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What did they say after they were deceived?0:00

George: Adam and his wife were deceived by someone who swore he was their sincere adviser. Their first words afterwards blamed no one else: “Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves, and if You do not forgive us and have mercy upon us, we will surely be among the losers.”

Seven ayat, recited by Mishary Rashid Alafasy: about seventeen minutes.

We are students, not scholars. If a question needs a ruling, take it to a scholar you trust.

Assalamu alaikum, and welcome to the IMATX halaqa.

Joining the call0:35

Salma: Assalamu alaikum, George. Assalamu alaikum, everyone.

Yu: Wa alaikum salam, everyone. Alhamdulillah.

Viraj: Wa alaikum salam.

Victor: Wa alaikum salam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

George: Wa alaikum salam wa rahmatullah, Salma, Yu, Viraj, Victor. It is good to be together. Let us open with the du'a Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, tells His Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, to say in Surah Ta Ha: my Lord, increase me in knowledge.

Du'a: Ta Ha 20:114 · Mishary Rashid Alafasy.

Wa qul rabbi zidni 'ilma. — And say, “My Lord, increase me in knowledge.”

Victor: Ameen.

Where we are1:14

George: The previous passage was about Iblis. Allah asked him what kept him from prostrating, and his answer was a comparison: I am better than him. He was told to go down, he asked for respite until the Day they are resurrected, and it was given. Then he vowed to come at the children of Adam from every side.

This passage shows that at work, on the first two people. It opens with something generous: the whole Garden, and one tree.

Ayah nineteen - the whole Garden, and one tree1:42

Al-A'raf 7:19 · Recitation: Mishary Rashid Alafasy. Read the verses.

George: Would you read the translation for us, Yu?

Yu: And “O Adam, dwell, you and your wife, in Paradise and eat from wherever you will but do not approach this tree, lest you be among the wrongdoers.”

Viraj: Can I ask a basic one? Which tree was it?

George: The Qur'an does not say. Al-Jalalayn says wheat. Ibn Kathir does not name it here, and in Surah Al-Baqarah he lists the opinions and follows Ibn Jarir: the tree is not known, and knowing it brings no benefit. So we leave it where the Qur'an leaves it.

Salma: And the words for the limit: wa-la taqraba. We say la taqrab when we want someone to stay away from something.

George: Do not approach, not do not eat. This verb comes eleven times in the Qur'an, almost always as a prohibition placed before the act itself: do not go near indecency, the orphan's property, zina. The line is drawn some distance before the act.

And the warning at the end is about what they would become: zalimin, wrongdoers. We will hear that word again in ayah twenty-three, from their own mouths.

Yu: For me, that changes how I set limits. I usually draw the line at the thing itself. Drawing it a little before is easier to keep.

Ayah twenty - the whisper3:22

Al-A'raf 7:20 · Recitation: Mishary Rashid Alafasy. Read the verses.

George: Viraj, would you read ayah twenty?

Viraj: But Satan whispered to them to make apparent to them that which was concealed from them of their private parts. He said, “Your Lord did not forbid you this tree except that you become angels or become of the immortal.”

Salma: Fa-waswasa. We say waswas for a thought that keeps coming back and will not leave you alone.

George: Al-Qurtubi explains waswasa as the faint, hidden sound. The Arabs used it for the low noise of a hunter and his dogs, and for the jingling of jewellery. Indonesian kept it as was-was, that low, uneasy feeling. The manner is quiet, but what is whispered is a claim.

Ibn Kathir reads the claim as this: eating would make them angels, and let them stay forever, and he connects it with Surah Ta Ha, where Shaytan offers Adam the tree of eternity. That promise is the last word, al-khalidin, those who remain forever. This form comes seventy-four times in the Qur'an, almost always for the people of the Garden or the Fire. What he held out for disobeying was something only Allah gives.

Yu: There's a narration in Sahih al-Bukhari about how close the whisper gets. The Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, said that Shaytan runs through a person the way blood runs.

George: He said it to two men who saw him walking his wife Safiyya home at night. He told them plainly who she was, because he feared Shaytan might cast something into their hearts.

