The Cave (Al-Kahf)
Verses 50 GROUP_688 18.50
50
وَإِذْ قُلْنَا لِلْمَلَائِكَةِ اسْجُدُوا لِآدَمَ فَسَجَدُوا إِلَّا إِبْلِيسَ كَانَ مِنَ الْجِنِّ فَفَسَقَ عَنْ أَمْرِ رَبِّهِ أَفَتَتَّخِذُونَهُ وَذُرِّيَّتَهُ أَوْلِيَاء مِن دُونِي وَهُمْ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ بِئْسَ لِلظَّالِمِينَ بَدَلًا
When We said to the angels, ‘Prostrate yourselves before Adam,’ all prostrated themselves except Satan. He was one of the jinn and he disobeyed his Lord’s command. Do you then take him and his offspring as protectors instead of Me, despite their enmity towards you? This is an evil exchange for the wrongdoers!
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Commentary
(a) By tradition, Satan (Iblis) was a God-worshipping jinn. Apparently he posed as being pious. But when God commanded him to kneel before Adam, he was not prepared to do so because of his vanity or pride. Now, those who under the influence of false pride refuse to kneel before ‘Reality’ or ‘Truth’, are all kith and kin of Satan, though they apparently seem to be God-worshipping people. To kneel before God is, in fact, admitting one’s own humbleness. If somebody is a kneeler before God in the real sense, then whenever he comes face to face with the Truth, he will immediately kneel down. Unlike him is the person who is only outwardly pious, because at the same time he nurses a sense of pride or egoism within himself. Such a person will readily kneel down on the occasions when his ego is not hurt. But, where his kneeling down is at the cost of surrendering his ego, he will suddenly become arrogant and refuse to kneel. When the call of Truth is given and certain people, under the influence of Satan and his kin, do not respond to that call, they are in fact substituting Satan and his kin for God. When they are required to bow before the Truth for fear of God, they refuse to bow for fear of false gods. Such people are the worst transgressors. Soon they will come to know that those other than God on whom they relied will not be of any avail to them.