We read in the Great Qur’an: {O people, eat of what is lawful and good on earth, and do not follow the steps of Satan. Indeed, he is your clear enemy. Stepping: is walking, taking a step: walking. The step with the opening: the bitterness of the step. The plural is steps, and the step: is the distance between the feet, and the plural of many means: steps, and the plural of few means: steps, steps, and steps.
And do not hide the wisdom of using the Holy Qur’an here to gather the few, indicating that falling and falling into the path of Satan may begin with a few small steps, so that the servant does not underestimate the disobedience of God Almighty, no matter how small it is and no matter how few times it is committed!
Then the most striking thing in these venerable verses is the Almighty’s saying: {And do not follow the footsteps of Satan}, so the meaning is: Do not follow Satan, but God Almighty says: {And do not follow the footsteps of Satan}, and in this there is a lot of dazzling wisdom, and of the strength and depth of the significance is a great matter, and it contains an important warning and a strong indication for people so that they should beware. Therefore, the use of the word (steps) in it indicates that the step is a short, easy, small distance. Thus, Satan begins to tempt a person and mislead him with a small thing of sin and sin, beautifying it for him and whispering it, until his soul becomes accustomed to it and it becomes easy for him and he becomes accustomed to it, then he takes him to greater and greater sins until he reaches the point of committing major sins or disbelief and polytheism. It also indicates that Satan, in his temptation of the children of Adam, will not stand with them at the first step on the path of disobedience, but rather invites them to sin after sin until he takes control of them and makes them forget the remembrance of God Almighty. Satan also does not insist on a specific sin. If he sees that a person has abstained from a sin (a certain step), then he will make another sin appear for him (another step). Because he wants a person to be sinful on any side.
Imam al-Sayyid Tantawi, may God have mercy on him, said in explaining this meaning: “And in his saying: {And do not follow in the footsteps of Satan} there is a sign that Satan often drags a person to evil, step by step, degree by degree, until he becomes accustomed to it and invades it without hesitation, and thus he is among those who have been possessed by Satan and made him forget the remembrance of God. The wise among people is the one who stays away from everything that is of Satan’s temptations and whisperings, as minor sins may lead to major sins, and whoever hovers around fever is on the verge of falls into it.”
This prohibition against following in the footsteps of Satan is directed to the individual as well as to societies, nations, and groups. The individual who reaches the grave sins of disbelief and polytheism, murder and murder, witchcraft and sorcery, adultery, rape and perversion, or drinking alcohol and drugs or other major immoralities does not reach this level of disobedience from the first day. Rather, he often deviates from the straight path and takes the path of disobedience little by little, step by step. He often begins with a few small steps and little by little he dares to commit major sins and major sins. For example: A person’s (male or female) use of drugs is often preceded by his becoming acquainted with some minor sins, such as smoking, or some sins that are far from the scope of drugs, such as abandoning prayer, or some sins that people do not care about, such as accompanying those who disobey God Almighty and sitting with them when they disobey…or other things. And it is rare that we find anyone attacking drugs in the first place. Likewise, a person (male or female) committing adultery is often preceded by his familiarity with some minor sins related to adultery, such as not adhering to covering one’s private parts, being lenient in nudity and abandoning Islamic clothing, and being lenient in relations between women and men and the provisions that regulate them until the incident occurs and the girl is the victim in most cases, and it is rare that we find that he or she attacks the indecency in the first place.
Likewise, societies that reach moral decay, family disintegration, the spread of immorality and deviance, imbalance of values, and the control of a cruel materialistic spirit do not happen in the blink of an eye, but rather it happens little by little and step by step. If we take Japanese society as a model, as it is an example of technological development and respect for the laws of order and cleanliness with the utmost precision, then we find that most people ignore the suffering that this unique society suffers from, an old age that threatens its existence due to the reluctance of its men and women to marry and start families as required by nature. This reluctance results from the terrific prevalence of indecency and sexual relations outside of marriage in it, even among minors and high school students, as well as the prevalence of nudity and strangely scandalous clothing in it. The spread of atheism and the materialistic spirit that dominated the overwhelming majority of its members, as well as its loss of its traditional values and their replacement with savage, materialistic, capitalist Western values…
Yes, the price of Japan’s development was very high, but Japanese society did not reach this point of moral decadence all at once, but rather step by step. Likewise, other societies follow the steps of Satan, step by step, until they reach the lowest level of animalistic bestiality, and God Almighty has spoken the truth: {O people, eat of what is on the earth lawful and good, and do not follow the steps of Satan. Indeed, he is your clear enemy. * He only commands you to do evil and indecency, and to say about God what you do not know.} This is a speech to all people as a warning against following in the footsteps of Satan, who is the clear and declared enemy of this hostility. This is a warning to people as individuals so that they do not tolerate small sins and fall into major sins. And so that they do not underestimate the fact that their sons and daughters commit minor sins; Because that will lead them to commit major sins.
This is a warning to people, as groups and societies, so that they do not tolerate the sins that spread in it and the deviation that appears in it. Because it may lead to destruction. It is a warning to our advocates of Westernization and secularization, especially since their efforts to change our society by Westernizing it and replacing its Islamic values with materialistic Western values will lead us to where the West has reached in terms of the prevalence of immorality, the spread of perversion, the spread of alcohol, the spread of drugs, and the decline of morals until there is no modesty or chastity left. Most families disintegrate, and family relationships and kinship ties no longer have any meaning or presence. Rather, most people no longer know their lineages or who their fathers are due to the prevalence of marital infidelity and the prevalence of indecency in general… And do not curse that we are following in their footsteps and have not reached what they have achieved!
