Tafsir of Ibraheem 14:22

{Indeed, Allah promised you the promise of truth}—which is the Resurrection and the recompense for deeds—and He fulfilled for you what He promised you.

{And I promised you}—the opposite of that—{but I betrayed you. And I had no authority over you}—no power or dominance to compel you toward disbelief and sins or to force you into them.

{Except that I called you}—meaning nothing but my invitation to you toward misguidance through my whispering and beautification [of sin]. Calling is not of the same category as "authority," but it is like your saying: "Their only greeting is a beating."

{So do not blame me, but blame yourselves}—for you were deceived by me and obeyed me when I called you, while you did not obey your Lord when He called you. This is evidence that man is the one who chooses wretchedness or happiness and acquires it for himself; there is nothing from Allah except the enabling, and nothing from Satan except the beautification. If the matter were as the Mujbira (determinists) claim, he would have said: "Do not blame me and do not blame yourselves, for Allah decreed disbelief upon you and compelled you to it."

If you ask: "The speech of Satan is false; it is not correct to rely upon it," I say: If this speech of his were false, Allah would have clarified its falsehood and manifested His rejection of it. Furthermore, there is no benefit for him in speaking falsehood in that station. Do you not see his words: {Indeed, Allah promised you the promise of truth, and I promised you, but I betrayed you}? How he brought forth truth and honesty in it, and in his words: {And I had no authority over you}, which is like the saying of Allah Almighty: {Indeed, My servants—no authority will you have over them, except those who follow you of the deviators} (Al-Hijr: 42).

{I cannot help you, nor can you help me}—we cannot save one another from the punishment of Allah, nor can we aid one another. Al-israkh means to aid. It is recited as bi-musrikhi (with a kasra on the ya), though it is weak. They cite as evidence an unknown verse: "He said to her: 'Do you have any [need]?' She said to him: 'You are not the one I am pleased with.'" It is as if he considered the ya of possession to be quiescent, preceded by a quiescent ya, so he vocalized it with a kasra according to the principle of two quiescent letters meeting. But this is incorrect, because the ya of possession is only ever vocalized with a fatha when preceded by an alif, as in ‘asaya (my staff). So what of it when preceded by a ya? If you say: "The first ya acts like a sound letter due to the idgham (merging), so it is as if it were a ya that fell quiescent after a sound quiescent letter, thus it is vocalized with a kasra according to the principle," I say: This is a sound analogy, but widespread usage—which is equivalent to mutawatir (mass-transmitted) reports—dwarfs such analogies.

{In} in {bima} is a masdariyyah (infinitive particle). {Your associating me [with Allah] before} is connected to ashraktumuni (you associated me), meaning: I disbelieve today in your associating me [with Him] before this day—that is, in the world—like the saying of Allah Almighty: {And on the Day of Resurrection they will deny your association} (Fatir: 14). The meaning of his disbelieving in their association of him is his dissociation from it and his rejection of it, like the saying of Allah Almighty: {We are disassociated from you and from whatever you worship other than Allah. We have denied you} (Al-Mumtahanah: 4).

It is also said that {before} is connected to kafartu (I disbelieved), and {ma} is a relative pronoun, meaning: I disbelieved before—when I refused to prostrate to Adam—in the One you associated me with, who is Allah, the Exalted and Majestic. You say: sharakta Zaydan (you made Zayd a partner), and when you move it with the hamza, you say: ashrakanihu fulan (so-and-so made me a partner to him), meaning: he made me a partner to him. Similar to this ma is the ma in their saying: "Glory be to Him who subjected this to us."

The meaning of their associating Satan with Allah is their obedience to him in what he used to beautify for them, such as the worship of idols and other things. This is the end of Iblis's speech. His words {Indeed, the wrongdoers...} are the words of Allah Almighty. It is possible that it is part of Iblis's speech, and Allah Almighty only recounted what he will say at that time so that it might be a grace to the listeners, causing them to consider their end and prepare for what they must inevitably reach, and to imagine themselves in that station where Satan says what he says, so that they may fear and perform what will save and deliver them from it.

It is recited as {fala yalumuni} (do not blame me) with a ya, following the method of iltifat (shift in address), like the saying of Allah Almighty: {Until, when you are in ships and they sail with them} (Yunus: 22).