One of the Vile Satans

The Cambridge Companion to Paradise Lost, 2014

Satan

Adnan Oktar (Harun Yahya) Whoever you may be, there is an enemy who is a devoted threat to you, who wishes for you eternal torment, having dedicated his whole existence to that end. That enemy is Satan. That is, Satan whom Allah cursed and expelled from His presence. He has been in existence throughout human history. Millions who lived and died have succumbed to his wiles and been thrown into the flames, and continue to do so. He makes no distinctions among his victims: young or old, male or female, a head of state or beggar... He is against all human beings. He is watching from afar and hatching his plots, even as you are reading this text. He has but one desire: to lure you, and as many people as possible, to Hell. For him to succeed in his aim, it is not necessary that he succeed in tempting people to worship him, or to engage in outrageous acts of perversions. Neither does he necessarily wish to lead people to deny Allah. He himself has not done so. His only wish is to keep human beings away from the truth of the religion of Allah, as espoused in the Qur'an; to prevent them from worshipping Allah sincerely; and, as a result, to ensure they will ultimately have been doomed to eternal torment. Even, at times, by employing the guise of piety, he will make reference to the name of Allah, that he may lead people astray from the truth of the religion. That ruse alone is sufficient for him to drag people with him into the pit of Hell. And, no matter what means he employs, that is the inevitable end for those who choose to follow him: It is written of him that if anyone takes him as a confidant, he will mislead him and guide him to the punishment of the Searing Blaze. (Surat al-Hajj, 4)

2014

An Enki representation

SocArXiv Papers., 2023

Satan, the 'ruler of the powers of the air' of Ephesians 2:2, is undoubtedly the tragic hero (in the sense employed by Aristotle in his Poetics) of Milton's epic poem, Paradise Lost. Blake, Byron and Shelley saw him quite differently, perceiving the heroism, but transforming the tragedy, and, instead of seeing hubris ('overweening pride'), Promethean defiance, of which they fully approved.

2010