I believe, therefore, that in such an environment an awareness of devils and angels is essential to possessing a fully human personality. One cannot maintain a distinctive self without differentiating oneself from one’s environment, and in a satanic environment recognizing it as such and deliberately opposing it constitutes not only an essential part of the human identity but also provides keys to understanding oneself, one’s allies (the angels), and one’s God. We can begin to see ourselves as battlegrounds between our angelic and our satanic natures, with AL-LAH presiding and judging.
Verily to those who say “Our Lord is GOD,” and then remain upright the angels come to tell them, “Fear not; do not grieve; and celebrate the Garden that is promised to you. / “We are your protectors in this worldly life and in the Everafter. Yours therein is what your souls desire; for you therein is that for which you pray, / “Accommodation from the One Who is Forgiving, Merciful.” (Q41:30-32)
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ قَالُوا رَبُّنَا اللَّهُ ثُمَّ اسْتَقَامُوا تَتَنَزَّلُ عَلَيْهِمُ الْمَلاَئِكَةُ أَلاَّ تَخَافُوا وَلاَ تَحْزَنُوا وَأَبْشِرُوا بِالْجَنَّةِ الَّتِي كُنْتُمْ تُوعَدُونَ.
نَحْنُ أَوْلِيَاؤُكُمْ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَفِي الآخِرَةِ وَلَكُمْ فِيهَا مَا تَشْتَهِي أَنفُسُكُمْ وَلَكُمْ فِيهَا مَا تَدَّعُونَ.
نُزُلاً مِنْ غَفُورٍ رَحِيمٍ
He said, “Because You have misled me, I shall sit in wait for them upon Your upright path. / Then I will come to them before them, and behind them, from their right, and from their left, and You will find that most of them are ingrates.” (Q7:16-17)
قَالَ فَبِمَا أَغْوَيْتَنِي لَأَقْعُدَنَّ لَهُمْ صِرَاطَكَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ
ثُمَّ لَآتِيَنَّهُمْ مِنْ بَيْنِ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِمْ وَعَنْ أَيْمَانِهِمْ وَعَنْ شَمَائِلِهِمْ وَلاَ تَجِدُ أَكْثَرَهُمْ شَاكِرِينَ
He vows to them and rouses their desires. And Satan only promises to them delusion. (Q4:120)
يَعِدُهُمْ وَيُمَنِّيهِمْ وَمَا يَعِدُهُمْ الشَّيْطَانُ إِلاَّ غُرُورًا
What is this force that rouses our desires, connives at our delusions, runs through our blood, and strives with all its might for our everlasting ruin? These are acts that cry out to be countered by our own acts. If we are passive, allowing them to dominate us, what right do we have to consider ourselves as persons, rather than those who so actively exploit our weaknesses with diabolical cunning? By reclaiming our active stance vis-à-vis these aggressions, we regain our true personalities as conscious, willing opponents of the one whom GOD has termed our enemy.
Ultimately, just as we found GOD to be the pinnacle and perfection of all our positive absolutes, we will find Satan to be the ‘perfect’ foil, the fiendish aggregator of all that we detest: malice, deceit, ruthlessness, shamelessness, cowardice, injustice, and arrogance.
My contention, once again, is that evil, by which I mean strictly moral evil, is nothing, and produces nothing. I admit that ‘bad’ events occur, and generate both misery and outrage, but further say that either our Spirit is fully capable of turning all that dirt into growth, or that GOD is fully prepared to repair those wrongs in a Life where suffering will not even be a memory.
But wait a minute, some readers will say. You have come a long way on a rather dubious suggestion, namely that we ‘know’ God. Actually, we know nothing of the sort; we may have heard about God, the angels, the jinn, and Satan, and have opinions regarding good and evil, but we do not know that they are there at all, that they exist. This all seems based on surmise and pious dogma. But how true is it? Why not believe, instead, in something we can actually feel, namely ourselves?
The GOD You Already Know 