Illa man khatifa alkhatfata faatbaAAahu shihabun thaqib (surah Assaaffat: 10)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(37:10) And if any is able to snatch a fragment, he is pursued by a piercing flame. *7

Illaa man khatifal khatfata fa atba`ahoo shihaabun saaqib

*7) To understand this one should keep in view the fact that in the time of the Holy Prophet, soothsa ving was in great vogue in Arabia. The soothsayers used to make predictions, give news of the unseen, tell the whereabouts of the lost properties and articles, and the people used to visit them to know the events of their past and future lives. These soothsayers claimed that they had some jinns and satans under their control, who brought them all sorts of news. In this environment when the Holy Prophet was appointed to Prophethood, and he began to recite the verses of the Qur'an, which described the past history and contained news of the future, and also stated that an angel brought him these verses, his opponents immediately branded him a soothsayer and started telling others that, like the other soothsayers, he too was associated with a satan, who brought him news from the heavens, which he presented as revelations from Allah. To refute this accusation, Allah says: "The satans have no access to heaven. They have no power to hear the conversations of the angels and bring its news for others; if by chance a little of it enters the ear of a satan, and he tries to bring it down, he is followed by a flashing flame." In other words, it means: "The grand system of the universe, which is functioning under the agency of the angels has been firmly guarded and secured against every interference of the satans. Not to speak of interfering in it, they do not even have the power to obtain any kind of information about it. " (For further explanation, see AI-Hijr: 17-18 and the E.N's thereof).