Tafsir of Ta-Ha 20:120

"Then Satan whispered to him..."

If you ask: How is the verb waswasa (whispered) sometimes transitive with the preposition li- (to/for), as in His saying: "Then Satan whispered to them" (Al-A'raf: 20), and at other times with ila (to)?

I say: The waswasa (whispering) of Satan is like the walwala (wailing) of a bereaved woman, the wa'wa'a (howling) of a wolf, and the waqwaqa (clucking) of a hen. These are imitations of sounds, and their grammatical rule is the same as sawta (he made a sound) and ajrasa (he rang/sounded). From this comes the expression: "The delirious person waswasa (muttered)," and he is muwaswis (a mutterer) with a kasra. The fatha (muwaswas) is a linguistic error. Ibn al-A'rabi recited:

If you say waswasa lahu (he whispered for him), the meaning is "for his sake," like the saying: "Ajris laha (Sound it for her), O son of Abi Kabash."

The meaning of waswasa ilayhi (he whispered to him) is that he conveyed the whispering to him, just as you say: haddatha ilayhi (he spoke to him) and asarra ilayhi (he whispered/secreted to him).

He attributed the tree to al-khuld (eternity), which is al-khulud (everlastingness), because whoever ate from it would—according to his [Satan's] claim—live forever. This is like how Hayzum was called "the horse of life," because whoever followed its tracks would live.

{And a kingdom that does not decay} is evidence for the reading of al-Hasan ibn Ali and Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them): "Unless you both become angels" (Al-A'raf: 20), with a kasra [on the lam].

"So they both ate from it, and their private parts became apparent to them, and they began to fasten together over themselves from the leaves of Paradise. And Adam disobeyed his Lord and erred."