Tafsir of Al-Isra 17:64

"And incite" (Wa-istafziz): Meaning, shake them up, disquiet them, or make them light. It is said, "He istafazza-ed him," if he made him light, then deceived him and caused him to fall into what he intended from him. The root of the meaning of fazz is to sever or cut; from this comes tafazzaza (the garment tore/severed). A light-headed person is called fazz, and for this reason, the calf of a wild cow is named after it, as in the saying of Zuhair: If he seeks help through something, the fawn of a dark, dense forest is startled/fleeing, fearing the eyes, so it does not regard the flock.

The "waw" (and), according to Al-Bahr, is for conjunction with "Go." The command is intended as a threat, as are the subsequent commands. What prevents interpreting this as a literal command is that Allah the Exalted does not command indecency.

"Whomsoever you can among them": That is, whoever you are able to incite among them. "Man" (whomsoever) is a conjunctive noun acting as the object of "incite," and the object of "can" is elided—it is what we have indicated. Abu al-Baqa’ chose the view that "man" is interrogative, in the accusative position governed by "can," but this is extremely contrary to the manifest meaning and there is no necessity to commit to it.

"With your voice" (Bisawtika): Meaning, with your calling them to the disobedience of Allah the Exalted and your whispering. He expressed the call as "voice" to belittle it, as if it has no substance, like the braying of a donkey.

Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Jarir, and others extracted from Mujahid that it is interpreted as singing, flutes, amusement, and falsehood. Al-Ghaznawi mentioned that Adam (peace be upon him) settled the sons of Abel on a high mountain and the sons of Cain below it; among them were beautiful girls. So, the devil played the flute, and they could not restrain themselves from descending and intermingling.

"And assault them" (Wa-ajlib 'alayhim): Meaning, shout at them—derived from julbah, which is shouting. This was stated by Al-Farra’ and Abu Ubaydah. It is mentioned that jalaba and ajlaba have the same meaning. Al-Zajjaj said: "He ajlaba against the enemy" means he gathered cavalry against them. Ibn al-Sikkit said: "He jalaba against him" means he aided against him. Ibn al-A'rabi said: "He ajlaba against a man" means he threatened him with evil and gathered a host against him. Some interpreted "assault" (ajlib) here as "gather," so the ba’ in His saying "with your cavalry and your infantry" is redundant, as in "they do not recite the surahs (with the surahs)." Al-Hasan read it as wajlib (conjoining the alif and damming the lam) from the triliteral jalaba.

"Cavalry" (Khayl) is applied to horses literally, and it has no singular form derived from its own root. It is said its singular is kha’il due to its arrogance (ikhtiyal) in its gait. Metaphorically, it refers to riders, and that is what is intended here. From this is the saying of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) in some of his expeditions to his companions (may Allah be pleased with them): "O cavalry of Allah, mount!"

"Infantry" (Rijl), with the jim kasra, is a noun used in the sense of the active participle; it is an attribute like hadhir (cautious). It is said: "So-and-so walks rijlan," meaning he is not riding. The author of Al-Lawamih said: "It is in the meaning of rijal (men), meaning it is a singular noun used to denote a plural, because that is what is appropriate for the context and what it is conjoined with." This is how Hafs and Abu 'Amr (in one of his recitations) and Al-Hasan read it.

The outward meaning of the verse dictates that the enemy has cavalry and infantry. A group holds this view: it is said they are from the Jinn; it is also said they are from both Jinn and mankind—this is reported from Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both), Mujahid, and Qatadah. They said: He has cavalry and infantry from the Jinn and mankind; so whatever rider fights in the disobedience of Allah the Exalted is from the cavalry of Iblis, and whatever walker fights in the disobedience of Allah the Exalted is from the infantry of Iblis. Others said: The devil has no cavalry nor infantry, and they are merely a metonymy for assistants and followers, without consideration of some being riders and some walkers.

Some permitted that his inciting with his voice and his assaulting with his cavalry and infantry is a representation (tamthil) of his dominance over those he leads astray. It is as if a raider fell upon a people, shouting at them with a shout that stirs them from their places, and assaulted them with his troops of cavalry and infantry until he eradicated them. His intent is that the speech contains a representational metaphor (isti'arah tamthiliyyah), and it does not harm it to consider metaphor or metonymy in the individual words, so be heedful.

