The satanically-inspired idea of ''taking pleasure in sorrow''

The life’s aim of satan, who was proud before Allah and expelled from the Garden, in this world is to turn everyone away from Allah’s path and preoccupy them with false concerns.

I will lead them astray and fill them with false hopes. I will command them and they will cut off cattle’s ears. I will command them and they will change Allah’s creation.’ Anyone who takes satan as his protector in place of Allah has clearly lost everything.

He makes promises to them and fills them with false hopes. But what satan promises them is nothing but delusion. (Surat An-Nisa’, 119-120)

Because of this influence of satan, people may have a surprising tendency to become sad or angry. They may seek something to grow angry or saddened over and then concentrate on that. Sorrow caused by thinking one has been the victim of an injustice and then seeking revenge for it is one of the main scourges afflicting everyone who does not live by Qur’anic moral values.  Satan achieves his aim in that way and distracts people in the life of this world with entirely false concerns.

Even films are constructed around this theme. First of all, someone suffers an injustice, following which they set about taking a hearty revenge. Since the audience are only too well acquainted with that state of mind they excitedly identify with the wronged character and share his or her emotions.

This attitude brings with it a system that leads to troubles, preoccupations, false concerns, illness, stress and fatigue and loss of concentration. People who behave in that way in fact hurt themselves even though they may think they have wreaked an appropriate revenge. Through such preoccupations, satan leads people to a state of mind full of affliction and the darkness of Hell.

The fact is that Allah creates all things within destiny. Everything that befalls a person is ordained in destiny, whether they are saddened by it or not.  And, even better, our Lord has created everything for the best within that destiny. As the infinitely beautiful Almighty Allah, the Lord of blessings, says in one verse,

 “...It may be that you hate something when it is good for you and it may be that you love something when it is bad for you. Allah knows and you do not know. (Surat al-Baqara, 216)

Only Allah knows how a situation may be auspicious for someone. Therefore, instead of being saddened by something that has in any case been created for the best, and reflecting long and hard on its consequences, one should place one’s trust in our Lord and believe that the end result will be a most auspicious one.  Everything in creation belongs to Almighty Allah and there is no doubt that our Lord knows the end awaiting them. Believing with all one’s heart that Allah creates everything for the best will, by Allah’s leave, lead to the greatest gain in this world and the Hereafter. It is certain that Allah knows best.