How do you know if you are following God or following the devil?
There was a story an 'Israelyaat' that Imam al'awlaki shared in one of his lecture, about a trusted Jew, the town's most honest man.
One day three brothers were called to the cause of Allah and so they went out on Jihad but were very fearful of the fate of their sister with no one to look after her, they approached this man and I think his name was baseesa, if someone heard the same lecture and knows his name pls then correct it, anyhow, they went to baseesa because there was no doubt about his good reputation and they knew if someone would come up with the best way to deal with the sister being left behind it would be him, so they went, and he told them, go fight in the cause of God, I'll leave food by your house everyday I'll knock on the door say 'food is here' and leave, so inform your sister of this arrangement and if she has any needs she can write it and leave it on the tray when she leaves it outside her door I'll read it and get her whatever she needs!
In the beginning baseesa would knock at the door and leave, the sister would open take the tray of food, and eat it, neither baseesa nor the sister seeing the other..
one day the devil told baseesa (though in his own mind he thought it was the voice of truth) what if she is in need of something else? She is all alone in there, surely I can knock and not leave but wait to make sure she picks the tray and ask her if there is anything else she needs then I can earn even greater reward by attending to it for what human wants to be devoid of companionship?..
And so baseesa did, and every day, the devil would whisper anew something that seems so human, what if she is lonely in there and in need of companionship, everyone needs to be held and hugged in their hour of need, surely I can offer her a shoulder to cry on, her brothers have been gone for so long and a young woman by herself it must be just unbearable.. slowly baseesa made his way into the sisters's life.. slowly everyday the devil would whisper something all too human to his mind's eye and before you know it he had bed the sister and she was with child..
Baseesa now distraught with what he had done, kept wondering how he's ever explain this to the brothers for surely they are bound to return, so the devil whispers to him, how she is the seductress as all women, she invited him in, she kissed him back, she cried in his arms, all he wanted to do was console her for her brothers absence and in her state of loneliness but she took advantage and exposed all her charms and deserves to die as is the fate of every seductress, so Baseesa decided to kill the baby and the mother..
Then again, Baseesa was distraught for how will he ever explain the whereabouts of the sister.. so the devil whispers again to him, to have her buried in a particular spot and when the brothers comes back to tell them that she became ill and he'd found out because the trays of food kept collecting outside her door and he had to investigate and as such he found her dead and had to bury her upon death..
sure enough the brothers returned and asked the whereabouts of their sisters, and Baseesa told them she was buried in this spot, of course the devil had told him to bury her in a different spot and tell them another..
The brothers were very distraught, but they had no reason not to distrust baseesa and of course no one ever disturbs the graves of the dead.. but the devil then kept whispering to the brothers, Baseesa is an awful person, how can you trust him, and the brothers would battle those thoughts for surely the righteous never think ill of another.. nonetheless the devil kept at it, and he said if you don't believe me then simply dig in this spot you won't find your sister there, if you do then Baseesa is trustworthy and if not, then you must know that he isn't and if you want I can show you where she is truly buried..
The brothers justified to themselves that they are doing the right thing to go digging where Baseesa told them their sister was buried, when lo and Behold, they find no one there.. then they went to Baseesa and confronted him, he confessed that he'd killed her but never told them about the child, and again the devil whispered to them, so finally they went to where the devil told them to dig when they find both mother and child buried and they knew that Baseesa had betrayed their trust and committed a great sin!
a court is set up and Baseesa is sentenced to death.. the Devil then appears in form to Baseesa and tells him, Baseesa you were innocent all along, but every day I'd whisper to you, something making you sin appear like charity and good deeds, but if you bow to me now I'll make all of this go away for you know as I had the power to expose you, I have the power to save you.. so Baseesa bows to the devil, gets put to death anyway, not only having lost everything but his very soul for his last deed wasn't of repentance and submission to Allah swt but to the devil himself...
Moral of the story.. well it should be obvious .. but the next time you think those whispers are from God or maybe attribute to good or your own soul as we surely all justify our 'good deeds' to self , know that it can be your eternal enemy making your life-style and deeds appear all the more good to you to drive you to the abyss!
all the best
Usually by the third time I hear the same message in one day from three different sources, I wake up and say "Okay, God, I hear you." 
