Satanic Tactics: Opposing Satan
Walking the path to Allah is a type of war and its battlefield is the heart. To win, we must strengthen our army – our soul, and weaken the enemy – our lower-self and the devil. This is the twelfth and final in a series of articles on Satanic Tricks: Seven Tricks of the Devil.
There is a beautiful hadith of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace). It is related by Imam Bukhari on the authority of Abu Huraira:
The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “None of you shall enter paradise by your own actions.” They asked, “Not even you O Messenger of Allah?” He said, “Not even I unless Allah envelopes me in mercy. Remain committed; do the best you can, and seek assistance in early mornings, late afternoons, and something of the depths of the night. And remain purposeful! Remain purposeful, and you shall attain your goals.”
Commit yourself. Seek Allah in your choices. Do the best you can. Do whatever you do seeking to draw closer to Allah. Seek assistance in the early mornings. To reach Paradise, keep from harm, strengthen your faith and avoid these tricks of the devil. you need to cultivate your faith.
Cultivate Your Faith
How do you cultivate your faith? You need spiritual routines. How do you have spiritual routines? The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “Seek assistance in the early mornings.” Either during Fajr time or before you start your work day have some extra devotion there.
The late afternoons refer to either when you take a break during work on your way back from work or after work. No one is saying hours and hours. Even a little goes a long.
If someone does not have a routine of the Quran, and they decide to recite five minutes of the Quran a day, then every 12 days, he will do an hour of the Quran. In a year, he will do over 30 hours of the Quran. This is just by doing five minutes a day.
This is the power of consistency. Start small. For example, after Fajr, one may want to have three minutes of extra worship and then make that consistent. Also, on one’s commute back he has 3 minutes for example. If he makes that consistent it can turn into 5 minutes, then slightly increased to 7 minutes. Stick to it. Then maybe creep up to 10.
This means if you do 10 minutes a day at Fajr, that is 60 hours of worship. Ten years later you’ll have done 600 hours of worship that you otherwise would not have done. Your faith, your certitude, and your spiritual clarity will be completely different.
Strengthen your sincerity and certitude. Turn to Allah.
