It is reported that Abdullah ibn Sahl al-Tustari, may God have mercy on him, said:
When Adam was expelled from Paradise.
The abode of honor and safety.
And He sent him down to the abode of humiliation, abasement, affliction, and trial.
God, the Most High, said.
O son of Adam, I settled you in my neighborhoods.
Yet you disobeyed me and obeyed Satan.
And you abandoned me, my honor, and my majesty.
I will settle you in his vicinity so that you obey me and disobey him.
And you love me and hate him.
So when the Day of Resurrection comes, I will say to you.
Obedience for the sake of obedience, and disobedience for the sake of love.
Then I will admit you into Paradise.
Some reports say that when Allah the Exalted created Adam and his offspring.
He placed four things in his heart.
And it is knowledge, intellect, faith, and certainty.
So it became a storehouse for these things.
And four enemies were set upon his heart.
They are Iblis, desire, the self, and the world.
And Iblis assured his companions that they would reach it.
As the Exalted said in His Book.
Then I will come to them from between their hands.
and from behind them
and from their right sides.
And about their attributes.
When the Lord, glory be to Him and the Exalted, knew of the weakness of the son of Adam.
And his lack of ability to defend his self.
He taught him four of His names.
One seeks protection with them from Iblis and his soldiers.
And it is: O First, O Last.
O Manifest, O Hidden.
It is as if the Exalted said, "O son of Adam, I am the First."
Keep your knowledge of me close at hand.
And I am the Last. Guard your mind.
And I am the Manifest. Guard your faith on your right.
And I am the Inner. Guard your certainty on your left.
Some of the wise were asked, 'What is wisdom?'
That Iblis was not given two of the sons of Adam but was given four.
He was given from between his two hands and from behind him.
And from his right and from his left.
from the four directions
Iblis was not given that he should come to Him from above nor from below.
He said: Because the four directions are where association enters into deeds.
And above is the place of the gaze of the Lord, Glorified and Exalted, toward the hearts of His believing servants.
And beneath is the place of prostration of those who prostrate, before the Lord of the Worlds.
May Allah protect us and you from His trials with a protection that brings us by it into His mercy.
May He accept our repentance and the repentance of all sinners.
Indeed, He is ever-accepting of repentance and merciful.
There is no power and no strength except by God, the Most High, the Most Great.
