وَلَقَدْ مَكَّنَّٰكُمْ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَجَعَلْنَا لَكُمْ فِيهَا مَعَٰيِشَ ۗ قَلِيلًۭا مَّا تَشْكُرُونَ
Certainly We have established you on the earth, and made in it [various] means of livelihood for you. Little do you thank.
وَلَقَدْ خَلَقْنَٰكُمْ ثُمَّ صَوَّرْنَٰكُمْ ثُمَّ قُلْنَا لِلْمَلَٰٓئِكَةِ ٱسْجُدُوا۟ لِءَادَمَ فَسَجَدُوٓا۟ إِلَّآ إِبْلِيسَ لَمْ يَكُن مِّنَ ٱلسَّٰجِدِينَ
Certainly We created you, then We formed you, then We said to the angels, ‘Prostrate before Adam.’ So they [all] prostrated, but not Iblis: he was not among those who prostrated.
قَالَ مَا مَنَعَكَ أَلَّا تَسْجُدَ إِذْ أَمَرْتُكَ ۖ قَالَ أَنَا۠ خَيْرٌۭ مِّنْهُ خَلَقْتَنِى مِن نَّارٍۢ وَخَلَقْتَهُۥ مِن طِينٍۢ
Said He, ‘What prevented you from prostrating, when I commanded you? ’‘I am better than him,’ he said. ‘You created me from fire and You created him from clay.’
قَالَ فَٱهْبِطْ مِنْهَا فَمَا يَكُونُ لَكَ أَن تَتَكَبَّرَ فِيهَا فَٱخْرُجْ إِنَّكَ مِنَ ٱلصَّٰغِرِينَ
‘Get down from it!’ He said. ‘It is not for you to be arrogant therein. Begone! You are indeed among the degraded ones.’
قَالَ أَنظِرْنِىٓ إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ يُبْعَثُونَ
He said, ‘Respite me till the day they will be resurrected.’
قَالَ إِنَّكَ مِنَ ٱلْمُنظَرِينَ
Said He, ‘You are indeed among the reprieved.’
قَالَ فَبِمَآ أَغْوَيْتَنِى لَأَقْعُدَنَّ لَهُمْ صِرَٰطَكَ ٱلْمُسْتَقِيمَ
‘As You have consigned me to perversity,’ he said, ‘I will surely lie in wait for them on Your straight path.
ثُمَّ لَءَاتِيَنَّهُم مِّنۢ بَيْنِ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِمْ وَعَنْ أَيْمَٰنِهِمْ وَعَن شَمَآئِلِهِمْ ۖ وَلَا تَجِدُ أَكْثَرَهُمْ شَٰكِرِينَ
Then I will come at them from their front and from their rear, and from their right and their left, and You will not find most of them to be grateful.’
قَالَ ٱخْرُجْ مِنْهَا مَذْءُومًۭا مَّدْحُورًۭا ۖ لَّمَن تَبِعَكَ مِنْهُمْ لَأَمْلَأَنَّ جَهَنَّمَ مِنكُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ
Said He, ‘Begone hence, blameful and banished! Whoever of them follows you, I will surely fill hell with you all.’
وَيَٰٓـَٔادَمُ ٱسْكُنْ أَنتَ وَزَوْجُكَ ٱلْجَنَّةَ فَكُلَا مِنْ حَيْثُ شِئْتُمَا وَلَا تَقْرَبَا هَٰذِهِ ٱلشَّجَرَةَ فَتَكُونَا مِنَ ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ
[Then He said to Adam,] ‘O Adam, dwell with your mate in paradise, and eat thereof whence you wish; but do not approach this tree, lest you should be among the wrongdoers.’
فَوَسْوَسَ لَهُمَا ٱلشَّيْطَٰنُ لِيُبْدِىَ لَهُمَا مَا وُۥرِىَ عَنْهُمَا مِن سَوْءَٰتِهِمَا وَقَالَ مَا نَهَىٰكُمَا رَبُّكُمَا عَنْ هَٰذِهِ ٱلشَّجَرَةِ إِلَّآ أَن تَكُونَا مَلَكَيْنِ أَوْ تَكُونَا مِنَ ٱلْخَٰلِدِينَ
Then Satan tempted them, to expose to them what was hidden from them of their nakedness, and he said, ‘Your Lord has only forbidden you from this tree lest you should become angels, or lest you become immortal.’
وَقَاسَمَهُمَآ إِنِّى لَكُمَا لَمِنَ ٱلنَّٰصِحِينَ
And he swore to them, ‘I am indeed your well-wisher.’
