There are historical, social, and psychological dimensions to this question. First, the very word slavery conjures up revulsion, sorrow, and deep disgust, especially when we remember how slaves were treated in ancient Rome and Egypt. Pictures of people building the pyramids, of gladia
Continue Reading →Satan was created from fire, like the jinn with whom he mostly kept company. Before his obedience and sincerity was tested through Adam, he had been in the company of angels, acting and worshipping as they did. Unlike angels who follow orders and never rebel against God (66:6), Satan
Continue Reading →Involuntary evil thoughts, fancies, or associations of ideas usually are the result of Satan’s whispering. Just as a battery has two poles, so do our hearts have two central points or poles. Like the two poles of a battery, there are two central points or poles in man’s he
Continue Reading →In fact, the guile of Satan is ever feeble (4:76). It is like a cobweb appearing before you—it cannot prevent you from going forward, and you do not have to attach any great importance to it. Satan only suggests or whispers, gilds sinful acts and presents them in falsely ornamented wr
Continue Reading →Shaytan, the Arabic word for Satan, means “being cast down from the Divine Presence, driven away in disgrace from God’s mercy.” Satan is like one who had all the trump cards but played them against himself, or like one who lost everything while on the verge of winnin
Continue Reading →The body is an instrument of the spirit, which governs and controls it in its entirety. When its appointed hour comes, an illness or failure of bodily functions is like an invitation to the Angel of Death, known as Archangel ‘Azra’il in Islam. God is obviously the One Who
Continue Reading →Since all angels were created from light, they can be present in any place and in any form simultaneously. They also can perform countless tasks at the same time. Therefore, ‘Azra’il can take millions of souls simultaneously and without any confusion. Each Archangel has su
Continue Reading →At the time of death, believers experience the opening of windows from their places in Paradise. Prophet Muhammad stated that the souls of such people are drawn out as gently as the flowing of water from a pitcher. Better than that, martyrs do not feel death’s agonies of and do
Continue Reading →Those who believe and do righteous deeds have no reason to fear death. Although it appears to us as decomposition and the extinction of life and its pleasures, in fact it is no more than a discharge from the heavy duties of worldly life, a change of residence, and a transferral of the
Continue Reading →Following death, each person’s spirit is taken to God’s Presence. If it led a good, virtuous life and became refined, the angels charged with taking it to His Presence wrap it in a piece of satin and take it, through the heavens and all inner dimensions of existence, until
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