Among his evils is that, when a servant sleeps, he ties knots on his head to keep him from waking. As related in Sahīh al-Bukhārī, Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab narrated from Abū Hurayrah that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“When any one of you sleeps, Satan ties three knots at the back of his head, striking each knot in place and saying, ‘You have a long night ahead, so sleep.’ If he wakes and remembers Allah, one knot is undone. If he performs ablution, another knot is undone. If he prays, all his knots are undone, and he enters the morning energetic and in good spirits. Otherwise, he enters the morning in foul spirits and lazy.”

Among his evils is that he urinates in a servant’s ear, causing him to sleep until morning. It is authentically reported from the Prophet ﷺ:

“A man who had slept through the night until morning was mentioned in his presence. He said, ‘That is a man in whose ears Satan has urinated’—or he said, ‘in whose ear.’” Related by al-Bukhārī.

Among his evils is that he lies in wait for Adam’s children along every path of goodness. There is no path of goodness on which Satan does not lie in ambush, striving with all his might to prevent a person from taking it. If the person defies him and takes that path, Satan discourages and hinders him, distracting him with obstacles and interruptions. If he performs the good deed and completes it, Satan brings about something that nullifies its effect and takes him back to where he began.

It is sufficient evidence of his evil that he swore by Allah to lie in wait for Adam’s children on His straight path. He also swore to approach them from before them and behind them, from their right and from their left.

His evil reached such an extent that he devised schemes and employed every cunning stratagem until he drove Adam out of Paradise. Yet that did not satisfy him: he went on to claim from among Adam’s descendants a contingent for the Fire—nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every thousand. Even that did not satisfy him: he then schemed to suppress the call to Allah on earth, intending that people should instead be called to him and that he should be worshipped rather than Allah. Thus he strives with all his might to extinguish Allah’s light, suppress the call to Him, establish the call to disbelief and polytheism, and erase monotheism and its landmarks from the earth.

It is sufficient evidence of his evil that he set himself against Abraham, the close friend of the Most Merciful, until his people hurled him into the fire with a catapult. But Allah turned his scheme back upon him and made the fire cool and safe for His close friend.