Iblis

Priority: b, Quality: b
Without photo
Without infobox
Without navbox
From wikishia

Iblīs (Arabic: اِبلیس) is the name of a jinn who did not prostrate before Adam (a) and was dismissed from his position. According to some exegetes of the Qur'an, he was an angel.

The word, "Iblis", has been used 11 times in the Qur'an—9 times in the story of the creation of Adam (a) and the order to prostrate for him. The word, "Shaytan" (Satan) and its plural form, "Shayatin", are used 88 times in the Qur'an in many cases of which they refer to Iblis.

When he refused to prostrate for Adam (a), he was cursed by God and as a result was dismissed from his position. He then supplicated to God to allow him to stay alive until the Day of Judgement. God accepted his request and gave upon him immortality up to a fixed date. Therefore, Iblis swears to misdirect people—the children of Adam—as long as he has time. Since then, he is engaged in skewing the attention of the humans of God and wooing them into perpetrating wicked acts and villainy. He and his recruits are promised to meet the hell fire, eventually.

Etymology

There are two views about the etymology of the word, "Iblis":

  • Some philologists[1] and exegetes of the Qur'an[2] take "Iblis" to be an Arabic word from the root, "b-l-s" (ب-ل-س). The root literally means disappointment, remorse, frustration, sorrow out of fear, regret, and wonder. Iblis was called so because he was disappointed about any divine mercy.[3] On this view, "Iblis" is diptote[4] because it is very similar to non-Arabic words.[5]
  • Most philologists take "Iblis" to come from non-Arabic languages, and take the reason for its being diptote to be that it is a non-Arabic proper name.[6]

Other Names of Iblis

According to some hadiths, Iblis's original name was Ḥārith (حارث) or Ḥarath (حَرَث) who later came to be called "'Azāzīl" (God's dear) because he worshiped God for long periods of time. When he became proud of himself he was called Iblis, and when he refused to prostrate for Adam (a) and was dismissed from the divine court he came to be called "Shaytan" (Satan).[7]

His other names are "Ḍarīs" (ضریس), "Sarḥūb" (سرحوب), "al-Mutakawwin" (المتکوّن), and "al-Mutakawwiz" (المتکوّز).[8] Zoroastrians call him "Angra Mainyu". Iblis's kunyas and titles are: Abu Murra (Abu Qurra), Abu Kardus, Abu Lubna (attributed to his daughter's name),[9] Na'il, Abu l-Hasban, Abu Khilaf, and Abu Dajjana.[10]

Relationship between Iblis and Shaytan

"Iblis" is used 11 times in the Quran, 9 of which occurred in the story of the creation of Adam (a) and God's order to prostrate for him.[11]

The words, "Shaytan" and "Shayatin", occurred 88 times in the Quran in many cases of which they refer to Iblis. "Shaytan" is a generic noun referring to any vicious, disobedient, and deceiving creature. An examination of the uses of the word, "Shaytan", in the Quran and what the exegetes have said shows that in most cases, "Shaytan" refers to Iblis or at least has him as his primary referent.[12] Some people hold that "Shaytan" is often used to refer to Iblis[13] and is almost a proper name.[14] According to others, "al-Shaytan" is always equivalent to "Iblis".[15]

The Story of Iblis

As narrated in the verses of Qur'an 7, the story is that when God created the human being—Adam (a)—from mud and blew His spirit in it, He ordered the angels to prostrate for Adam (a). All the angels prostrated except Iblis. He was being proud and refused to prostrate for Adam (a). When God asked him why, he said: "I am superior to Adam (a), since you have made me from fire and him from mud."[16] Then God dismissed Iblis from where he was and cursed him. Iblis asked God to let him stay alive until Dooms Day and God gave him a certain time. Then Iblis swore that he would mislead all the servants of God except a selected few, and God promised that He would throw him and his followers into the Hell.

There are two other cases in which "Iblis" occurs in the Qur'an:

  • Qur'an 26:95 [18]concerning the fate of Iblis and his followers on Dooms Day.

In volume 60 of Bihar al-anwar, al-'Allama al-Majlisi cited 177 hadiths from the Infallibles (a) regarding Iblis or Shaytan.

Iblis's Disbelief (Kufr)

The verse 34 of Qur'an 2[19] and verse 74 of Qur'an 38[20] say about Iblis that "he was a disbeliever". There is a disagreement among the exegetes over whether disbelief (kufr) here refers to disbelief out of malice or out of ignorance. Some scholars have appealed to Iblis's admission that he will mislead the servants of God to show that he is not ignorant of the right and wrong, and so his disbelief is out of malice; and other scholars who take disbelief to be essentially incompatible with knowledge of the right path maintain that Iblis's disbelief is out of ignorance.[21]

Also, the explanation of why Iblis's disbelief is reported in past tense ("was" a disbeliever) has led to various views.

