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).


With all our advances as a civilization, why is the world plagued with war, misery, disease, accidents and chaos?

To understand why, one 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. 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.

If you claim that you can fly a plane, the best way to test your claim is to give you a plane and ask you to fly it. This is precisely what God decided to do in response to Satan's claim that he could be a god; God appointed him a temporary god on the tiny speck Earth (Quran 2:30, 36:60).

The creatures who agreed with Satan were given a choice: we could accept that only God could truly be a god, or we could opt-in to see for ourselves if Satan can run a world. We humans foolishly chose to witness a demonstration of Satan's claim (Quran 33:72). The rest is history.

So, can we find eternal happiness? Yes, by devoting our lives and worship absolutely to God ALONE (Quran 10:62-64). May God help us on that journey.


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.youtube.com/watch?v=BtEqEtRFngc

Peace.