Question:
Is it permissible to describe a person with the word Shaytān (devil)?
Answer:
It’s permissible to use this word on the people of falsehood, the misguided misguiders.
Allah, the Most High, said:
(شَيَٰطِينَ ٱلْإِنسِ وَٱلْجِنِّ يُوحِى بَعْضُهُمْ إِلَىٰ بَعْضٍ زُخْرُفَ ٱلْقَوْلِ غُرُورًا)
“Shayātin (devils) among mankind and jinns, inspiring one another with adorned speech as a delusion (or by way of deception).”
[Al-An’ām:112]
And the people of innovation are from the devils of mankind, Ash-Shātibi said:
“Their harms upon the Muslims is like the harms of Iblees, and they are from the Shayātin (devils) of mankind.”
And Bakar bin ‘Alaa said at the hadīth:
(هذه سبل على كل منها شيطان يدعو إليه)
“These paths each contain a devil calling towards it”
“I consider it to be a devil from mankind and it’s innovation.”
“Al-I’tisām”
And Yahya bin Ma’īn said regarding Abu Sa’d As-Saghāni:
“He was a Jahmi, and he was nothing of worth, he was a devil from amongst the devils.”
[End of speech from Tārikh Ad-Duwri]
And from the extreme Shia sects, is the sect: (Ash-Shaytāniyyah)
And the Rāfidah are the most despicable of the devils of mankind.
And the Imāms of Hadīth could use the word (Shaytān) upon a narrator, intending the fine quality of his hadīth, as mentioned by Shu’bah in regards to Aws bin Dam’aj: “By Allah I don’t see him to be but a Shaytān”, Al-Muzani, said: “Meaning in regards to the fine quality of his hadeeth.”
[End of speech from Tahdheeb Al-Kamaal]
Answered by:
Shaykh Abu Hatim Yusuf Al-‘Inaabi Al-Jazaa’iree – may Allah preserve him.
Source:
t.me/abouhatem/116
Answered on:
15th, Saffar, 1438H
Translated by:
Abu ‘Abdirrahman ‘Abdullaah bin Ahmed Ash-Shingaani