The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 529
PT. 8 AL-A'RĀF means, the act of whispering; evil suggestion. (waswās) with different vowel point means melancholia; Satan (Aqrab). is the سوآت. their shame) سوآتهما plural of which is derived from tw which means, it was or became evil, foul or abominable. means, any evil, foul, unseemly or abominable saying or action or habit or practice; any saying or action of which one is ashamed when it appears, and which one would like to hide; any disgracing action or thing; the external portion of the organs of generation of a man or of a woman; the anus; corpse or dead body; nakedness (Lane & Aqrab). The word is also sometimes figuratively applied to such weaknesses of a man as lie concealed within him. Commentary: As the place where Adam was made to reside has been metaphorically described in the Quran as a garden, therefore in the description that follows the metaphor is continued and Adam is represented as forbidden to approach a certain 'tree', which was not a tree in its literal sense but a certain family or tribe from which he was bidden to keep aloof, because the members of that family were his enemies and they would have spared no pains to do him harm. For the meaning of the word (tree) see 2:36. Another reading of the word (malakain), i. e. two angels, is (malikain) i. e. two kings or 969 CH. 7 rulers. This reading is corroborated by 20:121, i. e. Shall I lead thee to the tree of eternity, and to a kingdom which shall never become decayed. The wicked man who is here represented as Satan worked his mischievous plan as follows: He came to Adam and said that the reason why God had forbidden him to have anything to do with the family referred to was none other than this that its members were inimically disposed to him and that they would have conspired to bring about his downfall, if he had then contracted intimate relations with them. But as the family had subsequently become friendly towards him, the danger no longer existed; nay, the family would now even prove a source of strength for him, God's prohibition, he pleaded, was not meant for all time, and the condition attached to it having come to an end, the prohibition also ceased to operate. In this way, this Satan succeeded in deceiving Adam and he assured him on oath that he was his well-wisher (7:22). Adam wavered and was led into thinking that as the reasons for the prohibition had indeed ceased to exist, the prohibition itself was no longer operative. That was an error of judgement on Adam's part. He did not wilfully disobey God's commandment. Elsewhere the Quran says, He (Adam) forgot to observe Our commandment and We found in him no determination to do evil (20:116).