Surah 14. Ibrahim, Ayah 22
| وَقَالَ الشَّيْطَانُ لَمَّا قُضِيَ الْأَمْرُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَعَدَكُمْ وَعْدَ الْحَقِّ وَوَعَدْتُكُمْ فَأَخْلَفْتُكُمْ ۖ وَمَا كَانَ لِيَ عَلَيْكُمْ مِنْ سُلْطَانٍ إِلَّا أَنْ دَعَوْتُكُمْ فَاسْتَجَبْتُمْ لِي ۖ فَلَا تَلُومُونِي وَلُومُوا أَنْفُسَكُمْ ۖ مَا أَنَا بِمُصْرِخِكُمْ وَمَا أَنْتُمْ بِمُصْرِخِيَّ ۖ إِنِّي كَفَرْتُ بِمَا أَشْرَكْتُمُونِ مِنْ قَبْلُ ۗ إِنَّ الظَّالِمِينَ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ |
| Transliteration | : | wa- qaala ash- shayt.aan lammaa qud.iya al- 'amr 'inna 'allaah wacada -kum wacd al- h.aqq wa- wacadtu -kum fa- akhlaftu -kum wa- maa kaana li- -y calay -kum min sult.aan 'illaa 'an dacawtu -kum fa- istajabtum li- -y fa- laa talomo -ne wa- lomo anfus -kum maa 'anaa bi- mus.rikh -kum wa- maa 'antum bi- mus.rikhe -ya 'inni -y kafartu bi- maa ashraktumo -ne min qablu 'inna az.- z.aalimen la- -hum cadhaab 'alem |
| Pickthall | : | And Satan saith, when the matter hath been decided: Lo! Allah promised you a promise of truth; and I promised you, then failed you. And I had no power over you save that I called unto you and ye obeyed me. So blame me not, but blame yourselves. I cannot help you, nor can ye help me. Lo! I disbelieved in that which ye before ascribed to me. Lo! for wrong-doers is a painful doom. |
| Asad | : | And when everything will have been decided, Satan will say: "Behold, God promised you something that was bound to come true!30 I, too, held out [all manner of] promises to you - but I deceived you. Yet I had no power at all over you: I but called you - and you responded unto me. Hence, blame not me, but blame yourselves.31 It is not for me to respond to your cries, nor for you to respond to mine:32 for, behold, I have [always] refused to admit that there was any truth in your erstwhile belief that I had a share in God's divinity."33 Verily, for all evildoers34 there is grievous suffering in store. |
| Malik | : | Once the matter has been decided, Shaitan will say: "In fact, the promises which Allah made to you were all true; I too made some promises to you but failed to keep any of them. However, I had no power over you. I just invited you, and you accepted my invitation. Now! Do not blame me, but blame yourselves. I cannot help you, nor you can help me. I reject what you did before; that you associated me with Allah. Certainly such wrongdoers will have painful punishment." |
| Yusuf Ali | : | And Satan will say when the matter is decided: "It was Allah Who gave you a promise of truth: I too promised but I failed in my promise to you. I had no authority over you except to call you but ye listened to me: then reproach not me but reproach your own souls. I cannot listen to your cries nor can ye listen to mine. I reject your former act in associating me with Allah. For wrongdoers there must be a Grievous Penalty." 1897 1898 |
Note - 30Lit., "God promised you a promise of truth" - i.e., the
promise of resurrection and last judgment.
|
Note - 31In his commentary on this passage, Razi remarks: "This
verse shows that the real Satan (ash-shaytan al-asli) is
[man's own] complex of desires (an-pals): for, Satan
makes it clear [in the above] that it was only by means
of insinuations (waswasah) that he was able to reach [the
sinner's soul]; and had it not been for an
already-existing [evil] disposition due to lusts, anger,
superstition or fanciful ideas, these [satanic]
insinuations would have had no effect whatsoever."
