[Soorah al-A’raaf (7):27]
Allaah informed us of what he did with our parents as a way of cautioning us from obeying him and also to cut short any excuse for having followed him and Allaah commanded us to follow the straight path …” [Dhamm al-Waswaas, pg.46. Also refer to Ibn al-Qayyim’s introduction of his own book Ighaathah al-Lahfaan, 1/10]
Thus, Shaytaan is an enemy to man. His desire is to corrupt the beliefs and to wreak havoc on one’s eemaan. Whoever does not fortify himself from him through remembrance of Allaah, resorting back to Allaah and seeking refuge with Him, will become a breeding ground for Shaytaan, who will lure him to actions of disobedience, entice him to perpetrate prohibited matters and push him to embark upon lewd sins. What a perish of his religion and what a corruption of his eemaan will it be if man submits to him!
Ibn al-Qayyim, may Allaah have mercy upon him, says:
“Beware of enabling Shaytaan to establish himself in the very home of your thoughts and intentions, as he will corrupt them in such a manner that will make difficult its correction thereafter. He will cast all sort of whisperings and harmful thoughts at you and he will prevent you from thinking about what may benefit you and it is you who have aided him against yourself by empowering him over your heart and thoughts and he then placed you in the possession of such thoughts.” [Al-Fawaa’id, pg. 309]
He, may Allaah have mercy upon him, put forward an excellent similitude in this regard, which lies in total agreement. He says in another excerpt from his book:
“If you would like a consistent example for this, then his parable is that of a dog that is extremely famished; between you and the dog is a piece of meat or bread. He looks attentively at you and sees you not opposing him and he is so close to you. You drive him away and yell out at him and yet the dog refuses but to hover round you in circles and to try to deceive you with regard to what you possess in your hand.” [At-Tibyaan fee Aqsaam al-Qur’aan, pg. 419]
His intention, may Allaah have mercy upon him, behind this parable is to demonstrate the scope of Shaytaan’s danger to man if he does not seek refuge with Allaah from him and fails to retreat back to Allaah for refuge from his evil, through beneficial words of supplication and blessed forms of remembrance.
However, whoever turns away and is instead averse to that, Shaytaan will cling to him in this way in which he will tempt and dictate to him until he eradicates his eemaan. Allaah says:
وَمَن يَعْشُ عَن ذِكْرِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ نُقَيِّضْ لَهُ شَيْطَانًا فَهُوَ لَهُ قَرِينٌ وَإِنَّهُمْ لَيَصُدُّونَهُمْ عَنِ السَّبِيلِ وَيَحْسَبُونَ أَنَّهُم مُّهْتَدُونَ حَتَّىٰ إِذَا جَاءَنَا قَالَ يَا لَيْتَ بَيْنِي وَبَيْنَكَ بُعْدَ الْمَشْرِقَيْنِ فَبِئْسَ الْقَرِينُ
“And whosoever turns away (blinds himself) from the remembrance of the Most Beneficent (i.e., this Qur’aan and worship of Allaah), We appoint for him a shaytaan to be a Qareen (i.e., an intimate companion) to him. And verily, they (i.e., shaytaans) hinder them from the Path (of Allaah), whilst they think that they are guided aright! Till, when (such a) one comes to Us, he says (to his qareen), ‘Would that between me and you were the distance of the two Easts (or the East and West), a worst (type of) companion (you are indeed)!”[Soorah az-Zukhruf (43):36-38]
Posted from the Book: Causes Behind the Increase and Decrease of Eemaan, by Shaykh ‘Abdur-Razzaak al-‘Abbaad. Al-Hidaayah Publications