1.2 The Cunning Of Devil

The devil decided to call the sons of Adam to worship idols so they would go to the Fire with him. Since Allah forgives people all sins except "Shirk" which is associating other things besides Allah in worship, he would mislead them so that they worship idols with Allah. But how could he proceed to persuade?
The task at hand this time is more difficult for the devil than the case of Adam and Eve when he deceived them and made them the forbidden tree. He knew that Adam and Eve were allowed to enjoy everything but one tree in Paradise. So, he summoned all the envy within Adam and started to whisper to him day after day "Shall I guide you to the Tree of Immortality and the Eternal Kingdom?" He said to them: "Your Lord did not forbid you this three save you should become angels or become of the immortals." He (Satan) swore by Allah to them both saying: "Verily I am one of the sincere well wishers for you both." (Ch 7: 20-21).
He used lies and wrong promises to make them disobey the command of Allah. He also took advantage of human's tendency to aim for high status (becoming angels) and for living eternally (becoming immortals) to convince them to eat the forbidden tree.
This is just for Adam and Eve. But how would he proceed to mislead a whole community? If he went to the people and said to them "worship idols, do not worship Allah", they would curse him and chase him off. They would say: "Allah forbid! How can we associate other things with our Lord? How can we worship idols? You are a cursed Satan! You are a foul Satan!"

1.2 The Cunning Of Devil

So the devil had to look for another strategy and plan of action, a subtle and clever way to get the people to do as he wanted. He opted for a long-term and four-step plan that was implemented over a number of generations. The four steps are as follows:
Step 1: good people's pictures
Step2: from pictures to the statues
Step 3: from statues to the idols, and finally
Step 4: the anger of ALLAH