16 Preface كَمَثَلِ الشَّيطانِ إِذ قالَ لِلإِنسانِ اكفُر فَلَمّا كَفَرَ قالَ إِنّي بَريءٌ مِنكَ إِنّي أَخافُ اللَّهَ رَبَّ العالَمينَYusuf Ali(Their allies deceived them), like the Evil One, when he says to man, “Deny God.: but when1 (man) denies God, (the Evil One) says, “I am free of thee: I do fear God, the Lord of the Worlds!”An apt simile. Evil tempts man in all sorts of ways, and presents seductive promises and alliances to delude him into the belief that he will be saved from the consequences. The Evil One says, “Deny God”: which means not merely denial in words, but denial in acts?disobedience of God’s Law, deviation from the path of rectitude. When the sinner gets well into the mire, the Evil One says cynically: “How can I help you against God? Don’t you see I am afraid of Him? All our alliances and understandings were moonshine. You must bear the consequences of your own folly.”