Hadhrat Abu Hurairah (R.A) narrated that Rasulullah (saw) said:
‘When Ramadhan comes, the gates of mercy are opened and the gates of Hell are shut, and the devils are put in chains.”
[Sahih Muslim]
As the holy month of Ramadan is coming to an end, Muslims are aware that Shaytaan
will be free to attempt to misguide us. Although the obvious sins are easy to avoid, his
whisperings may be clever, thus leading us to unknowingly stray from the right path. One
example is the story of Burseesah, a pious man who devoted his life to Allah:
There were three men from Bani Israel who were called to fight for the sake of Allah. They accepted the call, but they had concerns for their sister as she would be left behind with no one to look after her. After some discussion, they agreed that the best place to leave her would be with the most trusted person in town; Burseesah. He lived in a sanctuary and devoted his entire life to the worship of Allah. They came to Burseesah and said to him, “O Burseesah. We know you to be a pious and trustworthy man. We have been enlisted to fight for the sake of Allah and we want to leave our sister with you. O Burseesah! We trust no one else in town except you. Please take care of our sister.” Burseesah immediately said, “AoothoBillah! (I seek refuge in Allah) Get away from me! I have sworn to spend my time devoting it to the worship of Allah! I do not want to deal with these issues and be burdened with looking after someone” The three men said to him, “O Burseesah! We have nowhere else to take her! We can’t leave her with anyone else and we don’t trust anyone else. Please take care of our sister!”
Shaytaan heard the discussion, and came to Burseesah. “Burseesah…” The waswaas [evil whisperings] began. “Burseesah if you don’t look after her, she might be left with someone who
is not trustworthy! You have to take this responsibility” Burseesah listened and finally agreed to look after her. He told the brothers to leave her in a separate house so not to distract him from
his acts of worship. They left her there, said goodbye and went to jihad.
Burseesah continued his acts of worship as normal. During the day he would leave food on his doorstep so the woman would have to leave the house to collect the food. This ensured that they
never saw one another and Burseesah never left his place of worship.
Time passed by. Shaytaan came to Burseesah. “Burseesah…” he whispered, “You can’t leave the food on your doorstep! As she is leaving the house someone might see her by herself and take
advantage of her. Rather than her leave her house, you go to her house and drop off the food on her doorstep.” Burseesah made the decision that this was the right thing to do, and followed the
bait that Shaytaan masked in a cover of righteousness. So during the day Burseesah would leave his place of worship to go to her house and leave the food on her doorstep. This happened
for a while and with the trap just being set, Shaytaan moved in for the next step. “Burseeeeesah…” the whispers came again. ”Burseeesah…you are now leaving the food on her
doorstep, but still this is not good. She still has to open the door and collect the food.
Someone might still see her and she is so beautiful. She is VERY beautiful”
This servant of Allah, who never saw this woman started to be tempted by the whispers from
Shaytaan about her beauty. “Burseesah, her beauty is intoxicating and if someone sees her they may try something. You have to leave the food INSIDE her house. You don’t have to look at her.
Just knock on the door, and hand her the food as she opens the door.” Burseesah saw no harm in this. After all, it would stop people from seeing her. More deception covered in righteousness. So again, Burseesah would leave his place of worship and go to the house. This time he would knock on her door to hand her the food. Time passed by again. Shaytaan remained patient
before executing his next plan. Shaytaan came again. “Burseeesah…you can’t leave this poor woman all alone without any company. No one is speaking to her. She’s lonely Burseesah… Just talk to her. There’s no harm in saying salaam and asking how she is. You can talk to her from
behind the door…you don’t have to see her…just talk from outside.” He liked the idea and when he would bring her the food he would talk to her behind the door while she was in her room.
They would talk for hours every day and the relationship began to get stronger. Shaytaan found it easier and easier to drag him into the next step.
“Burseeesah…..Burseesah….you can’t just sit behind the door. You know each other well enough to be in the same room now. Just sit in the same room and speak to her. You don’t have to look
at her. Just sit in the same room.” Burseesah began to follow the advice of Shaytaan. Every time they met, the talk became more intimate as they began getting closer…and closer…and closer.
