7. Al-A'raaf

And We created you, that is, your father Adam, then shaped you, that is, We shaped him with you [deposited] in his back, then said to the angels: ‘Prostrate yourselves before Adam!’, a prostration that is a bow of salutation. So they fell prostrate, all save Iblīs, the father of the jinn, who was among the angels — he was not of those who make prostration.

He, exalted be He, said, ‘What prevented you from falling prostrate (allā is [made up of] an-lā, the lā being extra) when I commanded you?’ He [Iblīs] said, ‘I am better than him. You created me from fire, while him You created from clay’.

Said He, ‘Then go down from it, that is, from the Garden — it is also said, [go down] from the heavens — it is not, right, for you to show pride here, so go forth, out of it! Surely you are among the abased!’, the contemptible!

Said He, ‘Lo! You are of those reprieved’ — in another verse, it is said, until the day of an appointed time [Q. 38:81], that is, [until] the time of the first blast [of the Trumpet].

Said he, ‘Now, because You have sent me astray (fa-bi-mā aghwaytanī means bi-ighwā’ik, ‘for Your sending me astray’: the bā’ is for oaths, and the response of the oath is [the following]) verily I shall sit in ambush for them, that is, for the Children of Adam, on Your straight path, that is, on the path that leads to You.

Then I shall come upon them from before them and from behind them and from their right and from their left, that is to say, from every side, and prevent them from following it [that path]. Ibn ‘Abbās said, ‘However, he cannot come upon them from above, lest he come between the servant and the mercy of God, exalted be He’. And You will not find most of them thankful’, believing.

Said He, ‘Go forth from it, degraded (read madh’ūman) disgraced or despised, and banished, removed from mercy. As for those of them, of people, who follow you (la-man, ‘as for those who’: the lām is for inceptiveness; or it is for introducing the oath, which is [the following]) I shall assuredly fill Hell with all of you’, that is, with you, through your seed, and with people — herein [in this address] those present have predominance over those absent (this [last] sentence [of the verse] expresses the sense of ‘the requital’ [suggested] in the conditional man, ‘who’: in other words, ‘whoever follows you, then I shall punish him’).

And, He said, ‘O Adam, dwell, you (anta: this is reiterated in order to emphasise the subject of the verb uskun, ‘dwell’, and to supplement to it [what follows]) and your wife, Eve (read Hawwā’), in the Garden, and eat from whence you will, but do not come near this tree, to eat of it — and this was wheat — lest you become evildoers’.

Then Satan, Iblīs, whispered to them that he might manifest, reveal, to them that which was hidden (wūriya: based on [the verbal form] fū‘ila and [derives] from [the infinitive] al-muwārā) to them of their shameful parts. And he said, ‘Your Lord prohibited you from this tree only, in aversion, lest you become angels (malakayn may also be read malikayn) or become immortals’, in other words, that is the necessary consequence of eating from it, as [is stated] in another verse: Shall I guide you to the Tree of Immortality and a kingdom that does not waste away? [Q. 20:120].