For this reason, Abū Hayyān said:

“Whatever arises within you and your soul loves for your own sake comes from your soul; restrain it from that. Whatever arises within you and your soul dislikes for your own sake comes from Satan; seek refuge in Allah from it.”

This, and Allah knows best, is the reason for that. As for the distinction between the soothsayer and the poet in terms of meaning, it is—and Allah knows best—because speech falls into two kinds: declarative and non-declarative utterances.

The soothsayer reports matters of the unseen, mixing truth with falsehood. They do not convey unadulterated truth. When Satan casts something into the inward thoughts of one of them, into his heart, it is not removed. Rather, most of them are liars, as the Almighty says, and as the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, explained in the hadith about soothsayers when he said:

“They add a hundred lies to the one word.”

This is unlike the messenger, the prophet, and the person who receives inward inspiration, as in the reading of Ibn ʿAbbās and others:

“Then Allah abolishes what Satan casts.”

The commonly accepted reading does not include the person who receives inward inspiration, since he may be left uncorrected in some error, and Satan may introduce something into his inward thoughts without its being removed. This is unlike the messenger and the prophet: what Satan casts must be abolished, and Allah must make His verses firm, because it is the truth. The person who receives inward inspiration is commanded to test what he is inwardly told against what the Messenger brought.

Thus Satan cast suggestions into the heart of ʿUmar, who received inward inspiration, during the incident at al-Hudaybiyya, the incident of the Prophet’s death, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and his disagreement with Hishām ibn Hakīm over Surah al-Furqān. The light of prophethood dispelled those suggestions from him.