4:119

Salaam all,

This is 4:119
وَلأُضِلَّنَّهُمْ وَلأُمَنِّيَنَّهُمْ وَلآمُرَنَّهُمْ فَلَيُبَتِّكُنَّ آذَانَ الأَنْعَامِ وَلآمُرَنَّهُمْ فَلَيُغَيِّرُنَّ خَلْقَ اللّهِ وَمَن يَتَّخِذِ الشَّيْطَانَ وَلِيًّا مِّن دُونِ اللّهِ فَقَدْ خَسِرَ خُسْرَانًا مُّبِينًا
Walaodillannahum walaomanniyannahum walaamurannahum falayubattikunna athana alanAAami walaamurannahum falayughayyirunna khalqa Allahi waman yattakhithi alshshaytana waliyyan min dooni Allahi faqad khasira khusranan mubeenan

The Aya says:
And I shall indeed lead them astray including I shall make them wishfully hope and I shall order them so they will indeed pull out the ears of the domestic animals. And I shall order them so they will alter Allah’s creation. And whoever takes Satan as guardian for himself, short of Allah then he indeed lost a clear loss.

My personal note;
The Aya continues the theme of the previous Aya. It indicates the techniques that Satan uses in leading us astray. They include making us have wishful thoughts and hopes that are false. They also include rituals that that involve altering the created beings of Allah.

The first ritual is the one where people pull the ears of the animals. Clearly it is then forbidden because of the cruelty involved, but also because it is a ritual that is not needed to bring the person closer to Allah.

The other theme mentioned is “Altering Allah’s creation”. This becomes a very big subject. The context of this Aya suggests that this is a prohibition if intended as a ritual of religious significance unless an exception is present. One exception is the case of male circumcision. One would say that the Aya is not banning male circumcision for the main reason that it was a practice before Islam and it continued in Islam before and after the revelation of this Aya. If this aya is to ban male circumcision then the prophet (pbuh) would have prohibited it and the Muslims would have stopped or at least an opinion banning circumcision may have arrived to us from the early Muslim community. There is no evidence of such opinion.

At another level, the term carries with it a general tendency to discourage altering Allah’s creation. This discouragement becomes weaker when our human need to alter God’s creation is stronger (corrective surgery) and the discouragement becomes stronger as the need for alteration becomes weaker. The weakest reason for altering God’s creation is then doing it as a supposed religious ritual.

Here, we need to understand that Allah’s creation is not only living things, but everything that is around us. So, at one level is that we should take care of the earth and the sky and have as minimal impact on them as we can. This is then an environmentalist message.

At another level is the issue that " altering God’s creation" can carry over to altering the spiritual nature of ourselves into something that embraces falsehood and covers truth, even though we were created otherwise.

Translation of the transliterated words:
Walaodillannahum: and I shall lead them astray/ and I shall make them lose the path
Note: WA is a letter that links what is before with what is after. This link is through inclusion, either one is included in the other or they are all included in the bigger sentence or bigger picture. WA often corresponds with “and/ addition” but the more encompassing meaning is in inclusion one in another or all in a bigger picture or sentence. LAODILLANNAHUM is derived from the root Dhad-L-L and it means getting lost as in lost the path or road in concrete terminology. Conceptually, it is used for any form of loosing the path, whether it is the path to a location or to the truth, or to be correct spiritually and so on. The imagery is very strong since loosing the path in the desert can mean near certain death. LAODILLANNAHUM is an action that is being completed or will be completed and with emphasis. It means: the action of making the object (HUM= them) loose the path or go astray is happening or will be happening, with determination, by the subject (first person singular).

Walaomanniyannahum: and I will indeed make them wish outcomes/ wishfully think
Note: WA is a letter that links what is before with what is after. This link is through inclusion, either one is included in the other or they are all included in the bigger sentence or bigger picture. WA often corresponds with “and/ addition” but the more encompassing meaning is in inclusion one in another or all in a bigger picture or sentence. LAOMANNIYANNAHUM is derived from the root M-N-Y and it means to destine/to write a destiny. I used write because in the Arabic mind, destiny is written. One concrete word is sperm because the sperm is destined for becoming a human being. Conceptually, the word is used for writing, reading and wishing an outcome or just outcome/destiny itself. The context of the sentence decides which part of the range of the meaning applies. LAOMANNIYANNAHUM Is an action that is being completed or will be completed. It means: the action of making the object (HUM=them) wish an outcome or outcomes is being made to happen or will be made to happen, with emphasis, by the subject (first person singular and that is satan).

