How the Devil Attacks from the Right
The Inception Of Disoedience
When Allah created Adam (AS), he asked all angels to bow down to him. Every angel obeyed, except Iblis (Satan) and he was the first to disbelieve. He promised Allah that if mankind is the reason for his removal from paradise, (which actually was his disobedience) he will try to lead humankind astray till the Day of Judgement. To fulfill this promise, he has adopted all kinds and measures to lead us astray from the right path by getting inside our hearts and minds. Satan can attack us from any direction by using our circumstances and weaknesses to compromise on our obedience to Allah.
One of the ways devil will attack will be from the right, i.e he will use our good deeds to mislead us. Satan wants the element of humbleness from our good deeds to go away for us to be recognized with that . Like being called a sheikh when a person learns the Quran. Here is where the seed of pride is sown in the hearts.
Similarly when a non Muslim is guided to Islam, or when a non practicing Muslim starts practicing tenets of Islam, he/she starts thinking of others similar to them as their previous version as misguided people. Sure, Allah gave you a moment in life where you realized the true guidance, you don't become better automatically! Guidance always depends on Allah and not on your good deeds. We, as Muslims, need to always, always beg Allah for guidance. Guidance is like thirst. Our glass is not enough for the entire life. It needs to be quenched every time. Which is possible only with Allah.
When Allah's guidance is received, it is our duty to maintain it and grow it with each passing day. We need to guide ourselves to the truth and keep ourselves away from things and deeds and even thoughts that could possibly lead to Allah's obedience. No matter what state we are in, we are in need of constant guidance from Allah. Every salah is an opportunity to ask that guidance, five times a day.
The Greatest Deceptor
The main theme of the strategy of this type of thinking of Satan is to use this mistakes of humans and present their deeds in such a way that seems beautiful to them. Taking guidance then becomes a problem for people who have been influenced by this strategy of Satan, Guiding others requires guiding ourselves also. Satan comes between our hearts and guidance is needed by others more than ourselves. Allah warns us humans of this Satan's strategy in Sura Nahl, chapter 16 verse 63: "By Allah , We did certainly send [messengers] to nations before you, but Satan made their deeds attractive to them. And he is the disbelievers' ally today [as well], and they will have a painful punishment."
Guidance is the property of Allah. It is not something humans can possess. Humility is the quality that keeps Satan away from humans. Satan always wishes humans to think themselves as perfect and no need of guidance, while others are so misguided and they need to seek guidance. This fallacy is unfortunately seen so commonly and everywhere around us. People who think they are superior to others are already on the slippery path to misguidance. Any correction to their knowledge is taken as an offense, and this attitude is directly from Satan.
Allah's words in the Quran not based on personal arguments but as a guidance to mankind, as stated in Sura Baqara, chapter 2 verse 2. Here, Satan uses these exact words of Allah to slap, defame, and insult each other. Same words of Allah that should be a source of guidance but here humans use it to justify their bad deeds and create differences within believers!
Even within families, people degrade and humiliate each other in the name of teaching them humility. Such people think they are doing a favor by making them hear their own insult to make them humble. This is again is a trick of the Satan, and a very dangerous one indeed. You want to be harsh with kids, you can certainly do that, but do not use religion to insult them or make them fee guilty. This has a scope of creating animosity against religion.
This can be explained by an analogy of research. The basic steps of research is to gather information, analyze it and then reach a conclusion. But here the conclusion is already drawn, information is gathered to match that conclusion and then the conclusion is justified. It is just like quotes from the Quran is gathered and quoted to prove how Muslim women are inferior and subjected to cruelty. Any person listening to such verses will believe it because the agenda of the presenter is not to communicate the word of Allah but to put across their point. And when the same person is presented with quotes from the Quran glorifying womanhood, they retract their steps and say that this is not what it is meant to be.When we don't represent teachings of our religion, we actually represent our conclusions we love holding onto. This is the way of Satan, to always have the conclusion against Allah and misguide humankind so that he will not be the only one entering hell fire.
The final trick of Satan is when you start to define yourself what is good for you, over riding what Allah wants from from you in the light of His words in the Quran. Satan says to you, why do you need to follow Islam when there are so many bad examples out there? You just continue to do what you're comfortable doing. Here you stop seeking what Allah has commanded and start doing work only based on your comfort zone.
Lastly, when it comes to guiding others, there is a loving and intellectual ways of doing that. Ibrahim (AS) father was a worshiper of idols; still he addresses his father in the most loving and respectful way possible and reveals to him that Islam does not have place of idol worship. This goes back to the first point in the article that guidance is not owned by any person or a group but only with Allah. Every person who believes Allah as his Lord and Muhammad as his Messenger (saws) is a Muslim, not those who join a particular mosque group or clan or territory.
May Allah protect us from the attacks of the devil from the right and keep us committed to what is right with the Help of Allah. Aameen