6.“Verily Satan is your enemy, so you (too) take him (as your) enemy. He only invites his adherents that they may become companions of the Blazing Fire.”

7. “Those who disbelieve, for them shall be a severe chastisement, and as for those who believe and do righteous deeds, for them shall be forgiveness and a great recompense.”

Commentary

The record of enmity of Satan with humankind is ancient.

Imam Sadiq (a.s.) said: “If Satan is an enemy, then why do you neglect him?” 14

This verse is a warning to all believers in relation to the temptations of Satan which were referred to in the previous verse. It says:

“Verily Satan is your enemy, so you (too) take him (as your) enemy. …”

His enmity began from the first day of the creation of Adam. When Satan was rejected from the presence of Allah as the result of the lack of submission to the command of Allah concerning prostration to Adam, he took an oath that he would be an enemy to Adam and his children for ever, and he even asked Allah a respite and length of lifetime for this action.

Satan persists on his saying and he avail himself of the slightest opportunity for enmity upon man. Does wisdom let you that you do not accept him as an enemy and remain neglectful of him even for a moment? Let alone that you wish to follow Satan’s footsteps, or accept him as a close friend and sincere adviser. The Qur’an says: “… Will you then choose him and his seed as your protecting friends instead of Me, when they are enemies to you? …” 15

Moreover, he is an enemy who attacks you from every side, as he himself says: “Then I will certainly come upon them from before them, and from behind them, and from their right and from their left; …” 16

Specially that he is in a hiding place where he sees man and man does not see him: “… Surely he sees you: he and his Tribe, from where you do not see them. …” 17

Of course, this does not hinder your power to defend yourself against his temptations. There is an interesting meaning in the teachings of Allah to Moses, the son of ‘Imran, as Amir-al-Mu’mineen Ali (a.s.) narrates that Allah told Moses: “I have four recommendations to you in the protection of which you should try: ‘The first is that: during the time you do not see your sins to be forgiven, do not refer to others’ defects. The second is that while you do not see my treasures have been ended, you might not be sad for your sustenance. The third is that when you do not see my sovereignty destroyed, you should not be hopeful to anyone except Me. The fourth is that during the time you do not see Satan as dead, you should not (think to be) secured from his deceit (and plots)’.” 18

However, the enmity of Satan unto the children of Adam is a matter which has been pointed out in many verses of the Qur’an, and he has even been mentioned repeatedly in them as ‘a manifest enemy’: (Al-Baqarah, verses 161, 203; Al-’An‘a-m, verse 142; ’Al-A‘raf, verse 22; Yusuf, verse 5; Ya-si-n, verse, 60; and Az-Zukhruf, verse 62)

We should always avoid such an enemy.

For more emphasis, the Qur’an at the end of the verse, says:

“… He only invites his adherents, that they may become companions of the Blazing Fire.”

The Qur’anic word /hizb/ originally means: ‘a group or society which has an organization and intensity in action’; but it is usually used for any group and society that follow a special program and aim.

The purpose of the Qur’anic phrase ‘Hizb-al-Shaytan’ is his adherents and those who are on his line.

Of course, Satan can never take anybody as a formal member of his party, and invites him toward Hell. The members of his party are those who are mentioned in some other verses of the Holy Qur’an and they have the following symptoms:

Those who have put the yoke of Satan’s servitude and friendship on their necks are as such: “His authority is only over those who befriend him, (following him), …” 19 Those who are qualified as follows: “Satan has gained hold on them, so he makes them forget the remembrance of Allah; they are Satan’s party. Beware! Verily, the party of Satan are the losers.” 20

It is interesting that in three occurrences of the verses of the Qur’an ‘The Party of Allah’ has been mentioned, and in three different occurrences ‘The Party of Satan’ is referred to; so that what persons may enroll their names in this party or may be the members of that one.

But, however, it is natural that Satan invites his party to corruption, and sins, to pollutions of lusts, to polytheism, disobedience, cruelty, and, finally, to the Hell-Fire.

In the second verse, the Qur’an refers to the final fate of ‘The Party of Allah’ and the painful end of ‘the Party of Satan’ as follows:

“Those who disbelieve, for them shall be a severe chastisement, and as for those who believe and do righteous deeds, for them shall be forgiveness and a great recompense.”

It is interesting that, concerning those who deserve of Divine punishment, the above verse suffices to the subject of disbelief, while for gaining ‘forgiveness and a great recompense’ it does not suffice to, ‘faith’ alone and adds ‘righteous deed’ to it, because only infidelity by itself causes a person to dwell eternally in Divine punishment, but having faith without good action does not cause man to be saved, so, from one view, faith and good action are necessarily with each other.

At the end of this holy verse, the Qur’an at first mentions forgiveness, and then speaks of ‘great recompense’, for, in fact, at first forgiveness washes the spirit of the believers and then makes them ready to receive ‘a great recompense’. In literary terminology, the first is called ‘dissociation’ and the second is ‘ornamenting’.