Synthesis: Sūrat al-Hijr 26–44

Triangulating five present sources — Ṭabarsī (Majmaʿ al-Bayān) [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan], al-Qummī [qummi], al-Ṭūsī (al-Tibyān) [tusi_al_tibyan], al-Baḥrānī (al-Burhān) [bahrani_al_burhan], and al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī (al-Mīzān) [tabatabai_al_mizan] — plus the published Enlightening Commentary [enlightening_commentary]. All five Arabic sources speak to this passage; none is silent.

Human-review flags: bahrani_al_burhan and tabatabai_al_mizan are flagged. Al-Burhān is ~72k chars of narration — a very long Tuḥfat al-Ikhwān creation story (v. 27) plus ~25 isnād-bearing aḥādīth — rendered in faithful summary with chains and proper names preserved, not verbatim (verify isnād spellings against the print edition). Al-Mīzān is one coarse unit covering vv. 26–48; its long theological excursus is condensed faithfully. See cross_check_notes on both.

What the passage says. God recounts the first creation: man from "dry clay (ṣalṣāl) drawn from aging mud (ḥamaʾ masnūn)," and al-jānn, created earlier "from the fire of the samūm." He tells the angels He will create a bashar and, once He has proportioned him and "breathed into him of My spirit," commands prostration. All the angels prostrate; Iblīs alone refuses, pleads his nobler fiery origin, and is expelled — rajīm, cursed "until the Day of Judgment." He asks respite "to the day they are raised"; God grants it only "to the day of the known time." Iblīs vows to mislead all save God's mukhlaṣ servants; God replies that this is "a straight path unto Me," that Iblīs has no authority over His servants except the misguided who follow him, and that Hell — seven gates, an apportioned portion at each — is their tryst.

How the sources read it. On the lexicon, Ṭabarsī, Ṭūsī, and al-Mīzān (citing al-Rāghib) converge: ṣalṣāl is dry clay that rings when struck (preferred, per 55:14, over the minority "stinking" of Mujāhid/al-Kisāʾī), ḥamaʾ is altered black clay, masnūn is "poured/formed" or "altered." Al-Qummī gives the same in miniature, and al-Burhān anchors it in a ḥadīth of ʿAlī b. Ibrāhīm with the identical gloss. Ṭabarsī, Ṭūsī, and al-Mīzān share the theme that man's honor lies in religion and works, not origin, harmonizing the dust/clay/mud/dry-clay sequence as successive states.

On Iblīs's nature, all five agree he was of the jinn, not the angels: Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī rehearse the classical dispute (back to al-Baqara) and the proofs that angels are of light and sinless; al-Qummī and al-Burhān make al-jānn the "father of Iblīs"; al-Mīzān argues decisively from 18:50. Al-Burhān uniquely preserves the believing-jinn report of Hām b. Hīm b. Lāqīs b. Iblīs (also in al-Qummī), web-confirmed as a known tradition.

On "of My spirit," Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī read the annexation as one of honor/ownership (like "My House"); al-Mīzān deepens it metaphysically, and al-Burhān's narration-cluster (al-Kulaynī, Ibn Bābawayh, al-ʿAyyāshī) insists the breathed spirit is created, "of His power," diminishing nothing of God.

The sharpest labor concerns bimā aghwaytanī (v. 39) and "the day of the known time." Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī list the same four readings (misguidance / disappointment / decree-of-error / the imposed prostration). Al-Mīzān breaks with the kalām tradition: the ighwāʾ is requital, not initial misguidance, grounded in the settled curse — a reading it extends to v. 42, refuting Iblīs from three angles and insisting "My servants" means all mankind. On the "known time," Ṭabarsī, Ṭūsī, and the Enlightening Commentary give the majority "first blast"; but al-Qummī, al-Burhān (nos. 5862–5868), and al-Mīzān's narrations identify it with the rajʿa — the day the Qāʾim / the Prophet slays Iblīs (al-Burhān placing the battle at al-Rawḥāʾ near Kufa, web-confirmed), al-Mīzān reasoning toward the same end while noting some reports may be taqiyya.

On v. 41, all agree on the two qirāʾāt — Yaʿqūb's ṣirāṭun ʿaliyyun (nominative, "lofty," web-confirmed) vs. the majority ʿalayya ("incumbent upon Me") — Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī favoring Abū al-Ḥasan's "under My guarantee"; al-Burhān adds the ʿAlid taʾwīl (nos. 5872–5874): the "straight path" is ʿAlī (a) and "My servants" the Imams and Shīʿa. On the seven gates (v. 44), Ṭabarsī, al-Qummī, and al-Mīzān preserve the layered scheme (Jahannam, Laẓā, Saqar, Ḥuṭama, Hāwiya, Jaḥīm, Saʿīr — web-confirmed), with both the ʿAlid "layers one above another" and al-Ḍaḥḥāk's by-community ordering; al-Mīzān prefers "gates = levels," al-Burhān giving the by-name taʾwīl and the legal use of juzʾ = one-seventh.

Sources present: tabarsi_majma_al_bayan, qummi, tusi_al_tibyan, bahrani_al_burhan, tabatabai_al_mizan, enlightening_commentary; silent: none.