(Verily, you are of those allowed respite till the Day of the time appointed.) (38:80-81). Then Allah warned him and those who follow him among the progeny of Adam about Hell:
(2) Secondly, he had said if he was given respite till the day of Qiyamah, he will mislead the entire progeny of 'Adam, except a few of them. That Allah Ta’ ala has elected to answer in the later verses. He said that the Shaitan will have no control over His sincere servants even if he were to rally his entire forces against them and as for the insincere who fall into his trap, they will meet the same fate as his, all consigned to Hell. When this verse (64) mentions the horsemen and footmen of the Shaitanic army, it does not necessarily mean that the Shaitan actually has combat support in that formation. In fact, this is a manner of referring to the full force and power of the Shaitan. And if the Shaitan does have horsemen and footmen actually, even that too cannot be denied. Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn ` Abbas ؓ said: Those who come out in support of disbelief and sin, horsemen or footmen, they are nothing but the army of the Shaitan. Now remains the question as to how the Shaitan came to know that he would succeed in enticing and misleading the progeny of 'Adam (علیہ السلام) ، the basis on which he claimed that he will subdue them. There are two possibilities. Perhaps, by looking at the ingredients that went into the making of man, he had gathered that man would be desire-prone and it would not be difficult to entice him successfully. And then, it is also not far out to believe that his very claim was nothing but a bland lie.
In the face of his threat to thoroughly mislead ‘all but a few’ of Adam’s descendants, Satan has not been given any real power over man by God. The only thing he has the power to do is tempt people by his words and by putting evil thoughts into their minds. He glorifies things which will have no value in the Hereafter. The words, ‘but over My true servants you shall have no power’ imply that, potentially, Satan does have considerable power over those who are not true servants of God. Now the question is how to save oneself in a world where Satan tries with all the strength at his command to mislead man. The only way is for man to make God his sole supporter in the real sense. One who does so will come under the protection of God, and then Satan will find himself helpless, despite the strength which God has allowed him to retain.
Uthmani text of the Madinah mushaf (King Fahd Complex). Translation: Saheeh International. Tafsir via Quran.com.
![Surah Al-Isra 17:65 in Arabic with its translation: “Indeed, over My [believing] servants there is for you no authority. And sufficient is your Lord as Disposer…”](/surah/al-isra/65/image.jpg)