The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 588
CH. 17 BANI ISRĀ'ĪL PT. 15 bring his descendants under my sway except a few. '1992 قَالَ اذْهَبْ فَمَنْ تَعَكَ مِنْهُمْ فَإِنَّ He said, “Begone! and. 64 whoso shall follow thee from 1992. Important Words: 7:19; 15:43-44; 38:86. Whether or not Satan has succeeded in carrying out his threat in leading (what thinkest thou?) is derived from v i. e. he saw with the astray a vast majority of mankind is an important question which calls for eyes and means, hast thou an answer. A hurried and thoughtless considered? tell thou me, tell me; thinkest thou? or what thinkest thou? glance over the state of good and evil in the world may lead one to the (Lane). See also 10:51. wrong conclusion that evil (I will most surely bring predominates in the world. But the under my sway) is derived from K. They say i. e. he put a rope in احتنك الجراد الارض the mouth of the horse means, the locusts ate what was upon the land and consumed its herbage. means, (1) he put a rope in his mouth and led him; (2) he took the whole of his property; and (3) he gained the mastery over him. The Quranic expression means, I will assuredly extirpate his progeny; or I will assuredly incline his progeny to obey me, or I will assuredly gain the mastery over his progeny (Lane & Aqrab). Commentary: By "resurrection" is here meant not the great Resurrection that is to take place after death but the time when believers will have achieved success and disbelievers met discomfiture. with It may also mean the spiritual resurrection which is experienced by every believer when his faith becomes perfect and Satan ceases to exercise control over him. truth is quite the reverse. If all the utterances of the greatest of liars were to be critically examined, the number of his truthful utterances will be found to be far exceeding his lies. So is the case with other evils. A great majority of people in the world are disposed to be good and virtuous. They commit moral excesses only in the heat of passion. Similarly, the number of the wicked people in the world is much smaller than that of the good and the virtuous. The fact that wickedness attracts such wide notice in itself constitutes proof positive of the fact that human nature is innately good and recoils at even a slight touch of evil. It is therefore wrong to suppose that Satan has succeeded in carrying his threat into actual fact. 1796 The dialogue described here and in other verses of the Quran as having taken place between God and Satan never actually took place. It is only a representation of the state of things existing in the world. See also 2:35; 7:13-19 & 15:28-29.