The people of innovation are the devils of Mankind

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