ahs – Shaitan will inspire him to perform ibadat, humility and tears.” Like the followers of Abu Khattab… They prayed and were in the mosque more than other Shiites. Or like the Kharijites. The Kharijites read the Quran day and night and did ibadat. While they are the dogs of Hell, according to the hadith…
It is the shaitan who comes to the believer and tries to turn him away from prayer, from worship, from reading the Koran. But he, on the contrary, encourages the one who distorts religion to do so. He inspires him with tears during ibadat. So that people consider him righteous and follow him. Like the Wahhabis now… Look how they cry during prayer. And they cry for real, not pretending. And when people see such people, they say: ma sha Allah, this is sincerity, this is ikhlas, this is taqwa…
That is, we want to say that Iblis has more than one method and path. There are many of them, and they are very different. It is wrong to think that Iblis, for example, turns everyone away from worshiping Allah. No, he can even encourage people with false aqida, people of bida’ah, to ibadat…
What should we do to prevent the shaitan from leading us astray? What is the main method of fighting Iblis? As we said, Iblis is very strong. He has vast experience and knowledge, he has a large army and is hidden from our eyes. And we would all be helpless before this enemy and we would all perish without exception, if not for one thing – if not for the Wilayat of Ahl ul-Bayt. One of the meanings of the word “wilayah” is patronage. The fourteen immaculate ones are our patrons who protect us from perishing in the clutches of Iblis. As it is said in the hadith qudsi: “Wilayat Ali is My fortress, and whoever enters this fortress is protected from My punishment.” Wilayat Ahl ul-Bayt – the Fortress of Allah…
As we have seen, everything that Adam and the descendants of Adam have is from Ahl ul-Bayt. Allah created Adam in their image and likeness. Because of their light in his loins, He commanded the angels to prostrate themselves before him. Through their names, He accepted Adam’s repentance. Through them, He gave his descendants the religion of the prophets and messengers, through them He sent down the books and scriptures, and finally, in the last times, He revealed them in the form of the descendants of Adam. So, through them everything began, through them it continues, and through them it will be completed. For the murder of Iblis will also be carried out by their hands, as we will see in the next part.
Therefore, the only way to protect oneself from Iblis is to enter this fortress called “Wilayat Ahl ul-Bayt”. There is no other. “He has no power over those who believe and put their trust in their Lord” (16:99). And the meaning of faith, iman, in all the verses is the wilayah of Ahl al-Bayt.
And Allah also says: “The plots of Satan are weak” (4:76). The plots of Satan are weak in relation to the guidance of Allah, to the guidance of Ahl al-Bayt (A). But these plots themselves are strong, and if it were not for the guidance of Ahl al-Bayt, all of humanity would have been destroyed by Iblis in full, not a single one would have been saved.
Entering this fortress, we put on this shining armor, we attach ourselves to such a force, stronger than which there is no other force. And therefore Iblis becomes weak, insignificant and powerless in front of us in this regard. But as soon as we go beyond this fortress, Iblis gains such power over us that we practically become a toy in his hands.
Imam Askari (A) reported that the Messenger of Allah (S) said: “O Ummah of Muhammad, remember Muhammad and his family in your difficulties and hardships, so that Allah will help your angels through this to gain the upper hand over the shaitans who seek to lead you astray.” That is, there is not only a war between the shaitans and people, but also a war between the shaitans and the angels. But again, everything is in your hands. You can help your angels over your shaitans by saying: Ya Ali! Ya Fatima! Ya Hussein! That is why, by the way, the Wahhabis constantly raise a cry that this is shirk! Shirk!.. Because the shaitan knows the power of this remembrance, this dhikr. The words ya Ali burn the shaitans, incinerate them. They run when they hear these words.
