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wa-tlu ʿalayhim nabaʾa lladhī ʾātaynāhu ʾāyātinā fa-nsalakha minhā fa-ʾatbaʿahu sh-shayṭānu fa-kāna mina l-ghāwīna
Relate to them an account of him to whom We gave Our signs, but he cast them off. Thereupon Satan pursued him, and he became one of the perverse.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah al-‘Araf – Verse 175
175 . “And recite unto them the tale of him to whom We gave Our signs, but he withdrew (himself) from them, and Satan pursued him, and he became one of the perverse.”
The verse refers to the story of a man from the Children of Israel. At first, that man was among the believers and those who practically carried out the divine verses and sciences, but later, as a result of Satan’s temptation, he went astray. In the concerning religious sources, the name of this person has been recorded ‘Bal‘am Bā‘ūrā’. As it has been narrated from Ali-ibn-Mūs-ar-Ridā, the eighth Imam (as), that Bal‘am knew ‘the Greatest Name of Allah’, by which his supplication used to be answered. But finally he went to the court of Pharaoh and turned to be an infidel, while, before that, he was one of the studious preachers of the religion of Moses (as).
The Qur’ān does not directly point out his name in the text, but it mentions his action. Imam Bāqir (as) says that his circumstance adapts to any one who prefers the low desire to the truth.1 Such people are found in any time and the subject is not allocated to Bal‘am only. The story of Bal‘am has been cited in the Turah, too. Therefore, an aware leader should usually warn people of unexpected dangers. The verse says:
Whatever high a person promotes he should not become proud, since there is a probability of falling. Usually, the final result of the end of the work is important, not the beginning of it. The higher a situation is, the more dangerous it can be. The verse continues saying:
Yes, the one who takes detached from Allah, will become the prey of Satan. The verse ends as follows:
Footnotes