(50) “And when We said to the angels, ‘Prostrate yourselves before Adam,’ they all prostrated themselves except Iblis. He was one of the jinn, and he rebelled against his Lord’s command. Will you then take him and his offspring as allies instead of Me, though they are your enemies? What an evil substitute for the wrongdoers!”

Allah Most High informs us of Iblis’s enmity toward Adam and his descendants. Allah commanded the angels to prostrate themselves before Adam to honor and exalt him and to obey Allah’s command, and they complied—“except Iblis. He was one of the jinn, and he rebelled against his Lord’s command.” He said, “Should I prostrate myself before one You created from clay?” And he said, “I am better than he.” This made his enmity toward Allah, your father, and yourselves manifest. How, then, can you take him and his offspring—that is, the devils—as “allies instead of Me, though they are your enemies? What an evil substitute for the wrongdoers!” How wretched is what they have chosen for themselves: allegiance to Satan, who commands them only to indecency and evil, in place of allegiance to the Most Merciful, in whose protection lie all happiness, success, and joy.

This verse urges people to take Satan as an enemy, strongly exhorts them to do so, and states the reason that makes this imperative. Only a wrongdoer would take him as an ally. What wrong could be greater than that of one who takes his true enemy as an ally and abandons the Praiseworthy Protector?

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Allah Most High says, “Allah is the Protector of those who believe, bringing them out of darkness into light. As for those who disbelieve, their allies are false gods, bringing them out of light into darkness.” He also says, “Indeed, they have taken the devils as allies instead of Allah.”