16
As for His statement,
“Indeed, My servants—you shall have no authority over them,”
it means: My servants, whom Allah has chosen for His religion, are beyond Iblis’s power; he cannot lead them astray in their creed or in their worship of their Lord. He can touch them only from the direction of sins, but when it comes to polytheism he is unable to turn them away from their faith, for Allah, exalted is He, has set them apart for His religion.
As for Moses’ words,
“This is but the work of Satan,”
he meant: it is something Satan adorned—just as he adorned matters for Joseph, and for Adam and Eve, though they were devoted servants of the Most Merciful. This, then, is the clarification of the point over which the heretics had their doubts.⦗1⦘
(1) See al-Tabari, Tafsir, vol. 34, p. 14 and vol. 46, p. 20; and Ibn Kathir, Tafsir, vol. 2, p. 596 and vol. 3, p. 399.
أما قوله:
{إِنَّ عِبَادِي لَيْسَ لَكَ عَلَيْهِمْ سُلْطَانٌ}
يقول: عبادي الذين استخلصهم الله لدينه ليس لإبليس عليهم سلطان، أن يضلهم في دينهم أو في عبادة ربهم، ولكنه يصيب منهم من قِبَلِ الذنوب، فأما في الشرك فلا يقدر إبليس أن يضلهم عن دينهم؛ لأن الله سبحانه استخلصهم لدينه.
وأما قوله موسى:
{هَذَا مِنْ عَمَلِ الشَّيْطَانِ}
يعني: من تزيين الشيطان، كما زين ليوسف ولآدم وحواء، وهم عباد الرحمن المخلصون. فهذا تفسير ما شكت فيه الزنادقة١.
١ انظر: تفسير الطبري "٣٤/١٤" "٤٦/٢٠" وتفسير ابن كثير "٥٩٦/٢" "٣٩٩/٣.