Maarif-ul-Quran (En) - Al-Baqara : 169
اِنَّمَا یَاْمُرُكُمْ بِالسُّوْٓءِ وَ الْفَحْشَآءِ وَ اَنْ تَقُوْلُوْا عَلَى اللّٰهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُوْنَ
He only orders you evil and immodesty, and that you allege about Allah what you do not know. (45) (45) 45. The previous verses refuted beliefs held by the mushrikin; the present verses take up the ill effects of some of their pagan practices. One of these was to release animals dedicated to their idols, whom they treated as sacred, refusing to derive any benefit from them. They took it to be unlawful. Straying further on, they even took this act of theirs as obedience of the divine will, a source of pleasing their Creator through the intercession of their idols. It is in this background that Allah Almighty has given the right guidance in the present verse. Eating or using what Allah has provided on this earth - all that is good, pure and permissible - is the best rule. Avoiding something permissible on the assumption that doing so will please Allah is a Satanic thought. So, 'do not follow in the footsteps of Satan' who is an open enemy and what can you hope from an enemy but that he would keep pushing you towards the evil and the immodest, and that you attribute to Allah something for which you have no authority.
The word ‘su' in السُّوءِ وَالْفَحْشَاءِ means something which bothers somebody good and reasonable. The word fahsha covers what is immodest. Some commentators have said that su' here signifies sin as such, and fahsha' فَاحْشَا signifies major sins. The expression إِنَّمَا يَأْمُرُ‌كُم (innama ya'murukum: he only orders you' ) means instigating a suggestion in the heart. The meaning can be seen more clearly in a hadith from the blessed Companion ` Abdullah ibn Masud ؓ who said that the Holy Prophet ﷺ has said: The son of Adam آدم is influenced by a suggestion from the Satan شیطان and a suggestion from the angel. The Satanic suggestion has the effect of bringing forth the expedient gains in evil deeds and thereby opening the avenues of negating the truth, while the angelic suggestion promises reward and success for good deeds and leaves the happy effect of a heart in peace at its attestation of the truth."
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