provides for you from the heavens and the earth?’
Yūnus.
‘Or who originates creation and then repeats it?’
Al-Naml 64.
Concerning this meaning, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: ‘Allah created His servants with knowledge of Him, but the devils led them away from it.’”
I say:
The wording of the hadith in the authentic collection is:
“Allah says: ‘I created My servants upright in faith, but the devils led them astray, forbade them what I had made lawful for them, and commanded them to associate with Me that for which I had sent down no authority.’”
He said:
“That knowledge, then, is the necessary awareness of need. Satan’s leading people astray consists in enticing them to regard themselves as self-sufficient and to deny their need. The messengers are sent to remind people of their innate nature and to purify it of satanic enticements, for they themselves remain true to the original innate nature, and he had no authority over them.
‘So remind, if the reminder benefits. * Whoever fears will take heed.’
Al-A‘lā 10–11.