'He said, O Iblis, what prevented you from prostrating to what I created with My own hands? Did you become arrogant, or were you among the exalted?' He said, 'I am better than him. You created me from fire, and You created him from clay.' He said, 'Then get out of it, for you are accursed. And indeed, upon you is My curse until the Day of Judgment.' He said, 'My Lord, then grant me respite until the Day they are resurrected.' He said, 'Indeed, you are among the respited until the Day of the known time.' The speaker to Iblis is Allah, glorified and exalted is He. His saying, 'What prevented you' is a reprimand and a rebuke. 'Aasim' and 'Al-Jahdari' read: 'When I created' with a fathah on the lam of (lamma) and a shaddah on the meem. The majority of people read: 'With My own hands' in the dual form. A group read: 'With My hand' with a fathah on the ya. It has come in the Book of Allah, the Exalted: 'From what Our hands have created' [Ya-Sin: 71] in the plural. All of these expressions indicate power and might. The mention of the hand is a way to make it closer to the listeners; for it is customary among humans that strength, force, and ability are associated with the hand. The ignorance of the Arabs regarding Allah, glorified and exalted is He, necessitated that their souls deny the creation without contact and similar rational meanings. Al-Qadi Ibn al-Tayyib went to the view that the hand, eye, and face are attributes of essence that are additional to His power, knowledge, and other established attributes, and this is an undesirable statement. He calls them the 'news attributes'. It has been narrated in some reports that Allah, glorified and exalted is He, created four things with His own hand: the Throne, the Pen, the Garden of Eden, and Adam. The rest of the creations are by His saying: 'Be,' and if this is correct, it is mentioned in the context of honoring the four and drawing attention to them. Otherwise, if the investigation is made, every creation is by the power by which existence occurs after non-existence. A group read: 'You became arrogant' with the connection of the alif, regarding the report about Iblis, and 'or' would be in the sense of separation, not equivalent to it. A group read: 'Did you become arrogant' by cutting the alif, regarding the question, so 'or' in this case is equivalent to the alif. Many grammarians went to the view that 'or' is not equivalent to the alif with the difference of the two verbs, but rather it is equivalent if both are introduced on one verb, like your saying: 'Did Zayd stand or did Amr?' They said: And if the two verbs differ as in this verse, then 'or' is not equivalent. The meaning of the verse is: Did arrogance arise for you now, or were you previously among those who are not worthy of being tasked with something like this due to your high status? And this is in the context of rebuke.

And the saying of Iblis: ﴿I am better than him﴾ is a mistaken analogy. This is because when he imagined that fire is better than clay, he concluded that what is created from the better is better than that which is created from the lesser. He did not know that virtues are specifications from Allah, glorified and exalted is He, which He bestows upon whom He wills. In his saying, there is a refutation of the wisdom of Allah, glorified and exalted is He, and a distortion. This is evident in His saying: ﴿Have you seen this one whom You have honored?﴾ [Al-Isra: 62]. Then he said: ﴿I am better than him﴾. At this statement, the disbelief of Iblis was associated with it, either out of obstinacy - according to the view of those who permit it - or because he was deprived of knowledge. The apparent matter is that he disbelieved out of obstinacy; for Allah, glorified and exalted is He, has judged him to be a disbeliever. We find him throughout the story saying: "O my Lord, by Your might, until the Day they are resurrected." All of this necessitates knowledge. Even if there is a competing interpretation in it, reflect upon it.

Then Allah, glorified and exalted is He, commanded Iblis to exit from the direction of the entrance to him. A group said: He commanded him to exit from Paradise, and another group said: from the heavens. Al-Tha'labi narrated from Al-Hasan and Abu Al-Aliya that His saying, glorified and exalted is He: "from it" means: from the creation in which you are, and from the attributes of honor that were for him. Al-Husayn ibn Al-Fadl said: Its opposites returned to him. According to the first saying, He only commanded him with a command that necessitates his distance from the heavens, and there is no disagreement that he was cast down to the earth.

And "the accursed": the one who is stoned with the evil saying, and "the curse": is expulsion. And "the Day of Judgment": is the Day of Resurrection. And "Judgment": is recompense.

And indeed, he was limited by the curse on the Day of Judgment, and his curse is indeed everlasting, to restrict for him the duration of repentance; for the prevention of his repentance after the Day of Resurrection is evident, as the Hereafter is not a place of action.

Then indeed, Iblis asked for respite and the postponement of the term until the Day of the resurrection of the bodies from the graves. Allah, glorified and exalted is He, granted him to remain until the known time. The people differed in the interpretation of that. The majority said: Allah assisted him in his request and postponed him until the Day of Resurrection. He is now alive, misleading and leading astray - and this is the most correct of the two sayings. A group said: He was not assisted in his request, but rather he was granted respite until the time that Allah, blessed and exalted is He, had decreed for Iblis to die in it. Some of this group said: Iblis died on the Day of Badr.