Tafseer of The Cattle · Al-An'aam · 6:112
And thus We have made for every prophet an enemy - devils from mankind and jinn, inspiring to one another decorative speech in delusion. But if your Lord had willed, they would not have done it, so leave them and that which they invent.
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.
The statement concerning the explanation of His saying, the Exalted: وَكَذَلِكَ جَعَلْنَا لِكُلِّ نَبِيٍّ عَدُوًّا شَيَاطِينَ الإِنْسِ وَالْجِنِّ يُوحِي بَعْضُهُمْ إِلَى بَعْضٍ زُخْرُفَ الْقَوْلِ غُرُورًا ("And thus have We made for every prophet an enemy: the satans of mankind and of the jinn, who inspire one another with embellished speech as a delusion")
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted says — praised be His mention — to His prophet Muḥammad ﷺ, in order to console him thereby concerning what he had to endure from the unbelievers of his people for the sake of Allah, and to exhort him to patience in what befell him therein: "And thus have We made for every prophet an enemy." He says: And just as We have tried you, O Muḥammad, by making for you out of the polytheists of your people enemies — satans who inspire one another with embellished speech in order to turn them, through their disputes with you about it, away from following you and from belief in you and in what you have brought them from your Lord — so did We try the prophets and messengers before you, by making for them out of their people enemies who tormented them with disputes and quarrels. He says: That with which I have tried you, I have not reserved for you alone, but I have made all of them undergo it in common with you, so that I might try them and put them to the test — despite My power to restrain whoever tormented them from their tormenting — and I did that only so that I might know among them the steadfast of resolve (ūlū al-ʿazm) from the rest. He says: So be patient, as the steadfast of resolve among the messengers were patient.
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And as for "the satans of mankind and of the jinn": these are their rebellious ones (maradatuhum), and we have already explained from which verb this designation is derived, so that repeating it is superfluous.
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And "the enemy" (al-ʿaduww) and "the satans" (al-shayāṭīn) are in the accusative because of His word "We have made (jaʿalnā)."
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And as for His word "who inspire one another with embellished speech as a delusion": He means thereby that the one among them who utters it speaks the word which he has bedecked and embellished with falsehood to his companion, so that whoever hears it is deluded by it and thereby strays from the path of Allah.
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Then the exegetes differed concerning the meaning of His word "the satans of mankind and of the jinn."
Some of them said: Its meaning is: the satans of mankind, who are with mankind, and the satans of the jinn, who are with the jinn, and mankind have no satans.
* Mention of who said that:
13765 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "And thus have We made for every prophet an enemy: the satans of mankind and of the jinn, who inspire one another with embellished speech as a delusion; and had your Lord willed, they would not have done it." As for "the satans of mankind": these are the satans who lead mankind astray, and "the satans of the jinn" are those who lead the jinn astray. They meet one another, and each of the two says: "I have led my companion astray with this and that, and you have led your companion astray with this and that," so that they inform one another about it.
13766 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Abū Nuʿaym related to us, on the authority of Sharīk, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Masrūq, on the authority of ʿIkrima: "the satans of mankind and of the jinn": He said: Among mankind there are no satans, but the satans of the jinn whisper to the satans of mankind, and the satans of mankind whisper to the satans of the jinn.
13767 — Al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, saying: Isrāʾīl related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, concerning His word: "who inspire one another with embellished speech as a delusion": He said: Man has a satan, and the jinn has a satan; the satan of man then meets the satan of the jinn, and they inspire one another with embellished speech as a delusion.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: ʿIkrima and al-Suddī, in their explanation which I have related from them, made the enemy of the prophets whom Allah mentioned in His word "And thus have We made for every prophet an enemy" the children of Iblīs, and not the children of Ādam, nor the jinn. And they made those who are described as "who inspire one another with embellished speech as a delusion" the children of Iblīs, and [held] that whoever of the children of Iblīs is with the son of Ādam inspires embellished speech as a delusion to whoever of his children is with the jinn.
And this explanation has no intelligible basis, for Allah made Iblīs and his children enemies of the son of Ādam, so that all his children are an enemy to all his children. And Allah in this verse assigned the report specifically to the prophets: that He made satans enemies to them. If, then, the satans meant thereby were those whom al-Suddī mentioned — namely those who are the children of Iblīs — then there would be no basis for assigning the report that He made the satans enemies specifically to the prophets. For He assigned that kind of enmity to the worst of his enemies just as He assigned it to them. Rather, it is as we have said: that what is meant thereby is that He made the rebellious ones among mankind and the jinn an enemy to every prophet, who inspire one another with the word by which they torment them.
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And in agreement with what we have said concerning this, the report from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ has come.
13768 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: al-Ḥajjāj ibn al-Minhāl related to us, saying: Ḥammād related to us, on the authority of Ḥumayd ibn Hilāl, saying: a man from the people of Damascus related to me, on the authority of ʿAwf ibn Mālik, on the authority of Abū Dharr: that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "O Abū Dharr, have you sought refuge with Allah from the evil of the satans of mankind and of the jinn?" He said: I said: "O Messenger of Allah, do mankind then have satans?" He said: "Yes!"