Iblis in Other Religions

The belief in evil forces has for long been held by different religions and denominations. Thus, there are remarks about the devil—Iblis—and his nature, the extent of his activities, the ways to resist him, where he stays, and his fate in the Scriptures of earlier religions and denominations which are very similar in many cases, though slightly different at some points.

The Devil in Zoroastrianism

Iblis is referred to in Avesta as Angra Mainyu, and, in Pahlavi, it is called "Ahriman" which means "hostile spirit" and in Persian literature, it is referred to as "Gana-Minu" which means "destructive spirit".

The Satan in Judaism and Christiaity

For Jews and Christians, the Satan—Iblis—is known as a negative, detested creature. Although the creature who deceived Adam (a) and Eve (a) and made them fall from Eden is introduced in the Book of Genesis as a "snake",[22] the New Testament explicitly identifies the snake with Iblis.[23]

In the Bible, Iblis is identified with the Satan (Shaytan)[24] and the angel of a never-ending well. In Hebrew, he is called "Abaddon" and in Greek, it is called "Apollyon" (which means destructive).[25] The Bible frequently warns about his temptations and deceptions,[26] characterizing him as follows:

  • The head of demons[27]
  • The head of evil spirits (Poltergeists)[28]
  • The head of evil forces[29]
  • Essentially liar and the father of all liars[30]
  • The true father of disbelievers


In the Bible, Iblis is taken to be an angel[31] whose power is so wide-ranging that he is characterized as the ruler of this mundane[32] and sinful world[33] and the source of madness[34] and epilepsy.[35] According to the Bible, Iblis has the power to appear in any form, even that of angels, in order to deceive people.[36]

The Bible takes the hardened heart to be easy preys to Iblis,[37] and recommends human beings to equip themselves with divine weapons in order to be able to resist his temptations and deceptions.[38] It also talks about forgiving others in order to prevent Iblis's abuse,[39] and takes marriage to help one be freed from Satanic temptations.[40] Other ways of countering the Satan is to quit any relationships with disbelievers,[41] to rely on God, and to be steadfast.[42] According to the Bible, the eternal fire will be the place and the fate of the Satan and evil spirits. [43]

Satan in the Movies

Given the Christian conception of the Satan as a powerful and dismissed angel who is the current ruler of this world,[44] many screenwriters and directors have highlighted the independent power of the Satan from God in their work, thus reinforcing Satanism. This is contrary to the Islamic view according to which the Satan is a weak creature who has no control over anything and anyone.

Jinn or an Angel

There are two views about the nature of Iblis:

Philosophy of Creation and the Time given to Iblis

According to some hadiths, after refusing to comply with the divine command to prostrate before Adam (a), and then being dismissed from his position in heaven, Iblis asked God to give him time to live until the day of judgement, and as a reward for his previous worship, God gave him a "certain (known) time".[54]

Since Iblis is a source of devils, the question is usually asked why God has created him and accepted to give him some time after he was dismissed. Although there are many reasons why Iblis was created and these reasons are comprehensively known only by God,[55] philosophers, theologians and exegetes of the Quran have tried to provide answers to the question.

The Fate of Iblis and the "Certain Time"

There are different accounts of when and how Iblis will die ("certain time" in the Quran 38:80-81):

After citing different hadiths, al-'Allama al-Majlisi concludes that the Satan will be alive until the Dooms Day and will die at the Blowing of the Trumpet.[58]

According to 'Allama Tabataba'i, there is no necessary relation between human obligations and the existence of the Satan to deceive them. The human society might be reformed, and despite the existence of the Satan, all people might worship God only.[59]

In Qur'anic verses, the fate of Iblis and his followers is said to be the Hell. According to such verses, on Dooms Day after the divine judgment, Iblis will declare acquittal with respect to the sins of his followers, holding them responsible for their own actions: "I had no authority over you except to call you but you listened to me: then reproach not me, but reproach your own selves" (the Qur'an 14:22). Finally, they will all be thrown into the Hell.

