2:208

Salaam all,

This is 2:208
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ ادْخُلُواْ فِي السِّلْمِ كَآفَّةً وَلاَ تَتَّبِعُواْ خُطُوَاتِ الشَّيْطَانِ إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ مُّبِينٌ
Ya ayyuha allatheena amanoo odkhuloo fee alssilmi kaffatan wala tattabiAAoo khutuwati alshshaytani innahu lakum AAaduwwun mubeenun

The Aya says:
O Those that made selves safe (in GOD), enter in better association (with GOD as well as with people) collectively. And do not follow and join the steps of Satan. Verily, he (Satan) is to you an enemy making clear (his animosity)

Alternate understanding:
O Those that made selves safe (in GOD), enter in better association (with GOD as well as with people) collectively. And do not follow and join the steps of Satan. Verily, he (Satan) is to you an enemy causing distancing (between you and GOD)

My personal note:
There are two words in this Aya that can accept more than one meaning and all the meanings can be appropriate:
1- SILM is understood as peace as well as Islam as the religion and I believe that both meanings are correct. I chose the meaning that encompasses both and that is the dissociation from something for the better association with GOD through Islam and through peace with GOD. Also, better association with people through peace.
2- MUBEEN means making betweening in a literal sense, and that can be making clear his animosity or making distance between the person and GOD.

Translation of the transliterated words:
Ya ayyuha: O yee
Note: that is a calling
Allatheena: those that
Amanoo: made selves become safe (in GOD and his message)
Note: the root is Hamza-M-N and it means safe or safety. AMANOO is the third person plural past tense of a verb that is derived from the root. This verb means make become safe or make arrive safety.
Odkhuloo: Enter
Note: the root is D-KH-L and it means entering. ODKHULOO is an order form of the verb that is addressing a group. It means make yourselves enter. This is the literal way it means and it actually means enter.
Fee: in
Alssilmi: the peace/the better association with GOD and people through peace.
Note: the root is S-L-M and it means having a better association with an entity through dissociation with a previous entity that was not as good. This includes becoming healthy or escaping danger. It also means having peace or delivering something to another person or delivering oneself to GOD, because GOD is the better association. ALSSILMI is the better association with GOD and people and that includes both peace with others and better association with GOD through the religion of Islam.
Kaffatan: collectively.
Note: the root is K-F-F and it means the palm of the hand. KAFFATAN would then mean what you hold in the palm of the hand as you close it. This, in abstract, then means collectively together as the things that are grouped together in the palm.
Wala: And not
tattabiAAoo: Join and follow
Note: the root is T-B-Ain and it means following footprints and joining them. This is the concrete meaning and in the abstract, it attains the meaning of joining and following direction. TATTABiAAoo is the second person plural present or future tense of a verb that is derived from the root. This verb means make yourselves become joining and following in a literal sense. This, in turn means join and follow.
Khutuwati: Steps of
Note: the root is KH-TA-W and it means the area between the two feet as they walk and that is the footstep. KHUTUWATI means footsteps of.
Alshshaytani: Satan
Note: this is the name of Satan in Arabic. The root is SH-TA-N and it means the long rope that one uses to get the bucket of water from the well. This is the concrete word and in abstract it attains the meaning of the one or ones that use their tentacles to move people out of their places. That is what Satan does, he takes us out of the way of GOD.
Innahu: Verily he
Lakum: To you (plural)
AAaduwwun: enemy
Note: the root is Ain-D-W and it means running or overstepping boundaries. This the concrete word and the one that oversteps one else’s boundaries is considered enemy. AAaDUWWUN means enemy.
Mubeenun: making clear (his animosity) or alternatively, making you distanced (from GOD)
Note: the root is B-Y-N and it means in concrete between. The action of the verb is betweening. This betweening can mean clarifying because one can know better the difference between two things. It also can mean distancing because the betweening makes things become apart. MUBEEN is the one that makes between in a literal sense. This can be understood in one of two ways in this sentence:

1- Making clear and in this case his animosity.
2- Making distancing and in this case from GOD

I believe that both meanings can actually be correct and GOD knows best.

Salaam all and have a great day


Hussein