While believers are safe from any devilish influence, satan may sometimes try to instill doubts in them in something they do. One important secret that God reveals in the Qur’an is how to escape such whisperings.
This is a very important matter for believers who fear God because this whispering consists of deceptive words uttered by satan to turn people away from God and waste their time by preoccupying them with aimless and empty things.
People sometimes blow small things out of all proportion. Even though a minor issue is unimportant, they regard it as the most important thing in life at that time. The more they concentrate on that, the more they begin to exaggerate it in their own mind.
From one point of view, this subject may really be so important as to affect a person’s life: From another point of view, however, that subject is less important than a grain of sand compared to all the numerous major issues in the world.
People may perhaps fail to realize how trivial that subject actually is. Yet there is one way of appreciating that fact; if you stop and think back for a moment, you will see that you cannot even remember any of the issues that preoccupied you decades in the past. Indeed, there is no need to go back as far as that. Even if you go back a few years, a few months, or even just a few weeks, you will be unable to remember any of the matters that troubled you, made you unhappy, caused you to brood silently, made you keep away from people, or that had a profound effect and that you thought would last forever. If you do remember them, you will quickly see that they were utterly trivial because that subject you thought had a profound influence on your life no longer troubles you at all; so much so that it passes through your mind in just a few seconds, like a remnant from the past.
What Remains from a Few Years, a Few Months or a Few Weeks Ago?
The answer to this question will have a profound and radical effect on your life. All that remains is your closeness to God, your love of God, your devotion, your good works and your determination. If you exhibited good moral values a decade ago by thinking of God and hoping for His love, if you behaved morally and sought refuge in God when you encountered any trouble, great or small, then that day has turned into a great blessing for you in this world and the hereafter.
It is very important not to forget this truth, which is quite apparent when you think back 10 years, at the present moment. If there are matters, great or small, that are troubling you now, do not forget that these will to a large extent be quite unimportant in the future. Do not forget that you may not even recall the majority of them, that you will smile inwardly at how much you exaggerated them, and that you will see how trivial they were when you look at them more maturely and profoundly.
Postponing Trivial Concerns Thwarts All Satan's Plans
When something occurs to trouble you, set it to one side by saying, “I am postponing this matter for five or ten years. I will not think about it then.” In all probability, when that time comes, by God’s leave, you will probably not even remember the issue that caused you so much worry and that it is no longer of the slightest importance. Concentrate completely on God and devote your energies to earning His approval and living by the moral values of the Qur’an. Do not allow a minor matter to preoccupy you or prevent you from doing the good things that will earn God’s approval and behaving well. Do not forget that the only way to use your mind in the clearest and freest way, and to be able to concentrate in the most useful way, is to live in the knowledge that there is no other power than God, that the whole world, all events and all people are under the control of God and that not a single leaf will fall unless God so wishes.
God’s approval is more important than any minor matter than may preoccupy one in this world; a believer has a responsibility to concentrate on God and to live by the values He desires. The life of this world will definitely come to an end. Everything in one’s life and all the people one knows will suddenly come to an end. But it is our Lord alone, the al-Baqi, the Everlasting that one must think about and turn all one’s love and attention and energies toward. God has revealed this in the Qur’an:
“Everything in the heavens and the earth belongs to God. He knows what you are engaged upon. On the Day when they are returned to Him, He will inform them of what they did. God has knowledge of all things.” (Surat an-Nur, 64)
“What! Are they in doubt about the meeting with their Lord? What! Does He not encompass all things?” (Surat al-Fussilat, 54)
Adnan Oktar's piece on Muallim magazine