The majority read rajlika with a fatha on the ra and sukun on the jim; it is a collective noun for "walker," like rakb (riders) and rakib (rider); it is not a plural due to the prevalence of this pattern in singulars. It was also read rijl with a fatha on the ra and a damma on the jim; it is a singular as in the recitation of Hafs. Words have come from the intensive attribute on the pattern of fa'l and fu'l, either with a kasra or a damma, like hadath and nudus and others. 'Ikrimah and Qatadah read rijalika (like nibalika), and it was read rijalika (like kuffarika); both are plurals of rajul and rajil. In Al-Kashf, and in some copies of Al-Kashshaf, it is mentioned that it was read rajjālika with a fatha on the ra and a shadda on the jim, on the basis that its root is rajjālah, so its ta was dropped for ease—this is a weak transmission.

"And share with them in wealth": By leading them to earn it from what is not appropriate and spending it on what is not appropriate. It is said: by leading them to spend it on adultery. From Al-Dahhak: by leading them to slaughter for idols. From Qatadah: by leading them to set free the sa'a’ib (grazing livestock dedicated to idols) and bahā’ir (female camels whose ears were slit). Generalization is better.

"And children": By inciting them to reach them through forbidden means and committing what does not please Allah the Exalted regarding them. Ibn Jarir and Ibn Marduyah extracted from Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) that the sharing in children is leading them to name them 'Abd al-Harith (Servant of the Cultivator/Devil) and 'Abd Shams (Servant of the Sun). In another narration: leading them to make them desire false religions and dye them with other than the dye of Islam. In another: leading them to procure them through adultery. In another: beautifying for them the killing of their children out of fear of poverty or shame. It is said: leading them to urge them into fighting and memorizing poetry that contains indecency and vile, wicked crafts. From Mujahid: that if a man does not mention the name of Allah at the time of intercourse, the Jinn envelops his private part and has intercourse with him; this is the sharing in children. The former view is better.

"And promise them": The false promises, such as the intercession of idols, the benefit of noble lineages for those who did not obey Allah at all, and that no one remains in the Fire forever (because that contradicts the greatness of mercy), and the long hope for survival in the world. Among the false promises is his promise to them that if they die, they will not be resurrected, and others in infinite numbers. This is from the category of sharing in the self, as stated in Al-Bahr.

"And Satan promises them nothing but delusion": This is a parenthetical statement interjected between what was addressed to Satan, to clarify the condition of his promises. It is a shift into the third person (iltifat) to strengthen the meaning of the interjection, along with the fact that it directs the speech away from addressing him to explaining his condition to the people, and signals the causality of his devilry to delusion. Delusion (ghurur) is the decoration of error with that which makes it seem like truth. It is said, "He deceived (gharra) so-and-so," if he reached his ghirrah, i.e., his heedlessness, and obtained from him what he wanted. The root of this, according to Al-Raghib, is from the ghirr, which is the outward mark of a thing. It is in the accusative as a description of an elided source (i.e., a promise of delusion), according to the ways in which 'adl (just) is used as an adjective.

It is permitted that it is an object for its cause, meaning: he does not promise them and fill them with false hopes that will not be fulfilled or occur, except to deceive them. The first is more manifest. The Imam mentioned regarding the reason why Satan’s promise is nothing but delusion is that he only calls to one of three things: satisfying desire, venting anger, or seeking leadership and status. He never calls to the knowledge of Allah the Exalted and His service. Those three things are not pleasures in reality, but rather the removal of pains. Even if we concede they are pleasures, they are base things in which the deficient and the perfect share—nay, the human and the dog! Despite this, they are imminent in their disappearance and are not attained except through many troubles and great hardships. They are followed by death, aging, and the preoccupation of the mind with the fear of their loss and the greed for their persistence. The pleasures of the belly and the private parts among them are not completed except by dealing with rotten, disgusting, putrid fluids. Thus, decorating such things can hardly be anything other than a lie, as false as the claim of the gathering of two opposites—which is exactly what delusion is.