The Light of the Holy Qur'an Interpretation of Sura Al-fatir
Commentary : Verse 5
(5) يَآ أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اِنَّ وَعْدَ اللَّهِ حَقٌّ فَلاَ تَغُرَّنَّكُمُ الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا وَلاَ يَغُرَّنَّكُم بِاللَّهِ الْغَرُورُ
- “O’people! Verily the promise of Allah is true. So let not the life of the world beguile you, nor let the arch-deceiver (Satan) deceive you about Allah!”
Commentary:
The promises of Allah are true, but the promises of Satan are chaffy and deceptive. In this verse, the Qur’a-n states the most important program of men where it says:
“O’ people! Verily the promise of Allah is true.…”
Hereafter, Reckoning, Record, the Balance, Retribution, Paradise, and Hell-Fire are all the promises which are not changeable from the side of Allah, the Almighty, the Wise.
With regard to this true promise, let not the life beguile you and let not the deceptive Satan deceive you and make you proud of the forgiveness and mercy of Allah. The verse says:
“… So let not the life of the world beguile you, nor let the arch-deceiver (Satan) deceive you about Allah!”
Yes, the amusing factors, and deceptive dazzling glares of this world tend to occupy your heart and cause your neglect from that great Divine promise constantly.
The Satans from among jinn and men are always busy beguiling you by various means of deception. They also want to attract your whole thought and attention to them and deviate it from that great promised Day that you have in front of you. Thus, if their deception and temptation become effective, all your life will be destroyed and the wish of your happiness will fail. So you should be careful of them, too.
The repetition of warning unto people that they should be neither proud of the Satan’s temptations nor of the world is, in fact, an indication to this that the way of penetration of sin in man consists of two ways:
1- The deceptive glories of the world: rank and dignity, wealth and position, and kinds of lusts, (being proud of the Divine forgiveness and mercy, and it is here that, from one side, Satan decorates the dazzling glory of this world in the man’s view and introduces it as a present, attractive, lovely, and valuable thing.
And, on the other side, whenever man decides to control himself, by the remembrance of Hereafter and the Great Court of Allah, against the charm and intense attraction of the world, Satan makes him proud of the vastness of the Divine Mercy and, consequently, he invites him to sin and disobedience.
But man may be neglectful that in the same manner that Allah is ‘the Most Merciful of all merciful’ in the rank of mercy, in the rank of punishment and retribution, He is severe in retribution, too. His Mercy never encourages any one to committing sin, as His Wrath cannot be the cause of despair.
The Qur’a-nic word /qaru-r/ here means a being which is extraordinarily deceitful, and the objective meaning of it here may be any deceitful factor, and its purpose may be particularly Satan.
Of course, the second meaning is more fitting with the next verse specially that, in the verses of the Qur’a-n, ‘deceit and pride’ has repeatedly been attributed to Satan.
Commentary : Verse 6.7
(6) إِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ فَاتَّخِذُوهُ عَدُوّاً اِنَّمَا يَدْعُواْ حِزْبَهُ لِيَكُونُوا مِنْ أَصْحَابِ السَّعِيرِ
(7) الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ شَدِيدٌ وَالَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ لَهُم مَّغْفِرَةٌ وَأَجْرٌ كَبِيرٌ
6.“Verily Satan is your enemy, so you (too) take him (as your) enemy. He only invites his adherents that they may become companions of the Blazing Fire.”
- “Those who disbelieve, for them shall be a severe chastisement, and as for those who believe and do righteous deeds, for them shall be forgiveness and a great recompense.”
Commentary:
The record of enmity of Satan with humankind is ancient.
Imam S?a-diq (a.s.) said: “If Satan is an enemy, then why do you neglect him?”[^1]
This verse is a warning to all believers in relation to the temptations of Satan which were referred to in the previous verse. It says:
“Verily Satan is your enemy, so you (too) take him (as your) enemy. …”
His enmity began from the first day of the creation of Adam. When Satan was rejected from the presence of Allah as the result of the lack of submission to the command of Allah
[^1] Tafsi-r-Nu-r-uth-Thaqalayn, following the verse
concerning prostration to Adam, he took an oath that he would be an enemy to Adam and his children for ever, and he even asked Allah a respite and length of lifetime for this action.
