(Iblis) said: "O my Lord! give me then respite(1973) till the Day the (dead) are raised."
1973 What was this respite! The curse on Iblis remained, i.e., he was deprived of Allah's Grace and became in the spiritual world what an outlaw is in a political kingdom. An earthly kingdom may not be able to catch and destroy an outlaw. But Allah is Omnipotent, and such power as IblTs may have had can only come through the respite granted by Allah. The respite then is what is expressed in 15:39 below. In Allah's grant of limited free will to man is implied the faculty of choosing between good and evil, and the faculty is exercised through the temptations and allurements put forward by Satan, "the open enemy" of man. This is for the period of man's probation on this earth. Even so, no temptations have power over the sincere worshippers of Allah, who are purified by His grace.