Tafseer of The letter Saad · Saad · 38:76
He said, "I am better than him. You created me from fire and created him from clay."
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
( He said: I am better than him; You created me from fire ) — He, exalted is His praise, says: Iblīs said to his Lord: I did that, namely that I did not prostrate to the one before whom You commanded me to prostrate, because I am better than him. And I was better, because You created me from fire (nār) and created him from clay, and fire consumes clay and burns it; so fire is better than him. He says: I did not do that out of arrogance toward You, nor because I was among the exalted ones, but I did it because I am nobler than him. This is a reproach from Allah to the polytheists (mushrikīn) who disbelieved in Muḥammad ﷺ, and refused to submit to him and to follow what he brought them from Allah, out of arrogance at being followers of a man from among themselves, when they said: أَؤُنزِلَ عَلَيْهِ ٱلذِّكْرُ مِنۢ بَيْنِنَا (38:8) and هَلْ هَـٰذَآ إِلَّا بَشَرٌ مِّثْلُكُمْ (21:3). So He, the Exalted, recounted to them the story of Iblīs and his ruin on account of his arrogance toward the prostration to Ādam, based upon his claim that he was better than him, because he was created from fire and Ādam from clay, until he became a banished devil (shayṭān rajīm) and the curse of Allah justly befell him — by which He warns them that, through their arrogance toward Muḥammad and their denial of him in that with which he came to them from Allah, out of envy and self-exaltation, they deserve of cursing and wrath what Iblīs deserved through his arrogance toward the prostration to Ādam.
