What divine consideration allows Satan to ... tempt and mislead, to beguile and decieve?

Question: I am familiar with the Islamic taboo against "partners unto Allah", but I am confused by the reference to Satan, a rebel. Must Satan not originally have been either a servant of God, a mighty being but not divine, like the angels you described, or else a partner of God? If Satan is not divine, then what divine consideration allows him to rebel and live for all these many years and harm so many human souls who otherwise might have pleased God? If Satan is not divine, from whence come "his" powers to tempt and mislead, to beguile and deceive? He often seems to be portrayed as a being of powers divine, greater than those of any angel, Christian or Islamic, and I find it hard to see how Satan is not essentially a partner of God. Does God not allow his rebellion to continue? Is that not a contract or agreement between divine good and evil? 

Answer: Satan (Iblis) refused to obey God out of pride and was cursed (removed from God's blessing forever). He blamed God for his fall from grace, and asked that he be given respite till Judgement Day so as to allow him & his progeny to lead mankind astray. God permitted that, knowing quite well that Satan will only be able to lead astray those who choose to be led by him.

Background:
1) Iblis is a dJinn. dJinns are a creature made of smokeless fire. They can see us but we cannot see them (from another dimension, I suppose).
2) Iblis was among the angels who were ordered to prostrate to Adam. Iblis refused to prostrate to Adam citing that he is superior to Adam as Adam has been created of clay.
3) Before God created Adam, God informed the angels that he is about to create a vice-regent for Earth. The angels asked why someone who would create mischief and shed blood... (Quran 2:30). God told them 'I know what ye know not'. After God had created Adam and taught him names of all beings (inferred from the arabic pronoun used), He then presented Adam to the angels and asked the angels to name them. The angels did not have the knowledge of those names and thus could not answer. Then Adam was asked and he was able to recite the names of them all.
4) Thereafter, the angels were ordered to prostrate to Adam. They all did except Iblis. He refused, was haughty and became of those who reject faith. God asked Iblis what prevented him from prostrating. Iblis said that Thou didst create me from fire and him from clay (Quran 7:12). God told him that it is not for Iblis to be arrogant , that he is the meanest of creatures, and he was ordered out. Iblis asked for respite till the day they (humans) are raised up. He was granted respite, disgraced and expelled. (Quran 7:13-18).
5) Adam and his wife were told to stay and enjoy all things in garden (heaven) and were only prohibited from one tree. They were warned that if they approach it, they will run into harm and transgression. Satan began to whisper suggestions to them and beguiled them, and through deceit brought their fall. God asked them that weren't they forbidden and were they not warned that Satan was their avowed enemy. They were repentant and humble, so God forgave them.    
6) Then were they sent to Earth for a temporal life (Quran 2:36 - 38 and 7:24).
Quran 2:38 'We said: "Get ye down all from here; and if, as is sure, there comes to you Guidance from me, whosoever follows My guidance, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.'
7) We are warned that Satan and his progeny are our enemies, and that we need to be ever aware of that. We are also told that they have no real power over us: they can only whisper and suggest, and stir up desires; it is up to us whether we choose to follow them or not.  

We on Earth, this temporal life and its trials, Satan and his progeny, Prophets and God's guidance, Judgement Day, Heaven and Hell, all this is part of a much larger scheme, of which we have but very little knowledge and insight. Things will be made clear to us when the time is right. So, for the time being, we must use conscience and intelligence as our tools in search of guidance and choose accordingly. 

Beyond the Veil

My two cents on a discussion on beyond the veil...
Hi,I just wanted to chip in this interesting discussion with the Islamic perspective. As you know, we muslims definitely believe in after-life. But, we also believe that when we die, we will remain in a sleep-like state(*) till the Day of Reckoning, when all souls will be raised back to life.
Some believe that the dead do have dreams... pleasant dreams for the good people, scary dreams for those who've accumulated many bad deeds in their worldly life. But, no, I don't think they travel in their dreams to our realm. I'm not very clear on this, but I understand the bodies will be reconstructed and perfected for immortal, eternal life. Reason being that
(i) we are told that we will abide their forever
(ii) on judgement day, our own bodies, hands, feet, et all, will testify against ourselves, such that nobody can except to get away with lying.
This brings up the interesting question of how do we explain visions of those who are no more... do they return? Well, the one explanation that most religious scholars seem to concur on is that these are basically dJinns(genies) who
(i) have information of our and other people's past lives
(ii) they appear as that person
How do they have intimate information? It is also believed that there is a dJinn associated with each human throughout our lives, such that they know of all things past. dJinns themselves are a community, and as such, able to exchange notes.
As far as the Holy Quran is concerned, though it acknowledges the existence of dJinns, and speaks of their ability to whisper thoughts in our minds, it nowhere explicitly details the above explanation, at least as far as I know. Nothing can be stated for certain, as none of the living have crossed over and returned to tell the tale; and the few who do, well we really don't know what their source is.
We believe dJinns are another creation, created from smokeless fire; generally invisible to humans. Satan is a dJinn. We also believe that they are communities of dJinn, families, procreation, etc, like any other human or animal community we are able to observe; There are good dJinns and bad dJinns, believer and non-believers, helpers and hinderers; dJinns are known to have served Prophet-King Solomon. Satan(named Iblis) was one of the angels when God created Adam... when God ordered all present to prostrate/submit to Adam, Iblis refused (Holy Quran 2:34); he was haughty, because he took pride in his being created from fire, whereas Adam was from clay; God dislikes arrogance, and thus Iblis was disgraced. Instead of repenting, he vowed to take it upon himself to hinder humans from the path of God, and asked God to grant him permission till the end of this-world time (doomsday) to mislead humans (Holy Quran 4:119). We are told that Iblis and his host of satans have no real power upon us, that it is in our will whether to do their bid or to reject it, and those who remember God and seek guidance will ultimately be the ones who prevail.(Holy Quran 7:200-206)
A question:If the dJinn can "whisper thoughts in our minds," would you describe them as spirit-beings as opposed to material (physical) beings? Do they have gender, form, specific names and identities?
Yes, I'm sure they all must have some names or numbers or codes to interact within their community; spirit-beings as in 'in another dimension? like angels, invisible to us?' yes, if that's what you are trying to ask; material(physical) beings also as they are created from smokeless fire... guess the correct answer is spirit-beings to us, physical beings in their own dimension(world)

(*)except those who have proven beyond doubt that they deserve punishment, for them the torture probably begins in the grave; (Pharoah is one of the examples usually cited).