Iblees (Satan) is the external enemy of mankind and he cannot harm until he finds his way inside of a human self. Satan undertakes the job of contaminating human nature. But if a person wants to intoxicate another and he places a sack of venom in someone’s pocket, the venom will not work or if he adds venom in the food of the person he wants to intoxicate and the poisonous food is consumed, still the venom will not work if the food got vomited out.
The venom will only work when it gets into the digestive system and taken up, in that case it gets into the blood and will start revealing its after effects. Suspicion works in the same manner; it takes advantage of the wasted and low level desires like personification of wealth and other malevolent yearnings and concupiscence and thus causing extreme harm to youth, and in the form of lust for rank and status when it comes to attack grownups.
That dangerous alley where only wayfarers could come clean, is the lust for power and debauchery the people suffer from. If a person feels contented with heeding praises and lofty labels, it means that the poison has worked through. The commander of the faithful Hazrat Ali (A.S) in his testament to Malik-e-Ashtar says: Devil is always stalking you, if someone praises you, you should be very careful because you are standing upfront in a battle against the devil.1 The one who attacks the respect and repute of a Muslim does not suffer from the outside but evil from inside.
It takes away his slumber, no sleeping medication works for him; no cozy bedding gives him rest and sleep. Sometimes man sleeps on a comfortable bed but sometimes the bed is full of thorns. The bed of thorns will always produce bleeding wounds no matter what posture one takes to sleep. Therefore, the splinters that grow inside of a man can’t be healed by taking up sleeping medication. O ‘man, be very careful in every way of life The path of life is full of trees with thorns2 1-Nahjul-Balagha Epistle 53 إیاک و الإعجاب بنفسک و الثقة بما یعجبک منها و حُبّ الاطراء فإن ذلک منأوثق فرص الشیطان۔ (See keep your inner self free of self praising and never trust your liking for something. And don’t indulge in flatter, it’s all devils resources to prey the unworthy at leisure) 2-Dewan Shams, ص۷۰۷، ش۱۸۹۸