the one who commanded them to hypocrisy; nor was he visible, so he could not withdraw (1) privately with them and say, “Indeed, we are with you”—especially if they believed themselves to be in the right.

Allah Most High likewise said:

“And when it is said to them, ‘Believe as the people have believed,’ they say, ‘Should we believe as the foolish have believed?’ Unquestionably, it is they who are the foolish, but they do not know.”

[Surah al-Baqarah: 13]

Had they known that the one commanding them (2) to do this was a devil, they would not have accepted him.

Al-Khalīl ibn Ahmad said, “Among the Arabs, every defiant rebel is called a devil.” There are two views concerning the word’s derivation. The sounder is that it derives from shatana–yashtunu, meaning to become far removed from goodness; the letter nūn is therefore part of the root.

Umayyah ibn Abī al-Salt said, describing Solomon, peace be upon him:

“Any rebel (3) who disobeys him, he binds fast;
then he is cast into prison and chains.” (4)

“He binds him fast” means that he secures him in bonds.

Al-Nābighah said:

“Suʿād has been borne far from you by a distant separation;
she has departed, while the heart remains her captive.” (5)

For this reason, the curse is associated with him (6), for a curse means being cast far from goodness, and the devil is far removed from goodness.

The word thus follows the morphological pattern fayʿāl. The pattern fayʿāl (7) corresponds to faʿʿāl and is an intensive form, as in qayyām and qawwām: qayyām follows fayʿāl, while qawwām follows faʿʿāl. The same applies to ʿayyādh and ʿawwādh (8).

In ʿUmar’s variant reading: “the Ever-Living, al-Qayyām (the Self-Sustaining).”