In his well-known book, Al-Hikam (Words of Wisdom), sheikh Ahmad Ibn `Ataa’illah As-Sakandari says:

If you know that Satan is always mindful of you, don’t forget the One Who controls your fate.

This word of wisdom by Ibn `Ataa’illah gives some sort of enlightenment about one of the ways of fleeing to Allah and hanging on to Him, that is, fleeing from Satan and his relentless tracking of man. One should seek refuge with the One in Whose Hand is the forelock of man and the forelock of Satan himself, Allah the Almighty.

Ibn `Ataa’illah means that if one knows that Satan is always mindful of him and is always scheming to seduce him and fight him from every direction, then, one should not be heedless of one’s Lord Who controls one’s fate and destiny. Let us look into the following ayah which may mean,

{Then I shall come upon them from before them and from behind them and from their right and from their left…} (Al-A`raf 7:17)

Commenting on this ayah, Ibn `Abbas said,

“From before them: I make them doubt the Hereafter; from behind them: I make them desire the world; from their right: I make them distrust their religion; from their left: I beautify sin and verify falsehood for them.” (Tafsir At-Tabari)

Therefore, one should verify one’s servitude to Allah the Almighty, depend upon Him, and seek refuge with Him, and He will protect one from the evil and harm of Satan as promised elsewhere in the Ever-Glorious Quran. Allah the Almighty says :

{“Truly as for My servants, no authority shall you have over them.” And Your Lord suffices as a guardian. } (Al-Isra’ 17:65)

It is well-known that the one who told us about Satan’s not forgetting us and his constant scheming for us as well as his enmity towards us is Allah the Almighty in His Ever-Glorious Quran when He ordered Satan to prostrate himself with the Angels as an honorary sign to man who was then represented in the person of his father Adam (Peace and blessings be upon him) as saying,

{God said: O Iblis! What is with you that you are not among those who bowed themselves down to the ground to honor him?

He said: Never would I bow down before a human being that You have created from a clay of aged, black mud!

God said: Begone from here! For, indeed, you are accursed! Upon you, moreover, is the curse of God until the Day of Judgment.

He said: My Lord! Then grant me respite until the Day they are raised up in the Hereafter.

God said: Then you are, indeed, of those granted respite, only to the Day [of Doom,] the moment in time known to Me alone.

He said: My Lord! Because You have denounced me as astray, I will make what is evil in the earth fair-seeming to humankind. Thus I will, most surely, lead them to the way of perversity, all together- except Your true servants among them- the sincere, elect ones.

God said: This way – in accordance with Me – shall be a straight one. As for My true servants you shall have no position of authority over them – except for those of the deluded who follow you.} (Al-Hijr 15:32-42)

Then, Allah the Almighty enabled Satan to track down man whom Satan harbored hatred against merely for the reason that Allah honored him. Satan started to track man down with all possible cunning, deception and misguidance to be on the Day of Judgment partners or associates in the detestation and torment Satan is promised by Allah the Almighty.

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