Surah 43. Az-Zukhruf, Ayah 36

Lit., "to him We assign a satan, and he becomes his other self (qarin)": see note [24] on 41:25 . For the psychological connotation of the term shaytan as "evil impulse", see first half of note [16] on 15:17 as well as note [31] on 14:22 .

If men deliberately put away the remembrance of Allah from their minds, the natural consequence, under Allah's decree, is that they join on with evil. Like consorts with like. We can generalise evil in the abstract, but it takes concrete shape in our life-companions.