Chapter on Describing Vigilance Against the Enemy Iblis

And the dead do not increase in that, for they have donned their shields and have endured what confines them. And it is apparent to him that [damaged] the truest [damaged]

[damaged]

Nor does the yaqīn (certainty) of the believers nor their tawakkul (trust in God) — because of their knowledge that it shall not be except what has been decreed — distract them from that. Rather, it is in following His command and occupying themselves with what He loves and wills.

Likewise is the wariness of the enemy whom one does not see — and he plots against him with the gravest of what the disbelievers plot. So his wariness of him is an act of obedience from the believers to God, Exalted and Glorious, and a following of what He commanded, and reliance in all of that upon his Lord. He fulfills what He has commanded him, together with the stripping away of Satan's possession of anything apart from his Lord, Exalted and Glorious. And he trusts in his Lord and thinks well of Him, when he follows His command by exercising the wariness that He commanded him to exercise, along with certainty that Satan neither harms nor benefits anything other than Him, and that God's aid is excellent, and that He will strengthen him against his enemy and protect him from his temptation.

So it is not from one who followed the command of God, Exalted and Glorious, along with yaqīn, that he is deficient in tawakkul and yaqīn. Rather, his certainty is deficient in that he disobeys all that his certainty commands [TN: the sense is that one whose certainty is complete would obey all its demands].

This is the position of the group that follows the Book of God, Exalted and Glorious, and the Sunna.

Chapter on the Description of Wariness from the Enemy Iblīs

May God [protect from] him.

He said: This group differed regarding the wariness of him whose wariness was obedience in following the command of God, Exalted and Glorious. This group differed into three factions, all of which are in error except one faction.

One faction among them said: When God, Exalted and Glorious, commands us to struggle against one whom we do not see, and to fear him, and informs us that in his gaining mastery over us lies ruin, then nothing should be in our hearts more dominant over us or more binding upon us than wariness of him. So we watch for whenever he presents himself with his temptation.

For preoccupation away from him begets forgetfulness, and forgetfulness begets the acceptance of his insinuations without recognition, and that leads to ruin.

The khatra (passing thought) is what is feared: that their heedlessness become a vulnerability through which «Satan lies in wait» [TN: likely reference to Quran], so that they look into it and accept it in a state of heedlessness, and a passing thought comes upon them while they are unaware, and they are destroyed.

A group said: That is an error, because of occupying the heart with anticipation of Satan, and we were not commanded to do that. Rather, that is the will of Satan against us. But let us make our hearts adhere to the remembrance of the Hereafter and the remembrance of what befalls us, so that we are not idle from the remembrance of the Hereafter, and so that we are not forgetful of what we have been commanded to be wary of — out of dislike that heedlessness on our part should come upon what we are engaged in of dhikr (remembrance). For the remembrance of God, Exalted and Glorified, was such that if heedlessness from us should corrupt it, and the remembrance of Satan's whisperings — the two stand in opposition in their hearts.

Whenever they remembered anything of the remembrance of the Hereafter, they remembered the enemy out of apprehension that he would come with his temptation as a passing thought, and so it would remove their hearts from the remembrance of God, Exalted and Glorified, or they would incline to that which would nullify their deeds on the Day of their presentation before their Lord, Glorified and Exalted.

Another group — and they are the people of general practice, and most entitled to the truth — said: Both of the two groups are in error.

As for the first, they emptied their hearts of the remembrance of the Hereafter and made their worship consist of obliging their hearts to the remembrance of Satan. They thus introduced the remembrance of Satan into the qalb (heart) — in error — more than they introduced the remembrance of God, Exalted and Glorified, into their hearts.

And they were not commanded to be wary so as to become heedless of remembrance and action. For if you abandon the remembrance, then the enemy has achieved what he intended.

And if a passing thought comes to a heart that is empty of remembrance, it is likely to be accepted, since there is in it no light from the remembrance of the Hereafter, nor strength of occupation with God, Exalted and Glorified.

So you are the weakest in repelling and the most empty of hearts from the Hereafter of anyone, and you were not commanded to lie in wait for him, nor to persist in the remembrance of Satan .

As for the second group,

they have indeed shared with the first in some of the meaning thereof, for when you made the remembrance of God, Exalted and Glorious, and the remembrance of Satan equal in the heart, it is as though you treated them as equivalent — the remembrance of God, Exalted and Glorious, and the remembrance of Satan, and occupation with God, Exalted and Glorious, and occupation with Satan. It has not reached us that anyone among the strong or the weak did this or professed it.

For God, Exalted and Glorious, commanded His servants with obedience to Him, and urged them toward occupation with Him rather than His creation — Iblis and others — and commanded them to be wary of him when his temptation presents itself.

So the friends of God, Exalted and Glorious, and the people of sincerity among His servants occupied themselves with the remembrance of their Lord and the remembrance of what He urged and loved, and they kept their hearts to the wariness He warned them of, without lying in wait for him or occupying themselves with his remembrance.

And wariness is what the heart keeps to of concern for deliverance from the enemy and fear of his temptation, together with occupation with God, Exalted and Glorious. Along with abandoning the remembrance of the enemy, occupation with Him requires that remembrance and alertness arise at the moment the enemy presents his passing thought.

And that is indeed found in what is more intense than worldly matters: if a person sleeps while in his heart there is wariness against the departure of his mind, the wariness is most apt to awaken him and alert him so that his mind does not depart. Likewise the one who is occupied with the remembrance of his Lord: even though he is not constantly vigilant against his enemy, if he is occupied with the remembrance of his Lord and has abandoned the remembrance of his enemy and occupation with him — for sleep without a permanent remembrance in his heart, how can he remember while he is asleep and does not perceive? — yet the wariness awakened him.

Likewise the worker for God, Exalted and Glorious, who is occupied with His remembrance, heedless of the remembrance of Satan through his occupation with his Lord, Exalted and Glorious — when a passing thought from him presents itself, the wariness in his heart reminds him, and the remembrance strengthens him to become alert to the passing thought. The passing thought stirs and he is startled, for there was heedlessness in it. But the sleeper who has no remembrance in his heart and no [inner] alarm to awaken him [is not likewise].