Surah An-Nisa, Verse 117 and 118

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*Surah An-Nisa, Verse 117:*

إِن يَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِهِ إِلَّا إِنَاثًا وَإِن يَدْعُونَ إِلَّا شَيْطَانًا مَّرِيدًا

They (all those who worship others than Allah) invoke nothing but female deities besides Him (Allah), and they invoke nothing but Shaitan (Satan), a persistent rebel!

*COMMENTARY*

The unity, power, and goodness of Allāh are so Manifest in nature and in the human mind when it is in accord with the universal spirit, that only the most abject perversion can account for the sin of religious treason. That sin arises from perverted ideas of sex or perverted ideas of self. The perversion of sex is to suppose that sex rules in religious matters. From it arise such horrible creations of the imagination as Kāli, the blood-thirsty goddess of India, or Hecate, the goddess of revenge and hate in Greek mythology. Even in beautiful forms like Saraswatī (the goddess of learning) or Minerva (the virgin goddess of sport and acts), to say nothing of Venus (the goddess of carnal pleasures), the emphasis laid on sex destroys a right view of religious nature. Perverted ideas of self are typified in the story of Satan, who was so puffed up with arrogance that he disobeyed Allāh, and Allāh cursed him. Both these perversions, if allowed lodgement, completely ruin our religious nature and deface Allāh's handiwork. Hence it is not merely an outer sin but one that corrupts us through and through.

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*Surah An-Nisa, Verse 118:*

لَّعَنَهُ اللَّهُ وَقَالَ لَأَتَّخِذَنَّ مِنْ عِبَادِكَ نَصِيبًا مَّفْرُوضًا

Allah cursed him. And he [Shaitan (Satan)] said: "I will take an appointed portion of your slaves;

*COMMENTARY*

Satan obtained Allāh's permission to tempt man, and this was implied in such free-will as was granted to man by Allāh. Satan's boast is that the portion of mankind seduced by him will be so corrupted in their nature that they will bear a sort of brand that will mark them off as his own; or that they will be like a portion assigned to himself.