An-Nisa · Madani · ayah 119 of 176

An-Nisa 4:119

وَلَأُضِلَّنَّهُمْ وَلَأُمَنِّيَنَّهُمْ وَلَـَٔامُرَنَّهُمْ فَلَيُبَتِّكُنَّ ءَاذَانَ ٱلْأَنْعَـٰمِ وَلَـَٔامُرَنَّهُمْ فَلَيُغَيِّرُنَّ خَلْقَ ٱللَّهِ ۚ وَمَن يَتَّخِذِ ٱلشَّيْطَـٰنَ وَلِيًّا مِّن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ فَقَدْ خَسِرَ خُسْرَانًا مُّبِينًا

“And I will mislead them, and I will arouse in them [sinful] desires, and I will command them so they will slit the ears of cattle, and I will command them so they will change the creation of Allāh." And whoever takes Satan as an ally instead of Allāh has certainly sustained a clear loss.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Satan lays out his plan: mislead, feed false hopes, command, and alter what Allah made; whoever takes him as ally has plainly lost.

A reflection

Born whole, then cut

Early teachers differed over what 'altering Allah's creation' means. The leading classical commentator weighs the views and prefers one: it means altering Allah's religion, the natural way He created people upon. He cites 30:30, which speaks of 'the natural disposition Allah instilled in people'. The same ayah says there is no altering Allah's creation: 'that is the upright religion'.

Two hadith bring this reading to life. Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim record the Prophet ﷺ saying that every child is born upon the fiṭra, the natural disposition. Then the parents turn the child away from it. He gave a picture: an animal is born whole. Do you see any born with its ear cut off?

One classical scholar points out what this hadith quietly joins. Satan promised two changes in this ayah: slitting the ears of cattle, and altering Allah's creation. The Prophet's picture holds both. The soul is born whole, like the calf. Then someone cuts.

Sahih Muslim adds a saying of Allah reported by the Prophet ﷺ. 'I created My servants upright, all of them. Then devils came to them and drew them away from their religion.'

Picture a three-year-old at bedtime, looking out at a full moon. 'Who made it?' she asks. Then, before anyone answers, she whispers 'thank you' to the window. Nobody taught her that. It was there already.

That is the fiṭra: a heart that leans towards its Maker before it has words. Satan's project is not to install something new. It is to cut what was already whole.

So faith is often less a journey to somewhere foreign than a return. You are not learning to be someone else. You are healing back towards how you were made.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.