Question

The Quran mentions that after Satan was commanded to leave the Heavens due to his disobedience, he said to Allah that just as He had misled Satan, he too shall lead humans astray (Surah 15:32-44).

1. What made Satan say this? Since the whole episode doesn’t show Satan being misled anywhere. You could say Satan made this up, but that doesn’t sound quite right, since Satan was well aware of what had happened. Allah created Satan and Satan knew this very well. Still Satan decided to go against his creator.

2. Satan knew very well he couldn’t win from Allah, still he asked for respite till the Day of Judgment. Why doesn’t Satan simply repent? He’ll be on the losing side on the Day of Judgment. You might say it is Satan’s kibr (pride) that prevents him from repenting. But no matter how proud or powerful he might be, he is still merely a creation and Allah is the creator. So what is the point, why fight a lost cause?

3. The Quran at various stages calls the non-believers and hypocrites as deaf, dumb and blind. [Surah 2:18] It is understandable that the non-believers due to their stubbornness were unable to understand or recognize the message of Allah. But labeling them as deaf, dumb and blind is demeaning to the people who are deaf, dumb or blind. Yes we humans do call normal people as deaf dumb or blind but all those meanings are negative. The deaf/dumb/blind are also creations of Allah and they did not choose to be so while the non-believers chose not to believe.

There might be many deaf/dumb/blind who are Muslims and might wonder why Allah likened the non-believers to them. This might be similar to if someone likens criminals to a certain race. Such a statement might deeply hurt the race.

Answer

1. Satan has blamed God of misleading him because he regarded himself to be right in not bowing down before Adam. He reckoned that he was not at fault because the directive of bowing down in itself was not justified in his view

2. The Quran points out in Surah Baqarah where this episode this mentioned that it was arrogance and haughtiness which prompted Satan to adopt this attitude. People who are overtly and overly arrogant seldom realize that its a lost cause that they are treading on. At other times, they do realize it but think that they have come too far to turn back.

3. The Qur’an uses these words only for those people who in spite of being fully of the truth reject it in this manner show that they have become deaf and blind to the truth which their hearts vouch for.

Answered by: Dr. Shehzad Saleem

Date: 2015-01-13