Wajadtuha waqawmaha yasjudoona lishshamsi min dooni Allahi wazayyana lahumu ashshaytanu aAAmalahum fasaddahum (surah Naml: 24)

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

(27:24) I saw that she and her people prostrate themselves before the sun instead of Allah. " *30 ---- Satan *31 made their deeds seem fair to them, *32 and hindered them from the highway: therefore, they do not find the right path

Wajattuhaa wa qawmahaa yasjudoona lishshamsi min doonil laahi wa zaiyana lahumush Shaitaanu a`maalahum fasaddahum `anis sabeeli fahum laa yahtadoon

*30) This shows that the people of Saba' at that lime followed the religion of sun-worship, which is also supported by the ancient traditions of Arabia. Ibn ishaq has cited the genealogists' saying to the effect that Saba' have in fact descended from an ancestor whose name was `Abd Shams (slave of the sun, or sun-worshipper) and title Saba'. This is supported by the Israelite traditions as well. According to these when the hud=hud arrived with the Prophet Solomon's letter, the queen of Sheba was going for the worship of the sun-god, and it threw the letter on the way before the queen.
*31) The style shows that the sentences from here to the end of the paragraph are not a part of the hud-bud's speech but its speech ended with: "they prostrate themselves before the sun", and these words are an addition by Allah to its speech. 'I his opinion is supported by the sentence: "He knows all that you conceal and reveal." These words give the impression that the speaker and the addressees here are not he hud-hud and the Prophet Solomon and his courtiers respectively, but the speaker is Allah and the addressees the mushriks of Makkah, for whose admonition this story has been related. From among the commentators, 'Allamah Alusi;, the author of Ruh-al-Ma ani, also has preferred the same opinion.
*32) That is, Satan has made them believe that earning the worldly wealth and making, their lives more and more grand and pompous is the only real and fit use of their mental and intellectual and physical powers. Apart from these, they need not think seriously on anything else: they need not bother themselves to see whether there was any factual reality behind the apparent life of the world or not, and whether the basis of their religion, morality, culture and system of life accorded with that Reality or went utterly against it. Satan satisfied them that when they were making adequate progress in respect of wealth and power and worldly grandeur, they had no need to see whether their beliefs and philosophies and theories were correct or not, for the only proof of their being correct was that they were earning wealth and enjoying life to their hearts content.