Tafseer of The Heights · Al-A'raaf · 7:16
[Satan] said, "Because You have put me in error, I will surely sit in wait for them on Your straight path.
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 explanation of His word: قَالَ فَبِمَا أَغْوَيْتَنِي لأَقْعُدَنَّ لَهُمْ صِرَاطَكَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ (He said: because You have made me go astray, I will surely lie in wait for them on Your straight path) (7:16).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says: Iblīs said to his Lord: (because You have made me go astray — aghwaytanī), he says: because You have made me lose my way (aḍlaltanī), as in:
14361 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word (because You have made me go astray), he says: You have made me lose my way.
14362 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word (because You have made me go astray), he said: because You have made me lose my way.
And some explained His word (because You have made me go astray) as: because You have destroyed me, derived from their expression "ghawiya al-faṣīl yaghwā ghawan" (the young camel perished), and that is when it lacks milk and dies, according to the word of the poet:
With curved tips, whose foal she neither denies milk, nor perishes in death.
The origin of "al-ighwāʾ" in the language of the Arabs is: that one man makes a matter appear fair to another until he makes it seem beautiful to him, thereby deceiving him.
And it is related from some of the tribes of Ṭayyiʾ that they say: "So-and-so became ghāwī," that is to say: he became sick.
And some explained that in the sense of an oath, as though its meaning according to him were: so by Your leading me astray, I will surely lie in wait for them on Your straight path, as one says: "By Allah, I will surely do such-and-such."
And some explained that in the sense of requital, as though its meaning according to him were: so because You have made me go astray — or: so since You have made me go astray — I will surely lie in wait for them on Your straight path.
Abū Jaʿfar said: And herein lies a clear demonstration of the untenability of what the Qadariyya say, namely that everyone who becomes an unbeliever or believes does so because Allah has entrusted (tafwīḍ) to him the causes thereof, and that the cause by which the believer comes to faith is the same cause by which the unbeliever comes to unbelief. For if it were as they say, then the malicious one would, with his word (because You have made me go astray), have said: "because You have set me right (aṣlaḥtanī)," since the cause of "the leading astray" would then be the cause of "the setting right," and his report about the leading astray would also entail a report about the setting right. But since the causes of the two are different, and the cause by which he went astray and perished was from Allah, he attributed that to Him and said: (because You have made me go astray).
And thus also said Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī, as is shown by what:
14363 — Mūsā ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Masrūqī related to me, saying: Zayd ibn al-Ḥubāb related to us, saying: Abū Mawdūd related to us, I heard Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī say: May Allah combat the Qadariyya! Iblīs has more knowledge of Allah than they do!
And as for His word (I will surely lie in wait for them on Your straight path), he says: I will surely sit in ambush for the children of Ādam on "Your straight path," that is to say: Your straight way, and that is the true religion of Allah, namely Islam and its legal ordinances. The meaning of the word is only: I will surely keep the children of Ādam away from Your worship and Your obedience, and I will surely make them go astray as You have made me go astray, and I will surely make them lose their way as You have made me lose my way.
And that is as has been related from Sabra ibn Abī al-Fākih:
14364 — that he heard the Prophet ﷺ say: Verily, Satan sat in wait for the son of Ādam on his roads. He sat in wait for him on the road of Islam and said: Will you become a Muslim and abandon your religion and the religion of your forefathers? But he disobeyed him and became a Muslim. Then he sat in wait for him on the road of the hijra (emigration) and said: Will you emigrate and leave your land and your sky — when the likeness of the emigrant is only as that of a horse on a tether? But he disobeyed him and emigrated. Then he sat in wait for him on the road of jihād, which is the exertion of life and property, and said: Will you fight, so that you are killed, and then your wife is married and your property is divided? He said: But he disobeyed him and strove (jāhada).
And there is related from ʿAwn ibn ʿAbd Allāh concerning this what:
14365 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Ḥabbūya Abū Yazīd related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bukayr, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Sūqa, on the authority of ʿAwn ibn ʿAbd Allāh concerning (I will surely lie in wait for them on Your straight path), he said: the road of Mecca.
And what ʿAwn said — even though it belongs to the straight path of Allah — is not the path in its entirety. The enemy of Allah only reported that he would sit in wait for them on the straight path of Allah, and he singled out nothing of it in particular above anything else. What has been related in this matter from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is therefore more in accordance with the outward meaning of the revelation and more fitting for the interpretation, because the malicious one does not spare the servants of Allah in keeping them away from everything that constituted for them a means of drawing near to Allah.
And in accordance with what we have said about this, the exegetes have spoken concerning the meaning of "al-mustaqīm" (the straight) in this place.
The mention of who said that:
14366 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: (Your straight path), he said: the truth.
14367 — 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.
14368 — Al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, saying: Abū Saʿd al-Madanī related to us, saying: I heard Mujāhid say: (I will surely lie in wait for them on Your straight path), he said: the road of the truth, and I will surely make them go astray, except for a few.
Abū Jaʿfar said: And the linguists differed about this.
Some grammarians of Basra said: its meaning is: I will surely sit in wait for them on Your straight path, as one says: "tawajjaha Makka" (he directed himself Mecca), that is to say: toward Mecca, and as the poet said:
As if I, when I hasten to seize a bird by the star, descending from the expanse of heaven —
in the sense: that I seize a bird, with the "bāʾ" omitted; and as He said: أَعَجِلْتُمْ أَمْرَ رَبِّكُمْ (Have you hastened the command of your Lord) [Sūrat al-Aʿrāf: 150], in the sense: have you made haste before the command of your Lord.
And some grammarians of Kufa said: the meaning is, and Allah knows best: I will surely sit in wait for them on their road and in their road. He said: the omission of the preposition (al-ṣifa) from this is permissible, as you say: "qaʿadtu laka wajha al-ṭarīq" (I sat in wait for you at the side of the road) and "ʿalā wajh al-ṭarīq" (on the side of the road), because "the road" is in meaning an adverbial qualifier, so that it admits what "the day," "the night," and "the year" admit, when it is said: "I will come to you tomorrow" and "I will come to you in the morning."
Abū Jaʿfar said: And this statement is, in my view, the correct of the two statements about this, because "the sitting in wait" requires a place in which one sits. So just as one says: "I sat in your place," so one says: "I sat on your path" and "in your path," as the poet said:
Supple when the hand shakes it, its back glides therein, as the fox glides over the road.
The Arabs never say "haste" with the names of places; they almost never say: "I sat Mecca" and "I stood Baghdad."
