The Essence of Islam – Volume II — Page 183
Angles 183. Almighty has Himself set Satan after man and thus He desires to mislead mankind, but this is a mistake. They ought to know that the Holy Qur'ān does not teach that. Satan can exercise compulsion for leading anyone astray. . Nor is it the teaching that Satan is appointed only for the purpose of calling to evil. The teaching is that this is a trial and a test. Man has been equally bestowed the touch of angels and the touch of Iblis, one calling to good and the other to evil so that being confronted with this trial man should acquire merit or should become subject to chastisement. If only one type of means had been provided, for instance, if all man's external and internal emotions had drawn him only towards good, or if his nature had been such that he would not have been capable of doing anything except good, then there was no reason that he could have been awarded any rank of nearness to God on account of his good actions, inasmuch as all his means and emotions would have been for doing good and the desire of evil would from the beginning have been absent from his nature. In such case by what right could he have deserved merit for avoiding vice? For instance, if a person who from the beginning lacks sexual power and has no desire for women, should claim that he passed a certain time in the company of young beautiful women, but that he is so pious that he did not look upon them with desire even once and feared God all the time, there is no doubt that everyone would laugh at him. They would inquire from him when did he possess such power, for restraining which he could take pride in himself or could hope for merit. . It should be realized that in his elementary and intermediary conditions all hopes of merit of a seeker are created by opposing emotions and if in those stages his nature