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wa-la-qad ʾaḍalla minkum jibillan kathīran ʾa-fa-lam takūnū taʿqilūna
Certainly, he has led astray many of your generations. Have you not exercised your reason?
— Ali Quli Qarai
36Yā-SīnيسVerse 62 of 83
Ya-Sin36. Yā-Sīnيس
Yā Sīn
Ya Sin
MeccanVerse 62 of 83
Surah Ya-Sin - Verses 59-62
59. “And (they will be told) get you aside this day O’ you the guilty ones!”
60. “Did I not make covenant with you, O’ children of Adam, that you should not serve the Satan, verily he is a manifest foe to you;”
61. “And that you should serve Me? This is the straight path.”
62. “And yet he has led astray a great number of you. Did you not then understand?”
The separation of the guilty ones from the righteous ones is according to the law of Divine Justice Who said that the faithful and the pagan are not equal. The Qur’an says:
In the verses under discussion, a short part of the fate of the hellish people and the followers of Satan is referred to. The first is that the Qur’an implies that, on that Day, with a contemptuous tone, it will be said to the guilty ones to get aloof from the believers. The Qur’an says:
It was you who, in the world, had substituted yourself deceitfully in the rows of the believers and sometimes took benefit of their honour and credit. Now you must separate your rows from theirs, and appear in your own real feature. This is, in fact, the actualization of the promise of Allah that in Surah Sad, No. 38, verse 28 He says:
However, the apparent of the verse under discussion refers to the separation of the rows of the guilty from those of the believers, though the commentators have delivered some other probabilities, among them is the separation of the rows of the guilty from each other, and every group of them will be in a definite line. The next verse refers to the expressive rebukes and blames of Allah unto the sinners on the Day of Hereafter and says:
This Divine covenant has been taken from man in different ways, and He has repeatedly mentioned this matter to him. At first, on the day when the children of Adam were living on the earth, they were addressed by this word of Allah, saying:
Then, this very warning was expressed by the tongues of Divine messengers, as Surah Zukhruf, No. 43, verse 62 says:
And in Surah Al-Baqarah, No. 2, verse 168 we recite:
On the other side, this covenant has also been taken in the world of nature with the tongue of bestowing wisdom on man, because the intellectual proofs clearly testify that man should not obey the command of the one who has been his enemy from the first day and has sent him out from the Paradise, and has sworn to seduce the children of Adam. From the third side, by the Divine constitution and innate disposition of all human beings upon Monotheism, and the restriction of obedience for the Pure Essence of Allah, this covenant has also been taken from man. And thus, not only by one mere language but also by several languages this Divine recommendation has been performed and this promise and covenant has been signed.
By the way, we recite in a narration from Imam Sadiq (as) who said:
“Whoever obeys a person in committing a sin, he has worshipped him.” 11
In another tradition Imam Baqir (as) said:
“Whoever listens to a speaker (and accepts his statement) he has worshipped him. If the speaker reiterates the ordinance of Allah, he has worshipped Him, but if the speaker speaks from the side of Satan, he has worshipped Satan.” 12
And in the third verse, for more emphasis and stating the duty of the children of Adam, it says:
From one side, He has taken covenant from men that they should not obey Satan, because he has proved his enmity and hatred from the first day. Which wise person follows the command of his ancient and manifest foe? And in the opposite side, He has taken covenant that he obeys Him and He has defined its reason by saying:
This, in fact, is the best motivation for human beings, because, for instance, when it happens that a person finds himself in the middle of a dry and hot desert and sees his soul, his wife and children, as well as his wealth, in the danger of the thieves and wolves, the most important thing he may think of, as finding the straight way toward the destination, a way which can lead him easier and sooner to the point of safety. However, it is understood from this meaning that this world is not the abode of residence, because the path is shown to the person who passes a passage and he has a destination in front of him.
Again, for being more acquainted with this clear dangerous enemy, in the fourth verse, it says:
Do you not see that how many miseries Satan has provided for his followers? Have you not studied the history of the ancient nations to see how painful and evil fates his followers had? The ruins of their afflicted cities are in front of your eyes; and their sorrowful end is clear for anyone who has the least understanding and thought. Then, why do not you take earnest the enmity of the one who has repeatedly shown the examination of his enmity? You make friends with him again, and, even, you choose him as your own leader and as your own friend.
The Qur’anic term /jibill/, as Raqib says in Mufradat, is in the sense of ‘society’ and ‘group’; and the application of the Arabic term /kathir/ is for emphasis concerning the followers of Satan who form a great number of people. However, a safe wisdom requires that man should seriously avoid of such a dangerous foe who shows no mercy to anyone and his prays are seen over the soil of destruction everywhere, and he should not let himself be in negligence.
As Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Ali (as), the aware leader, in one of his sermons13, addressing people, attracts their attention to this fact by saying:
“Therefore, O’ the servants of Allah! You should fear lest Satan infects you with his disease (pride), or leads you astray through his call, or marches on you with his horsemen and foot-men, because, by my life, he has put the (dangerous) arrow in the bow for you, has stretched the bow very strongly, and has aimed at you from a nearby position, and he (Satan) said:
(While Allah was not the cause of his mislead, but his low desire made him astray.) And, really, it is surprising that we choose such an enemy as our friend!
Footnotes