When God commanded Satan (the devil) to bow down to Prophet Adam, the devil was reluctant to bow down. Then God threw the devil out of heaven.
And behold, when We said to the angels: “Bow down to Adam: “ and they bowed down: not so Iblis, he refused and was haughty: He was those who reject Faith (Surah al-Baqarah 2:34).
Satan, from the beginning was created from fire so he felt he was the most superior, most powerful, most noble from all God creations including human beings. Satan felt offended when they were told to bow down to Adam (who was made from clay).
And We said: “O Adam, dwell you and your wife here in the Paradise and eat the bountiful things therein as you like and do not approach this tree or you run into harm and transgression. (Surah al-Baqarah 2:35).
Because of Satan disobedience he was banished from Heaven. He was furious and vowed that until the day of resurrection they (Satan) will forever try to lead human beings astray from the Straight Path. Satan made good on his promise. He relentlessly seduced Adam and his wife Eve to eat the fruit from the forbidden tree. When he finally succeeded, Adam and Eve were expelled from Heaven.
Then did Satan make them slip from the Paradise, and get them out. And We said: “Get ye down! some of you become enemy to others, and on earth will be your dwelling place and joy of living until the appointed time. (Surah al -Baqarah 2:36)
As we can see, how clever the devil is. Even a man of noble stature as prophet Adam was succumbed to the devil’s seduction which in turn made him and his wife were expelled from heaven. So how are we doing?
In this modern world one form of the seduction and temptation comes in the form of the electronic equipment and gadgets we own. Such as television or more precisely the television programmes. Television programmes were made in such a way that the audience will be glued to their seats in order to satisfy their curiosity of the story line as in what will happen next to the character? We became so absorbed in the story line that in such time we forgot that it is time to do our prayers.
Blackberry? iPad? The internet? My God! They are so addictive. Many people because they were so engrossed in chatting away, clicking messages and playing many online games currently available they forgot to do much if any.
Oh, what to do? What to do? Well, for one, with television why don’t we record the programme and watch it later on when we have done our prayers and our Qur’an recitation, just one page is okay.
As for those wonderful high tech gadgets of ours, we have to be more disciplined in using them. We ourselves have to set the boundary, if not, well, as I mention earlier could be addictive and took strong effort to get out of it.
Remember these wonderful modern inventions are made to help us, to make our lives easier. It is us who have to be careful on how to utilise these things so they will be useful instead of burdening us.
Oh yes, the Internet? If you are reading this, this is not a bad thing is it?
Hopefully after reading this, we can be more aware of the temptation brought by these modern conveniences and not succumb to them.
I have to stop now because the call for prayer is on, so I must pray. Hopefully you will too. Do not forget to turn off those gadgets. We can meet again afterward.
Aameen ….
