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wa-stafziz mani staṭaʿta minhum bi-ṣawtika wa-ʾajlib ʿalayhim bi-khaylika wa-rajilika wa-shārikhum fī l-ʾamwāli wa-l-ʾawlādi wa-ʿidhum wa-mā yaʿiduhumu sh-shayṭānu ʾillā ghurūran
Instigate whomever of them you can with your voice; and rally against them your cavalry and your infantry, and share with them in wealth and children, and make promises to them!’ But Satan promises them nothing but delusion.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Isra’ – Verse 64
64. “And startle whomever of them you can with your voice, and collect your cavalry and infantry against them; and share with them in wealth and children and make promises to them; and the Satan makes no promises to them except delusion.”
The Satan, at first, removes man’s instinct for monotheism by means of persuasion. Later, he seeks to invade him with his ammunitions and armies. The Arabic term /’istifz az/ here signifies ‘stumbling’ or ‘slipping’ with speed and adeptness as well as by way of pushing. The Satan does not just select one way for deceiving man. On the contrary, he usually entrenches man from all sides, accompanied by a number of other ways using all forms of persuasions, dissuasions, promises, aspirations, temptations, and enticements, which are as its mounting forces and its foot-soldiers, and in this course some people follow him.
We have it in quotations that he who has no fear of anyone in what he says and in what he does, or what he is said about; committing sins or back-biting openly, is a partner to the Satan.5 Other cases of forming partnership with the Satan, consist of: having forbidden sources of income, living on illegal money, adultery, raising corrupt and deviant offspring 6 And he who regards the Ahl-ul-Bayt (as) of the Prophet (S) as enemies, has allowed the Satan to enter into partnership with him.7
Unhealthy production and consumption, hoarding wealth, investment of foreign companies and foreign corporations, creation of scientific, cultural, and artistic centers as well as international games, which are colonial, are kinds of partnership with the Satan. Anyway, explaining in an interesting and explicit fashion, He exposes the ways and means through which the Satan employs in his temptations. The Qur’an, addressing him, implies: you can provoke them each with your voice, and you can dispatch your mounting and infantry army units against them.
The verse says:
“And startle whomever of them you can with your voice, and collect your cavalry and infantry against them…”
The Satan possesses numerous aids and assistants who are of his own kind as well as from among mankind who help the Satan in seducing people. Some who are more powerful and speedier in act just like the mounting army; others are weaker and slower in action and behave just like infantry. The verse, addressing the Satan, continues saying:
“…and share with them in wealth and children and make promises to them…”
Then the Qur’an warns that the Satan does not do anything else except deceiving them. The verse says:
“…and the Satan makes no promises to them except delusion.”
Footnotes