The I-Thought
The I-thought makes of itself a whisperer of evil.
"Say: I seek refuge in the Lord of mankind… from the harm of the whisperer, who comes by stealth and in the open." (Quran)
The I-thought makes of itself an envier.
"Say: I seek refuge in the Lord of the daybreak… from the harm of the envier when he envies." (Quran)
It is the I-thought that became Satan.
Whispering and envy are what made him Satan.
So the I-thought is itself Satan.
And whispering and envy are the very devil that turns anyone into a devil.
The Satan that is the I-thought is a double-edged knife.
It wounds the one who holds it and everything around.
That keen sharp blade, which is whispering and envy made one, cuts itself and cuts others.
No weapon, no enemy, wounds as deeply as pride and the envy and whispering it breeds.
Those ruled by the I-thought keep driving the knife deeper to prove their I-thought right, and keep working to make it larger.
They scatter their filth on every side until it belongs to everyone, and the air itself turns foul.
Refusing to admit the fault is theirs, they blame the whole world around them and ruin its peace.
This is why refuge from the whispering Satan of the I-thought is not optional but a duty.
"Say: I seek refuge in the Lord of mankind… from the harm of the whisperer, who comes by stealth and in the open." (Quran)
For in the I-thought:
The enemy is oneself.
The enemy lives within oneself.
The enemy dwells inside every one of us.
An enemy who is not yourself, you can somehow escape.
You can run, take up arms, hide, or seek and win the help of others, and so escape the enemy who stands outside.
But when the enemy is oneself, when the enemy lives within, you do not even know him. You cannot recognize him.
You cannot bring yourself to admit he exists.
To admit that your enemy is you within, you would have to let go of your own grandeur and the pride you take in it.
In a sense, you would have to let go of the very self that society applauds.
And so the enemy goes with you through eating and sleeping, even into the bathroom.
The greatest enemy wears the face of the dearest friend: the enemy who is oneself, within oneself.
✦ ✦ ✦
The I-thought is pride.
From pride come defiance, envy, despair.
From despair and envy comes the whispering.
This is its road.
Know this: the very name Iblis means "the one who despaired."
In the despairing, envy is easily born.
Unawares, the despairing one turns that envy into pride.
Caught in the whisperings that ripened despair, envy, and pride set in motion, he will imagine and commit any wrong.
It is the despairing one who become dangerous, who will stop at nothing.
✦ ✦ ✦
Look, for example, at India today: its society, its politics.
There you can see how it grows, this whispering called Satan, with the envy, the hatred, and the counterfeit pride it begets.
The party that rules India makes this very whispering its creed and its weapon: false reports, lies.
What it chiefly pours into society is envy and hatred.
It feeds on the envy and hatred it has itself sown in a despairing people.
What it does is whisper envy and hatred into that despairing society and set them loose.
What it does is feed an envy-ridden people a counterfeit pride, dressed in lovely names like "Indianness," "Sanatana," and "nationalism," which is good for nothing, helps no one, and solves nothing.
✦ ✦ ✦
Know this: the I-thought did not make Satan into Satan.
No one needs to make a devil a devil twice.
No one needs to make the bad worse, or filth more filthy.
It is the good that is spoiled.
It is the good that, little by little, goes bad.
The flower is the one that withers.
The fruit is the one that rots.
The gold is the one that gets stolen.
The milk is the one that curdles.
It was a gentle, unknowing, good people whom the ruling party of India spoiled, sowing whispers, envy, and hatred until it had made devils of them.
Was there a Satan already, waiting to be made a greater Satan?
No.
There was no such thing at the start.
There could not have been. It was not possible.
Satan is neither the first thing nor the last thing left standing.
Satan is a passing phenomenon.
Satan takes shape as a kind of by-product.
Satan is not the opposite of God, and does not endure.
Satan is the enemy who rises up in you, your own opposite, one that never seems to be your opposite.
Satan is your reflection turned destroyer, a parasite.
So before Satan came to be, there was no other Satan to be made into Satan.
There is no need to make a devil a devil again.
If Satan had existed from the beginning, why would his coming into being be any great matter, any news?
If Satan had existed from the beginning, how could we ever understand the causes that made him Satan?
Therefore the I-thought is itself the satanic.
The I-thought did not make Satan into Satan. Rather, the I-thought made a good angel (a jinn, a hidden power) into Satan.
The good angel became Satan
not because he refused to believe in One God,
not because he believed in many gods,
not because he failed in worship and praise,
not because of any other deed or word that might be judged wrong.
Only because of the I-thought.
Only because of the quarrelsomeness and self-importance the I-thought bred.
Only because of the despair that came when that self-importance did not prevail.
Only because of the envy that despair brought forth.
"Say: I seek refuge in the Lord of the daybreak… from the harm of the envier when he envies." (Quran)
.jpg)