Walaamurannahum: and I will indeed order them to implement
Note: WA is a letter that links what is before with what is after. This link is through inclusion, either one is included in the other or they are all included in the bigger sentence or bigger picture. WA often corresponds with “and/ addition” but the more encompassing meaning is in inclusion one in another or all in a bigger picture or sentence. LAAMURANNAHUM is derived from the root Hamza-M-R and it means ordering something and the implementation of it. Sometimes it attains the implementation part or matter as in personal matter and so forth, and at times it is the order and implementation of the order, depending on the situation in the sentence. LAAMURANNAHUM is an action that is being completed or will be completed. It means: the action of ordering the object (Hum= them) to implement is happening or will be happening, with emphasis, by the subject (first person singular).

Falayubattikunna: so they will indeed pull out/ cut
Note: Fa means then or therefore or so. LAYUBATTIKUNNA is derived from the root B-T-K and it means in concrete when the person pulls an entity from it’s origin and it ends being cut from it’s source. This is like pulling hair and other pulls that uproots things. Conceptually, it is used to point to cutting any entity from it’s origin or source. LAYUBATTIKUNNA is an action that is being completed or will be completed. It means: the pulling out or cutting of the object (ATHANA ALANaAAaMA-= ears of the domesticated animals) is happening or will be happening, with emphasis by the subject (third person plural).
Athana: ears of
Note: the root is Hamza-TH-N and it means ear in concrete. It also means hearing, knowing and approving at the same time and may be extended to acting according to that knowledge. ATHANA means ears of.
alanAAami: the domesticated animals/ the providing animals
Note: the root is N-Ain-M and it means soft in the concrete sense. In abstract, it means anything that can be understood as soft as in soft to touch and soft in treatment and soft life as in a life that does not have much hardship. ALaNAAaMI are the domesticated animals because they are “soft” or because they make our lives softer.

Walaamurannahum: and I will indeed order them to implement
Note: WA is a letter that links what is before with what is after. This link is through inclusion, either one is included in the other or they are all included in the bigger sentence or bigger picture. WA often corresponds with “and/ addition” but the more encompassing meaning is in inclusion one in another or all in a bigger picture or sentence. LAAMURANNAHUM is derived from the root Hamza-M-R and it means ordering something and the implementation of it. Sometimes it attains the implementation part or matter as in personal matter and so forth, and at times it is the order and implementation of the order, depending on the situation in the sentence. LAAMURANNAHUM is an action that is being completed or will be completed. It means: the action of ordering the object (Hum= them) to implement is happening or will be happening, with emphasis, by the subject (first person singular).

Falayughayyirunna: so then will indeed change/ make other of
Note: FA means then or therefore or so. LAYUGHAYYIRUNNA is derived from the root GH-Y-R and it means other or different from. LAYUGHAYYIRUNNA is an action that is being completed or will be completed. It means: the action of changing the object (KHALQA AALHI= Created entities or Allah) or making it different from it’s origin is happening or will be happening, with emphasis, by the subject (third person plural).
Khalqa: creation of/ created entities of/ products of creation of.
Note: the root is KH-L-Qaf and it means creating and creation. The word has many little other meanings that revolve around that theme, in concrete, it means the smoothened rock that was shaped that way, so it has the cutting and shaping and making things as part of the meaning as well as creating out of nothing as well. KHALQA in this context points to the products of creation of.
Allahi: Allah
Waman: and whoever
Yattakhithi: Takes/ takes for himself
Note: the root is Hamza-KH-TH and it means to take. YATTAKHITHI is an action that is being completed or will be completed. It means: the action of taking the object (ALSHSHAYTANA= Satan) for oneself is being made to happen or will be made to happen by the subject (third person singular).
Alshshaytana: Satan/ the one that is displaced from God’s mercy and works on displacing others.Note: the root is SH-Ta-N and it means in one of the concrete meanings the long rope and in another the long rope at the well that one uses to get the bucket out of the water. The term is used to mean far and away (in all the planes of thought) as the long rope and it is also used for displacement or pulling away, as a parallel to the rope that pulls the bucked out of the water. ALSHAITAN is the one who is far or away (from God’s mercy) and who works at pulling others away through his long “rope”. It is the word used from Satan.
Waliyyan: guardian/protégé.
Note: the root is W-L-Y and it means direction or following direction with some guarantee. It comes close to guardianship. WALIYYAN is either the one who is a guardian or the one who receives guardianship of another or both. In this context, it takes the meaning of guardian or protégé because that relationship applies to Satan in both directions.
Min: from
Dooni: short of/ below of
Note: The root is D-W-N and it means short of someone or something. It can also mean lower than at times depending on the plane of thought of the sentence. DOONI means short of or below of.
Allahi: Allah
Faqad: then indeed
Khasira: he lost
Note: the root is KH-S-R and it means to lose. KHASIRA is an action that is completed. It means: the action of losing happened by the subject (third person singular.).
Khusranan: loss
Note: the root is KH-S-R and it means to lose. KHUSRANAN means loss.
Mubeenan: clear/ self evident/ clarifying
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 conceptual sense. In this context, SULTANAN MEBEEN carries the meaning of clear or self evident and clarifying license to fight.

Salaam all and have a great day.

Hussein