It's such a difficult topic to talk and write about.... but still somehow I felt I must speak about it today.... why? I do not know? Maybe because my heart, being that of a Devil, empathizes a lot with the entity that we call the Devil..... Maybe because I genuinely feel that the Devil has been not understood ... Maybe because I feel that the Devil needs to be given his due.... Maybe it's high time we listened to his side of the Story too....
Why am I speaking about him today? Well... the immediate reason may be the fact that a close friend asked me about my views on Satanism.... I am no follower of that cult neither do I believe in it but somehow I felt that we should not shy away from talking about that entity called as Satan
Why did Satan who was once Lucifer (the angel of light) become the symbol of Darkness? Why did the angel that was most loved by God suddenly become his most hated creation?
Maybe the Devil was Love's first victim proving to one and all that Love can also destroy and it need not always uplift you.
As per the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the story of the genesis of the Devil is a very interesting one..... Initially God or Yahweh or Allah (by whatever name you may call him) created Angels and then ordered all his creations to worship him - and him only .....
One of his favourite angels was Satan or Iblis or Lucifer or whatever else thou may call him.... Satan loved God deeply and even God recognized him as the best of his angels. However, when God created Man, he asked all his angels to prostrate in front of his new creation and worship it...... All angels agreed to abide by him except Satan who refused to worship anyone except the Almighty God..... For this singular case of disobedience, he was punished and thrown out of Heaven......
Even religions that do not follow the Abrahamic mode of religion also have similar tales of the genesis of Satan wherein the good lord or God was challenged by someone who could not accept someone else to be closer to God than him... so we have Jay and Vijay agreeing to 3 lives as God's enemies than 7 lives as his devotees...since they could not accept so long a separation .... Can there be any question then on the love that these so called Devils have in their much-abused breasts for the God that we all know
So God banished Devil from hell not because Devil loved him less but because the Devil disobeyed him.... . his disobedience was hence his guilt and nothing more than that.... God never accused the Devil of anything except disobedience and he was punished for nothing except disobedience.... for Devil followed all his injunctions except the one to worship anyone other than God....
So this brings us to an important point.... is Disobedience so big a crime and if yes... why? Wasn't this disobedience not born out of an extreme love and a clear inability to see anyone worth worship except God and if so... didn't God err in the punishment... .wasn't the punishment severer than the crime..... couldn't God see the deep love that Satan had for him....!!!
If it had been only arrogance..... then wouldn't it have broken with a slight punishment? Why an exile for just disobedience...? If God was all-knowing....didn't he see it coming? Why then did it not stop it...? He could have stopped him but he did not.... Maybe because in this case, the Devil was the Lover and God the Beloved!
And so the Devil continues to suffer for a love as pure as any.... for a love as deep as any .... for a love as true as any
As the great poet Shakeel said in one of his immortal verses :
क्यूं तुमने लगाए हैं यहाँ ज़ुल्म के फेरे |
कुछ भी न साथ ले जाओगे, बने क्यूं हो लुटेरे? |
पीते हो ग़रीबों का लहू शाम सवेरे |
ख़ुद पाप करो; नाम हो शैतान का बदनाम
Maybe Love is the greatest crime of the first true lover of this world!
