Overview (Verses 50 - 53)

Much Too Argumentative
 
The guilty facing such a difficult situation are certainly aware, in this life, that Satan is their enemy. Nevertheless, they befriended him and he led them to their predicament. How strange that they should take Satan and his progeny for friends and protectors when they know them to be hostile since the first encounter between Adam and Iblīs: “When We said to the angels: ‘Prostrate yourselves before Adam,’ they all prostrated themselves. Not so Iblīs, who belonged to the jinn and he disobeyed his Lord’s command. Will you, then, take him and his progeny for your masters instead of Me, when they are enemies to you? Vile is the substitute for the wrongdoers!” (Verse 50)
 
This story highlights the singularity of some people’s attitude as they take Satan and his progeny for protectors and patrons in preference to God. It represents an outright disobedience of God’s commands and the neglect of obligations and duties He has assigned to them.
 
Why do they befriend these, their enemies, when they possess neither real knowledge nor reliable strength? God has not brought them to witness His creation of the heavens and the earth, or even their own creation. Nor does He seek help or support from them: “I did not call them to witness at the creation of the heavens and the earth, nor at their own creation; nor do I seek aid from those who lead people astray.” (Verse 51) They are no more than creatures whom God has created. They do not know what God has chosen to keep hidden from them, nor does He need their help.
 
It is important to reflect a little on the way the last verse ends: “nor do I seek aid from those who lead people astray.” Is it appropriate to ask whether God seeks help from people who do not lead others astray? Sublime and great is God. He is in no need of anyone in the universe. He is the Almighty who has the power to accomplish whatever He wills. The phraseology here is intentional. It brings to the fore the myths of the unbelievers only to shoot them down. Those who seek protection from Satan and make him a partner to God only do so because they imagine that Satan has a great wealth of knowledge and overpowering might, when in fact Satan is a seducer who leads people astray. God does not like deviation or those who lead other people astray. Had He, for argument’s sake, sought helpers, He would not have taken them from among the seducers who lead people into error and deviation. This is the meaning the verse and its ending aim to emphasize. Another scene of the Day of Judgement follows, portraying the end that awaits the guilty and those to whom they ascribe a share of divinity: One day He will say, ‘Call now on those beings whom you alleged to be My partners!’ They will invoke them, but those [beings] will not respond to them; for We shall have placed an unbridgeable gulf between them. And when those who were lost in sin will see the fire, they will realize that they are bound to fall in it, and will find no way to escape from it. (Verses 52-53) They are in a position where no claim has any value unless it is supported by irrefutable proof. The Lord who sits for judgement on that day commands them to bring their partners whom they alleged to enjoy favour with God. He tells them to call them up. Yet such people are lost. They forget that they are already witnessing the Day of Reckoning. So they call on their former partners who do not make any kind of response. They are no more than creatures of God who cannot avail themselves or anyone else of anything. They also have to face the great events that take place on the Day of Judgement. God places between such worshipped deities and those who worshipped them a gulf of doom too wide for either group to cross over. That gulf is the fire of hell: “For We shall have placed an unbridgeable gulf between them.” (Verse 52)
 
Those who are guilty will look around and fear will overwhelm them. They expect that at any moment they will fall into the fire. It is extremely hard to expect to be punished, particularly when the punishment is ready and there is no chance of escape: “And when those who were lost in sin will see the fire, they will realize that they are bound to fall in it, and will find no way to escape from it.” (Verse 53)