The heart of men is between two fingers of the fingers of the Beneficent

The heart of men is between two fingers of the fingers of the Beneficent [1]. Satan is a finger and the Angel is a finger, or darkness is a finger and Light is a finger or ignorance is a finger and intellect is a finger.

And the heart is between these two fingers, thus the strive of the self is the pursuit with the Angel, the Light and the intellect to Allah, and the rejection of Satan and the darkness and the ignorance.
Since the goal of Satan and his purpose is to lead the people into the abyss of Hell and to make them disgraceful in front of the Lord of the Worlds, when they disobey the Creator, the Most Merciful, the Most Kind. Thus, to achieve this goal he [Satan] must use a weapon to implement what he wants.

These weapons range from the apparent to the hidden, from the weak to the forceful and it all depends, for verily, every type has its own appropriate weapon by which it is misled.

From the door (know your enemy) I will touch upon these weapons; to enable those who wish to strive the Greatest strive to know his enemy and thus save himself from the fire, and to fortify himself and shield himself by what is appropriate, so that he may not become an easy target [to be controlled by] Satan, curse of Allah be upon him. Therefore it is necessary that we know firstly – and before anything – that the motives of the human towards temptation/seduction are complex and intertwined with each other, and Satan, curse of Allah upon him, uses from this complex combination that which is suitable for each human being to mislead him. Since the human beings live in this physical world and are being tested in this physical world during this time and in this worldly life, therefore, the self of the person and its surroundings are throughout the quest regarding the weapons of the devil. For the self and its surroundings are what Satan, Curse of Allah upon him, is armed with in order to seduce man and lead him into the abyss of Hell, while the surroundings of men is the physical world or the Dunya (the world).

Thus, the quest then revolves around this world and the self of the human beings on one hand, and regarding the self of the human beings on the other hand; as the weapons are either:

1 – That it is a composite of the physical world and the human self, as the knife and the body with which are planted with in. As an example the adulterer and the adulteress, for Satan uses the woman and the man, while he also needs sexual weakness to be placed with in the self of these people whom he wants to seduce and lead into the Abyss. Thus, for the man who disobeys Allah with adultery, the woman represents the knife with which is used [to stab him] by the Satan. While the sexual weakness is as the likes of the place with which Satan stabbed him.

2 – Or the weapon is from within the human self, thus, the knife and the place in which the knife stabs, become one, and that is the self. Therefore, there is nothing from the physical world and its wonderment.

Therefore, it is necessary to know the knife (this world), and the object in which it is planted with in (the self), and the knife of the self (which is the knife and the weapon taken from the self and planted within the self). And then, if we are successful we will know the weapons of Satan in detail after which we will know it with simplicity. And we need to know both knowledge; that which is simple (the fact that the self and the world are the weapons of Satan), and the detailed one which I leave, for it is branching o! from the whole.

And there is no harm with delivering a look at the world and the human self in the terms of it being the weapon of the devil.

—

[1] On the authority of the Prophet, Mercy of Allah Upon him, it is narrated; “The heart of the believer is between two fingers of the fingers of the Beneficent.” Awali Alliala Ch. 1, pg. 48

Excerpt from the book The Strive (Jihad) Is The Door Of Paradise, Ahmed Alhasan (a.s)