By Professor Dr. Faid Mohammed Said
Introduction: Why Speak of “Worship of Satan” When No One Bows to Him?
The Qur’an poses a question that shakes the human conscience:
“Did I not enjoin upon you, O children of Adam, that you should not worship Satan?” (Yā Sīn 36:60)
One might object: In the modern world, no one prostrates to Satan or hangs an amulet bearing his name. Why, then, forbid what is not practiced?
The Qur’an here redefines worship in a way that transcends mere ritual form. Worship is not confined to bowing or chanting; it is the act of granting supreme moral authority to a source of command and prohibition. Whoever allows desire, ideology, or human authority to overrule truth has, in effect, committed a form of practical shirk (association), even without physical idolatry.
In philosophical terms: Worship is the conferral of ultimate moral sovereignty upon a reference point. To bestow that sovereignty upon anything other than the truth is to “worship” it, even if no liturgical act is performed.
This article seeks to trace the Qur’anic psychology of moral deviation — a process summarized in three interwoven threads:
1. Adornment (tazyīn) – “Satan made their deeds seem fair to them.”
2. The Promise of Poverty – “Satan threatens you with poverty.”
3. The Command to Indecency – “He enjoins upon you lewdness.”
How does a person move from accepting a beautified idea to obeying a false moral authority — often without realizing it? And what preventive and therapeutic responses can be articulated in language accessible to both believers and non-believers?
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I. Adornment (Tazyīn): When the Idea Becomes Attractive Before It Turns into Action
The Qur’an repeatedly teaches that the first gate of deviation lies in the aesthetic of deception:
“Satan made their deeds seem fair to them.”
This adornment is not a supernatural spell that robs one of agency; it operates through well-known psychological mechanisms:
1. Confirmation Bias – We seek evidence that supports our desires and ignore what challenges them.
2. Moral Reframing – The wrong is recast within a higher narrative: “freedom,” “breaking taboos,” “pragmatic realism.”
3. Habituation and Normalization – What once shocked becomes ordinary through repeated exposure, amplified by media and algorithmic reinforcement.
4. Clever Rationalization – The intellect, acting as advocate rather than judge, invents sophisticated excuses for what passion has already chosen.
At this stage, the individual is not asked to act — only to tolerate the idea. Once tolerated, it resides in the mind unchallenged, soon transforming from a questionable notion to an accepted value, then to an identity zealously defended.
Summary: Adornment acts first on imagination before behavior, and on interpretation before decision. Whoever wins the battle for meaning will soon win the battle for action.
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II. “He Threatens You with Poverty”: The Economics of Fear and the Psychology of Scarcity
The Qur’an pinpoints a deeper root of false obedience: fear for one’s livelihood.
“Satan threatens you with poverty.” (al-Baqarah 2:268)
Modern behavioral economics and cognitive psychology illuminate this verse:
• Scarcity Mindset: When the feeling of “never enough” dominates, ethical horizons shrink and self-preservation overrides moral duty.
• Loss Aversion: We dread losing what we have more than we desire future gains; thus stinginess masquerades as rational prudence.
• Zero-Sum Thinking: We imagine that another’s gain diminishes ours, legitimizing deceit or exploitation as “self-protection.”
This promise of poverty is not a prediction but a psychological weapon — a way to control decisions through fear. Once convinced that generosity depletes and safety lies in hoarding, the entire moral system reorganizes around anxiety: miserliness becomes “financial planning,” injustice becomes “market necessity,” and conscience is silenced in the name of “realism.”
Against this, the Qur’an offers a counter-promise:
“But Allah promises you forgiveness and bounty.” (2:268)
The aim is not to abolish rational budgeting but to liberate ethical decision-making from the tyranny of fear — to reconnect economics with virtue. Giving does not impoverish the soul; it emancipates it from the slavery of scarcity. In modern positive psychology, gratitude expands awareness and transforms our relationship to wealth and others.
Summary: Satanic logic says, “Fear protects you.” Qur’anic logic replies, “Tranquility clarifies your vision.”
What you fear controls you; what you trust, you control.
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III. “He Commands You to Indecency”: From Gentle Persuasion to Authoritarian Control
After adornment and the promise, comes the most perilous stage: command.
How does one move from private fascination to compelled conformity? Habit breeds affinity, affinity breeds identity, and identity breeds obedience.
Once one’s moral reference point becomes desire, group, or ideology, it gains the authority to issue commands.
In Qur’anic language, “indecency (fahshāʾ)” denotes any act that violates human dignity — from the commodification of the body to contempt for the weak, from worship of consumption to the marketing of the self.
The progression is predictable: “Just try it; don’t be oversensitive.” Then, “Encourage others; defend it; legalize it.”
Thus emerges the social dimension of commanding indecency: the sinner becomes a promoter, the private act becomes a public campaign.
