Sam Shamoun "Allah and Satan: Who Misleads Whom?"

Sam Shamoun "Allah and Satan: Who Misleads Whom?"

The entire Quran is a discourse from Allah alone, transmitted to the prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel. It isnt God's autobiography for it to be cast wholly in the form of 'I' and 'me'. It quotes many different speakers, past, contemporaries to it, or future, like prophets, angels, regular believers or close companions of Muhammad, jinn, Iblis and more. It reports in Arabic the communications in different languages, and by different entities, belonging to both realms of the unseen and the seen. It even sometimes quotes inanimate entities made to speak for a specific purpose. These quotes, including those made by entities unable to emit sounds are obviously not, in most cases, the verbatim statements, rather the meaning into Arabic of their particular type of communication. Hence sometimes the variations in wording when the Quran translates their communication in different places throughout the book. An Arabic word chosen in one narration of a story conveys one aspect of the original communication, while another closely related word used instead in a retelling of the same story may convey an additional shade of meaning that was present in the original communication.

All this is achieved while actively interracting with the reader or audience, sometimes involving it in the flow of the discourse. It remains in all cases God's word, whoever it quotes, whoever it "commands to proclaim" as denoted with the recurrent "qul". When Allah speaks through the prophet starting with "qul", the words spoken afterwards do not become the words of the speaker, for example 

39:10"Qul (Say/Proclaim/Declare/State/Mention), “O My servants who have believed, fear your Lord. For those who do good in this world is good, and the earth of Allah is spacious. Indeed, the patient will be given their reward without account." 

In the Hebrew Bible, the book of Ezekiel is full of verses addressing the prophet beginning with "say".
By its nature as a flowing speech, it would be contrary to eloquence for the Quran to constantly cut its flow whenever it is about to quote a character, especially while relating a dialogue. That is why the text is highly elliptical, with eloquent and appropriate omissions that never disturb its flow and precision.  This dramatic style of the Quran puts the audience in a position where they seem to hear the words directly from the speakers — not through a narrator.

Many times the revelation quotes Allah directly, or another entity without starting with the "qul" formula or without "x person said or replied". 

Here is an example;

4:117 They do not call besides Him on anything but idols, and they do not call on anything but a rebellious Shaitan.
118. Allah has cursed him; and he said: Most certainly I will take of Thy servants an appointed portion (see 15:42,22:4):
119. And most certainly I will lead them astray and excite in them vain desires, and bid them so that they shall slit the ears of the cattle, and most certainly I will bid them so that they shall alter Allah's creation; and whoever takes the Shaitan for a guardian rather than Allah he indeed shall suffer a manifest loss.
120. He gives them promises and excites vain desires in them; and the Shaitan does not promise them but to deceive.

The HIM in v117 refers to Allah. It cannot be a satan since he is qualified as being called upon besides "Him". Also the previous verse stresses Allah's unity and absence of associates, such as the idols and the satans whom the polytheists are said to be calling besides "Him". The "he said" in v118 can only refer to the satan. The object of his speech is to make his followers "alter Allah's creation". 

What follows "and whoever takes...and the Shaitan does not promise them but to deceive" can only be Allah's warning statement, because it reiterates the satan's objectives and deceptions related prior. 

The whole passage, whether as it quotes Allah or satan, remains Allah's direct speech. It is a narration from Allah of a dialogue between Himself and Iblis, while at the same time interracting with the direct audience by injecting His warnings.

The style and contextual indicators are therefore enough to determine who the speaker is, whether it is during an exchange between several interlocutors, or when it is reporting the statement of a single entity. That person is then either directly quoted, paraphrased, or instructed on what to say in a given situation, context or ritual. Among the examples concerning the believers specifically, the Quran instructs them how to start certain endeavors or suras of the book with the "bismilla", or teaches them either within a larger sura or in a complete sura, like sura fatiha, how to verbally seek Allah's guidance. In the HB God says to Moses Ex33:19"I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you", ie I will teach you how to worship Me. In the book of Jeremiah, after a long admonishment, the prophet begins quoting, without any transition, a prayer of repentance to be uttered by the believers Jer3:22-5. 

Further reading answering Sam Shamoun "Allah and Satan: Who Misleads Whom?"

1- Human actions are predetermined? (a share of adultery)

2- Sam Shamoun "Original Forgiveness – Did Original Sin Really End with Adam?" (2) (Allah misguides)

3- Islam critiqued evaluates literary eloquence; The royal plural? (iltifat)