52 – ʿAbd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn ʿUbayd narrated: Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-ʿAbdi informed us; Muhammad ibn Yazid ibn Khunays related to us, from Wuhaib ibn al-Ward, who said:
“It has reached us that the vile one—Iblis—appeared to John son of Zechariah, upon both of them be peace. Iblis said, ‘I would like to give you some advice.’ John replied, ‘You lie; you will not advise me. Rather, tell me about the children of Adam.’
Iblis said, ‘With us they are of three kinds:
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A group that is the hardest on us. We draw near to one of them until we cause him to fall, then we withdraw from him. He busies himself with seeking forgiveness and repenting, thereby undoing everything we had achieved with him. We return to him and he returns to repentance. Thus we neither despair of him nor attain our desire from him, and because of that we are put to hardship.
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A second group is in our hands like a ball in the hands of your little boys; we toss them about however we wish—they have spared us any further effort concerning themselves.
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As for the third group, they are like you—protected. We have no power over them at all.’
John asked, ‘Have you managed to get anything from me?’ He answered, ‘No, except on one occasion: a dish of food was placed before you and I kept making it tempting until you ate more than you intended. You slept that night and did not rise for prayer as you usually do.’
John said, ‘In that case, by Allah, I shall never again eat my fill of any food.’
The accursed one replied, ‘Then, by Allah, I shall certainly never again attempt to advise a prophet after you.’