Notes

  1. ↑ Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, Mufradāt alfāẓ al-Qurʾān, p. 143; Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha, vol. 1, p. 300; Farāhīdī, al-ʿIyn, p. 93.
  2. ↑ Ālūsī, Rawḥ al-maʿānī, vol. 1, p. 364; Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-bayān, vol. 1, p. 325.
  3. ↑ Zubaydī, Tāj al-ʿarūs, vol. 8, p. 208.
  4. ↑ It is a grammatical rule in Arabic. For more information about it check out this website: http://allthearabicyouneverlearnedthefirsttimearound.com/p3/p3-ch2/diptotes/
  5. ↑ Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab, vol. 1, p. 483; Ṭurayḥī, Majmaʿ al-baḥrayn, vol. 1, p. 239.
  6. ↑ Dāʾirat al-maʿārif al-Islāmīyya, vol. 14, p. 51; Hawks, Qāmūs-i Kitāb-i Muqaddas, p. 545.
  7. ↑ Ḥāʾirī, Dāʾirat al-maʿārif al-Shīʿīyya al-ʿāmma, vol. 2, p. 199.
  8. ↑ Ṭurayḥī, Majmaʿ al-baḥrayn, vol. 1, p. 239.
  9. ↑ Shabistarī, Aʿlām al-Qurʾān, p. 78.
  10. ↑ Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, Mufradāt alfāẓ al-Qurʾān, p. 143; Zubaydī, Tāj al-ʿarūs, vol. 8, p. 208; Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha, vol. 1, p. 300.
  11. ↑ Qurʿān: 2: 34; 7: 11; 15:31-32; 18:50; 20:116; 38:74-75.
  12. ↑ Ṭabāṭabāyī, al-Mīyān, vol. 7, p. 321.
  13. ↑ Ālūsī, Rawḥ al-maʿānī, vol. 1, p. 364.
  14. ↑ Shabistarī, Iʿlām al-Qurʾān, p. 83.
  15. ↑ Ṭabrisī, Majmaʿ al-bayān, vol. 6, p. 478.
  16. ↑ Qur'an 7:10
  17. ↑ Certainly Iblis had his conjecture come true about them. So they followed him—all except a part of the faithful.
  18. ↑ And the hosts of Iblis all together.
  19. ↑ he refused and acted arrogantly, and he was one of the faithless.
  20. ↑ but not Iblis; he acted arrogantly and he was one of the faithless.
  21. ↑ Fakhr al-Rāzī, al-Tafsīr al-kabīr, vol. 14, p. 39.
  22. ↑ Genesis: 3:1-14.
  23. ↑ Book of Revelation, 12:9.
  24. ↑ Book of Revelation, 12:9; 20:2.
  25. ↑ Book of Revelation, 9:11.
  26. ↑ Ephesians, 4:27; 6:11.
  27. ↑ Matthew: 9: 34.
  28. ↑ Ephesians, 2:2.
  29. ↑ John: 8:45.
  30. ↑ John: 8:44.
  31. ↑ Hawks, Qāmūs-i Kitāb-i Muqaddas, p. 545.
  32. ↑ John: 12:31.
  33. ↑ Second Epistle to the Corinthians, 4:3-5.
  34. ↑ Mark: 5:1-20.
  35. ↑ Mark: 5:17-27.
  36. ↑ Second Epistle to the Corinthians, 11:14-16.
  37. ↑ Mark: 4:15.
  38. ↑ Ephesians, 6:11.
  39. ↑ Second Epistle to the Corinthians, 2:11.
  40. ↑ First Epistle to the Corinthians, 7:5.
  41. ↑ Second Epistle to the Corinthians, 6:12-15.
  42. ↑ First Epistle of Peter, 5:8.
  43. ↑ Matthew: 25: 41; Second Epistle to the Corinthians, 11:14.
  44. ↑ John:12:31-32.
  45. ↑ Ṭūsī, al-Tibyān, vol. 1, p. 151.
  46. ↑ Abū l-Futūḥ al-Rāzī, Rawḍ al-Jinān, vol. 1, p. 212.
  47. ↑ Zamakhsharī, al-Kashshāf, vol. 1, p. 127.
  48. ↑ Qummī al-Mashhadī, Kanz al-daqāʾiq, vol. 1, p. 351.
  49. ↑ Sayyid Quṭb, Fī ẓilāl al-Qurʾān, vol. 1 ,p. 58.
  50. ↑ Mughnīya, al-Kāshif, vol. 1, p. 83.
  51. ↑ Ṭūsī, al-Tibyān, vol. 1, p. 152; Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 60, p. 217, 218, 249, 259, 262.
  52. ↑ Ṭūsī, al-Tibyān, vol. 1, p. 150; Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-bayān, vol. 1, p. 321.
  53. ↑ Ālūsī, Rawḥ al-maʿānī, vol. 1, p. 364.
  54. ↑ Ṣadūq, ʿIlal al-sharāyiʿ, p. 178.
  55. ↑ Mullāṣadrā, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān, vol. 5, p. 286-287.
  56. ↑ Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 60, p. 244.
  57. ↑ Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 60, p. 244.
  58. ↑ Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 60, p. 244.
  59. ↑ Ṭabāṭabāyī, al-Mīzān, vol. 12, p. 160.