In Munajat Sha’baniya (A Heart-to-Heart Conversation with Allah in the Month of Sha’ban) we read: ilahi wa alhimni walakhan bi-ikriqa ila ikriqa – “O my Lord! Make me mad in Your remembrance” – wa himmati fi ra’uhi najahi asma’ika wa mahalli udsika – “and make my desire – for the peace of Your names and the refuge of Your holiness!”
“The peace of Your names is the refuge of Your holiness” – this is Ahl al-Bayt. Adam received their names from the Lord, and He addressed him…
The Wahhabis say: “When you say ya Ali or ya Muhammad, you are not calling upon Allah! You are committing shirk! You are worshipping other than Allah! Why do we call upon other than Allah? Why do we worship other than Allah? When the angels made sajdah to Adam, was it worshiping Allah or Adam? It was worshiping Allah through Adam! And in the same way, when we say ya Ali, we are worshiping Allah through Ali. Allah in the Quran linked His wilayah with his wilayah, saying: “Your wali (guide) is only Allah, His Messenger, and those who believe and establish prayer and give zakah while bowing” (5:55). According to all tafsirs, both Shia and Sunni, by “those who believe and establish prayer and give zakah while bowing” is meant Ali ibn Abi Talib (A) and then the Imams after him…
Iblis is the Imam of the Wahhabis. After all, Iblis does not deny Allah and does not deny the unity of Allah and His rububiyyah. What did Iblis do? Iblis refused to bow to Adam, the creation of Allah. And we said that the essence of Adam is the light of Ahl al-Bayt. That is, Iblis refused to make tawassul to Allah through Ahl al-Bayt. The same thing that the Wahhabis refuse to do! Iblis’s problem was not in tawhid. Iblis is a monotheist. His problem was in tawassul. He refused to make tawassul to Allah. And it came in the hadith from Imam Ali (A) that Iblis said to Allah: “I am ready to worship You in a way that no one has ever worshiped You, just spare me from bowing to this creature!”
And therefore Allah rejected his tawhid, and therefore his tawhid is not really tawhid at all. Because the tawhid of Allah can only be attained through Ahl al-Bayt, and this is what Iblis rejected. The Imam of the Wahhabis, Iblis…
So when you say salawat or perform tawassul or simply say ya Ali, ya Fatima – those shaitans who are around you run… They become weak, they become confused… And Imam Askari (A) further says that they run to their father Iblis and begin to complain to him. That is, they say: “We cannot do anything with this person. As soon as we approach him, a wave of light comes upon us, which drives us away from him.” And Iblis gives them a thousand shaitans to support them, and they again approach this person, and again they cannot do anything…
And this means, of course, remembrance with the heart, and not just with the tongue. That is, when you say, for example, “ya Ali,” then you put into it your understanding of who Ali is, your love for Ali, your submission to Allah through Ali… This drives away the shaitans.
And so, the Imam goes on: finally, Iblis himself comes to this man. He himself goes with the leaders of his army. With the main shaitans. And then Allah says to his angels: “Here is Iblis with his army, striving for My slave. So fight them!” And then, the Imam says, against each of these shaitans, one hundred thousand angels come out, “and they are on horses of light, in their hands are swords of light and spears of light, and bows and arrows, and they drive them out and kill them with them.” And they point these weapons at Iblis, and then he cries: ya rabb waAduka waAduka – “O my Lord! Your promise! Your promise!” – After all, You promised not to kill me until the day of the appointed term. And then the angels inflict wounds on him and leave him. And the Imam says: “And he remains sad, mourning the death of his sons – that is, the shaitans whom these angels killed – experiencing the pain of wounds that are not healed by anything except the voices of the polytheists” – and this is his balm that heals his wounds. The voices of the polytheists.
And in general, many hadiths say that when Iblis suffers defeat, he lets out a terrible cry. For example, when the Quran was sent down, Iblis screamed wildly. This is his custom. Because then he experiences terrible pain and disappointment. And then he runs to where Allah is not obeyed, where the dirt of polytheism, kufr and sins accumulates, and there he heals his wounds. There his heart calms down.