Neuroscience corroborates this trajectory: repeated stimulation strengthens reward circuits, requiring ever-greater doses for the same pleasure (tolerance). Behavior escalates, seeking “shock normality.” With social normalization, deviation ceases to be an individual lapse and becomes a collective standard exerting moral pressure on all.
Summary: Obedience is born when moral sovereignty is transferred to falsehood. One no longer merely acts — one is commanded to act and to make others act likewise.
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IV. When Does Obedience Become Worship? The Criterion of Moral Sovereignty
The Qur’an does not demand of the non-believer a particular theological creed to grasp the peril here; the issue is fundamentally philosophical:
• To whom do you assign ultimate moral authority when your immediate interest conflicts with justice, mercy, or dignity?
• Who holds the final right to command and forbid your conduct?
If that authority belongs to passion, market, or tribe, then — in effect — you “worship” it. You have granted it the sovereignty that shapes your ethics, even if your tongue denies the word worship.
Thus, “worship of Satan” becomes a Qur’anic metaphor exposing every blind obedience to falsehood and every surrender of moral agency under the pressure of fear or desire.
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V. Contemporary Manifestations — The Same Chain at Work
1. Worship of Wealth: from adornment (“money defines worth”) to the promise of poverty (“giving will ruin you”) to commanding indecency (“profit, even through legalized injustice”).
2. Worship of the Body and Fame: from adornment (“free yourself from all restraints”) to the symbolic poverty threat (“you’ll be irrelevant if you don’t provoke”) to commanding indecency (“produce content, however vulgar, for engagement”).
3. Extremist Ideologies: from adornment (“simplified narratives of salvation”) to the fear of existential loss (“imminent danger justifies anything”) to commanding indecency (“demonize and dehumanize the other”).
These examples target no religion or group; they unveil a universal human law: once moral sovereignty is surrendered, human beings become governable through fear and desire alike.
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VI. Breaking the Chain: Preventive and Therapeutic Responses in a Universal Language
1. Fortify Meaning Before Behavior
Since adornment begins in cognition, resistance must begin there too.
Concepts such as dignity, freedom, and benefit must be reclaimed from consumerist reduction.
From a faith perspective: through God-consciousness (taqwā).
From a humanistic perspective: through critical moral awareness sustained by knowledge.
2. An Economy of Gratitude versus an Economy of Fear
Against the promise of poverty, cultivate the mindset of sufficiency through practice:
• Daily gratitude reflections (empirically proven to reframe perception).
• Regular giving, however small, to reprogram the self’s relation to wealth.
• Differentiating between genuine need and identity-driven consumption.
The Qur’an encapsulates this eloquently:
“Whatever you spend, He will replace it.” (Sabaʾ 34:39)
A principle of blessing, not a mechanical equation — one that redefines our relation to resources.
3. Engineering Habits and Resisting the Coercive Loop
Since commands to indecency are reinforced by repetition, the response is:
• Environmental design – reduce exposure to triggers.
• Ethical substitutes – art, study, service, sport, or wholesome community.
• Accountable fellowship – circles of mutual counsel.
• Practical repentance – transforming remorse into an actionable plan.
4. Restoring Moral Sovereignty
For the believer: to return sovereignty to God —
“And worship Me; this is a straight path.” (Yā Sīn 36:61)
Meaning: obey Me alone — religion as a moral governance of life, not mere ritual accumulation.
For the non-believer: to safeguard one’s highest moral reference from the tyranny of market, mob, and impulse. Humanity is measured by the courage to say no when dignity demands it.
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VII. “Do Not Worship Satan”: Renewing the Human Covenant
The Qur’anic prohibition appears within the framework of a covenant:
“Did I not enjoin upon you…?”
It is a call to reason and conscience, not coercion — a reminder that ethics are not ornamental to life but its compass.
When the Qur’an continues,
“And worship Me; this is the straight path,” (Yā Sīn 36:61)
it does not replace one bondage with another; it liberates humanity from servitude to desire, market, and herd, into the freedom of serving truth — a service that reorders desire and opens the possibilities of mercy, justice, and generosity.
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Conclusion: A Charter of Deliverance in Three Sentences
1. Guard meaning before guarding behavior: deception begins in the mind.
2. Break the blackmail of fear through gratitude and generosity: the promise of poverty paralyzes the conscience only if believed.
3. Restore moral sovereignty to its rightful place: granting it to falsehood — whatever its name — is the essence of “worshiping Satan.”
Understood thus, the Qur’anic warning becomes a universal human appeal:
Do not surrender your moral decision to any force but truth.
Do not let fear, lust, or conformity write the script of your life.
Otherwise, you may find — without realizing — that you have travelled the path from adornment to command, from idea to obedience — precisely the descent the Revelation sought to prevent:
“Did I not enjoin upon you, O children of Adam, that you should not worship Satan?”
For “Allah is the Protector of those who believe; He brings them out of darkness into light.” (al-Baqarah 2:257)
And whoever makes truth — by faith or by reason — his final reference, escapes every false servitude and writes his freedom with his own hand.
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