Satan deceives the Muslim in several ways that he follows in order, so that if he fails to deceive him through the first way, he moves to the second, and so on. Ibn Al-Qayyim said,
Satan's evil is limited to six categories that he uses with the son of Adam till he traps him in one or more of them. The first evil is the evil of disbelief, polytheism, and enmity toward Allah The Almighty and His Messenger . If he succeeds in dragging man into this, his pain is assuaged and he is spared hard work with him. This is the first aim he wants to achieve from the slave until he commits a share of it.
If Satan despairs of him in this respect and the person is destined to be a Muslim since he was in the womb of his mother, Satan would move to the second category of evil, i.e. religious innovation which is more loveable to him than immorality and sins. That is because the harm of religious innovation affects the religion itself, and this is a transitive harm. If Satan fails to take man to this level, he would move to the third category of evil, i.e. major sins with their various forms. Satan is very keen to make man fall into the major sins. If he fails, he would move to the fourth category, i.e. minor sins which, if accumulated, destroy those who do them, as the Prophet said: "Beware of committing minor sins, for they accumulate till they destroy the man. It is like a man who camped in the wilderness, and one man brought a stick, another man brought a stick, and so on, until they accumulated a lot, then they lit a fire and cooked their food." [Saheeh]
If Satan fails in this level, he would move to the fifth category, he would busy the man with lawful things that command no reward or punishment. The consequence of such things lies in missing the reward for the acts that these things distracted him from. If Satan fails in this level and the man made good use of his time and he is aware of the value of his breaths and their loss and the corresponding bliss and punishment, Satan would move to the sixth category, i.e. busying the man with less virtuous acts at the expense of more virtuous ones. By doing so, Satan takes virtue away from the man and makes him lose the reward of highly virtuous acts by enticing and urging him to do less virtuous acts and beautifying them for him should this involve leaving a more and higher virtuous act.
If Satan fails in the six categories and feels powerless, he lets his assistants from humans and jinn attack the man with all sorts of harm, accusations of disbelief, misguidance, and religious innovation and warning people about him. Satan resorts to this method in order to extinguish man's enthusiasm, confuse his heart, busy his thoughts, and prevent people from benefiting from him. Therefore, Satan uninterruptedly devotes his endeavors to instigating the falsifiers from human and jinn devils at him.’
Mu‘ath sighed and said, "What is the way out then, Shaykh Yoosuf?"
Shaykh Yoosuf replied quickly, "Scholars mentioned several fortifications that I will tell you about briefly.
1. Seeking refuge with Allah The Almighty from Satan. Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {And if there comes to you from Satan an evil suggestion, then seek refuge in Allah. Indeed, He is the Hearing, the Knowing.}[Quran 41:36]
2. Reading Surahs Al-Falaq and An-Nas.
3. Reading Ayat-ul-Kursi (Verse of the Chair).
4. Reading the last verses of Surah Al-Baqarah.
5. Reading Surah Al-Baqarah.
6. Saying "La ilaaha illa Allah, wahdahu la shareeka lah, lahul-mulku wa lahul-hamdu, wa Huwa ‘ala kulli shay’in Qadeer”(There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah. He is One and He has no partner with Him; His is the sovereignty and His is the praise, and He is Omnipotent)" one hundred times. It was narrated on the authority of Abu Hurayrah that the Prophet said:
"A Muslim who says "La ilaaha illa Allah, wahdahu la shareeka lah, lahul-mulku wa lahul-hamdu, wa Huwa ‘ala kulli shay’in Qadeer (There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah. He is One and He has no partner with Him; His is the sovereignty and His is the praise, and He is Omnipotent)" one hundred times a day, he will have a reward equivalent to that for emancipating ten slaves, a hundred good deeds will be recorded to his credit, a hundred of his sins will be erased from his scroll, and he will be safeguarded against the Devil on that day till the evening; and no one will exceed him in doing more excellent good deeds except someone who has recited these words more often than him." [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]
7. One of the most useful fortifications from Satan is frequent remembrance of Allah, the Almighty.
8. Avoiding unnecessary looking, talk, food, and mixing with people, since Satan dominates the son of Adam and achieves his aim from him through these four channels.
9. Ablution and prayer are among the strongest fortifications from Satan.
10. Purification of listening or keeping one's ear away from listening to falsehood.
11. Spending in the Cause of Allah The Almighty.
12. Following the authentic Sunnah (Prophetic tradition). This is the most important cure for possessed people. Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim said, "Whoever wants to get rid of this scourge, should be certain that the right course is to follow the Messenger of Allah in words and actions, and be determined to follow his way with no doubt that he is following the right path. He should be certain that disobeying him is a result of Satan's insinuation and whisperings and that Satan is an enemy to him and does not call him to any form of goodness; rather, he calls his party to be denizens of the Blazing Fire."
“Now, do you think that you are able to confront Satan, or that you are not, Mu‘ath?”
Mu‘ath answered enthusiastically, "Of course, I will be able to confront him and defeat him as well — Allah willing."