Tafsir for verses: 38:71, 38:72, 38:73, 38:74
إِذۡ قَالَ رَبُّكَ لِلۡمَلَٰٓئِكَةِ إِنِّي خَٰلِقُۢ بَشَرٗا مِّن طِينٖ ٧١ ﴿71 فَإِذَا سَوَّيۡتُهُۥ وَنَفَخۡتُ فِيهِ مِن رُّوحِي فَقَعُواْ لَهُۥ سَٰجِدِينَ ٧٢ ﴿72 فَسَجَدَ ٱلۡمَلَٰٓئِكَةُ كُلُّهُمۡ أَجۡمَعُونَ ٧٣ ﴿73 إِلَّآ إِبۡلِيسَ ٱسۡتَكۡبَرَ وَكَانَ مِنَ ٱلۡكَٰفِرِينَ ٧٤ ﴿74
71When your Lord said to the angels, “I am going to create man from clay. 72So, once I make him perfectly and breath My spirit into him, you must fall down in prostration before him.” 73Then, the angels prostrated themselves, all of them together - 74except Iblīs (Satan). He waxed proud, and became one of the disbelievers.
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Commentary

If you say: How is it correct for him to say to them, "Indeed, I am creating a human being," while they did not know what a human being was nor had they encountered it before? I say: The explanation is that he may have said to them: "I am creating a creation with such and such characteristics," but when he mentioned it, he limited himself to the name. So when I have fashioned him, and when I have completed his creation and perfected him, and I have breathed into him of My Spirit and given him life, and made him sensitive and able to breathe, then fall down in prostration, all of you: for the purpose of encompassing. And all together: for the purpose of gathering, thus both indicate that they prostrated completely, with no angel remaining except that he prostrated, and that they all prostrated at the same time, not scattered at different times. If you say: How is prostration to someone other than Allah permissible? I say: What is not permissible is prostration to someone other than Allah in the manner of worship, but in the manner of honor and respect, reason does not reject it, unless Allah knows of a corruption in it and forbids it. If you say: How was Iblis excluded from the angels while he is from the jinn? I say: He was commanded to prostrate with them, and they prevailed over him in the saying, "So the angels prostrated," then he was excluded just as one of them is excluded in a connected exception, and he was among the disbelievers. This means his disbelief existed at that time, even if he was not a disbeliever before, because "was" is unrestricted in the genus of past times, and it is applicable to whichever you wish. It is also possible that it is meant: and he was among the disbelievers in past times in the knowledge of Allah.

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Al-ZamakhshariAbū al-Qāsim Maḥmūd ibn ʿUmar al-Zamakhsharī
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