83.Is Shaitan the reason for people becoming insane?
This verse (2:275) says those resurrected as insane in the hereafter world are the ones allured by shaitan.
This gives an opinion that Shaitan is the cause of mental illness in men. But this power of making people insane is not given to shaitan.
Making people go astray so that they reach hell is the only work of shaitan. He carries on the work of making hell-dwellers out of men and will not do things that stop them from that as their final destination.
The verses (4:119,120, 7:16,17) of the Quran say the only work of shaitan is to guide people towards evil ways to become sinners so that they reach hell.
When one turns insane, he will not be considered as a sinner due to the acts committed by him. He is not liable to be punished. If shaitan makes one insane, automatically one number goes down in the slum dwellers. When shaitan has taken the full-time work of making men into hell dwellers and increasing their numbers to hell, he will not do things that will bring down their numbers in hell by making them insane.
Hence the phrase in this verse ‘resurrected like the one bewitched by shaitan’ has to be viewed in a way that does not contradict the Quran.
When pointing out evil acts the Quran allows to denote them as ‘shaitan created these acts’.
When Prophet Ayub (A.S) was afflicted with disease and difficulties he said ‘shaitan has put me in this position’-verse 38:41.
We will not understand this as the Shaitan had the power to impose difficulties and disease on Prophet Ayub (A.S). Just as Prophet Ayub (A.S) uttered these words and would not associate the misery and disease he suffered with God as a matter of respect, and in a way through insanity is from God Al-Mighty, we attribute it to shaitan. This does not necessarily translate into shaitan being the source of insanity in men.
There are a number of beliefs among people regarding insanity among men.
It has been the belief among the masses that insanity is the result of dead people’s spirits bewitching the insane.
Because the Quran says the spirits of the dead are under the control of Al-Mighty Allah (verse 39:42) and the existence of an unseen barrier between the dead and this material world (verse 23:100.) Believing in the concept that the dead spirits return to earth is against the Quran.
In addition Prophet Muhammad has also said that as soon as the questioning of the dead in the grave is over in the initial stages, the good are awarded a sound sleep and the evil are subjected to continuous punishment till the day of final judgment Hadith Book Tirmidhee: 991 The above cited belief that insanity is due the dead peoples spirits bewitching the living is against the quoted hadith.
