If you fear Allah at Allah and if you believe in the hereafter, then I believe you can take one or two lessons from this story…..
At the time of Bani Israel, there was a man in a small village called Barsisa. He was what you call a monk. But he was true Christian. He believed in Tawheed and believed Isa (Peace be upon him) was a messenger of Allah.
One day, three brothers decided to go for Jihad but they had a sister and they did not want to leave her alone. So they went looking for someone to take care of her. The town people suggested leaving her with Barsisa, because of his piety. So they went to him and when they asked him, he said, “I seek refuge from the cursed shaytan” and said No! This was because he was scared of falling into sins (due to the potential fitnah it might cause). Then Shaytan came to Barsisa in the form of Waswasah (Whisperings). Shaytan is very smart and knew Barsisa had a soft heat. So he told Barsisa, “What if they can’t find someone good and leave her with someone bad, wouldn’t be your fault?” Now Barsisa did not realize this was Shaytan whispering in his heart, and because of his compassion for others, he decided to accept their request and help the lady.
He let her stay in a house opposite the church. He did this so that it would be easy for him to leave her food outside the church and she could get it herself. After sometime, Shaytan returned. This time, he told Barsisa. “Why don’t you leave the food closer for her, so that people don’t see her moving back and forth alone?” Barsisa agreed and started leaving the food outside the house. But Shaytan was not happy with this either, so sometime later, he returned and asked Barsisa, “Why don’t you go in and leave it on the table, so that no one sees her coming out and going all alone all the time?” Again, barsisa agreed and he started leaving the food on the table.
Then as time went by, Shaytan returned and said to him, “Why don’t you talk to her, she is all alone and no one to talk to?” Barsisa agreed and started talking to her from behind a door (so as to screen himself). But this would lead to them almost shouting to each other to hear themselves. Shaytan asked Barsisa to just go in and talk to her, and finally, he (Shaytan) had got them all alone in the room. Barsisa and the lady committed fornication and to make things worse, she also became pregnant. “What have you done? Look at the result of your evil (i.e. the child), get rid of the evidence otherwise the brothers will kill you!” Barsisa killed the baby and buried it in the same room the lady was in. shaytan then told Barsisa, “Do you think you can kill the child of a woman and expect her not to tell anyone?” And so Barsisa killed her and buried her alongside the baby. He then made a fake grave outside and when her brothers returned, he informed them that she died of illness. After seeing the grave and made Du’a for her, they returned home and accepted Allah’s decree.
Later that night, Shaytan came to them (the three brothers) in their dreams and informed them about what Barsisa had done and where the child and their sister could be found. The brother got up upset and confused, and informed his brothers of the dream and they both said they had the same dream. So they believed it must be true and went and dug up the fake grave and found it empty. They then dug the place Shaytan showed them in the dream and found the child and lady.
Furious, the brothers took Barsisa to the leader to get hid punishment. Barsisa knew that he would be given the death penalty. Shaytan came to Barsisa again, for the final time. This time, he revealed himself and told him he was the one whispering the thoughts to him. And he said that he could save Barsisa and as long as Barsisa makes sujood to him! Barsisa, out of desperation made sujood to him, this confirmed his kufr (disbelief) and Shaytan said to him “I am free of you, I fear Allah, the Lord of the Alamiin (Mankind, Jinns and all that exists) and left. Barsisa was stoned to death and on the day of judgement, he will be resurrected making sujood to Shaytan.
So look at how Shaytan tricked him. He came to him as a friend but was in fact his biggest enemy.
(Their allies deceived them) like them Shaitan (Satan), when he says to man: Disbelieve in Allah. But when man disbelieves in Allah, Shaitan says: I am free of you, I fear Allah, the lord of Alamin! (Q59:16).
Shaytan will never make you sin directly, he will always trick you with Waswasah and he is more patient than any of us. So we should always seek refuge in Allah from Shaytan. Never think you have enough knowledge or strong enough to take on Shaytan. This is why the scholars of Islam are the ones with the most Taqwa, the fear of Allah. So reflect on this story, if Shaytan told Barsisa to make sujood in the beginning, Barsisa would have said no straight away, but Shaytan has a plan in hand, it was a step by step policy that made Barsisa finally breakdown and commit kufr.
SOURCE: STORIES IN THE QURAN – IBN KATHIR