Transliteration:( Summa la aatiyannahum mim baini aideehim wa min khalfihim wa 'an aimaanihim wa 'an shamaaa'ilihim wa laa tajidu aksarahum shaakireen )
26. Here, mention is not made of before and behind because an oncoming can only come through these four sides.
27. From this we learn that Satan too has been given knowledge of the unseen. Hence, most pupils are ungrateful. Says Allah Almighty: "And there are few in my bondsmen that are thankful" (S34:V13). Satan is a disease, and the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم is the cure. If the disease is so strong then the knowledge of the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم should be far stronger.
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The tafsir of Surah Al-A’raf verse 17 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah A’raf ayat 16 which provides the complete commentary from verse 16 through 17.
(7:17) Then I will come upon them from the front and from the rear, and from their right and from their left. And You will not find most of them thankful.’[12]
12. This was the challenge thrown down by Satan to God. What it meant is that Satan would make use of the respite granted to him until the Last Day, and he would do so in order to prove that nian did not deserve a position superior to his and this had after all been bestowed upon him by God. So doing, he would expose how ungrateful, thankless and disloyal a creature man is.
The respite asked for by Satan and granted to him by God includes not only the time but also the opportunity to mislead Man and to prove his point by appealing to man’s weaknesses. The Qur’an makes a pointed statement about this in (Surah Bani Israil, ayat 61-65). These verses make it clear that God had granted Satan the opportunity to try to mislead Adam and his offspring At the same time it has also been made quite clear that Satan was not granted the power to lead men into error against their will. ‘As for my servants’, says the Qur’an, ‘you shall have no power over them’ (Banu Isra’il 17: 65). Thus all that Satan can do is to cause misunderstanding, to make people cherish false illusions, to make evil and error seem atractive, and to invite people to evil ways by holding out to them the promise of immense pleasure and material benefits. He would have no power, however, to forcibly pull them to the Satanic way and to prevent them from following the Right Way. Accordingly, the Qur’an makes it quite plain elsewhere that on the Day of Judgement, Satan would address the men who had followed him in the following words: ‘I had no power over you except to call you; but you listened to me: then reproach me not, but reproach your own selves’ (Surah Ibrahim, ayat 22).
As for Satan’s allegation that God Himself caused him to fall into error see (Surah Al-Aaraf, ayat 16) it is an attempt on the part of Satan to transfer the blame which fails squarely on him to God. Satan’s grivance seems to be that God was responsible for his deviation insofar as He hurt Satan’s pride by asking him to prostrate before Adam, and that it was this which led him to disobey God. It is thus clear that Satan wanted to continue enjoying his vain arrogance and that he was incensed that his weakness – arrogance – was seen through and brought to full light. The underlying stupidity of the statement is too patently obvious to call for any refutation, and hence God took no notice of it.
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