The Process of Satan's Dominion over Human Being from the Viewpoints of Quran and Hadith

During the process of his evolution and education, human being encounters several challenging threats posed by Satan. Satan is an undeniable truth and an inevitable enemy of humanity averting man from reaching his goal. It is, in fact, difficult to get rid of Satan, and after Satan’s dominion over man, such task becomes even more difficult. Salvation from Satan’s trap requires defying the process of dominion, the perception of which is necessary. Moreover, it is important to explain the way Satan has dominion over man. The current study, using a descriptive-analytical approach, aims to examine the aforementioned issue from the viewpoints of Quran and Hadith. This study is mainly concerned with human’s true cognizance of the existence of Satan and promotion of belief in it, recognition of Satan’s traps and the ways to overcome them, and finally acquaintance with ways to defeat Satan. After mentioning the issue, the way that Satan gains dominion is examined over human through feelings ,emotions and also through influence on perception.. Satan has no dominion over anyone from the beginning. He is only the beginning of temptation. Satan's dominion over human does not occur at once; however, it is a gradual process. He tempts men in different ways such as: promising, frightening them, making humans feel disappointed, upsetting humans, making himself look sympathetic, and making sins look attractive. Satan’s main attempt is to test man’s inner self (batin) through application of perceptional tools. He who possesses wisdom and acts accordingly, will not fall into Satan’s trap. Therefore, Satan tries to take possession of wisdom and debilitate it. He constantly tempts humans to commit more sin. Through commitment of sin and its repetition, intellect faculty of human will gradually be taken captive by Havay e Nafs (animal nature of human being). The more one commits sin, the more he/she is dominated by Satan so that all human existence will become Satan's tool.