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.