13769 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb and others of the old scholars, on the authority of Ibn ʿĀʾidh, on the authority of Abū Dharr, that he said: I came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in a gathering in which he had sat for a long time. He said: Then he said: "O Abū Dharr, have you prayed?" He said: I said: "No, O Messenger of Allah." He said: "Stand up and perform two rakaʿāt." He said: Then I came and sat down beside him, and he said: "O Abū Dharr, have you sought refuge with Allah from the evil of the satans of mankind and of the jinn?" He said: I said: "O Messenger of Allah, do mankind then have satans?" He said: "Yes, worse than the satans of the jinn!"
13770 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, saying: It reached me that Abū Dharr stood up one day to pray, and the Prophet ﷺ said to him: "Seek refuge, O Abū Dharr, from the satans of mankind and of the jinn." He said: "O Messenger of Allah, are there then among mankind satans?" He said: "Yes!"
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And others said concerning this the same as what we have said: that this is a report from Allah that the satans of mankind and of the jinn inspire one another with [words].
* Mention of who said that:
13771 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: "the satans of mankind and of the jinn": He said: Among the jinn there are satans, and among mankind there are satans, who inspire one another with [words]. Qatāda said: It reached me that Abū Dharr was praying one day, and the Prophet ﷺ said to him: "Seek refuge, O Abū Dharr, from the satans of mankind and of the jinn." He said: "O Prophet of Allah, are there then among mankind satans?" Then the Prophet ﷺ said: "Yes!"
13772 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: "And thus have We made for every prophet an enemy: the satans of mankind and of the jinn" — the verse. It has been transmitted to us that Abū Dharr stood up one day to pray, and the Prophet of Allah said to him: "Seek refuge with Allah from the satans of the jinn and of mankind." He said: "O Prophet of Allah, do mankind then have satans like the satans of the jinn?" He said: "Yes — or should I lie about him?"
13773 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, saying: Mujāhid said: "And thus have We made for every prophet an enemy: the satans of mankind and of the jinn." He said: The unbelievers among the jinn are satans, who inspire [words] to the satans of mankind — the unbelievers among mankind — embellished speech as a delusion.
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And as for His word "embellished speech as a delusion (zukhruf al-qawl ghurūran)": that is what is bedecked with falsehood, as I described earlier. One says of that: "he embellished his speech and his testimony," when he makes it beautiful and adorns it with falsehood, as in:
13774 — Sufyān ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Abū Nuʿaym related to us, on the authority of Sharīk, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Masrūq, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning His word: "embellished speech as a delusion": He said: the bedecking of falsehood with the tongues.
13775 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: As for "the embellished (al-zukhruf)": they embellished it, they adorned it.
13776 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to us, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: "embellished speech as a delusion": He said: the bedecking of falsehood with the tongues.
13777 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, the same.
13778 — Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: "embellished speech as a delusion": He says: they made one another's words beautiful, so that they would follow one another in their temptation.
13779 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: "embellished speech as a delusion": He said: "The embellished" is the bedecked, where he made this delusion beautiful to them, just as Iblīs made beautiful to Ādam what he brought him, and swore to him that he was among the sincere advisers to him. And he recited: وَقَيَّضْنَا لَهُمْ قُرَنَاءَ فَزَيَّنُوا لَهُمْ [Surah Fuṣṣilat 41:25] ("And We have allotted to them companions, who made [their deeds] beautiful to them"). He said: That is the embellished.
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And as for "the delusion (al-ghurūr)": that is what deludes a man and deceives him, and thereby turns him away from the right to error, and from the truth to falsehood. It is a verbal noun from the saying: "I deluded so-and-so with this and that, so I delude him, gharūran and gharran," as in:
13780 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "as a delusion (ghurūran)": He said: they delude mankind and the jinn thereby.
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The statement concerning the explanation of His saying, the Exalted: وَلَوْ شَاءَ رَبُّكَ مَا فَعَلُوهُ فَذَرْهُمْ وَمَا يَفْتَرُونَ (112) ("And had your Lord willed, they would not have done it; so leave them and what they fabricate" (6:112))
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted says — praised be His mention —: And had I willed, O Muḥammad, that those who were enemies of My prophets among the satans of mankind and of the jinn should believe, so that their cunning would not reach them and they would be safe from their calamities and torment, then I would have done that. But I did not will that, so that I might try some of them by means of others, so that each group among them would deserve what was decreed for them in the preceding Book. "So leave them," He says: leave them be — He means the satans who dispute with you in falsehood, among the polytheists of your people, and who combat you with what their allies among the satans of mankind and of the jinn inspire to them — "and what they fabricate," He means: and what they devise of lies and falsehood.
He says to him ﷺ: Be patient with them, for I stand ready behind their punishment for their fabrications against Allah and their concocting of lies and falsehood against Him.