Surah Al-Hijr, Ayah 42

The Threat of Iblis to tempt Mankind, and Allah's Promise of Hell for him

Allah informed about the rebellion and arrogance of Iblis, in that he said to the Lord:

بِمَآ أَغْوَيْتَنِى

(Because You misled me,) i.e., because You misled me and misguided me.

لأُزَيِّنَنَّ لَهُمْ

(I shall indeed adorn the path of error for them) meaning, for the progeny of Adam.

فِى الاٌّرْضِ

(on the earth,) meaning - I will make sin dear to them, and will encourage, provoke and harass them to commit sin.

وَلأُغْوِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ

(and I shall mislead them all.) meaning - just as You have misled me and have ordained that for me.

إِلاَّ عِبَادَكَ مِنْهُمُ الْمُخْلَصِينَ

(Except Your chosen, (guided) servants among them.) This is like the Ayah:

The Meaning of Shaitan Having No Power over Special Servants of Allah

From the verse: إِنَّ عِبَادِي لَيْسَ لَكَ عَلَيْهِمْ سُلْطَانٌ (My servants are such that you have no power over them - 42), we learn that there are special and chosen servants of Allah Ta’ ala who are not affected by Shaitanic deception. But, within this event relating to Sayyidna 'Adam ill, it has also been said that the deception of Shaitan worked in the case of Sayyidna 'Adam and Hawwa' (علیہما السلام) . Similarly, about the noble Companions, the Qur’ an has said: إِنَّمَا اسْتَزَلَّهُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ بِبَعْضِ مَا كَسَبُوا ۖ (Shaitan had but made them slip for some of their deeds - 3:155) which tells us that there was an occasion (during the Battle of Uhud) when the evil plan of the Shaitan worked against the Companions as well.

Therefore, in the present verse, the sense of saying that the special servants of Allah are such that Shaitan has no power over them is that their hearts and minds never come under the power and sway of Shaitan to the extent that would just not become alerted to their error at all, be-cause of which, they would remain deprived of necessary repentance for ever, or that they fall into some sin the forgiveness of which would be-come impossible.

As for the events mentioned above, they offer no contradiction be-cause 'Adam and Hawwa' (علیہما السلام) made their Taubah and this repentance was accepted. Similarly, the noble Companions referred to above had also made their Taubah. Thus, whatever sin they fell into because of the mechanization of Shaitan was forgiven.

An opportunity was presented to Satan to take a test and he failed in it. Now the best course would have been to admit his failure. Instead of that he levelled allegations against God, that whatever He had done was meant to misguide him. He wanted to blame God for that which had proved his own weakness. To blame others for one’s defeat amounts to following this characteristic of Satan. The reason given by Satan for refusing to prostrate himself before a human being was that the human being was made from earth, while he (Satan) had been made from fire. There is no particular reason to believe that fire is superior to earth. But according to Satan’s way of thinking, earth became contemptible and fire became a thing of a higher grade. This is known as glorification (taz’in). This is a psychological error and not a rational stand. Instead of admitting his mistake, Satan decided that he would make others commit the same mistake; that he would make all human beings suffer from that psychological weakness of which he himself was a victim. Satan said that he would misguide all except the selected servants of God. And who are these selected servants of God? They are those who have adopted the straight path commanded by God, that is, the path of submission. In other words, Satan would not be successful in leading astray those men and women who have realised their real position, that is, a position of total helplessness in comparison to that of the All-Powerful God.