The Quran

Preface

يُنادونَهُم أَلَم نَكُن مَعَكُم ۖ قالوا بَلىٰ وَلٰكِنَّكُم فَتَنتُم أَنفُسَكُم وَتَرَبَّصتُم وَارتَبتُم وَغَرَّتكُمُ الأَمانِيُّ حَتّىٰ جاءَ أَمرُ اللَّهِ وَغَرَّكُم بِاللَّهِ الغَرورُ

Yusuf Ali

(Those without) will call out, “Were we not with you?”¹ (The others) will reply, “True! but ye led yourselves into temptation; ye looked forward (to our ruin); ye doubted (God?s Promise); and (your false) desires deceived you; until there issued the Command of God. And the Deceiver deceived you in respect of God.²

The evil will now claim same right of kinship or association or proximity with the good in earthly life; but in fact they had been arrogant and had selfishly despised them before. The reply will be: (1) you yourselves chose temptation and evil; (2) when you had power in your earthly life, you hoped for ruin to the good, and perhaps plotted for it; (3) you were warned by prophets of God, but you doubted God’s very existence and certainly His Mercy and Justice, and the Hereafter; (4) you followed your own lusts and neglected Reason and Truth; (5) you were given plenty of rope, but you followed your mad career, until Judgment came upon you, and now it is too late for repentance.
The Arch-Deceiver (Satan) deceived you in respect of God in many ways: for example, he made you oblivious of God’s Mercy and loving-kindness; he made you reject His Grace; he made you think that God’s Justice may not overtake you; etc.