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Sura 18
Aya 63
63
قالَ أَرَأَيتَ إِذ أَوَينا إِلَى الصَّخرَةِ فَإِنّي نَسيتُ الحوتَ وَما أَنسانيهُ إِلَّا الشَّيطانُ أَن أَذكُرَهُ ۚ وَاتَّخَذَ سَبيلَهُ فِي البَحرِ عَجَبًا

Yusuf Ali

He replied: “Sawest thou (what happened) when we betook ourselves to the rock? I did indeed forget (about) the Fish: none but Satan made me forget to tell (you) about it:1 it took its course through the sea in a marvellous way!”
  • The attendant actually saw the fish swimming away in the sea, and yet “forgot” to tell his master. In his case the “forgetting” was more than forgetting. Inertia had made him refrain from telling the important news. In such matters inertia is almost as bad as active spite, the suggestion of Satan. So new knowledge or spiritual knowledge is not only passed by in ignorance, but sometimes by culpable negligence.