Satan's Promptings

Maryam (Mary)
Chapter 19: Verse 83

"Do you not see that We have set Satans against the unbelievers, to incite them with fury?"

Satan incites man in numerous ways. It is hard to enumerate the forms, degree and means of Satan's promptings directed at those who follow him. He facilitates the path of evil for his followers and tempts them in every conceivable way.

The Quran makes a succinct observation that Satan prompts those given to doing evil. Satan fills them with false hopes and even makes them think that their evil deeds are all right. He makes them insensitive to sin.

This should not, however, be taken to mean that Allah has preordained evil for the unbelievers and that they cannot escape from doing evil. Rather, the Quranic statement informs man of divine dispension and of how Allah tests the unbelievers. Satans have been granted the opportunity to incite the evil-doers into committing sin.

The Quranic reference covers all temptations offered by Satan in man's financial, sexual, political and social life. Man is liable to fall prey to Satan at every step. For Satan has made misdeeds seem alluring to man.

Satan is consistently engaged in wielding his evil influence on man. Many men and women are swayed by his temptations. They are enticed and incited by him in a number of ways. So doing, they abase and degrade themselves. The Quranic account is too graphic to be adequately translated, so suffice to say that it explains how man succumbs to Satan's temptations.

Compiled From:
"Guidance from the Holy Quran" - Sayyid Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi, pp. 214, 215