To sin against Allah’s law is a manifestation of transgression. To transgress is simply to violate a law or duty or moral principle. Only the devil was granted the monopoly to sin and transgress divine bounds. When man commits sin, he loses the privilege of being among the righteous servants of Allah. Shaytan (or Satan in English), also referred to as Iblis in the Glorious Qur’an is largely behind man’s tendencies to transgress, disobey or show ingratitude to Allah.
After he was cursed by Allah for arrogantly refusing to bow down for Prophet Adam (AS), Shaytan pledged to lead the entire nation of mankind astray except believing men and women who are firm in faith and righteous in deeds. Qur’an 4:118-119 states “Allah did curse him, but he said: ‘I will take of Thy servants a portion marked off; I will mislead them, and I will create in them false desires…Whoever takes Satan for a friend hath of a surety suffered a loss that is manifest”. Indeed, Allah granted man’s worst enemy, Shaytan, the permission to tempt man; and this was implied in such free-will as was granted to man by Allah.
whoever comes under the hypnotic control of the Shaytan gets intoxicated with strong yet non-alcoholic substances that include power and wealth. Pharaoh and Qarun transgressed bounds and they respectively became power-drunk and brazen stasher of wealth. Shaytan would always mislead man into believing, though erroneously, in things that does not actually matter in the spiritual world. Consequently, such a misguided man is deceived into having an exaggerated opinion of himself and of the political authority or wealth he superintends.
By the time the Shaytan succeeds in taking control of man’s psyche, the latter becomes a stooge to the devil; whence he begins to talk and act like his boss, the devil, with outrageous speeches and contemptuous actions. Qur’an 79:24, for instance, states that Pharaoh (out of a crude sense of transgression) said, “I am your lord, most high”; attempting to arrogate to himself powers that exclusively belong to the Lord of creation. Allah (SWT) states in Qur’an 28:4 “Truly, Pharaoh elated himself in the land and broke up its people in to sections, depressing a small group among them: their sons he slew, but he kept alive their females: For he was indeed a maker of mischief”.
Pharaoh and his clique of sorcerers were intoxicated with pride of race and pride of material civilization, and thus, grievously oppressed the Israelites. Pharaoh decreed that all male sons born to the Israelites should be killed and the females kept alive for the pleasure of the Egyptians. What Pharaoh wished was to crush them. But Allah’s plan was to protect them as they were weak, and to make them custodians and leaders in His faith.
When an unjust leader reaches the “point of diminishing return”, the stage of self destruction as wages of transgression would set in. The same hard-hearted people who were once the prime pride of the leader would swiftly turn against him; and that would be the beginning of the end of any cruel leadership or bad governance. When Prophet Musa (AS) threw his staff, which swallowed all the falsehoods that had earlier bewitched the eyes of the people, the chief sorcerers who had earlier gathered in awe of Pharaoh to challenge Musa (AS) all fell down and prostrated in adoration.
Pharaoh was angry with the repentant sorcerers who acknowledged Musa (AS) and his message. He thus threatened the sorcerers with extreme punishment for treason and apostasy by cutting off of hands and feet, combined with an ignominious death on the cross. Qur’an 7:123 states “Said Pharaoh: ‘Believe ye in him before I give you permission? Surely, this is a trick which ye have planned in the city to drive out its people: but soon shall ye know (the consequence)”.
When the Shaytan intends to destroy any one he has chosen as a stooge, he would relentlessly and cynically continue to support him in the perpetration of evils and injustices as if such were though necessary requirements for sustaining power, authority, or prosperity. When man is at the peak of romancing with power or wealth, the Shaytan would blindfold him, being his stooge, from seeing and understanding the valuable messages inherent in every word of wisdom offered by the wise. Most times, many people fail to realize how long they’ve been on the devil’s path until it is late for them to do so.
Quran 59:16 says when man becomes a victim of his own foolhardiness, the devil shall exonerate himself from man’s recklessness. The devil shall speak to his conscience saying, “… I’m free (innocent) of you; Surely, I fear Allah, the Lord of the worlds.” This is exactly what the Shaytan does after he had supported man to dig and fall inside his own grave. Disgrace and denial by man’s chief advisor, the Shaytan, are some of the ultimate wages of transgression that await those who superciliously transgress the limits set by Allah in their political, social and economic life. Nonetheless, the devil’s influence does not extend to those who refuse to allow themselves become stooges to the Shaytan.
People tend to forget that leaders who contravene or disobey Allah’s Laws would not survive Allah’s decree when it comes. Pharaoh’s belated repentance did not help him at the point of his drowning in the sea while chasing Musa (AS) and the Israelites. It was because his repentance was not genuine. May Allah protect us against becoming puppets to the Shaytan in all we think, do, and say, amin.
