A friend of mine shared this story with me...The wording is mine.

On a dark night a village man silently comes out of his house to walk down to the village mosque for his evening congregational prayer. Somewhere in between the mosque and his home the man trips and falls on the dirty pathway. He gets up quickly and returns to his house to change his clothes and out he goes again to answer the call of duty. No sooner does he step on the dirty way then he stumbles again and falls on the ground. The man quickly picks himself up and once again turns back to his house to change his soiled clothes. As he comes out yet again to answer the call of duty the same thing happens and the man again rushes back into his house to change his clothes. As he quickly ventures out again into the dark night he spots a light, the man follows the light until he reaches the steps of the mosque where he stops to thank the light bearer:

“Won’t you come with me into the mosque? The village man then asks politely.

“No,” answers the light bearer, "I can’t.

“But why not?” Asks the man surprised.

“Because I am Satan, that’s why.”

“But why did you walk me to the mosque?”

“That’s easy,” says Satan. You see the first time you tripped and fell down Allah forgave you all your sins. The second time Allah forgave the sins of the whole village, the third time the whole nation was forgiven...I was afraid lest Allah should forgive the whole world...now you understand why I came to your aid?”