that this verse was revealed concerning an elderly Bedouin who came to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and said, “O Prophet of Allah, I am an old man deeply steeped (1) in sins. Yet ever since I came to know Allah and believed in Him, I have never associated anything with Him; I have never taken any protector besides Him; nor have I committed acts of disobedience out of bold defiance toward Allah. Not for the blink of an eye did I imagine that I could escape Allah by fleeing. I am remorseful, repentant, and seeking forgiveness—so what is my condition?” Thereupon Allah, Exalted is He, revealed this verse:

“Instead of Him, they invoke none but female deities, and they invoke none but a rebellious Satan, whom Allah has cursed. For he said, ‘I will surely take for myself an appointed share of Your servants.’” (117–118)

His saying, Exalted is He, “Instead of Him, they invoke none but female deities,” was revealed concerning the people of Mecca. That is, they worshipped none—for, as in His saying, Exalted is He, “Your Lord says, ‘Call upon Me’” (Ghafir 40:60), meaning: worship Me, as demonstrated by His saying, Exalted is He, “Indeed, those who are too proud to worship Me” (Ghafir 40:60). His saying, “Instead of Him,” means: instead of Allah. By “female deities,” He meant the idols, because they used to give them feminine names, saying: al-Lat, al-Uzza, and Manat. They would call the idol of each tribe “the female deity of such-and-such a clan.” Within each of these idols was a devil that would appear to the temple custodians and soothsayers and speak to them. Hence He says, “and they invoke none but a rebellious Satan.” This is the view of most exegetes.

The correctness of this interpretation—that “female deities” means idols—is supported by the recitation of Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him: “Instead of Him, they invoke none but uthunan,” meaning “idols,” a plural-of-a-plural form of wathan, “idol,” in which the waw has been changed into a hamzah (2). Al-Hasan and Qatadah said: “None but female deities” means lifeless, inanimate things, for their idols were made of inanimate matter. They were called female deities because Arabic refers to inanimate things with feminine grammatical agreement, just as it does with females; and because females are the lesser of the two sexes, just as inanimate matter is lower than animals. Al-Dahhak said that “female deities” refers to the angels, for some of them worshipped the angels and said, “The angels are female,” as Allah, Exalted is He, says: “They have made the angels, who are servants of the Most Merciful, female” (al-Zukhruf 43:19).

“And they invoke none but a rebellious Satan,” meaning: they worship none but a rebellious Satan, because when they worship idols, they are obeying Satan. Marid means mārid: one who is rebellious, insolent, and defiant, having departed from obedience. What is meant is Iblis.

“Whom Allah has cursed,” meaning: Allah has banished him from His mercy. “And he said,” that is, Iblis said, “I will surely take for myself an appointed share of Your servants,” meaning: a known portion. Whatever Iblis is obeyed in is his allotted share. Some commentaries state: out of every thousand, one belongs to Allah, Exalted is He, and nine hundred and ninety-nine belong to Iblis. The basic linguistic meaning of farḍ is cutting; hence the term furḍah in