Sura-20 [Taha Mecca 45 ]

The Quranic Text & Ali’s version:

وَلَقَدْ عَهِدْنَا إِلَى آدَمَ مِن قَبْلُ...   

20:115. We had already, beforehand, taken the covenant of Adam,

C2640. The spiritual fall of two individual souls, Pharaoh and the Samiri, having been referred to, the one through overweening arrogance, and the other through a spirit of mischief and false harking back to the past,

our attention is now called to the prototype of Evil (Satan) who tempted Adam, the original Man, and to the fact that though man was clearly warned that Satan is his enemy and will only effect his ruin, he showed so little firmness that he succumbed to it at once at the first opportunity.

...فَنَسِيَ وَلَمْ نَجِدْ لَهُ عَزْمًا ﴿١١٥﴾

but he forgot: and We found on his part no firm resolve.

Asad’s Version:

20:115

AND, INDEED, long ago did We impose Our commandment on Adam; 102 but he forgot it, and

We found no firmness of purpose in him.

20:116

For [thus it was:] when We told the angels, "Prostrate yourselves before Adam!" - they all

prostrated themselves, save Iblis, who refused [to do it]; 103 (20: 1 17) and thereupon We said: "O

Adam! Verily, this is a foe unto thee and thy wife: so let him not drive the two of you out of

[[Asad’s note -102 The relevant divine commandment - or, rather, warning - is spelled out in verse 117. The present passage connects with the statement in verse 99, "Thus do We relate unto thee some of the stories of what happened in the past", and is meant to show that negligence of spiritual truths is one of the recurrent characteristics of the human race (Razi), which is symbolized here - as in many other

places in the Qur'an - by Adam. ]]

[[Ali’s note - 2640 The spiritual fall of two individual souls, Pharaoh and the Samiri, having been referred to, the one through overweening arrogance, and the other through a spirit of mischief and false harking back to the past, our attention is now called to the prototype of Evil (satan) who tempted Adam, the original Man, and to the fact that though man was clearly warned that satan is his enemy and will only effect his ruin, he showed so little firmness that he succumbed to it at once at the first opportunity. (20.115) ]]