Ayah twenty-one - under oath5:21

Al-A'raf 7:21 · Recitation: Mishary Rashid Alafasy. Read the verses.

George: Victor, would you read ayah twenty-one?

Victor: And he swore by Allah to them, “Indeed, I am to you from among the sincere advisors.”

Salma: An-nasihin. A nasihah is advice someone gives you for your own good.

George: Indonesian took it as nasihat, the advice an older relative gives us. That is the role he claims, and he swears by Allah as he claims it. Later in this surah the word comes back, and there it is true: Hud calls himself a trustworthy adviser, and Salih tells his people, I advised you, but you do not love the advisers.

Viraj: I was reading Ibn Kathir on the oath. He reports Qatadah: Shaytan swore by Allah, saying that he was created before them and knew more than they did, so they should follow him and he would direct them.

Victor: And Ibn Kathir says plainly that someone who believes in Allah can sometimes be the one who gets deceived.

George: The next ayah tells us what came of it.

Ayah twenty-two - brought down by deception6:32

Al-A'raf 7:22 · Recitation: Mishary Rashid Alafasy. Read the verses.

George: Salma, would you read ayah twenty-two?

Salma: So he made them fall, through deception. And when they tasted of the tree, their private parts became apparent to them, and they began to fasten together over themselves from the leaves of Paradise. And their Lord called to them, “Did I not forbid you from that tree and tell you that Satan is to you a clear enemy?”

Fadallahuma. I always heard that as, he let them down.

George: That is close. The commentators read it as a lowering. Al-Qurtubi's first derivation is the root for letting a bucket down into a well on its rope, and al-Jalalayn puts it as bringing them down from the standing they had. The English sounds like a shove; the Arabic is a lowering.

Yu: Al-Qurtubi has a picture for how they covered themselves: they were cutting the leaves and sticking them together, the way a sandal is patched.

George: And he takes the speed of their covering as showing how grave the exposure was.

Viraj: What was the covering they lost?

George: The ayah does not say, and the reports about it are not established. It says only that something had been covered, and now it was not. Then their Lord called to them. Al-Jalalayn reads His question, did I not forbid you, as an affirmation: He is reminding them that He did.

Ayah twenty-three - we have wronged ourselves8:37

Al-A'raf 7:23 · Recitation: Mishary Rashid Alafasy. Read the verses.

George: Would you read ayah twenty-three, Yu?

Yu: They said, “Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves, and if You do not forgive us and have mercy upon us, we will surely be among the losers.”

George: This is the first time in the passage that Adam and his wife speak. They give no explanation, and they say nothing about the one who had just sworn by Allah and lied to them.

Salma: Zalamna. We say zulm for any injustice, small or big.

George: Right after our Lord comes zalamna anfusana, we have wronged ourselves. It comes from the same root as zalimin, the warning at the end of ayah nineteen. Lane gives the root as putting a thing in a place not its own, and Indonesian has it as zalim. They take the warning's own word and turn it on themselves.

Victor: Rabbana zalamna anfusana: Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves. Subhanallah. I say these words in my own du'a.

George: Ibn Kathir reports ad-Dahhak saying that these are the words Adam received from his Lord, the words Surah Al-Baqarah refers to, when Allah accepted his repentance.

Viraj: Ibn Kathir has a contrast here. Adam asked what would happen if he repented and sought forgiveness, and Shaytan did not ask for forgiveness at all, but asked for respite.

George: He reports it from Qatadah, and the end of it is this: each was given exactly what he asked for.

Yu: There's a narration in Sahih Muslim on asking. The Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, said that if we did not sin, Allah would take us away and bring a people who do sin, and who then ask Allah's forgiveness, and He forgives them.

George: It is about asking forgiveness after a sin, not about seeking sin.

Ayah twenty-four - go down, with a place to settle10:43

Al-A'raf 7:24 · Recitation: Mishary Rashid Alafasy. Read the verses.

George: Viraj, would you read ayah twenty-four?

Viraj: Allah said, “Descend, being to one another enemies. And for you on the earth is a place of settlement and enjoyment for a time.”

Salma: Ihbitu. We use hubut for a plane coming down to land.

