Part 2-Ayat 17 of Surah Al-A'raf : How Shaitan(Devil) attacks from Behind

Allah SWT says in ayat 17 of Surah Al-A'raf,

ثُمَّ لَأٓتِيَنَّهُم مِّن بَيْنِ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِمْ وَعَنْ أَيْمَٰنِهِمْ وَعَن شَمَآئِلِهِمْ وَلَا تَجِدُ أَكْثَرَهُمْ شَٰكِرِينَ

("I will approach them from their front, their back, their right, their left, and then You will find most of them ungrateful.”)

This is what Shaitan(Iblees) told to Allah SWT. In this post In sha Allah I will try to explain how Shaitan attacks us from behind. Lets get ready to know Shaitan's strategies so that it will become easy for us to defend ourselves against his attacks in sha Allah. And to know How Shaitaan attacks from the front, visit following link.
Part 1-Ayat 17 of Surah Al-A'raf : How Shaitan(Devil) attacks from the Front

Surah Al-A'raf [7:17]

As far as what's behind us is actually our history. Shaitan uses our past against us. Our past experience impact us in some way. It impacts the way we think, our emotions and may be it also affects our future decisions. For example, If somebody met with an car accident then the way they drive changes. Similarly if someone having bad conversation or experience with a friend then his future interaction with that friend changes. So Shaitaan manipulates our past experience and messes us up. Because he wants us to get off from straight path. We start thinking bad about something or someone and we think it is our thoughts. But it is actually whispers(vasvasa) from Shaitaan.

So lets see some of the ways of how Shaitaan uses our past against us.

First Example : May be you used to be good person. You were obedient. Shaitan comes to you and make you think that there was a time you used to be much better person. You used to cry in front of Allah but now it doesn't happen anymore. You used to feel connected with Allah, You used to do zikr often. But now you have lost your temper. You say bad words against others and so on. You developed all these bad habits. And shaitan continuously says to you that your that good part has gone and will never come again. You can't be the same again. You are not capable anymore. This is who you are now. And he will make you almost give up on yourself. While the reality is if Allah made you capable of living in certain way and you were able to do it. That actually means you are capable of doing the same for forever. But shaitan doesn't let you think in this way. Shaitan mess you emotionally as well as spiritually. He mess your connection with Allah. He makes you think that you did so much bad anyway so what's the point of making prayers because it's not going to be accepted and so on.

Also Read :  Ayat 27 and 28 of Surah Al-Baqarah - Beautiful Explanation Nouman Ali Khan

Second way he attacks us by making us think on why did these bad things happened to me. Allah created this life as a trial. Every one of us had different kinds of trials. And some of those trials are not easy. And when we remember these kind of past we feel lots of pain. One of the things that Shaitaan want is to keep us there. He keeps us thinking about what happened. So we keep questioning why did this happen to me. And this is what Shaitan wants from us. Shaitan doesn't want us to come out of that past. He wants you to stay in that hopelessness. Shaitan has hopeless case so he want us to become hopeless too. We came out of certain bad situation. In fact Allah took us out from it. But still shaytan make us feel that why did I went through that and so on even though we are now out of that situation. 

He instills anger in us again people as well as against Allah that why did he do this to me and why only I deserve this and so on. And you keep questioning. Trials and pain that we feel are not the proof that Allah is angry at us. Because some of the best people who ever lived had very difficult lives. And it's not because Allah doesn't love them. In fact Messengers(peace be upon all of them) of Allah had most difficult lives. This life was made with trials and difficulties. And hereafter is for forever. Don't blame Allah like Shaitan did. That's where he wants you to get to.

Another way Shaitan uses our past is as follows. Maybe we were living a life of sin because of some relationships that we had. So we figured out the way to make Tauba to Allah SWT and we cut off that relationships. Those people may not be evil but when we are in there company then we fall into the evil. So to protect our-self we left them. But when we pull ourselves away from them Shaitan come to us and says hey don't you miss those guys. So he pulls us back by saying you were enjoying so much with them, join them just one more time and so on. There is a saying in arabic, “Everything forbidden is desirable.” At the end of the day we are human being and human beings have temptations and desires. This is something Shytaan wants to manipulates and pulls us back into the ways of sins.

These were some of the ways on how Shaitaan comes from behind. This was based on my notes taken from one of the khutba of brother Nouman Ali Khan.

Also Read : Part1: The Ayah of Ramadan - Nouman Ali Khan