The Overarching Strategy for Combating Satan

🌼🔆🌼Exiling Satan🌼🔆🌼
🔹Weekly sessions on the commentary and interpretation of Prayer 20 of al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya

📅 Date: 1405/02/17 – 19 Dhu al-Qa‘dah – Dhu al-Hijjah 1447
✨ Session: Meshkat-e Noor
🎤 Speaker: Master Ali Saei
📝 Some topics discussed in the session:

🌹🔅☘️ بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحيمِ ☘️🔅🌹
🔅🌹 “Decisive blows against Satan,” “Remembrance of God makes Satan’s market slump,” “Neglecting God’s remembrance makes Satan’s market thrive,” “Forgetting God emboldens Satan,” “Commentary on Passage 13 of Prayer 20 of al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya,” and more. Summary with addendum, 1405.02.18. Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat) 110.141 (903) 🌹🔅

📜 A structured summary: The overarching strategy for combating Satan
Source: Commentary on Passage 13 of Prayer 20 of al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya | Author: Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat)

💫1. The central theme and purpose of the struggle
The key to combating Satan is to draw on Imam Sajjad’s (AS) prayer, which conveys this meaning:

☀️«اللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْ مَا يُلْقِي الشَّيْطَانُ فِي رُوعِي… ذِكْراً لِعَظَمَتِكَ، وَ تَفَكُّراً فِي قُدْرَتِكَ، وَ تَدْبِيراً عَلَى عَدُوِّك»

Satan shoots three poisoned arrows into a person’s “ru‘” (the seat of perception and spirit):

Wishful thinking: vain, worldly desires.
Suspicion: ill thoughts and pessimism.
Envy: an inward fire kindled by the blessings others enjoy.
The way to resist is to turn these temptations into three pillars of defence:

Remembrance: recalling God’s greatness.
Reflection: contemplating divine power.
Planning: devising a strategy against the enemy (Satan).

💫 2. Spiritual and psychological diagnosis (identifying the illness)
The importance of the “ru‘”: It is the final stronghold of human identity. When Satan takes control of it, a person comes to see sin as beautiful and to mistake falsehood for truth—forgetting who they are.
Desires that feed on the dead: Vain worldly wishes dull the appetite for the spiritual realm and awaken animal appetites. “Ruminating on past ‘if onlys’” is a form of spiritual scavenging.
Greed and covetousness: They are like an oil-burning engine that goes nowhere yet consumes the Hereafter. Excessive covetousness (sharah) drives a person mad and leaves them insatiable.
The nature of this world: The world is a means—a bridge—not a destination. Being deceived by its blessings and neglecting the Hereafter is the greatest loss.

💫3. The overarching strategy: Remembrance of God (the supreme weapon)
The most important principle in this text is “constant remembrance of God.”

General principle: “Neglecting the remembrance of God makes Satan’s market thrive,” while “remembrance of God makes it slump.”
Forgetfulness of God: This is the only gateway through which Satan can enter. Wherever God is forgotten, Satan grows bold.
The need to remember God at all times:
Even in moments when a person feels God’s greatness so keenly that they consider themselves unworthy to remember Him, they should still remember Him.
The hadith of Moses (AS): God said, “I am the companion of whoever remembers Me… O Moses, remember Me in every state.”

💫4. Practical guidance and everyday deeds (safeguarding practices)
A) Begin and end every task with “Bismillah”
The golden rule: If God’s name is not invoked in any action—ablution, eating, getting dressed, leaving home, and so on—Satan becomes a partner in it.
Effect: “Bismillah” leaves Satan hungry and thirsty. Forgetting God is nourishing food for Satan.
B) Everyday prayers and remembrances
When leaving home:
Recite: “Bismillah, آمَنْتُ بِاللَّهِ، تَوَكَّلْتُ عَلَى اللَّهِ…”
Effect: The angels strike Satan in the face, and he finds no way to gain entry.
When stepping out through the front door (a prayer for protection):
Recite the prayer “أَعُوذُ بِمَا عَاذَتْ بِهِ مَلَائِكَةُ اللَّهِ…” (seeking refuge in the protection of the angels from the evils of the new day, the self, Satan, and so on).
Effect: God takes care of the most important affairs, wards off evil, and protects against harm.
When entering and leaving the washroom:
On entering: Seek refuge in God from Satan, the accursed (the impure and the one who defiles).
On leaving: Praise God for sparing you from that affliction.
Ablution: Bear witness to God’s oneness and ask to be among those who repent and keep themselves pure.
C) Social and spiritual actions (decisive blows)
Almsgiving: It blackens Iblis’s face and breaks the force of an oppressor’s fury.
Love for God’s sake and cooperation: They cut off the roots of power and Satan.
Seeking forgiveness: It severs Satan’s jugular and erases sins.
Fasting: It is the alms of the body and blackens Satan’s face.

💫5. Final Summary and Conclusion
Strategic planning: Close off the ways Satan can gain a foothold, especially through remembrance of God and بسم‌الله.
Turn crisis into opportunity: Satan is a weight against which your devotion is tested; break his back and become a champion.
Moment-to-moment vigilance: Be alert to رُوع; Satan lies in wait.
Reform your tastes: If you take pleasure in sin, your heavenly appetite has died.
Closing prayer: O God, turn Satan’s whisperings into a weapon against him and a means of drawing nearer to You.
The text’s key motto:

“Banish Satan, leave him wandering, and through remembrance of God strip him bare, impoverish him, and leave him despairing.”