Satan persists on his saying and he avail himself of the slightest opportunity for enmity upon man. Does wisdom let you that you do not accept him as an enemy and remain neglectful of him even for a moment? Let alone that you wish to follow Satan’s footsteps, or accept him as a close friend and sincere adviser. The Qur’a-n says: “… Will you then choose him and his seed as your protecting friends instead of Me, when they are enemies to you? …” [^1]
Moreover, he is an enemy who attacks you from every side, as he himself says: “Then I will certainly come upon them from before them, and from behind them, and from their right and from their left; …”[^2]
Specially that he is in a hiding place where he sees man and man does not see him: “… Surely he sees you: he and his Tribe, from where you do not see them. …” [^3]
Of course, this does not hinder your power to defend yourself against his temptations. There is an interesting meaning in the teachings of Allah to Moses, the son of ‘Imra-n, as Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Ali (a.s.) narrates that Allah told Moses: “I have four recommendations to you in the protection of which you should try: ‘The first is that: during the time you do not see your sins to be forgiven, do not refer to others’ defects. The second is that while you do not see my treasures have been
[^1]Sura Al-Kahf, No. 18, verse 50
[^2]Sura Al-'A'ra-f, No. 7, verse 17
[^3]Ibid, verse 27
ended, you might not be sad for your sustenance. The third is that when you do not see my sovereignty destroyed, you should not be hopeful to anyone except Me. The fourth is that during the time you do not see Satan as dead, you should not (think to be) secured from his deceit (and plots)’.” [^1]
However, the enmity of Satan unto the children of Adam is a matter which has been pointed out in many verses of the Qur’a-n, and he has even been mentioned repeatedly in them as ‘a manifest enemy’: (Al-Baqarah, verses 161, 203; Al-’An‘a-m, verse 142; ’Al-A‘ra-f, verse 22; Yu-suf, verse 5; Ya-si-n, verse, 60; and Az-Zukhruf, verse 62)
We should always avoid such an enemy.
For more emphasis, the Qur’a-n at the end of the verse, says:
“… He only invites his adherents, that they may become companions of the Blazing Fire.”
The Qur’a-nic word /h?izb/ originally means: ‘a group or society which has an organization and intensity in action’; but it is usually used for any group and society that follow a special program and aim.
The purpose of the Qur’a-nic phrase ‘Hizb-ush-Shayta-n’ is his adherents and those who are on his line.
Of course, Satan can never take anybody as a formal member of his party, and invites him toward Hell. The members of his party are those who are mentioned in some other verses of the Holy Qur’a-n and they have the following symptoms:
[^1] Safi-nat-ul-Biha-r, Vol. 1, P. 509
Those who have put the yoke of Satan’s servitude and friendship on their necks are as such: “His authority is only over those who befriend him, (following him), …” [^1] Those who are qualified as follows: “Satan has gained hold on them, so he makes them forget the remembrance of Allah; they are Satan’s party. Beware! Verily, the party of Satan are the losers.”[^2]
It is interesting that in three occurrences of the verses of the Qur’a-n ‘The Party of Allah’ has been mentioned, and in three different occurrences ‘The Party of Satan’ is referred to; so that what persons may enrol their names in this party or may be the members of that one.
But, however, it is natural that Satan invites his party to corruption, and sins, to pollutions of lusts, to polytheism, disobedience, cruelty, and, finally, to the Hell-Fire.
In the second verse, the Qur’a-n refers to the final fate of ‘The Party of Allah’ and the painful end of ‘the Party of Satan’ as follows:
“Those who disbelieve, for them shall be a severe chastisement, and as for those who believe and do righteous deeds, for them shall be forgiveness and a great recompense.”
It is interesting that, concerning those who deserve of Divine punishment, the above verse suffices to the subject of disbelief, while for gaining ‘forgiveness and a great recompense’ it does not suffice to, ‘faith’ alone and adds ‘righteous deed’ to it,
[^1] Sura An-Nah)l, No. 16, verse 100
[^2] Sura Al-Muja-dalah, No. 58, verse 19
because only infidelity by itself causes a person to dwell eternally in Divine punishment, but having faith without good action does not cause man to be saved, so, from one view, faith and good action are necessarily with each other.
At the end of this holy verse, the Qur’a-n at first mentions forgiveness, and then speaks of ‘great recompense’, for, in fact, at first forgiveness washes the spirit of the believers and then makes them ready to receive ‘a great recompense’. In literary terminology, the first is called ‘dissociation’ and the second is ‘ornamenting’.