Satan's Ruse.

[Abu Fauzi]

As-Salaam alaikum,
Abu Huraira, may Allah be pleased with him, related that the Messenger of Allah, Sallallahu alaihi Wasallam, said :--
"Satan comes to a person and asks: 'Who created this? Who created that?'. He eventually asks : 'who created your Lord?' If he reaches such a stage, the person seek refuge in Allah and abstain (from having such thoughts)". /Bukhari, 3276, Muslim : 134.

Seeking refuge in Allah in this hadith is a good method of repelling wisperings of Satan, because besides the blessings it contains as a supplication (Du'a), when the person turns his attention towards Allah Ta'ala by seeking of refuge this will draw his attention away from the evil wispering. This is because the soul cannot turn its attention to 2 things at the same time. The essence of this method is thus to become occupied in the remembrance of Allah.

 

[MaskedMufti]

As-Salaam alaikum,
Abu Huraira, may Allah be pleased with him, related that the Messenger of Allah, Sallallahu alaihi Wasallam, said :--
"Satan comes to a person and asks: 'Who created this? Who created that?'. He eventually asks : 'who created your Lord?' If he reaches such a stage, the person seek refuge in Allah and abstain (from having such thoughts)". /Bukhari, 3276, Muslim : 134.

Seeking refuge in Allah in this hadith is a good method of repelling wisperings of Satan, because besides the blessings it contains as a supplication (Du'a), when the person turns his attention towards Allah Ta'ala by seeking of refuge this will draw his attention away from the evil wispering. This is because the soul cannot turn its attention to 2 things at the same time. The essence of this method is thus to become occupied in the remembrance of Allah.

This talk of Satan makes me ask this question:

What is the root and stem of evil?

 

[Ümit]

This talk of Satan makes me ask this question:

What is the root and stem of evil?

The answer to hat question is pretty easy in Islaam: The ability of free will
Everything comes from Allah. With everything, we mean literally "everything"...even Satan and all kinds of evil.

The only purpose of the existence of evil (as far as I know) is to give us a fair free will.
Free will is an attribute that raise or lower us in the rank of creatures as servants of Allah.
Humans (in comparison to angels) are pretty weak creatures, we get tired easily, we are dependent on food, water, light.
we need sleep, we can get sick, etc. etc.

However, we have a secret weapon: true free will. We CHOOSE to serve Allah voluntarily...we can choose not to, but the ones who make that choice, get a better rank than angels.

Angels dont have this option to choose. They do their jobs very good and flawlessly, however...they just obey and do as they are told. they cannot say no.

That is why free will is very important for us. and to have a true free will, you have to have an option to choose for the evil.
So that is why evil exist.

 

[MaskedMufti]

The answer to hat question is pretty easy in Islaam: The ability of free will
Everything comes from Allah. With everything, we mean literally "everything"...even Satan and all kinds of evil.

The only purpose of the existence of evil (as far as I know) is to give us a fair free will.
Free will is an attribute that raise or lower us in the rank of creatures as servants of Allah.
Humans (in comparison to angels) are pretty weak creatures, we get tired easily, we are dependent on food, water, light.
we need sleep, we can get sick, etc. etc.

However, we have a secret weapon: true free will. We CHOOSE to serve Allah voluntarily...we can choose not to, but the ones who make that choice, get a better rank than angels.

Angels dont have this option to choose. They do their jobs very good and flawlessly, however...they just obey and do as they are told. they cannot say no.

That is why free will is very important for us. and to have a true free will, you have to have an option to choose for the evil.
So that is why evil exist.

Plato said that ignorance is the root and stem of all evil. Do you think he was wrong? Experience in my life has told he Plato was correct.

 

[Ümit]

Plato said that ignorance is the root and stem of all evil. Do you think he was wrong? Experience in my life has told he Plato was correct.

That is a too simplictic point of view.
first of all, personal experiences do not make things true or false.
So, you can not claim Plato to be correct, based on your subjective personal experiences.

