Last Ramadan, this post discussed the importance of gratitude, highlighting it as the primal attitude leading to faith and trust in Allah, the Giver of all we have to be thankful for. We would do well to be reminded of it today.
The Basic Issues:
All 7 of the creation-of-Adam narratives in the Quran include Iblees’ refusal to prostrate after being commanded by Allah to do so, an indication of its importance. In this narrative, it is described in the 4th, 5th and 6th ayat of the narrative (29-31), each of which is given a separate section in the ring composition. This creation-of-Adam narrative is the longest in the Quran (in terms of ayat numbers), and is also quite comprehensive in scope, as we shall see. But here Satan/Iblees is surrounded in the middle.
The meaning of some of Allah’s great names are not that obvious, and no word in English can do justice to them. Al-Latif is one such name. Often translated ”The Subtle,” this doesn’t really convey the meaning and no single English word can, because it is so much more than that. This article from the Yaqeen Institute delves into the meaning both beautifully and with clarity.
In this surah, Adam’s first test, Allah’s command not to “approach” a specific tree, is presented in the center, placing Adam in the central focus of this narrative, ”surrounded” in the ring composition, by Satan’s rebellion and expulsion from paradise in the upper section, and his successful deception of Adam/Eve leading to their awareness of shame/ nakedness and their private parts, and expulsion from Paradise in the lower section. But Satan failed in his ultimate goal, to make Adam/Eve ungrateful,” associated with kufr or denial, thus they repented and were forgiven whereas Satan was not.
114 Chambers 