فَدَلَّىٰهُمَا بِغُرُورٍۢ ۚ فَلَمَّا ذَاقَا ٱلشَّجَرَةَ بَدَتْ لَهُمَا سَوْءَٰتُهُمَا وَطَفِقَا يَخْصِفَانِ عَلَيْهِمَا مِن وَرَقِ ٱلْجَنَّةِ ۖ وَنَادَىٰهُمَا رَبُّهُمَآ أَلَمْ أَنْهَكُمَا عَن تِلْكُمَا ٱلشَّجَرَةِ وَأَقُل لَّكُمَآ إِنَّ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنَ لَكُمَا عَدُوٌّۭ مُّبِينٌۭ
Thus he brought about their fall by deception. So when they tasted of the tree, their nakedness became exposed to them, and they began to stitch over themselves with the leaves of paradise. Their Lord called out to them, ‘Did I not forbid you from that tree, and tell you, ‘‘Satan is indeed your manifest enemy?’’ ’
قَالَا رَبَّنَا ظَلَمْنَآ أَنفُسَنَا وَإِن لَّمْ تَغْفِرْ لَنَا وَتَرْحَمْنَا لَنَكُونَنَّ مِنَ ٱلْخَٰسِرِينَ
They said, ‘Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves! If You do not forgive us and have mercy upon us, we will surely be among the losers.’
قَالَ ٱهْبِطُوا۟ بَعْضُكُمْ لِبَعْضٍ عَدُوٌّۭ ۖ وَلَكُمْ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ مُسْتَقَرٌّۭ وَمَتَٰعٌ إِلَىٰ حِينٍۢ
He said, ‘Get down, being enemies of one another! On the earth shall be your abode and sustenance for a time.’
قَالَ فِيهَا تَحْيَوْنَ وَفِيهَا تَمُوتُونَ وَمِنْهَا تُخْرَجُونَ
He said, ‘In it you will live, and in it you will die; and from it you will be raised [from the dead].’
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
After the favours of establishment and livelihood (10) — "yet little do you thank" — the sūra turns to the drama that frames the whole chapter: the making of Adam, the angels' prostration, and Iblīs's refusal. al-Ṭabarsī and al-Ṭūsī read the plural address ("We created you, then shaped you… then said to the angels") as humankind spoken to through their forefather Adam, and al-Burhān and al-Qummī add the embryology gloss of Imam al-Bāqir — khalq as the drop, clot, lump, bone and flesh; taṣwīr as the forming of eye, nose, ear, mouth, hands and feet.
Iblīs's "I am better than him — fire against clay" is read by every source as the archetypal error of qiyās. al-Mīzān names it analogy that rests on "probabilistic personal opinion," and locates the real sin not in the syllogism but in arrogance: pride was incompatible with his station, so it amounted to "exiting that level and falling to the abyss." al-Ṭabarsī and al-Ṭūsī answer the analogy directly — nobility does not bar the command, which follows God's knowledge of the servants' welfare; al-Jubbāʾī even argues clay is the nobler element — and al-Ṭūsī draws two Imāmī conclusions: the prostration proves Adam's superiority over the angels, and the blame on Iblīs proves a divine command implies obligation. The Shīʿī narrations sharpen the lesson: al-Burhān carries al-Ṣādiq's rebuke of Abū Ḥanīfa — "the first to reason by analogy was Iblīs" — and the striking gloss that the "straight path" Iblīs vowed to ambush is ʿAlī, and that "he aimed only at you and your companions [the Shīʿa]; the others he is already finished with." The fourfold assault (before, behind, right, left) is given a moral anatomy by al-Bāqir, preserved in al-Ṭabarsī, al-Burhān and al-Qummī: making the Hereafter seem light, commanding the hoarding of wealth, adorning misguidance, and enslaving the heart to appetite.
The garden episode (19–25) is where the Imāmī concern for prophetic ʿiṣma is most visible. al-Ṭūsī and al-Ṭabarsī insist the prohibition was nahy tanzīh — counsel of avoidance, not a binding ban — so Adam committed no base act and neglected no duty; "we have wronged ourselves" means only that they forfeited great reward (tark al-awlā), and al-Murtaḍā reframes "lest you become two angels" so it carries no slight to prophets over angels. al-Mīzān likewise treats the angels as "fixed on obedience," not subject to legislative command. The narrations in al-Burhān and al-Qummī add vivid color: al-Ṣādiq's ruling that Adam's garden was a garden of this world — "had it been of the Hereafter he would never have been expelled, nor would Iblīs have entered" — al-Hādī's identification of the forbidden tree as the tree of envy, the insistence that Adam "did not forget" but was deceived by a false oath ("I did not think any creature would swear by God falsely"), and the Adam–Mūsā exchange in which "Adam bested Mūsā" because the lapse was foreordained. The Enlightening Commentary gathers these into the plain moral the descent teaches — "therein you live, and therein you die, and from it you are brought forth" (25) — that the earth is the arena of trial, and Satan the declared enemy at its gate.