More of the Seven: Trial, Gossip, Lust and Theft

The fourth is Bethr, as heard, whose charge is those afflicted with calamity, trial and hardship in this life — sickness, or some grave misfortune. His task is to give waswasah in the midst of grief and pain, so that a person, overwhelmed with anguish and anxiety, wails and cries out at a high pitch, pulls at the ears, asks what has happened, declares that life is over, and begins to curse others constantly.

His further, and chief, aim is to prevent a Muslim from winning the true reward, the ḥasanah, that a calamity can bring. When a trial strikes, the Messenger of Allah says, the patience that counts is the first patience — shown at the very moment it strikes, enduring it, recognising it as a test from Allah, remaining calm and composed — and only then does the reward come, without anything further needing to be done, simply for that endurance. This devil's task is instead to make a person weep and rebel against Allah.

There is the account, related by his own shaykh, of a student who left Islam altogether. She had studied sacred law at an Islamic university and had become, by all accounts, a learned scholar; she married and remained without children for many years, until, after ten years of trying, Allah gave her a child — and after two or three years, that child died. She began, from that loss, to speak ill of qadar, ill of Allah. Whatever befalls a person, good or bad, comes from Allah, and lies outside anyone's control; Allah is the one who sends it, and the task is to accept it, to endure rather than complain. Pain remains pain, but it comes from Allah, and enduring it brings reward beyond measure — as, in times of ease, gratitude does.

The fifth is Manshūb, as heard, assigned to those with a particular fault for finding others' faults, given to gossip and unable to keep a confidence, carrying word from one friend to the next. There is the account of a gathering at which a semi-private matter, known only to those present, was under discussion, when someone known to suffer exactly this weakness walked in; the subject was changed at once to something else entirely. Those present, taken aback, asked afterward why the subject had been dropped so abruptly — the answer given was that this particular person could not govern his tongue: say a thing in front of him, and there would be no need to broadcast it on Channel Seven or Channel Nine, publish it in the Trading Post or on eBay, or put it on the internet at all — everyone would know by morning regardless. Anyone who knows such a person does well to keep the same guard. This is the state of one who has become an absolute victim of the devil called Manshūb.

The sixth is Wāsim, as heard, whose task is to work constantly upon men and women weak toward the flesh, toward carnal appetite, toward the opposite sex — working on such people day and night until zinā is committed again and again, one after another, each made attractive to the other; he knows their signals, their looks, their walk, every detail of how the matter is conducted, and so they go on to commit this forbidden act. He is a specialist in this alone. The desires of the nafs al-ammārah, the commanding self, run in five levels: hidden desire, the desire of the sexual organ, love of status, love of accumulated wealth, and love of leadership — five in all. The second of these, the desire for intimacy with the opposite sex, is one Islam allows to be satisfied lawfully through marriage, and there is reward in it; but once the eyes are opened to what lies outside marriage, and the forbidden is tasted, Shayṭān works on that person day and night without let-up. Left ungoverned even into old age, such a person becomes what is called a dirty old man, running after young girls or young boys alike — paedophilia is a disease of exactly this kind — and is a victim of this same devil, Wāsim.

The seventh is named Aʿwar, as heard — a curious name in itself. He governs those with a tendency to theft, to burglary, whose fingers cannot help dipping into a brother's shop, an uncle's shop, a mother's purse or an uncle's wallet when no one is looking, or who, in their work, misappropriate company funds through deception and fraud. To such people he says: keep stealing, so that you are never poor or in need, so that you can pay your debts and provide for your wife and children — no one will know, and repentance can always come afterward, when Allah will forgive it. Even to young men he says: do not worry, once you finish university and become a millionaire, making your thousands, you can pay it all back and no one will be the wiser. All of this is waswasah from this devil, whose name is Aʿwar, and whose whole appeal rests on the promise that no one will know. It is fard upon every Muslim, then, never to be heedless of Shayṭān's tricks, of whatever kind they take.