Saad (The letter Saad)

79. “He said: ‘O’ Lord! Then respite me till the Day they shall be raised,”

80. “(Allah) said: ‘Verily you are of the respited ones.”

81. “Until the day of the known time’.”

82. “(Iblis) said: ‘Then by Your glory, I shall pervert them all together’,”

83. “Except Your servants among them that are sincere.”

Imam Ali (as) says:

“The reason of Allah giving respite to Iblis was in this that his trial had been completed and he had had no vacant place any more.”1

However, it was here that Satan’s envy was changed into enmity, a serious and deep enmity, as the Qur’an says:

“He said: ‘O’ Lord! Then respite me till the Day they shall be raised,”

He asked for a respite in order that he might take revenge from the children of Adam and to lead them astray, though the aberration of each of them was a new burden of sin on his shoulder.

In fact, he wanted to tempt the children of Adam until the end of the possible time, because the Day of Resurrection is the end of the course of duty and from then on temptation and seduction are meaningless. Besides that he wanted to send death away from him and to survive until the Hereafter, though all the human beings pass away.

The next holy verse indicates that, because of some reasons which will be pointed out later, the Divine will required that this question of Iblis would be answered but not in an absolute form but in a conditioned form, as the Qur’an in the second and third verses says:

“(Allah) said: ‘Verily you are of the respited ones.” “Until the day of the known time’.”

This respite is not given until the Day of Resurrection and raising the creatures, but until a definite time.

The commentators have delivered different ideas upon this day.

Some of them consider it as the end of this world, because on that Day all the living creatures will die and only the Pure Essence of Allah will remain; as we recite in Surah Al-Qasas, No. 28, verse 88:

“…Everything is perishable but He…”

And, thus, a part of Iblis’ request was fulfilled.

Some others have said its probable purpose is the Day of Hereafter. There is also this probability that the above mentioned holy verse points to a time that none knows it save Allah. A tradition narrated from Imam Sadiq (as) indicates that Iblis will pass away between the first and the second Blasts.¹

The fourth verse denotes that it was here that Iblis revealed his intention and showed his ultimate aim from his request for an everlasting life.

The Qur’an says:

“(Iblis) said: ‘Then by Your glory, I shall pervert them all together’,”

An oath (by glory) is for emphasizing on power and expressing the ‘ability’, and these frequent emphasises (oath from one side, the sign of emphasis: Nun, on the other side, and the word /’ajma‘in/ (all together), from the third side, show that he had the utmost persistence on his decision and he will stand firmly on his speech until the end.

The fifth verse implies that Satan knew this fact that a group of the special servants of Allah will never come in the realm of his penetration and temptation.

Therefore, helplessly he mentioned them as an exception from the above statement, and said:

“Except Your servants among them that are sincere.”

You have also accepted them and You have made them pure and have put them in the realm of Your protection. It is only this group that I cannot penetrate in them; else I will put the others in my trap.

Occasionally this Iblis’ guess became true and everybody was captured in his trap in some way and did not come out from it save the sincere ones, as the Qur’an in Surah Saba, No. 34, verse 20 says:

“And certainly Iblis found true his conjecture concerning them, so they followed him, except a party of the believers!”