Indeed, not only the dizzying development of modern technology our contemporary age rush towards the luxurious and prosperous life that is promised, toppling our inherited values; in addition, with a determined sense of destruction – which can be more suitably called “social delirium” – and with a sense of disloyalty, a manifest war is waged against our collective system of belief, traditions, customs, cultural and religious dynamics, a system that has been passed down to us from a glorious past. In so doing, they divorce the soul of our society from God and His Messenger, and from its history as well; compelling us to live through years of separation, one after another. In the meantime, a great many inept souls in an impetuous rush for identity bustle from one delirium to another, while many others crumble into the void for the sake of a pure nothing. During this term it was essentially the destiny of our society to spend each day in search for a new direction, each morning turning towards a new niche. Masses, in a confusion of tides between taboos, rushed hither and thither spending their lives chasing vanities, while months and years became wasted and spilt into nothingness. In the meantime, that traditional holy privacy of the family has been smashed into pieces for the sake of a fantasy and our homes have virtually been transformed into arenas of clashing contrarieties. Our homes, which are softer and warmer than the birds’ nests, have been rendered into inns and hotel rooms for short stopovers and swift migrations. Those who imagined living in these unfortunate shelters are always longing for genuine and permanent happiness; they effervesce with the pleasures of ephemeral amusements and lead their lives as the victims of their bodies, serving a life-sentence in the narrow confines of corporeality with feeble willpowers, unbelieving hearts, starving souls, bleak horizons, and shaken hopes.

Those who became suitors for alien unlawful qualities instead of adopting positive aspects in terms of science and technology, those who have trampled upon their own ethical values, through the mendacity of nothingness within abundance have displayed a different form of mendicancy at each doorstep, disappearing into the deadly whirlpools of their sad lot, having become enslaved to their soulless ambitions. It all happened at the same time, when they dreamt of ruling the entire world in a very near future, setting up interstellar travel agencies, solving the secrets of existence, elongating the lifespan of humankind with unnamed inventions, even providing a cure for death, attaining the absolute satisfaction after overcoming the pangs of their passions, and bringing in new profundities to the current amusements and pleasures of the life they lead. Nowadays there are a myriad of people who are intoxicated by the enchantment of these false dreams and this plenitude, closing their eyes tightly to the sun of reality, striving to lead a life in the candlelight they kindled within their delusion. However, neither is it so easy to base life upon whims and illusions, nor is this extremely long journey that awaits humankind so trivial as to be weathered with a false candle. God knows that in a very near future, when the strings of their hopes have become completely unraveled through an unknown cause, their expectations will scatter all around like beads from a rosary, and all along the itinerary everything will be invaded by unexpected things, distances will be reversed, dreams will collapse, all whims and illusions will be blocked under ruins and then, when neither any of those pretentious inventions or those pompous philosophies nor those rose-colored hopes will remain, they will not remain equal to commemorative archaic artifacts exhibited in the museums.

I wonder if we should pity, scold, or sit down and weep for the condition of these unfortunate ones who have been rendered lonely between existence and non-existence, who cannot receive remitting news from any aspect of existence, having been distracted and delayed by alienation and separation at a certain junction that is intersected by so many paths.

Contrary to these unfortunate ones whose hearts are filled with fog and smoke, whose willpowers have been paralyzed by various contrarieties and those who think keeping on walking around the whirlpools of death is walking towards life, in the same arena are the souls whose eyes of the heart watch the beyond, whose emotions froth and bubble with the ecstasy of turning towards the Truth (Haqq); their hands are opened up to God with the entire treasures of their bosoms and souls, like rain-laden clouds, lying in wait for breezes into which they will pour themselves, the feeling of chastity in their hearts is apparent in all the lines on their faces; respect for humankind and the feeling of freedom is the most prominent color of their attitude; their manners and expressions are enchanting to the extent of arousing the feeling of eternity in each heart; every behavior is a discourse reflecting their relation with the Truth sans letters or words; their human relations are extremely warm and sincere, like that of spiritual beings; their homes, schools, and garrisons are virtually like temples, while their temples are a sacred fountain serving the river of Paradise (kawthar) through their most profound mysterious Divine nature – souls busy in waiting.

These souls, with bowls of offerings in their hands, in the excitement of awaiting the turning of pure consciences towards themselves as a means of opportunity, without indulging in expectation of return, support and influence, roam above the heads of everyone, like the clouds; pouring down as rain and flowing everywhere; cracking open like the soil and opening their bosoms to the sprouts, sometimes above heads, sometimes under the feet, forgetting to live for their own behalf, they are busy with the passion of letting live while they roam around, blowing resurrection everywhere. Indeed, the world they will carve and shape and the historical inheritance they will bequeath to future generations will bring smiles to the faces of both this society and future generations. Such a formation, which will eternalize our love and fervor with a fresh revival and ignite our willpowers in the name of constructing the future, will be the final fruit of the effervescing love that is like gushing springs, the exhilaration of worship abreast with the pleasures of Paradise and the determination, hope, and faith that will voice our existence with the songs of eternity, the launch-pad and quay of sailing to infinity.

In short, just as there are lights descending upon us continuously, the foul-smelling smoke is rising at the same time. What can one say about this as the Divine decree has always occurred in this way – we pray it does not last long – but from this time onward it seems to continue in the same.

