ٱسْتَجَبْ

15:43; 16:100; 17:66.

Important Words:

مصرخکم (succour you) and مصرخی (succour me) are both derived from صرخ which means, he called or called out; or he cried or he cried out vehemently; he called or cried for aid or succour or, transitively, he succoured or aided someone. اصرخ also means, he succoured or aided; he came to the help of. مصرخ means, aiding or succouring; or an aider or succourer (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

By uttering the words, I cannot succour you, Satan disclaims the possession of any power to lead man astray. It is indeed true that Satan has no power over man. He is only an instrument for the manifestation of man’s weaknesses, just as angels are instruments for the manifestation of his good qualities. In reality man is led astray by his own baser self, for, as the verse puts it, Satan only calls and it is man who obeys. The function of Satan is merely to make evil suggestions, just as the function of angels is to make good suggestions. Angels cannot make a man good, nor can Satan make him bad. They only show the way, good or bad, and man does the rest.

It may appear paradoxical on Satan’s part to claim, as he has done in this verse, that he asserted the Unity of God and disclaimed association with Him. In a sense it is true, because he who is conscious of God’s glory and has actually witnessed it cannot be guilty of shirk (setting up equals to God). Shirk comes into being when man accepts Satan’s evil suggestions and disobeys God. Satan may thus be likened to arsenic. So long as arsenic does not enter the system of man in toxic quantity, it is a valuable drug, but when man makes a wrong use of it, it becomes a deadly poison. Similarly, before Satan enters the spiritual system of man he is but a test-question and nothing more. Indeed, Satan is only an agent deputed to expose human weaknesses and frailties.

But here arises a question. If Satan has no power over man, why will he be punished with Hellfire? This question is answered in 7:13, where Satan is represented as having been created of fire. How can a thing which is created of fire be said to be punished when cast into fire? A burning piece of coal is not tormented when thrown into a furnace. This is why perhaps some of the mystics in Islam have held the view that it is not Satan, but his manifestations and vicegerents that will be punished. Satan, they say, is but an agent meant to try the mettle of man and only performs his functions.

26:118-120; 37:76-77; 54:11.

Commentary:

It is worthy of note that this Surah makes a special mention of the trials and tribulations through which almost all the Prophets of God had to pass in their time and of the way in which God helped them and delivered them from their afflictions, the implication being that like those Prophets the Holy Prophet of Islam too will have to suffer hardships and privations and like them he too will come out of his ordeal with flying colours. Particular reference to Noah here signifies that if the Law were a curse as Christians say, then what would they say about Noah who came with a Law and among whose followers a great Prophet like Abraham appeared (37:84)? It may be said in passing that Prophet Noah was the first Law-bearing Prophet. The Holy Prophet is reported to have said about himاول نبی شرعت علی لسانه الشرائعi.e. he was the first Prophet to whom the Law was revealed. The Law first began to be revealed to Noah because in his time human mind had attained to such a stage of development as to have been able to understand and comprehend Divine attributes, and the evils which are the inevitable result of a civilized society had also begun to make their appearance in his time.

38:44.

68:50-51.

32:17.

Commentary:

The verse shows that from a spiritual point of view Zachariah’s family was an ideal one.