186 – It is narrated from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī (d. AH) that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “When any one of you is praying toward something that screens him from the people, and someone wishes to pass in front of him, he should push him back. If the person refuses, then let him fight him, for he is only a shayṭān (devil).” Agreed upon. In another wording: “for with him is his qarīn (companion).” (1)
Key terms in the ḥadith:
• al-qarīn: the constant companion from the devils of the jinn.
• yajtāz: (with a jīm) from jawāz, meaning to pass or cross.
• shayṭān: derived either from shaṭana, “to become distant,” because the devil is far from the truth and from Allah’s mercy—so the final nūn is original; or from shāṭa, “to burn,” on the pattern faʿlān. Every insolent, rebellious being—jinn or human—is called a shayṭān, as in the verse, “the devils of humankind and jinn” (Q 6:112).
Al-Qurṭubī said: It may also mean that the one who drives him to do so is the devil, in view of the Prophet’s words, “for with him is a companion.”
• fa-in abā: “in” is a conditional particle; the verb of the condition is abā (“he refuses”).
• fa-liyuqātilhu: the prefixed fāʾ links to the apodosis; the lām introduces the imperative, and yuqātil-hu is jussive because of that lām. Thus this narration is cast in the imperative form addressed to the present listener and serves as the answer and consequence of the conditional clause.
• innamā huwa shayṭān: a reason clarifying why it is lawful to fight him; shayṭān here means a willful rebel, and the term is applied to