Temptations of Satan in verse 169 of Surah Al-Baqarah

Question

What are the temptations of Satan in verse 169 of Surah Al-Baqarah?

Verse 169 of Surah Al-Baqarah refers to the temptations of Satan, which command three things:

1. **Suu' (Evil)**: This refers to all kinds of evil actions and sins. 2. **Fahsha**: This means indecency or immorality, and scholars have interpreted it as a major or public sin, or a sin on which punishment is applied. 3. **Accusing God and religion**: This refers to attributing things to God without knowledge and falsely claiming them as religious truths.

Text of the verse

﴾إِنَّمَا يَأْمُرُكُمْ بِالسُّوءِ وَالْفَحْشَاءِ وَأَنْ تَقُولُوا عَلَى اللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ؛ He only commands you to evil, indecency, and to say about Allah that which you do not know.﴿

Meaning of "Suu'"

Satan commands to evil (suu'), which is something that both reason and law reject. **Suu'** is the opposite of good (khayr) and refers to sin. One of the examples of evil (suu') is oppression (zulm).

Meaning of "Fahsha"

Fahsha is one of the things Satan invites humans to. **Fahsha** comes from the root "fahsh" and refers to actions that exceed the limits of moderation, encompassing all forms of immorality. However, in the modern sense, this term is specifically used to refer to actions that violate chastity or sins with legal punishments. Some scholars have interpreted it as the worst type of sin or the gravest one.

Scholars have cited various examples of fahsha. Some consider any sin that carries a specific legal punishment as fahsha, while others define it strictly as **adultery** or any major, notorious sin.

Interpretation of "An Taqooloo 'Ala Allah Ma La Ta'lamoon"

One of Satan's temptations is to make a person falsely attribute things to God without knowledge. Scholars have proposed various examples of fabricating lies about God:

1. **Declaring as forbidden some foods that are actually lawful**: This could refer to the pre-Islamic Arabs who attributed certain foods to God as forbidden, even though they were not. Some scholars suggest that remnants of this belief persisted among some newly converted Muslims. 2. **Innovation (Bid'ah)**: Attributing something to God that has not been confirmed by reason or the law, and increasing something in the religion that does not belong to it, is a form of fabrication and falsehood. Innovators in religion are considered heretics and subject to punishment.

According to this verse, issuing religious rulings without knowledge is forbidden. Scholars have said that even in cases of doubt, one should not attribute anything to God, let alone when certain knowledge is lacking. The verse **"An Taqooloo 'Ala Allah Ma La Ta'lamoon"** is evidence that following assumptions is prohibited. Other verses in the Quran also explicitly forbid following assumptions.

External Links

• This entry is derived from the book "Al-A'la ar-Rahman fi Tafseer Al-Quran," written by Muhammad Javad Balaghi Najafi, published by Wajdani, Qom.