of men and women who left earth after a life of sin, corruption and vice, leading their souls into a world of suffering and misery; a world where ruthless harshness reigned; a world of endless gloom whose darkness was never relieved by the breaking of dawn; a world fraught with never-ending, nagging aggravations and the most horrible tortures, where misery was without end and cares were eternal; a world where vipers forever coiled around their bodies the way mortals coiled around one another in sinful embraces, disregarding what God had forbidden. They were denied sleep. Whenever they started to doze, they would be immediately awakened by a horrible viper bite. The snake bites would not kill the sinners, though the pain was unbearable. They were alive forever, enduring dreadful, justly-deserved suffering. They would feel the poison flowing through them; they would grind their teeth in agonizing pain, wishing death, but death never came anywhere near.

“You, who are assigned to my charge! This is everlasting torture and eternal misery, needlessly earned in return for a few moments of fleeting joy,” declared the angel whose face was as radiant as the shining sun.

“But you are an angel who lives among the heavenly spheres,” all of them, men and women, replied. “God created you as an immaculate angel far and free from sin. But if you were a mortal, you would not be free of guilt. We have been given eyes that see and hearts that beat, lust that knows no bounds. For as soon as we catch sight of a fair human creature, we forget divine orders and commit what God has forbidden, in spite of ourselves. We are driven against our will into sinfulness though we know what awaits us and what suffering we are going to endure. Take pity, O angel of the all merciful God. Show us compassion, and pity our weakness, for, we swear by God, were you a mortal like us, you would also have fallen to temptation and suffered the same.”

Before the Throne of God

The angel prostrated himself before the throne of the Almighty, rubbing his forehead at the footstool of the Most High. “Permit me, Oh my Creator,” the angel said, “to take the human form and descend to earth mortal, submitting myself like all mortals to as a the laws of earth. I want to show these people that it is possible to abstain from defiling oneself with women and to abstain from the sinful life of lust which leads humans to a raven dark world of eternal night, a world of untold suffering where they expiate and do penance for the sins they had committed in their perishing world.”

He Meets a Daughter of Eve

And so the angel clad in shining lights descended to earth. He assumed a human form, submitting to the laws on earth, constrained to follow the order laid down by the Almighty for the planet. At the very instant his feet touched the ground a beautiful woman crossed his way. God had endowed her with ravishing beauty and unequalled youth. Her face was like the radiant face of an angel. Her form was slender and tall, like a branch of a ben tree. Her full, round breasts, her silk soft cheeks, her slim waist, and heavy rump, all together composed such a sweet visual symphony that any one looking at this beauty would glorify the Creator.

The angel, now a handsome young man, was struck by her beauty. “I am a stranger to this land,” he said, stopping her. “I am rather at a loss for I have just arrived and discovered I lost my wallet.”

The young woman, looking at his face, too was struck by his handsome figure and vibrant youth.

“I live alone with my mother and I have no brothers or sisters,” she replied. “You are welcome in our home until you can make arrangements for lodging.”

He thanked her, and both walked side by side until they reached the young lady’s house. When they came through the door, the mother was astonished to see a stranger come home with her daughter. “Who is this young man, Zahida?” she asked.

The daughter explained the situation and they served him dinner. Both were Impressed by his aristocratic good looks and by his physique bursting with health and vigor.

He Commits the Forbidden

The young man fell desperately in love with Zahida, and he languished in misery if she were not by his side. She also loved him to distraction. Together, they drank from the fountain of bliss. He brushed away the heavenly pledges he made, forgetting the distant world he came from and his indignation at the wrongdoings of mortals who shed their corporeal bodies and were carried to his realm. He forgot all about casting blame on them on account of their jumping into bed with women and wallowing in lust, a sin which gravitated their souls toward a loathsome and hideous world. And now here he was committing the very same offenses. What a horrid and hideous crime!

He Falls in Love with the Mother:

Another Love, Another Victim

As time passed, his love for Zahida began to wane, for a new passion was flaming in his heart, this time for Zahida’s mother. When Zahida discovered the double treachery of both her mother and her lover, she no longer wished to live and put an end to her life.

Having had his fill of the mother, he left her, never to return. She was helplessly in love with him. Unable to face the blow, she, in turn, put an end to her life.

He Preys on Women’s Virtues

The youth possessed a subtle appeal, a compelling attraction which no woman could resist. Soon, he made it a habit of seducing all women who crossed his path. They were powerless before his guile, abandoning their senses to find themselves in his arms as they drank of forbidden joys. His love affairs were the cause of many scandals everywhere he went. How many tragedies occurred because of him, how many broken engagements, how many divorces! How many young men went to prison for killing their sisters after they went astray and had illicit relations with this licentious youth. He preyed on women and young girls who, before coming to know him, jealously guarded their virtue, but they lost it after making his acquaintance. He entrapped som many women and gratified his desires with them.

He Expires in a Woman’s Bed

At last, the year of life on earth as a human that God had granted this angel was drawing to a close. It ended with his death in one of his mistresses’ beds. She was a newlywed, married only a week before to a young man who loved her as she loved him. But that beguiling seducer so completely disarmed her that she dropped all her defenses and surrendered to him, betraying her young husband. Nothing mattered to her except her new lover. Let all heaven and earth go to the devil.

It was a great scandal. When morning broke and her husband returned, having been away all night on pressing business, he was horrified to find a young man dead in the conjugal bed. In a flash, he seized a gun and fired on his wife. Having completely taken leave of his senses, he was committed to a mental institution.

The police inquiry led nowhere, for not a scrap of evidence could be found to prove the man’s identity, and the case was shelved.

Satanayel

The angel stood meekly before the throne of the Almighty, cringing abjectly in shame. “You have tarnished your record. Once you were a bright angel of the heavens. Now you are nothing but a vile, accursed devil. Go hence from my sight. You preyed on women although you knew how enormously grave and heavy were your responsibility.”

The angel prostrated himself, humbled, and disgraced, banned from the heavenly realms of glory. Humiliated and dejected, he roamed the infernal regions of the city of eternal suffering where shrieks of horror never stopped. From that moment on, he became known as Satanayel, a name which means the one who preyed [sata] and reaped [nal], that is, the one who preyed on women and reaped eternal suffering.

The progeny he left behind in the mortal world continued to prey on women. They followed in the footsteps of their progenitor whose seductions no woman was able to escape. Living proof was established that no man, even if he is an angel, is immune before the sensuous charms of women. It is she, then, who is the deity of earth. It is she who will dictate her will until the Day of Resurrection. ★

Strange Stories and Wonderful Tales, Vol. I, by Dr. Dahesh (translated from Arabic).

USA, January 3, 1977

At 1:30 a.m.