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).


Does it seem that the world is full of disease, misery, war, accidents, and chaos?

To understand why, we have to 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. The vast majority of God's creatures disagreed with Satan. Yet, the minute egotistic minority that agreed with him to various extents were in the billions.

We humans were among the egotistic minority. We failed to make a firm stand regarding God's absolute authority. Instead, we opted for witnessing a demonstration of Satan's claim--so here we are. To escape the worldly problems we must worship God alone.

May God help us be devoted absolutely to Him alone.


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

Peace.