Rescuing the Troubled Heart, Part 3 (Ighathat al-Lahfan) summary

Welcome. This is the third and final part of a book by the great scholar of Damascus, Ibn al-Qayyim. Rescuing the Troubled from the Snares of Satan.

In part one, he described the illnesses of the heart. In part two, the trap of obsessive whispers. Now he opens the enemy's whole toolkit. The traps Satan lays for every human being.

And it begins with a vow. When Satan refused to bow to Adam, and was cast out, he said to Allah, because You have led me astray, I will sit in wait for them on Your straight path. Then I will come at them from in front of them, and from behind them, from their right, and from their left.

Notice where he sits, Ibn al-Qayyim says. Not on the road to sin. On the straight path. He waits for the people who are already walking toward Allah.

And notice one direction he did not mention. Ibn Abbas said, he did not say, from above them. Because he knew that Allah is above them.

So the way to safety, the early scholars said, is upward. Toward Allah.