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Note - 32I.e., "I cannot respond to your call for help, just as
you should not have, in your lifetime, responded to my
call." The above sentence is often interpreted in another
sense, namely, "I cannot succour you, just as you cannot
succour me". However, in view of Satan's allegorical
reference - in the preceding passages as well as in the
next sentence - to the sinners' earthly past, the
rendering adopted by me seems to be more suitable;
moreover, it is closer to the primary meaning of the verb
sarakha ("he cried out"), from which the form musrikh
("one who responds to a cry") is derived (Jawhari).
|
Note - 33This is, to my mind, the meaning of the highly elliptical
phrase kafartu bi-ma ashraktumuni min qabl, which could
be literally - but most inadequately - translated thus:
"I have refused to admit the truth of that whereby you
associated me aforetime [with God]." The implication is
that Satan, while endeavouring to lead men astray, never
claims to be God's "equal" (cf. 7:20, where he speaks
of God, to Adam and Eve, as "your Sustainer", or 15:36
and {39}, where he addresses Him as "my Sustainer", or
8:48 and 59:16, where he says, "behold, I fear God")
but, rather, tries to make men's sinful doings "seem
goodly to them" (cf. 6:43, 8:48, 16:63, 27:24,
29:38), i.e., persuades them that it is morally
justifiable to follow one's fancies and selfish desires
without any restraint. But while Satan himself does not
make any claim to equality with God, the sinner who
submits to Satan's blandishments attributes to him
thereby, as it were, "a share in God's divinity". - It
must be stressed, in this connection, that the Qur'anic
expression shaytan is often used as a metaphor for every
human impulse that is intrinsically immoral and,
therefore, contrary to man's best - i.e., spiritual -
interests.
|
Note - 34I.e., all those who had consciously - either from
intellectual arrogance or from moral weakness - responded
to "Satan's call".
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Note - 1897After the Judgment, Evil declares itself in its true
colours. Frankly it says: 'I deceived you. The promise of
Allah was true, but you believed me rather than Allah. I
had no power to force you. I had but to call you, and you
came running after me. You must blame yourselves. Did you
think I was equal with Allah? I know too well that I was
not and never could be. If you did wrong, you must suffer
the Penalty.'
|
Note - 1898See the last note. An alternative interpretation of this
sentence may be: "I had already beforehand rebelled
against Allah with Whom ye associated me."
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Lit., "God promised you a promise of truth" - i.e., the promise of resurrection and last judgment. |
| |
In his commentary on this passage, Razi remarks: "This verse shows that the real Satan (ash-shaytan al-asli) is [man's own] complex of desires (an-pals): for, Satan makes it clear [in the above] that it was only by means of insinuations (waswasah) that he was able to reach [the sinner's soul]; and had it not been for an already-existing [evil] disposition due to lusts, anger, superstition or fanciful ideas, these [satanic] insinuations would have had no effect whatsoever." |
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I.e., "I cannot respond to your call for help, just as you should not have, in your lifetime, responded to my call." The above sentence is often interpreted in another sense, namely, "I cannot succour you, just as you cannot succour me". However, in view of Satan's allegorical reference - in the preceding passages as well as in the next sentence - to the sinners' earthly past, the rendering adopted by me seems to be more suitable; moreover, it is closer to the primary meaning of the verb sarakha ("he cried out"), from which the form musrikh ("one who responds to a cry") is derived (Jawhari). |
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This is, to my mind, the meaning of the highly elliptical phrase kafartu bi-ma ashraktumuni min qabl, which could be literally - but most inadequately - translated thus: "I have refused to admit the truth of that whereby you associated me aforetime [with God]." The implication is that Satan, while endeavouring to lead men astray, never claims to be God's "equal" (cf. 7:20, where he speaks of God, to Adam and Eve, as "your Sustainer", or 15:36 and {39}, where he addresses Him as "my Sustainer", or 8:48 and 59:16, where he says, "behold, I fear God") but, rather, tries to make men's sinful doings "seem goodly to them" (cf. 6:43, 8:48, 16:63, 27:24, 29:38), i.e., persuades them that it is morally justifiable to follow one's fancies and selfish desires without any restraint. But while Satan himself does not make any claim to equality with God, the sinner who submits to Satan's blandishments attributes to him thereby, as it were, "a share in God's divinity". - It must be stressed, in this connection, that the Qur'anic expression shaytan is often used as a metaphor for every human impulse that is intrinsically immoral and, therefore, contrary to man's best - i.e., spiritual - interests. |
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After the Judgment, Evil declares itself in its true colours. Frankly it says: 'I deceived you. The promise of Allah was true, but you believed me rather than Allah. I had no power to force you. I had but to call you, and you came running after me. You must blame yourselves. Did you think I was equal with Allah? I know too well that I was not and never could be. If you did wrong, you must suffer the Penalty.' |
