The Rocky Tract (Al-Hijr)
Verses 28-33 GROUP_539 15.28-33
28
وَإِذْ قَالَ رَبُّكَ لِلْمَلاَئِكَةِ إِنِّي خَالِقٌ بَشَرًا مِّن صَلْصَالٍ مِّنْ حَمَإٍ مَّسْنُونٍ
Your Lord said to the angels, ‘I am about to bring into being a man wrought from mud.
29
فَإِذَا سَوَّيْتُهُ وَنَفَخْتُ فِيهِ مِن رُّوحِي فَقَعُواْ لَهُ سَاجِدِينَ
When I have formed him and breathed My spirit into him, fall down in prostration before him,’
30
فَسَجَدَ الْمَلآئِكَةُ كُلُّهُمْ أَجْمَعُونَ
then the angels all prostrated themselves together.
31
إِلاَّ إِبْلِيسَ أَبَى أَن يَكُونَ مَعَ السَّاجِدِينَ
But Satan did not; he refused to join those who prostrated themselves.
32
قَالَ يَا إِبْلِيسُ مَا لَكَ أَلاَّ تَكُونَ مَعَ السَّاجِدِينَ
God asked him, ‘What is the matter with you, that you are not among those who have prostrated themselves?’
33
قَالَ لَمْ أَكُن لِّأَسْجُدَ لِبَشَرٍ خَلَقْتَهُ مِن صَلْصَالٍ مِّنْ حَمَإٍ مَّسْنُونٍ
He replied, ‘I am not one to prostrate myself to a man whom You have created out of a clay of moulded mud.’
No class discussions published for this verse group yet.
Commentary
(a) Satan’s ostensible reason for not prostrating himself was that a human being was lower in status than he. But, in fact, the real reason was Satan’s own inferiority complex. He resented it that all creatures were not made to honour him by prostrating themselves before him, as they did before Adam, considering that he had been created before Adam, a human being, whom he considered inferior to himself. He could not agree to pay homage to an undeserving being. It is this type of pride and envy which are collectively at the root of all evils. In the present world such circumstances confront man again and again. One who does not become envious on such occasions has, in effect, followed the example of the angels and one who becomes a victim of envy has, in effect, followed Satan.