snakes who take pleasure at biting and poisoning, they take pride and pleasure at the evils and wicked immorality of the swamp of misguidance, being gratified at the harms and crimes of the darkness of evil-doing; quite simply they take on the nature of Satan. Yes, a decisive indication of the existence of devils from the jinn, is the existence of human satans.
Secondly: All the hundreds of decisive evidences proving the existence of angels and spirit beings in the Twenty-Ninth Word prove also the existence of evils spirits. We refer this aspect to that Word.
Thirdly: The existence of the angels, the representatives and supervisors of the laws of the good matters in the universe, is established and agreed upon by all the religions. So too, the existence of evil and satanic spirits, who are the representatives and ushers of evil matters and the means of the laws of such matters, is required by wisdom and reality, and is certain. Indeed, in evil matters, a conscious screen is more necessary. For as is stated at the beginning of the Twenty-Second Word, since everyone cannot see the true good of everything, the All-Glorious Creator has made apparent intermediaries a screen to apparent evils and defects, so that objections should not be levelled at Him, nor His mercy be accused, nor his wisdom criticized or unjustly complained about, and so that objections, criticisms, and complaints should be directed at the screen, and not turned to the Generous Creator, the Absolutely Wise One. Just as He made illness a screen to the appointed hour of death in order to save Azra’il from the complaints1 of His servants who die, so too He made Azra’il a screen to the seizing of the spirits of the dying so that the complaints at that situation, which is fancied to be lacking in compassion, should not be directed at Almighty God. And even more certainly, dominical wisdom demanded the existence of Satan, so that objections and criticisms in the face of evils and bad things should not be directed at the All-Glorious Creator.
Fourthly: Just as man is a small world, the microcosm, so is the world a large human being, the macroanthropos. Small man is an index and summary of the macroanthropos. The large originals of the samples in man will necessarily be found in the macroanthropos. For example, the existence of man’s faculty of memory is a certain indication of the existence of the Preserved Tablet in the world. So too everyone has experienced in himself the inner faculty situated in a corner of the heart which is the means to diabolical suggestions2 and temptations and is a satanic tongue that speaks at the
See, Abu Nu’aym, Hilya al-Awliya’, v, 51; al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi, Nawadir al-Usul, i, 177-8; al-Suyuti, al-Durr al-Manthur, vi, 543.
See, Tirmidhi, Tafsir Sura 35:2; al-Nasa’i, al-Sunan al-Kubra, vi, 305; al-Bazzar, al-Musnad, v, 394; Abu Ya’la, al-Musnad, vii, 278; viii, 417.