Everything flows; water, history, stars, men and thought;
Double are the troughs; radiance flows from one, and filth from the other.
Bunched together in the same stream are large and small, and the universe;
Watch that cloud rising, just out of spite for descending water!
Necip Fazil

Nothing compares to him at abusing certain feelings ingrained in human nature for particular intentions and purposes, which are beneficial for us if used properly. Likewise, he is highly skilled at making beauty seem ugly, and ugliness seem beautiful to those who have been afflicted with the misfortune of entering his dirty atmosphere. He makes his unfortunate prey slaves to physicality with his enticement and propaganda to such a degree that it almost becomes impossible for those poor beings to turn toward the horizon of being true humans afterwards.

Even though humanity recognized this evil creature for the first time on its refusal to prostrate before Adam, the history of this wicked one-God knows-may extend further back into the past in connection with its inner problems and conflicts. Satan is the meanest creature with the potential for jealousy, inclination to deceive, feeling of ego-centrism, spirit of rebellion, and weakness for renown in his nature-his willpower being the trigger-who keeps foaming with a rebellious code of conduct and who is fixed on malice. He keeps whispering the same thing to everyone who enters his orbit, be they human or jinn, since evil feelings keep boiling within the essential elements which constitute his inner world and character. He tries particularly hard to make people with character defects resemble himself, constantly blows devilish considerations into them, and travels through their blood and vessels, always inculcating negative things in those unfortunate ones. These poor beings consider the negativities of the words and expressions formed in their inner worlds or of the way of thinking they put on paper as their own, but it is obvious that there are devilish inculcations behind all of these negativities. In this respect, there are seditious organizations and followers of Satan who hold a grudge against people-particularly against believers-and try to lead them astray. They sometimes trigger the animal feelings in some weak ones and lead them to bohemianism, they attack those who do not think like themselves, sometimes raise a fuss, make the atmosphere tense and make different groups oppose one another, always pursuing hypocrisy and discord. These are the ones-as the Qur’an states-who pretend to have faith while near believers and reveal their true thoughts when they are back near the radical lords of unbelief. These organizations and followers of Satan are also metaphorically regarded as satans; these are the human satans described in the Qur’an as “satans from humankind and the jinn” (An’am 6:112).

Just like Satan who chose rebellion by rejecting the order to prostrate before Adam and went even further by daring to engage in dialectics and argue against God, the modern Mephistos of our time in his footsteps always rebel against good, try to make people forget God and His Prophet, and pave the way for the flourishing of devilish considerations. As Goethe expresses in Faust, the struggle between Satan and man, the controversy between unbelief and faith, has never ceased and will never cease. During this struggle, occasionally circumstances were made suitable for unbelief and apostasy, apostates became completely insolent, at other times believers were intimidated through brute force, sometimes certain spoiled souls adopted the despotism of not letting anyone else but themselves live, and at times they committed or had others commit terrible cruelties-whose many examples appall us today. These tyrants did not even think about the existence of an Omnipotent Power, mightier than themselves. They just ignored the fact that the oppressed has the Almighty to take refuge in, that those who make people suffer today will moan in misery tomorrow. What is worse, the unfortunate ones who led their lives under the hegemony of oppressors and despots understood nothing of what was going on, and they kept serving the goals of the tyrants over them. They failed to realize the situation they had got into and what mean deals they were being pushed toward. The poet Namýk Kemal described them thus:

Helpers of the oppressors in this world are only rogues,
Those who enjoy serving merciless hunters are naught but dogs.

In fact, the ends of such people have always been grim. A proverb says, “The company of Satan lasts to the gallows.” This is how they end up; as they do not enjoy the life of this world, they have never been confident about their future. They could not be, since human and jinn devils have caused their souls to deviate. One more time, they have fallen for the stealthy trick of Mephisto. They have been deceived by enemies disguised as friends, and by alienated souls whom they considered their fellows.

The apostates, unbelievers, bohemians, dealers in lust, tyrants who do not recognize any right or justice nowadays are doing to the unfortunate masses what the satans have not been able to. This reaches such a degree that these networks of evil, whose thoughts are as filthy as can be, who are foul-mouthed, and whose insides boil with grudge and hatred, keep attacking those who do not think like themselves, besmirch everyone, laud those they favor, and easily defame those they do not. The poet Mehmed Akif criticized these strayers thus: “Our literary men are swearing at one another, / Published in different names, a paper always in print, / Disseminating seeds of discord all over!” This was the case the day before yesterday, it was so yesterday, and it is still the same now.

God called us to keep away from Satan as stated in the command, “Do not follow in the footsteps of Satan; indeed he is a manifest enemy to you. He only commands you to evil and indecency” (Baqara 2:168–169).

The Almighty reminds us of the grudge of that accursed one to alert us: “Of Your servants I will surely take a share to be assigned to me (by their following me). I will surely lead them astray and surely engross them in vain desires” (Nisa 4:118–119). God invites us to be sensible and wary of the Satanic grudge and hatred as revealed in “…now that You have allowed me to rebel and go astray, I will surely lie in wait for them on Your Straight Path (to lure them from it). Then I will come upon them from before them and from behind them, and from their right and from their left” (A’raf 7:16–17).

If only we could understand all this!