The Holy Quran 38:76 — Surah Sad

Arabic text

قَالَ أَنَا۠ خَيْرٌ مِّنْهُ ۖ خَلَقْتَنِى مِن نَّارٍ وَخَلَقْتَهُۥ مِن طِينٍ

Translation

He (Iblees) replied, "I am better than he. You have created me from fire, while you have created him from clay." (While Iblees argued that fire is better than clay because fire burns upwards and clay falls down, he failed to realise that clay extinguishes fire and that it is constructive whereas fire is destructive.)

Tafsir (excerpt) — Tafsir Usmani

this has already been explained in Surah Al-A'raf. Shah [Abd al-Qadir] ﵀ writes that fire is hot and turbulent, while clay is cool and silent. Iblis considered fire better, but Allah favoured this clay.

Preview. The full text opens with JavaScript enabled.