How does Satan misguide human beings?

This world of ours is one in which the satanic forces are waging a spiritual war against belief, against the believers. First and foremost, in Qur’an, Allah tells us,

“…inna ashshaytana kana lil-insani aduwwan mubeena.”[1]

“Indeed Satan is for humans a clear enemy”.

This is the bottom line. Satan and the satanic forces represent clear enmity to human beings. Not to take Satan as a friend. And we understand in the first place that the disobedience of Adam and Eve (عليهم السلام) was a result of Satan’s coming to them and trickery, tricking them, whispering to them in their times of forgetting God and promising them,

"Wa qaasamahumaa innee lakumaa lamina annasiheen."[2]

 Allah says there and he swore to them, to both of them, to Adam and Eve (عليهم السلام)

“I am indeed for you a good advisor”

He presents himself in this way. But he used, he played on their desires. This is where Satan tends to work, he played on their desires. And offered them something which they thought they didn’t have or they thought they would like to have etcetera, saying to them,

“...ma nahaakuma rabbukuma an hathihi ashshajaraa illa an thakoonaa malakaini aw takoonaa minal khalideen."[3]

that “Allah only prohibited you from this tree that you would not become rulers having a dominion over this world or that you become eternal.”

The desire, to want, to possess and to live long. These are desires, which remain in human beings till the last breath that they take. The Pharaohs embalming the bodies, today people freezing bodies and heads and putting them in caskets thinking that in time they can unfreeze them and bring themselves back to life again. The desire to live forever is forever with us.

And we find that after Adam and Eve (عليهم السلام) were sent out of Heaven and to the earth, we find that Satan came back to them there trying to keep them off the path and he warned them and put fear in their hearts about what would be the consequence of Eve’s عليها السلام pregnancy, when Eve عليها السلام got pregnant, this was something new to them. They didn’t know what it would produce. So Satan came to them and suggested to them that it’s quite possible that Eve عليها السلام was going to give birth to something horrible, like a cow or a dog or something like this. And if they wanted to ensure that they get a child which looked like themselves that they should name the child Abdul Harith. No, they refused to accept this because one of the names of Satan was also Harith. Abd, meaning a slave and worshipper of Harith. So they refused and the child died. They didn’t give birth initially, the child died stillbirth, premature birth. When Eve عليها السلام got pregnant again, Satan again came to them presenting these fears, worries, of what they are going to give birth to and offered them the same solution. Again they refused. And this was repeated a number of times until finally Adam and Eve (عليهم السلام) decided, ok we can’t seem to give birth, we better go with this. And they went with it and they got a child and they named the child Abdul Harith as he had requested. This became a form of shirk i.e. worshipping others than Allah in naming. That is giving a name, which is unsuitable. A name which implies, the worship of other than Allah, though they themselves did not worship other than Allah. But he got them to make this error playing on their fears.

In the first instance in Paradise offering them eternal life, power. Then on earth, fear of the child, what would happen to the children. Then he came to their children, Cain and Abel or Qabeel and Habeel. When Allah accepted the sacrifice of his brother and didn’t accept his, he whispered to him that to kill his brother so that he would be the one to have his sacrifices accepted, he would win the love of his parents or whatever. And that led to the first major crime, crime of murder. And this has become of course amongst human beings a trial and will remain amongst us until the last day.

References:

[1] [Qur’an 17:53]

[2] [Qur’an 7:21]

[3] [Qur'an 7:20]