How Satan said to the Quraysh, “Go to war with Ahmad (Mohammed), for I will aid you and call my tribe to help”; and how, when the two battle-lines confronted each other, he fled.
As (for example) Satan
became the hundred-and-first in the army (of
the
Quraysh) and spake beguiling words, saying, “Verily, I am a protector for you.”
When the Quraysh had assembled
at
his bidding, and
the
two
armies confronted each
other,
Satan espied a host
of angels on a road
beside the ranks of the Faithful.
(He espied) those troops that ye saw not, drawn up
in ranks;
and from terror his soul
became
(like) a fire-temple.
4040. Turning on his
heel, he began
to retreat, saying,
“I
behold a marvellous host”— That is, “I fear God: I have
no help from Him. Get ye gone! Verily,
I see what ye see not.”
Hárith said, “Hey,
O you that have the form
of Suráqa, why wert
not you saying
such-like words
yesterday?”
He replied, “At this moment I see destruction (before
me).” He (Hárith)
said, “You seest the most
puny of the
Arabs.
You art seeing naught but
this; but, O you disgrace,
that was the time of talk,
and
this is the time
of battle.
4045. Yesterday you wert
saying, ‘I pledge myself
that victory and
Divine aid will always be yours.’
Yesterday you wert
the surety for the
army, O accursed one,
and now you art
cowardly, good- for-nothing, and vile,
So that (after)
we swallowed those (deceitful) words
of yours and
came (to battle),
you have gone to the bath-stove and we
have become the
fuel.”
When Hárith said this to Suráqa, that accursed
one was enraged at his reproaches.
He angrily
withdrew his hand from his (Hárith's)
hand,
since his heart
was pained by his words.
4050. Satan smote his (Hárith's) breast and
fled: by means of this plot he shed
the blood of those wretched men.
After he had ruined
so great a multitude, he then said, “Lo, I am quit of you.”
He smote him
on the breast and
overthrew
him; then he turned to flee, since terror
urged him on.
The fleshly soul and the
Devil both have
(ever) been one
person (essentially); (but)
they have manifested themselves in two forms,
Like the angel and the intellect, which were (really) one, (but) became two forms for the sake of
His (God's) wise purposes.
4055. You have such an enemy as this in your inward part: he is the preventer of the intellect, and the
adversary of the spirit
and
of
religion.
At one moment he dashes
forward like
the Libyan lizard; then (again) in flight he darts away
into a hole.
Just now he has
(many) holes in the
(human) heart, and
from every hole he is putting out his
head.
The name that
denotes the Devil's
becoming hidden
from (men's)
souls and going
into that
hole is khunús (slinking back),
For his khunús is like
the khunús of the hedgehog: like the head of the
hedgehog, he pops in and
out;
4060. For God
has called the Devil Khannás (the slinker), because he resembles the
head of the little hedgehog.
The head
of
the hedgehog is continually being hidden because of its fear of the cruel hunter, Until, when it has found an opportunity, it puts out its head:
by
such a stratagem the snake becomes
its prey.
If the fleshly soul had
not waylaid you from within, how
would the brigands
have any power
to lay a hand upon you?
On account of the
exigent myrmidon, who is Lust, the heart is captive
to greed and cupidity and
bane.
4065. On account
of that inward myrmidon you have become thievish
and depraved, so that the way is (open) for the (external) myrmidons to coerce you.
Hearken to this good counsel in the Traditions (of the Prophet)—“Your worst enemy is between your two sides.”
Do not listen to the pompous talk of this enemy, (but) flee, for she is like Iblís in obstinately wrangling and quarrelling.
For the sake
of this world and
for contention's sake she has made
the everlasting torment (seem)
easy (of small
account) to you.
What wonder, if she makes death
(seem) easy? By her magic she does a hundred
times as much
(as this).
4070. Magic makes a straw a mountain by artifice; (or) again, it weaves a
mountain like a
straw.
It makes ugly things beautiful by means of sleight; it makes beautiful
things ugly by means of
(false) opinion.
The work of
magic is this,
that it breathes (incantations) and at every breath
(moment)
transforms realities.
At one time it
shows a man in the guise of an ass, (at another time) it makes an ass (look like)
a man and a notable.
Such a magician is within you and
latent: truly, there is a concealed
magic in temptation (exerted
by the fleshly soul);
4075. (But) in the
world in which
are these magic arts,
there are magicians who
defeat sorcery.
In the plain where
this fresh (virulent)
poison grew, there has also
grown the antidote,
O son. The
antidote says to you,
“Seek from me a shield, for I am
nearer than the poison to you.
Her (the fleshly soul's)
words are magic
and your ruin; my words are (lawful) magic and
the counter-charm to her
magic.”
How the fault-finders repeated their advice to the guest of the guest-killing mosque.
The Prophet said, “Verily, there is a magic in eloquence”;
and that goodly hero
spake the truth.
4080. “Hey, do not commit a foolhardy
act, (but) depart, O generous man,
and
do not make the mosque and us suspected on this account;
For an enemy
will speak form enmity, and
to-morrow the
villain will rouse a fire
(of suspicion)
against us,
Saying, ‘Some wicked
man strangled him,
(knowing that) on the pretext
of the mosque he was safe
(from suspicion),
So that he might impute
the
murder to the
mosque and,
since the mosque has a bad name,
might escape.’
Do not lay any
suspicion upon us, O man of valiant spirit,
for we are not
secure from the
craft of
(our) enemies.
4085. Come now,
depart! Do not be foolhardy, do not cherish vain desire,
for it is impossible to
measure (the planet) Saturn
by the ell.
Many like you have prated of (their) luck, (and in the end)
they have torn
out their beards, one
by one, piecemeal.
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