It started with merely holding hands, and eventually they committed zinaa [fornication]
“Oh what have I done?” Burseesah exclaimed as he realised his mistake. From being a slave of Allah to becoming a fornicator!
But the story did not end there. The woman became pregnant and nine months later delivered a baby boy. The familiar whispers started again as Shaytaan flowed through Burseesah’s veins like blood.
“Burseeesaah…when her brothers come back and find out their sister has a child in zinaa, you are going to be in trouble! There is only one way to solve this problem. Burseesah, you have to
kill the baby! Get rid of the evidence!” Grief and anxiety ran through Burseesah’s mind as he listened to the whispers of Shaytaan. He did what he heard and killed the baby. “Ohhhh
Burseesah. Do you think this woman will keep this a secret after you killed her own child? The only thing to do now is to kill her!”
Burseesah then killed the woman and buried both mother and child under the house and covered it with a rock. From being a slave of Allah to becoming a murderer!
Soon the three brothers returned and went to greet their sister. She was nowhere to be found.
They went to the house of Burseesah and asked him, “Where is our sister?”
“She has passed away” he said as he pointed to a fake grave. The brothers were saddened by the loss, and made du’a for her. That night when they went to sleep, Shaytaan came to them in their dreams and told them all what had happened. “Burseesah has lied to you! Burseesah killed your sister! Burseesah made zinaa with her! She is buried under the rock inside the house.” As they all woke up in the morning, and talked about their dream, they began relating the same dream and thought there must be some truth in it. They first dug up the grave Burseesah pointed to earlier on and found no body. They stormed to Burseesah’s house and demanded to know what had happened to their sister. One of them saw the rock in the house and uncovered it, where they saw their sister and her child.
“What has happened to our sister?!” The eldest screamed. They forced Burseesah to disclose the secret of what happened and Burseesah told them everything.
Burseesah was taken to court where he confessed everything to the King. The King sentenced Burseesah to be executed. As they dragged him to his death, fear overcame Burseesah. For the first time during this whole incident, Shaytaan appeared before Burseesah and said to him, “Oh Burseesah! Listen! Look at me! I was the one who was whispering to you since this whole thing
started! I am Shaytaan!”
Burseesah’s fear grew as the blade for his execution was brought! “Now I can get you out of all this trouble. I was the one who put you in it, and I can get you out of it!”
With an evil grin, Shaytaan said, “Make sujood to me. I am Shaytaan and I will save you! Bow down and prostrate to me!”
Burseesah fell down in sujood to Shaytaan and as soon as he did this, Shaytaan ran away!
Burseesah was executed!
From being a servant of Allah, to becoming a servant to Shaytaan. From Imaan to the worst type of kuffar – bowing down to Shaytaan! Who could ever imagine a servant of Allah making sujood to Shaytaan? Imagine if Shaytaan came to Burseesah at the beginning and said “Burseesah make sujood to me”, would Burseesah do it? No. If Shaytaan came to Burseesah at the beginning and said “commit murder”, would he? No.
If Shaytaan came to Burseesah at the beginning and said “commit zinaa”, would he do it? No. But Shaytaan knows the game! He’s been playing his tricks since the time of Adam. The classical method of misleading people through step by step deception. This is how Shaytaan pulls at our feet and deceives us. So even if something may SEEM to be like an insignificant sin/action, be careful. It might be the start of a trap.
Allah tells us “O you who believe! Do not follow the footsteps of the Shaytaan, and whoever follows the footsteps of the Shaytaan, then surely he bids the doing of indecency and evil”
[Quran 24:21]
Shaytaan has sworn that he’ll lead as many humans to hell as he can, that’s his mission. But we were created to worship Allah so that we become the eternal residers of paradise. The shaytaan had Allah’s curse ever since he refused to bow down to Adam. He’ll never get a chance to enter paradise. However, we can as long as we live our lives the way that Allah intended. May Allah protect us from the influences of shaytaan and the evil within ourselves.
When we feel the influence of Shaytaan recite: