Satan's determination to mislead the human being
Researched by A. Muhammad
Sometime before the creation of the seven universes, God issued a command to the angels:
Your Lord said to the angels, "I will create a human being from clay, formed from altered dark mud. Once I have fashioned him and blown into him from My Ruh, you shall fall prostrate to him." So all the angels fell prostrate, every one of them, except Satan. He refused to be with the prostrators. 15:28-31
God the All-Wise, the Knowledgeable, knew before hand the outcome of the command given to the angels. Namely, that Satan will disobey God's command to prostrate to Adam. The outcome of the command issued by God was as follows:
1- God exposed Satan to the angels.
2- Satan's arrogance led to his expulsion and demotion from an angel to a jinn.
To Satan, the interpretation of God's command was different. To Satan, the creation of Adam, together with God's command to prostrate to Adam, were the cause of his expulsion and his demotion to being a jinn. To Satan, if Adam was not created and the command to prostrate to him was not issued, his arrogance would not have been exposed, and thus he would have continued to be an angel.
To Satan, Adam was the one to blame! Adam was the cause of his humiliation.
Such an interpretation of events is not unusual from an arrogant being, for it is the trait of the arrogant to blame everyone else but themselves. Satan's warped interpretation of the cause of his humiliation explains why from that moment onwards he vehemently hated and despised the human being (the cause of his humiliation):
He (Satan) said, "Shall I expose for You that thing You have honoured over me? If You respite me until the Day of Resurrection, I will claim all his descendants, except for a few." 17:62
The words 'that thing' with which Satan referred to the human being are quite significant. They denote the extreme hatred and also contempt that Satan has towards the human being.
Satan's extreme loathing of the human being drove him to make it his life-long goal to mislead all human beings so that they would end up in Hell. This becomes apparent when we are reminded of the following events:
God decrees Satan to be cursed and an outcast:
He said, "Then get out of it, for you are an outcast. And indeed, My curse is upon you until the Day of the Religion." 38:77-78
Satan pleads with God to be granted a respite:
He said, "My Lord, then grant me respite until the Day they are resurrected." He said, "You are among those granted respite until the Day whose time is known." 38:79
God grants Satan a respite:
He said, "You are among those granted respite until the Day whose time is known." 38:80-81
Satan openly confesses his plan of action for which he requested a respite:
He said, "By Your majesty, I will lead them all astray, except for Your pure servants among them." 38:82-83
I will surely capture an ordained share of Your servants. I will misguide them, and I will entice them. 4:118-119
Then I will come to them from before them, and from behind them, and from their right, and from their left, and You will not find many of them to be thankful. 7:17
He said, "Shall I expose for You that thing You have honoured over me? If You respite me until the Day of Resurrection, I will claim all his descendants, except for a few." 17:62
What is apparent from the words above is that Satan did not request a respite so that he would reform, or to gain God's redemption, but he requested the respite in order to mislead the human being!
To achieve his goal in misleading the human being, Satan resorts to various tactics.
God, our true Ally, informed us of every single tactic that Satan will employ so that we are on guard, and so that we do not follow in his footsteps:
O people, eat from what is in the earth that is lawful and good, and do not follow the footsteps of the devil. Indeed,he is to you a clear enemy. 2:168
The following is a comprehensive list of all of Satan's tactics as told in the Holy Quran:
1- He will invite people to disbelieve in God:
Like the example of the devil, when he said to the human being, "Disbelieve," then when he disbelieved, he said, "I am innocent of you. I fear God, the Lord of the worlds." 59:16
2- He will invite people to worship him:
Did I not take a pledge from you, O Children of Adam, that you shall not worship the devil, for he is a clear enemy to you. 36:60
O my father, do not worship the devil. The devil is disobedient to the Almighty. 19:44
3- He will lead people far astray:
Have you not seen those who claim that they believed in what was brought down to you, and in what was brought down before you? They seek the laws of false gods although they were commanded to reject it. The devil wishes to lead them far astray. 4:60
4- He will entice people to uphold false gods and follow their laws:
Have you not seen those who claim that they believed in what was brought down to you, and in what was brought down before you? They seek the laws of false gods although they were commanded to reject it. The devil wishes to lead them far astray. 4:60
I found her and her people prostrating to the sun instead of God. The devil adorned their works for them and repelled them from the path so that they would not be guided. 27:24
5- He will make people forget the remembrance of God:
The devil has secured a firm grip on them, and so has caused them to forget the remembrance of God. 58:19
6- He will repel the people from observing the Salat:
The devil only wants to provoke animosity and hatred between you through intoxicants and gambling, and to repel you fromthe remembrance of God and from the Salat. So will you thus refrain? 5:91
7- He will attempt to deprive people of Paradise:
O Children of Adam, do not let the devil entice you just like he caused your parents to be evicted from Paradise, stripping them of their garments to expose their private parts to them. He and his tribe see you from where you cannot see them. We have appointed the devils as allies of those who do not believe. 7:27
8- He will advocate immorality and evil:
O you who believe, do not follow the footsteps of the devil. Whoever follows the footsteps of the devil then, indeed, he advocates immorality and evil. 24:21
9- He will spread animosity between people:
The devil only wants to provoke animosity and hatred between you. 5:91
He raised his parents upon the throne. They fell prostrate before him. He said, "O my father, this is the interpretation of my vision of old. My Lord has made it come true. He has been good to me when He took me out of prison and brought you out of the desert after the devil had driven a wedge between me and my brothers. My Lord is Gentle in what He wills. He is the Knowledgeable, the Wise. 12:100
10- He will incite evil suggestions between people:
Tell My servants to speak in the best manner, for the devil incites evil suggestions between them. The devil is indeed a clear enemy to the human being. 17:53
11- He will inspire deceptive fancy words and he will attribute them to the prophets to deceive people:
And thus We have made enemies for every prophet, human and jinn devils, inspiring to one another fancy sayings in deception. Had your Lord willed, they would not have done it. You shall disregard them and what they fabricate. 6:112
Those with sickness in their hearts (2:10), and those who are not content with God alone (39:36), and those who are not satisfied with the Quran alone (7:185), will readily accept these sayings, set them up as a source of law, and thus commit what they are committing:
This is to let the hearts of those who do not believe in the Hereafter listen to it, accept it, and thus commit what they are committing. 6:113
12- He will invite people to make him their ally:
I will misguide them, and I will entice them, and I will command them so they would slit the ears of livestock, and I will command them so they would alter God's creation." Anyone who takes the devil for an ally instead of God has indeed lost; a clear loss. 4:119
O my father, I fear that you will be touched by a punishment from the Almighty and that you would be an ally of the devil.19:45
13- He will promise nothing but delusion:
He promises them and entices them, but the devil promises them nothing but delusion. 4:120
14- He will instil fear into people in order to lead them to his ways:
It is but the devil who tries to frighten his allies, so do not fear them and fear Me, if you are believers. 3:175
15- He will lead people to commit evil works by adorning such works in their eyes:
If only they had humbled themselves when Our might was upon them! Instead, their hearts were hardened, and the devil adorned for them what they were doing. 6:43
16- He will invite people to indulge in what God prohibited:
O you who believe, intoxicants, gambling, altars and arrows of chance are afflictions that are the work of the devil, so stay away from him so that you may succeed. 5:90
17- He will make people forget what they should not do:
If you see those who engage in vain discourse concerning Our revelations, you shall stay away from them until they engage in some other talk. If the devil causes you to forget, then, after the reminder, do not sit with the transgressing people. 6:68
When the reverent are touched by a visit from the devil, they remember, whereupon they become seers. 7:201
18- He will contaminate the hearts of people:
He (God) made sleepiness overcome you; a tranquillity from Him, and He brings down water from the sky to purify you therewith, and to remove the devil's contamination from you, and to strengthens your hearts, and to steady the foothold thereby. 8:11
19- He will make people stray away and desert the Quran (the Reminder):
He has made me stray from the Reminder after it had come to me. The devil was always a betrayer of the human being. And the messenger said, "My Lord, my people have deserted this Quran." 25:29-30
20- He will tempt people to confer secretly to commit sin:
O you who believe, if you confer secretly, do not confer to commit sin, transgression and disobedience to the messenger. Rather, confer in piety and reverence. And reverence God; the One to whom you will be summoned.
Conferring secretly is instigated by the devil so that he may cause grief to those who believe. However, he cannot harm them in any way without God's permission. In God, the believers should trust. 58:9-10
21- Ultimately, he will betray and fail the human being:
And the devil said, when the matter was settled, "God has promised you the truthful promise, and I promised you, but I failed you. I had no authority over you other than that I invited you, and you responded to me. Therefore, do not blame me, but blame yourselves. 14:22
He has made me stray from the Reminder after it had come to me. The devil was always a betrayer of the human being. 25:29
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