The Statement on the Interpretation of Seeking Refuge

Interpretation of His statement: ﴿I seek refuge﴾.

Abū Jaʿfar said: Seeking refuge (al-istiʿādha) is seeking protection. The interpretation of the speaker's statement: ﴿I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Devil﴾ is: I seek protection in Allah—and none other among all His creation—from the Devil harming me in my religion, or turning me away from a right due to my Lord upon me.

Interpretation of His statement: ﴿from the Devil﴾

Abū Jaʿfar said: The Devil (al-Shayṭān), in the speech of the Arabs, is every rebellious one among jinn, humans, beasts, and everything. Likewise, our Lord, exalted be His praise, said: ﴿And thus We have made for every prophet an enemy - devils from mankind and jinn﴾ [Surah al-Anʿām: 112], so He made devils among humans, just as He made among jinn.

ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, may Allah have mercy on him, rode a packhorse and it began to strut proudly with him; he began to beat it, but it only increased in strutting, so he dismounted from it and said: "You have only mounted me on a devil! I did not dismount from it until I felt a change in myself."

136- Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā narrated that to us, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Hishām ibn Saʿd reported to me, from Zayd ibn Aslam, from his father, from ʿUmar (1).

Abū Jaʿfar said: The rebellious one of anything was only called a devil because his character and actions differ from the character and actions of the rest of his kind, and because of his remoteness from good. It has been said: It is derived from