Everyone's Own Devil, and How to Answer Him

The Messenger of Allah says, further, that every child of Adam is given a devil — as noted already, his own has submitted entirely and can suggest nothing evil to him — but everyone else, even a person of real taqwā, has one, and in a weak moment may still stumble into something foolish or sinful; this is simply human nature. Allah mentions both the trial and its remedy in the Qur'an:

Those who guard against evil — practising Muslims who keep from what is unlawful and have no interest in Shayṭān or his suggestions — when a visitation from Shayṭān touches them, remember at once the punishment of Allah, the consequences awaiting in the life to come, and come to their senses; whatever has been done, however bad, is met with the remembrance of Allah. The response, in other words, is immediate tawbah and immediate remembrance, restoring the connection with Allah at once — a return to one's senses, followed by aʿūdhu billāhi min ash-shayṭāni r-rajīm and constant dhikr. Such remembrance of Allah is a fortress strong enough to protect a person, and the heart, from this accursed enemy.

Once this enemy's workings are understood, one is tempted, whenever he is met, simply to call him out — I know what you are doing, you dog — followed by aʿūdhu billāhi min ash-shayṭāni r-rajīm. But there is the account of one man who, having erred, cursed Shayṭān outright, and the Messenger of Allah corrected him: do not say such a thing, for a curse alone only puffs Shayṭān up, makes him feel important, and causes a person to stumble further, whereas saying aʿūdhu billāhi min ash-shayṭāni r-rajīm reduces him, by his own account, to something as small and worthless as a fly. Refuge in Allah, sought the moment Shayṭān presses his attack, is the only real defence; without it there is no fighting him, for he is a master of his craft, with long experience of every human being, and he does not die. He knows how people think; no one is unique in this regard, carrying, as it were, the same nature as Adam, prone to the same forgetfulness and the same mistakes as everyone else — this is no cause for despair, but the duty remains, the moment any suggestion of his is felt, to seek refuge in Allah: through dhikr, through worship, through remaining in a state of ablution, through sleeping in a state of wuḍūʾ, and through the constant recitation of the two sūrahs of refuge, Qul aʿūdhu bi-Rabbi n-nās and Qul aʿūdhu bi-Rabbi l-falaq. Constant refuge in Allah from the cursed one, together with worship and obedience, is what saves a person from him.

The closing supplication asked that Allah keep this enemy away and protect every heart from him; that He prepare the hearers for the month in which the devils are placed in chains; that He grant beneficial knowledge, rouse them from heedlessness, and let them know this enemy both within and without, together with his ally within the self, and grant strength to overcome and subdue them, so as to become obedient, God-conscious servants; that He protect their children and those they love; that He grant them death in a state of faith and excellence; that He grant them the right answers before the questioning angels in the grave; that He raise them in the company of the truthful, the martyrs and the prophets on the Day of Judgement; that He make the scales of their good deeds heavy, and light their crossing of the Bridge; that He admit them into the highest Paradise among the foremost of its people, in the company of their loved ones and their teachers; and that He grant, besides, the vision of His own countenance — the greatest success of all.