An-Nahl (The Bee)

63. “By Allah, We verily sent (messengers) unto the nations before you, but the Satan made their (abominable) acts fair-seeming to them. Then he (the Satan) is their guardian today, and they will have a painful punishment.”

The objective of this holy verse is to console the Prophet of Islam (S) as not to be worried for the sake of the people’s remaining heedless and being negligent, since all prophets used to confront such individuals.

In view of the fact that those people who may raise this question after listening to the stories of the pre-Islamic Arabs how one can be so cruel as to bury alive his own daughter and how can such a thing be practical, the Qur’an apparently seems to be providing an answer to the question, saying:

“By Allah, We verily sent (messengers) unto the nations before you, but the Satan made their (abominable) acts fair-seeming to them…”

Certainly, the Satan is so advert in his own whimsical acts that he makes the worst and the most abominable acts as nice that even one imagines such acts as a source of pride for himself, just in the same way that the ‘pre-Islamic Arab’ was proud of burying alive his own daughter(s) and praised that as protecting his chastity and saving the prestige of his own tribe. He would proudly say:

“I buried my daughter with my own hands so as not to let the enemy capture her in a battle later.”

While the most shameful behavior is made possible under the guise of the most favored masks owing to the Satan’s temptations, the rest of the matter is clearly evident. We nowadays witness such seemingly good-looking acts in many cases of theft, robberies, and crimes which are provided with proper justifications and under enticing pretexts.

Then the Qur’an adds that the present-day pagans follow the same deviant programs of the previous nations to whom the Satan presented their acts as nice, and the present-day Satan is their guardian, and they are being inspired by him.

The verse says:

“…Then he (the Satan) is their guardian today…”

It is for this very reason that the painful Divine punishment is awaiting them.

“…and they will have a painful punishment.”