Question:
Is Satan the cause of misguidance?
Answer:
Allah Almighty’s statement:
فَرِيقًا هَدَىٰ وَفَرِيقًا حَقَّ عَلَيْهِمُ الضَّلَالَةُ ۗ إِنَّهُمُ اتَّخَذُوا الشَّيَاطِينَ أَوْلِيَاءَ مِن دُونِ اللَّـهِ وَيَحْسَبُونَ أَنَّهُم مُّهْتَدُونَ ﴿٣٠﴾
“He guided one group, and the other group deserved to be misguided. Indeed, they took devils as friends instead of Allah, and they think that they are rightly guided.”
According to this, one of the causes indicating misguidance is the opposite of the person who assumes that Allah does not hold any servant accountable for a sin they commit or for such misguidance in which they believe, even after knowing its true reality, yet they commit it while opposing their Lord. Because if that were the case, there would be no difference between the misguided party who considers themselves guided and the rightly guided party, whereas Allah has distinguished between them and has explained their separate rulings.
Indeed, Allah Almighty revealed the Book so that it would be a path of guidance for the worlds, and He made it incumbent upon His final Messenger to clarify to the creation the revelation sent down to him and to indicate the paths of both truth and falsehood to every rational person. Furthermore, Allah has endowed humans with a nature through which they can distinguish between truth and falsehood, and He has imposed upon us devils as a test. Then whoever disobeys the devil and obeys Allah and His Messenger will surely be successful and prosperous, and whoever obeys the devil will be misguided and destroyed.
Allah Almighty says:
فَمَن يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ خَيْرًا يَرَهُ ﴿٧﴾ وَمَن يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ شَرًّا يَرَهُ ﴿٨﴾
“So whoever does an atom’s weight of good will see it, and whoever does an atom’s weight of evil will see it.”
