Surah Ash-Shu'ara: (221 - 223) Shall I inform you about whom the devils descend...

Translation and Exegesis

Know that Allah, the Exalted, repeated the previously mentioned objection and responded to it in two ways:

First: His saying: {That descends upon every fabricator, sinful one} (26:221). This refers to what we established earlier: the disbelievers call for obedience to Satan, whereas the Prophet (peace be upon him) called for cursing Satan and disavowing him.

Second: His saying: {They cast down the hearing, and most of them are liars} (26:222). The meaning here is that they were analogizing the status of the Prophet (PBUH) to the status of other soothsayers/magicians. It is as if they were told: If the matter is as you claim, then just as falsehood is predominant among other soothsayers, the status of the Prophet (PBUH) must be the same. When only truth appeared in the Prophet's (PBUH) reports about the unseen, we knew that his status was different from that of the soothsayers.

Furthermore, the commentators mentioned several interpretations for this verse:

1. They are the devils. It is narrated that before they were prevented by stoning (from hearing the heavens), they used to eavesdrop on the High Assembly and snatch some of what they said, based on what they had glimpsed of the unseen. Then they would inspire it to their allies. {And most of them are liars} in what they inspire, because the devils hear things the humans do not hear.
2. They cast down the hearing to their allies, meaning the sound heard from the angels.
3. The fabricators cast the hearing to the devils, and the devils cast their revelation to them.
4. They cast what is heard from the devils to the people, and most of the fabricators are liars, attributing to the devils what they did not inspire to them.

If you ask: What is the grammatical position of {casting down} (yulqūna)? I reply: It can be in the accusative case (naṣb) as a circumstantial adverb (ḥāl), meaning "descending upon them while they are casting down the hearing." Or it can be in the genitive case (jarr) as an adjective (ṣifah) for "every fabricator," because it is in the sense of a plural. Alternatively, it might have no grammatical position, serving as a new, independent clause, as if someone asked: Why do you send down [revelation] upon the fabricators? And the answer is: They do such and such.

If you ask: How can He say {and most of them are liars} after He has already judged that every one of them is a fabricator (affāk)? I reply: The fabricators (al-affākūn) are those who frequently lie, not necessarily those who only utter falsehoods. So, He meant that among these fabricators, few are truthful in what they narrate about the jinn, and most of them fabricate lies about them.

The Poets (26:223-227)

< {And the poets—only the misguided follow them.} (26:224)

< {Have you not seen that they wander in every valley?} (26:225)

< {And that they say what they do not do?} (26:226)

< {Except those who believe and do righteous deeds and remember Allah often and defend themselves after they have been wronged. And those who have wronged are going to know to what [kind of] return they will be returned.} (26:227)