Surah Az-Zukhruf, Ayah 40

The Shaytan is the Companion of the One Who turns away from Ar-Rahman

وَمَن يَعْشُ

(And whosoever Ya`shu (turns away blindly)) means, whoever willfully ignores and turns away

عَن ذِكْرِ الرَّحْمَـنِ

(from the remembrance of the Most Gracious,) Al-`Asha (the root of Ya`sh) refers to weakness of vision; what is meant here is weakness of insight.

نُقَيِّضْ لَهُ شَيْطَاناً فَهُوَ لَهُ قَرِينٌ

(We appoint for him Shaytan to be a Qarin (a companion) to him.) This is like the Ayat:

وَمَن يُشَاقِقِ الرَّسُولَ مِن بَعْدِ مَا تَبَيَّنَ لَهُ الْهُدَى

(And whoever contradicts and opposes the Messenger after the right path has been shown clearly to him) (4:115),

فَلَمَّا زَاغُواْ أَزَاغَ اللَّهُ قُلُوبَهُمْ

وَلَن يَنفَعَكُمُ الْيَوْمَ ('Since you were wrongdoers, it will never benefit you today that you are sharing the punishment with each other.'...43:39) There can be two explanations of this verse. One is that since your 'kufr' and 'shirk' (disbelief and ascribing partners to Allah) has been proved, your longing in the Hereafter in the words, "Will that this devil had been away from me," will be of no avail, because all of you will be sharing the same punishment.

The other explanation could be that after getting in Hell, your sharing the punishment with the devil will not benefit you. In this world, indeed it happens that when a few people share the same misfortune, everyone's burden of misery becomes somewhat lighter, but there in Hell, everybody will be so terrorized that nobody will be able to lighten another's misery and hence sharing of the punishment will be of no benefit. (The translation given above is based on this interpretation.)

Man’s turning away from good advice means his rejection of reality. Divine reality comes before him with undeniable, reasoned arguments. However, in order to protect his interests, he ignores it. One who does so makes false statements against it in order to justify his stand. This is when Satan has the opportunity to get the better of him and turn his mind in the wrong direction. Keeping the man busy with false justifications, Satan goes on assuring him that he is on the right path. The spell of deceit is broken only when the man meets his death and is produced before God for the final reckoning. In this world, man is wont to readily make friends with anyone who supports his falsehood, but in the Hereafter, he will curse all such companions. He will then want them to stay so far away from him that he should be able neither to see their faces nor hear their voices.