Until a man is in authority and commanding his desires, he appears to be very strong. It is then he is able to experience those qualities which are only bestowed to him and which win him the title of ‘The Best of Creatures”.
Both good and bad qualities of his personality stand in front of him with their hands tied and head bowed, waiting for an order from the person. Mans’ confidence makes him rise to the best of humanity and he exhibits the best of his personal qualities. He is then able to follow the ways of Prophets and Saints that were based on goodness, sincerity, brotherhood, cooperation, servant hood to the orders of Allah and many more. All these make his heart fully contented and win him a calm and peaceful life.
But the Satan never stops working on a human being. However good and innocent a man maybe, Satan comes with new plans and ideas to trap him and bring him into his kingdom and take him out of the country of good virtues. Like any other job, work of Satan is also difficult in the beginning. As discussed before, a man is born with a nature that is based on good qualities. Right from the early ages, a man likes good things and naturally loathes the bad. It looks as if there is present a kind of examiner in his soul and spirit that help him differentiate between the good and the bad.
When a man observes and experiences good things, it naturally comes with a pleasing effect to him and this entices him to be more associated with such qualities. The more he remains attached with these qualities, the more he feels easy in walking on the way of goodness and slowly and gradually increases his distance from bad things and a time comes when he stops feeling their presence. It means that his soul is purified fully and is cleaned up very well. However, it should not be forgotten that his soul never becomes absolutely secured and it is the reason why, Saints of their times always keep asking the assistance of Allah in combating the evil and leave the world with a pure and obedient heart.
On the other hand, bad things always make him feel bad and have adverse effects and as result, man tries his best to be away from them.
According to Islamic perspective, good qualities or virtues are resembled to a white spot while bad qualities or vices are resembled to a dark spot. When a person does any good work, a tiny white spot is developed in his heart and if he continues following the path of goodness, this white spot keeps growing and eventually covers every inch of his heart. In the same way, when a person does something bad, a small black spot is produced in the center of his heart and with the passage of time this black spot also keeps growing in size and is not restricted until one tries to wipe this black spot out with a good work and replace it with a white one.
It is the reason why, when man does something good, he really feels good about it. An appreciative sound lauds him for such act from the core of his soul. On the other hand, a man may be doing a bad work, but from inside he would definitely be feeling guilty on it. It is also on the record that all the wrong and evil-doers of the world never came into position when they should be able to defend their bad acts. There were some exceptional cases when some of them did show their pride on whatever they had done but studies revealed that they were no more normal and had lost all the characters that could have qualified them to be a human being. When a person cannot be qualified to be a human being, it is really unfair to expect of him any quality being bestowed to the humans only.
When Satan tries to take the man out of the way of goodness and introduces to him the vices, he naturally shows resistance. He tries all his best to remain attached with the good values and remain distant from the bad ones.
A similar inspirational quote is given that one night when it was dark, a child was sitting with his grandfather. Two dangerous animals were fighting in the adjacent jungle and their frightening sounds made the child feel afraid a bit. The grandfather turned to child and said, “My dear, similar to these animals, two opposing forces also keep fighting inside every human being. These are the forces of good and evil and their war never stops. At times, forces of goodness get stronger while another moment, the evil forces intimidate their opponents.” The surprised child asked his grandfather, “How do these forces get stronger and who wins the war at the end?” To this grandfather smiled and said, “Whoever you feed more, gets stronger and defeats the other”.
But then a unique formula is used by the Satan. When it wants to introduce an evil habit or inculcate an evil or bad quality in a person, it always starts its work from a very small magnitude.
It is the reason why it is said that, one should never consider any bad thing small. However small and less hazardous the evil habits or forces in a person maybe in the beginning, they will gradually grow big and strong. Evil habits are very similar to a disease that can be controlled very easily in the beginning but when left unchecked, grows so big that it goes out of the control of a person and becomes lethal.
When a person goes on the path of righteousness persistently and reaches to a point when he attains a number of unique qualities and rises to the peak of virtues and becomes a Saint, he reaches to a position that is really disappointing to the Satan. The person is now under the safety of virtues and he easily understands and detects the plans and traps of Satan and is strong enough to nullify them and his days and nights pass in the shade of goodness. But the Satan never gives up his work. He never accepts defeat and never leaves the man to advance on the way of goodness so easily. Whenever his one plan fails, he comes up with even greater energy and spirit and prepares another trap, more effective and more fatal this time.
In the same way, when one gets into the trap of evil forces and his soul and body is completely captured by them, he loses his hope of getting free of all this and thus gives up all his efforts. It is a very pessimistic approach and brings an end to the hope of recovery.
In the same way, forces of goodness and evil keep fighting and the war never ends. Whichever side we assist, gets stronger and becomes the master of our body and soul. This shows that, in fact, we are the masters of ourselves. When we come to understand this, we are now sure how to take our next step.