The Quran

Preface

وَإِذ قُلنا لِلمَلائِكَةِ اسجُدوا لِآدَمَ فَسَجَدوا إِلّا إِبليسَ كانَ مِنَ الجِنِّ فَفَسَقَ عَن أَمرِ رَبِّهِ ۗ أَفَتَتَّخِذونَهُ وَذُرِّيَّتَهُ أَولِياءَ مِن دوني وَهُم لَكُم عَدُوٌّ ۚ بِئسَ لِلظّالِمينَ بَدَلًا

Yusuf Ali

Behold! We said to the angels, “Bow down¹ to Adam”: They bowed down except Iblis. He was one of the Jinns,² and he broke the Command of his Lord. Will ye then take him and his progeny³ as protectors rather than Me? And they are enemies to you! Evil would be the exchange⁴ for the wrongdoers!

Cf. 2:34, where the story is told of the fall of mankind through Adam. Here the point is referred to in order to bring home the individual responsibility of the erring soul. Iblis is your enemy: you have been told his history; will you prefer to go to him rather than to the merciful God, your Creator and Cherisher? What a false exchange you would make!'
Cf. 6:100, n. 929.
Satan’s progeny, we need not take the epithet only in a literal sense. All his followers are also his progeny. (R).
Out of the limited free-will that man has, if he were to choose Evil instead of Good, Satan instead of God, what a dreadful choice it would be! It would really be an evil exchange. For man is God’s creature, cared for and cherished by Him. He abandons his Cherisher to become the slave of his enemy!