27۞ قالَ قَرينُهُ رَبَّنا ما أَطغَيتُهُ وَلٰكِن كانَ في ضَلالٍ بَعيدٍMuhammad AsadMan's other self1 will say: "O our Sustainer! It was not I that led his conscious mind2 into evil -[nay,] but it had gone far astray [of its own accord]!"3Lit., as in verse 23, "his intimate companion" (qarin): but whereas there it may be taken as denoting man's moral consciousness or reason (cf. note 15 above), in the present instance the "speaker" is obviously its counterpart, namely, the complex of the sinner's instinctive urges and inordinate, unrestrained appetitites summarized in the term sa'iq ("that which drives") and often symbolized as shaytan ("satan" or "satanic force": see Razi's remarks quoted in note 31 on 14:22.) In this sense, the term qarin has the same connotation as in 41:25 and 43:36.Lit., "him" or "it" - referring to man's faculty of conscious, controlling reason (shahid).I.e., man's evil impulses and appetites cannot gain ascendancy unless his conscious mind goes astray from moral verities: and this explains the purport, in the present context, of verses 24-25 above.