al-Ḥijr 15:32-35

Qāla yā Iblīsu mā laka allā takūna maʿa'l-sājidīn · Qāla lam akun li-asjuda li-basharin khalaqtahu min ṣalṣālin min ḥamaʾin masnūn · Qāla fa-khruj minhā fa-innaka rajīm · Wa inna ʿalayka'l-laʿnata ilā yawmi'l-dīn

"'O Iblīs! What is the matter with you, that you are not with those who prostrate?' · He said: 'I am not one to prostrate before a human being You created from dry clay, from a moulded black mud.' · 'Then get out of it; you are accursed. · And upon you is the curse until the day of judgement.'"

The question is not "why did you not prostrate": mā laka allā takūna maʿa'l-sājidīn — "what is the matter with you, that you are not with those who prostrate?"

I record this as an observation about the word order: the question looks not at the act but at the rank. The matter is not a single piece of behaviour but parting from the company. And Iblīs's answer accepts exactly this point: lam akun li-asjuda — "I was not one to prostrate."

The sentence does not say "I did not prostrate". Lam akun li-asjuda — word for word: "it would not have been in my way to prostrate."

In Arabic this pattern (lām al-juḥūd) conveys that an act is contrary to the condition of the person. That is, Iblīs presents his not prostrating not as a decision but as a requirement of his own position.

And the ground must be recorded: li-basharin khalaqtahu min ṣalṣālin min ḥamaʾin masnūn.

I record this as an observation about the word order: Iblīs repeats the material of man — with the very words the verse itself used. That is, the objection does not reject the information given; it uses it as evidence.

And in Ṣād this objection was given in the form of a comparison: anā khayrun minhu khalaqtanī min nārin wa khalaqtahu min ṭīn (38/76). Here only one half of the comparison is present: he does not speak of his own material.

I record this as my own reading, its ground being the comparison of the two texts: in al-Ḥijr the claim of superiority is not stated, it is assumed. The sentence puts his own position outside discussion. And the sūra had already prepared this in the twenty-seventh verse: by saying that the jinn was created before.

The referent of the pronoun is not stated in the verse. The lexicographers differ:

All three are transmitted; I do not impose a preference, and I do not enter into a description of place.

رَجِيم — root ر-ج-م: to stone, to drive off. Rajm — stoning; rajīm — stoned, driven off.

And the word had occurred in the seventeenth verse of the sūra: min kulli shayṭānin rajīm. That is, the attribute had already been used in the sūra before it was given to Iblīs. This is a repetition within the sūra that can be verified, and I record it as an observation about the word order: the sūra recounts first the attribute, then the moment at which the attribute was laid on.