Subject: [Masjid Tucson] Submission weekly reminder

In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Peace be upon you,

	Satan: A Temporary "god"*
[Quran 2:30] Recall that your Lord said to the angels, "I am placing a representative (a temporary god) on Earth." They said, "Will You place therein one who will spread evil therein and shed blood, while we sing Your praises, glorify You, and uphold Your absolute authority?" He said, "I know what you do not know."
*2:30-37 These verses answer such crucial questions as: "Why are we here?" (See Appendix 7).


Modern society has advanced greatly with science and technology that would be unthinkable to our ancestors. Yet, the world is full of misery, war, accidents, disease and chaos. So many people are unhappy.

To understand why, we must go back billions of years ago when one of God's high-ranking creatures, Satan, developed a supercilious idea that he could run a dominion as an independent god besides God. This challenge to God's absolute authority was not only blasphemous, it was also erroneous. Satan was ignorant of the fact that God alone possesses the ability to be a god, and that there is much more to godhood than he realized. It was the ego--arrogance augmented by ignorance--that led Satan to believe that he could take care of a dominion, as a god, and run it without disease, misery, war, accidents, and chaos.

Most creatures knew only God is Omnipotent and Satan trying to "run" the earth would not work. But, a tiny minority, including the egotistic humans, foolishly opted for witnessing a demonstration of Satan's claim (Quran 33:72). The rest is history.

How can we escape chaos and find happiness? The answer in the Quran is to grow our souls and devote our lives and worship absolutely to God ALONE (Quran 10:62-64). May God help us.


References:
Introduction, https://www.masjidtucson.org/quran/appendices/introduction.html or watch video: https://youtu.be/inTWqQHSK8I
King of Chaos, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtEqEtRFngc
Why Were We Created? https://www.masjidtucson.org/quran/appendices/appendix7.html

Peace.