One of the ways Satan leads human beings astray is by
making evil look good.
On this point, ibn al-Qayyim wrote the following:
'From his strategem is that he always bewitches the mind
until he can deceive the person. No one is safe from his
bewitching except whomsoever Allah wills. He makes
good looking to him what harms him the most, until he
imagines that it is the most beneficial act for himself. And he
makes him flee from the most beneficial act until he thinks it
is something harmful to him. Certainly, there is no god but
Allah. How many humans have been tested by such
sorcery. How many hearts have been kept from Islam, faith
and goodness [by such sorcery]. And how many support
and present falsehood in the best form and hate truth and
present it in the worst form [because of his deception]. And
how much falseness is adorned and shown in a desirious
manner to the alert. And how much falseness is spread
among the wise. He is the one who bewitches the mind
until it follows different desires and various evil opinions. He
makes them follow every path of misguidance. He leads
them to actions, one after another, that cause their
destruction. He makes appealing to them the worship of
idols, the breaking of familial relationships, the killing of
daughters, marrying one's mother and so on. And he
promises them the victory of paradise with their infidelity,
wickedness and acts of disobedience. He presents to them
polytheism in the most honorable fashion. And he presents
rejection of Allah's attributes, of His transcendence and of
His speech in the guise of anti-anthropomorphism of Allah.
He presents abandoning ordering good and eradicating
evil in the guise of having mercy for others, behaving with
others in a good manner, and applying the verse, "O
believers, you are in charge of your own souls" (al-Maidah
105). And he presents turning away from what has come
from the Messenger in the guise of blindly following the
Imams (taqleed) and the sufficiency of following one who is
more knowledgeable. And he presents hypocrisy and
compromising with respect to Allah's religion in the guise of
being flexible and mixing admirably with the people.'
