The Oath Against Adam's Children

What, then, did he do with the respite? This is the most telling part. Remember — he is the one who is arrogant, the one who is jealous, the one who disobeys Allah — and then, as the most arrogant people always do, he turns around and blames everyone but himself. He said to Allah: O my Lord, because You have led me astray, You have cast me out — blaming Allah for his own stupidity, as if Allah would ever accept him while he alone, of every creature in the universe, refused to prostrate. This reveals something of human psychology too: look at arrogant people generally. A sincere person, told he has done wrong, owns it at once, apologises, and tries to amend himself; an arrogant person always defends himself and justifies his actions. Shayṭān does exactly this: because of You, he says — You are the one who led me astray, You cast me out — as though he himself had done nothing. He had. Then he swears:

I shall adorn the path of error, sin and the forbidden for them on earth, he said, and shall mislead them all — I will show You, he said, that I will take them with me to Jahannam, Your so-called best creation, Adam and his children. Allah's conversation with him continues:

Now that You have sent me astray, he said, I shall lurk in ambush for them on Your straight path, and come upon them from before them and from behind them, from their right and from their left, and You will not find most of them thankful. I will cheat them, he said; I will approach them. And what does this approach look like?

It does not matter who a person is — he will come to trick them. He has, as it were, a bag of tricks, and knows exactly which one to use, like a mechanic who knows which tool suits which part of the engine. A woman is approached one way; a young man another; an old man another still; a shaykh, an ʿālim, and one who is simply ignorant, each differently again — it does not matter who a person is, he will come and play their own game, and he is gifted at it. But Allah tells him:

Except Your sincere, devoted servants — this, Shayṭān said, is something I cannot do. So what becomes of those who follow him? Allah, taking up the wager Shayṭān had made, said:

Go, then; whoever among them follows you, Jahannam will be the reward for you all, an ample reward. Then what happened? Leave this garden, Allah said, utterly degraded, vanquished — I shall fill hell with you and with those of them who follow you.