References

  • Qurʿān.
  • Bible.
  • Abū l-Futūḥ al-Rāzī, Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī. Rawḍ al-Jinān wa rawḥ al-janān. Edited by Yāhaqī & Nāṣiḥ. Mashhad: Āstān-i Quds-i Raḍawī, 1375 Sh.
  • Ālūsī, Sayyid Maḥmūd al-. Rawḥ al-maʿānī fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān. Edited by Muḥammad Ḥusayn ʿArab. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1417 AH.
  • Dāʾirat al-maʿārif al-Islāmīyya. Translated by Aḥmad Shantāwī et. al. Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1933.
  • Fakhr al-Rāzī, Muḥammad b. ʿUmar al-. Al-Tafsīr al-kabīr. Qom: Intishārāt-i Daftar-i Tablīghāt-i Islāmī, 1413 AH.
  • Farāhīdī, Khalīl b. Aḥmad al-. Kitāb al-ʿIyn. Edited by Muḥammad Ḥasan Bukāʾī. Qom: Nashr-i Islāmī, 1414 AH.
  • Ḥāʾirī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn al-Aʿlamī al-. Dāʾirat al-maʿārif al-Shīʿīyya al-ʿāmma. Second edition. Beirut: Muʾassisat al-Aʿlamī li-l-Maṭbūʿāt, 1413 AH.
  • Hawks, James. Qāmūs-i Kitāb-i Muqaddas. Tehran: Asāṭīr, 1377 Sh.
  • Ibn Fāris, Aḥmad. Maqāyīs al-lugha. Edited by ʿAbd al-Salām Muḥammad Hārūn. Qom: Daftar-i Tablīghāt-i Islāmī, 1404 AH.
  • Ibn Manẓūr, Muḥammad b. Mukarram. Lisān al-ʿArab. Edited by ʿAlī Shīrī. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1408 AH.
  • Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir al-. Biḥār al-anwār. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1403 AH.
  • Mughnīya, Muḥammad Jawād al-. Tafsīr al-kāshif. Beirut: Dār al-ʿilm li-l-mullāʾīn, 1981.
  • Mullāṣadrā, Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm. Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-Karīm. [n.p]: Muʾassisa-yi Taḥqīqāt wa Nashr-i Maʿārif-i Ahl al-Bayt, [n.d].
  • Qummī Mashhadī, Muḥammad b. Muḥammad Riḍā. Tafsīr kanz al-daqāʾiq wa baḥr al-gharāʾib. Edited by Ḥusayn Dargāhī. Tehran: Wizārat-i Farhang wa Irshād-i Islāmī, 1411 AH.
  • Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, Ḥusayn b. Muḥammad al-. Mufradāt alfāẓ al-Qurʾān. Edited by Ṣafwān ʿAdnān Dāwūdī. Damascus: Dār al-Qalam, 1412 AH.
  • Ṣadūq, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-. ʿIlal al-sharāyiʿ. Beirut: Aʿlamī, 1408 AH.
  • Sayyid Quṭb. Fī ẓilāl al-Qurʾān. Cairo: Dār al-Shurūq, 1400 AH.
  • Shabistarī, ʿAbd al-Ḥusayn al-. Aʿlām al-Qurʾān. Daftar-i Tablīghāt-i Islāmī, 1379 Sh.
  • Ṭabarī, Muḥammad b. Jarīr al-. Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āyāt al-Qurʾān. Edited by Ṣidqī & Jamīl al-ʿAṭār. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1415 AH.
  • Ṭabāṭabāyī, Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn al-. Al-Mīyān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān. Qom: Intisharat-i Islāmī, 1393 AH.
  • Ṭabrisī, Faḍl b. al-Ḥasan al-. Majmaʿ al-bayān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān. Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1406 AH.
  • Ṭurayḥī, Fakhr al-Dīn. Majmaʿ al-baḥrayn. Edited by Maḥmūd ʿĀdil & Aḥmad Ḥusaynī. Second edition. Tehran: Nashr-i Farhang-i Islāmī, 1408 AH.
  • Ṭūsī, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-. Al-Tibyān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān. Edited by Aḥmad Ḥabbīb al-ʿĀmilī. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1963.
  • Zamakhsharī, Maḥmūd b. ʿUmar al-. Al-Kashshāf ʿan ḥaqāʾiq al-tanzīl wa ʿuyūn al-aqāwīl fī wujūh al-taʾwīl. Qom: Balāqat, 1415 AH.
  • Zubaydī, Sayyid Muḥammad Murtaḍā al-. Tāj al-ʿarūs min jawāhir al-qāmūs. Edited by ʿAlī Shīrī. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1414 AH.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikishia.net/w/index.php?title=Iblis&oldid=102082"