George: Ihbitu, go down, all of you. The root comes eight times in the Qur'an, always as this one verb. Iblis heard it in the previous passage, in ayah thirteen: fa-hbit, so go down. Now the same command comes to Adam and his wife.

Viraj: Who is told to go down here? It says enemies to one another.

George: Ibn Kathir reports that it was said to Adam, Hawwa, Iblis and the snake, notes that some scholars did not mention the snake, and adds, and Allah knows best. The enmity, he says, is mainly between Adam and Iblis. Al-Jalalayn reads the plural as Adam and his wife with the children they would have.

And the sentence holds more than the going down: a place of settlement, and enjoyment for a time. Ibn Kathir reads the place of settlement as dwellings on earth together with terms already written. Even the sending down comes with what they need.

Yu: For me, it's for a time. My plans always assume more time than I've actually been promised.

Ayah twenty-five - and from it you will be brought forth12:18

Al-A'raf 7:25 · Recitation: Mishary Rashid Alafasy. Read the verses.

George: Victor, would you read the last ayah?

Victor: He said, “Therein you will live, and therein you will die, and from it you will be brought forth.”

George: Three verbs about one place. Ibn Kathir reads it alongside Surah Ta Ha: created from the earth, returned into it, and brought out from it once again. On the earth the children of Adam live, on it they die and are buried, and from it they are raised.

Salma: And the last word, tukhrajun. Khuruj is going out, the way out.

George: Al-Jalalayn notes that it is also read takhrujun, you will come forth. The reading we follow has tukhrajun, which is passive: you will be brought forth. The corpus lists this passive three times, each time about being raised from the earth. We come out of the earth, and Allah is the one who brings us out.

Victor: Fiha tahyawna wa fiha tamutuna: therein you will live, and therein you will die. At my age, those words stay with me.

Your questions, and two for the discussion13:36

George: We began with Adam and his wife, deceived by someone who swore he was their sincere adviser, and with their first words afterwards. The same command to go down came to Iblis and to them. Iblis argued that he was better, and asked for respite. Adam and his wife said the words we opened with. Each was given what they asked for. So the passage does not ask us to pretend we were never misled. It asks us to begin with our own part, and to ask Allah plainly.

Before we finish, any questions?

Yu: Mine is about ayah twenty-four. My younger brother asked me where on earth Adam came down. I didn't know what to say.

George: Ibn Kathir is direct about that. Those accounts, he says, are taken from Israelite tales, and only Allah knows whether they are true. If knowing them were of use in religion or in living, Allah would have mentioned it in His Book, and His Messenger, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, would have mentioned it too. So it is fine to say: the Qur'an does not tell us.

Viraj: Mine is more basic. Growing up, I heard this story as Eve's fault. Is that how the Qur'an tells it?

George: Not in this passage. The Arabic speaks of the two of them all the way through: he whispered to them both, he swore to them both, he brought them both down, and they both said, our Lord, we have wronged ourselves.

Viraj, would you read our first question for the discussion?

Viraj: Iblis never says the tree is good. He tells them why Allah really forbade it, and the reason he invents is flattering. What benefit does he promise, and what makes his claim persuasive?

George: And Salma, the second.

Salma: They do not explain themselves. They do not blame the one who deceived them. Instead: Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves. What do Adam and his wife acknowledge, and what do they ask for?

Yu: The first one is harder than it looks.

George: Bring your own questions about these ayat to your circle, too.

Close15:36

George: Let us end the way the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, ended a gathering. Abu Barza reports he called these words an expiation for what happens in a gathering. Salma, will you?

Salma: Subhanaka Allahumma wa bihamdika, ashhadu an la ilaha illa anta, astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk.

George: Glory is to You, O Allah, and praise. I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except You. I seek Your forgiveness, and I repent to You.

Yu: Next session, we go on from ayah twenty-six, where Allah calls out, O children of Adam, about clothing, in sha Allah.

Viraj: And if the Qur'an is new to you, go slowly. Even one ayah is a good start.

George: If you lead a halaqa of your own, the questions and the study notes for this passage are on the halaqa website, for your circle. Jazakumullahu khayran for listening.

Wassalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.