Satan and nafs in the Holy Qur'an in terms of their effects on the human being

In the Holy Qur'an, it is emphasized that Satan's status was relegated due to Satan's own arrogance, however, the Satan held Almighty Allah (God) responsible for its relegated status, and accused human beings and became human beings' enemy. The Satan is never a rival of Allah but His rebellious subject; it is a rival and an enemy of human beings. The Satan was identified with evil since being dismissed from the congregation of Allah, and used grudge, malice, lies and various misdeeds in order to entice human beings to commit mistakes and to get into trouble. It will continue to make use of grudge, malice, lies and misdeeds. It is possible for a human being to stay away from Satan for a moment or for a short time period, however, avoiding it completely throughout an entire life is hard and even impossible. The Satan attempts to deceive human beings by using cravings of the flesh (desire, whim and so on.). Human being's nafs which forcefully urges human beings to commit evils is more effective than the Satan who is not equipped with the power of sanction but simply with the ability to beautify sins and to create delusions. Nafs and the Satan invite the human being to commit wickedness. The human being responding to this invitation gets addicted to wickedness and fails to gain benefits on account of getting busy with certain useless endeavors. Hence, in the afterlife, the human soul suffers severe pains, and human being's current life and afterlife become disgraceful and ignominious. The primary purpose of Allah's each believer is to get closer to Allah. The collaboration of Satan and nafs makes a serious obstacle to the achievement of this purpose. Having a perfectly full belief in Allah and taking shelter in Him can help to confront Satan's delusions. Nevertheless, finding the true path or going astray is possible only if Allah wishes so and Allah's subjects use their willpower in the direction of goodness or evil. Allah who inspires the human being to commit sins and to avoid committing sins empowered each human being with several innately potent qualifications. Additionally, Allah endowed the human being with the willpower to mobilize these potential qualifications for use. The divine force is on the good side of willpower whereas the Satan is on its evil side. Therefore, the human being is responsible for all deeds he/she commits with his/her own willpower. In this study, through the analysis of characteristic features of the human being and Satan who tries to deceive human being by beautifying the cravings and desires of the flesh which are inextricably linked with being human, Satan's and human being's raisons d'être are explained. By addressing the relationship between the Satan and nafs, the study analyzed what effects the Satan and nafs had on human life and what roles the Satan and nafs played in human life. By departing from Quranic narratives, attempts were made to put forward the cravings of the flesh peculiar to human beings and Satan's effects on human beings. Key words: Tafsir, the Holy Qur'an, mind, hearth, nafs, satan