Second, questions can be answered in multiple valid ways depending who you ask and those answers do not need to be mutually exclusive.
For example
Question: why does it rain?
Answer from a pastor: Because God wills it like that
Answer from a scientist: Because water evaporates, forms a cloud, floats over our head, as it gets higher it condensates and falls down as rain
Answer from a weather expert: Because we had a wind from a certain direction and it carried a certain loaded cloud all the way here and high pressure here and low pressure there, etc.

All three answers equally valid, equally true, but answered from different viewpoints. One answer does not prove the other wrong.

Third, I am not familiar with Plato, and what he meant with this quote. I didn't google on it and I am trusting your word for it that it is indeed his quote. Neither did you elaborated on it.
But if I think rationally about the claim: "ignorance is the root and stem of all evil", I don't think I would agree with that.
To say that evil is dependent on the amount of information someone posesses is a bold claim.
Ignorance can be "A" root for some evil, but certainly not "THE root of all evil".

This should mean that the most informed people are like angels, they never do evil things etc.
and vice versa, people who are the least informed are the most evil people on this planet.
To take it even one step further, the mentally handicapped people should all be locked away or even killed if we want to get rid of evil because they are the most ignorant people.

So based on this little information that I have about Plato, I do not agree with this quote. Evil is linked to free choice, not to the amount of information someone posesses.
The most ignorant people can choose to do good and the most informed and enlightend people can choose to do evil...and vice versa of course.

 

[MaskedMufti]

That is a too simplictic point of view.
first of all, personal experiences do not make things true or false.
So, you can not claim Plato to be correct, based on your subjective personal experiences.

You said, Ignorance can be "A" root for some evil, but certainly not "THE root of all evil". I think you are definitely wrong. Give me one example where ignorance was not the root of some evil.

You have made a long post. Thank you for spending time to do that. You have listed things as "First..." and "Second..." and so on. But I have to address your "first of all comment". Just because I posted something simplistic does not mean there is a great deal of thought behind it that I have not expressed.

You are right. Personal experience do not make things true or false. Plato can be wrong, yes. So what is your epistemology you use for determining what is true or false? How do you go about determining what is true or what is false?

I will say this. In every case we can examine throughout history, where we can say evil caused something to happen, if we examine it closely, the root cause of that evil was ignorance. So please pick an example of evil and let's discuss. In every case you can give me, we can break it down to the cause of that evil and it will be ignorance. We can put Plato's idea to the test and see if it is true. People have done that. I have never heard of anyone saying he was wrong. Have you?

Plato was not just making this up whole cloth out of thin air. There was perception and thought behind it. So let's, right now, apply some perception and thought. You tell me. Give me an example of evil and let's see for ourselves if ignorance was the actual root of it.

I asked you this. What is your method of determining what is true and what is false? What do you think of Occam's Razor, also known as the principle of parsimony? I have given you a lot of questions, but I imagine you will not bother to google it because you said you never heard of Plato and you also said you did not bother to google him.

I am not trying to change your mind or convince you of anything because that would be impossible. The only mind I can change is mine. I know I need to be humble and honest with myself. That is a noble way to be. Are you like that?

"Too simplistic" means it is probably true according to Occom's Razor. I think Occom's Razor is right and has power. Let me give you an example. I have had conversations with Mormon apologists. In order to defend their positions and opinions when I show them something is problematic in their religion; they have to layer on more and more outlandish excuses. And it is never-ending. I will spare you all the details, but you can see how complex their belief system and how much blind faith is required. The golden plates and it being handed over to an angel for safe keeping is just one thing. There is also the issue that their core belief has been debunked by DNA research by their own college professors. They contradict themselves and so that have to go so far as to say that because of some magic, both narratives are valid. The more I debate them, the more absurdities they have to layer on top of a growing mound. The simplest answer is usually true.

Anyway, let's stick to the topic at hand. I will repeat what I first said in this post. You said, Ignorance can be "A" root for some evil, but certainly not "THE root of all evil". I think you are definitely wrong. Give me one example where ignorance was not the root of some evil