Adam and Eve and the Serpent in the Garden of Eden, as shown in a 16th-century Safavid manuscript of the \u201cFalnameh\u201d or \u201cBook of Omens\u201d ascribed to the Shi\u2018i imam Ja\u2018far al-Sadiq \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of the questions that I was asked at the Phoenix-area events over the weekend went roughly as follows:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Islam, does Satan rebel against God and attempt to take away the agency of humanity?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The answer to this is \u201cNot quite.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
There is nothing in the Qur\u2019an to suggest that he sought to deprive us of our freedom or agency. \u00a0But the Qur\u2019an does portray him as a tempter who exerts himself to seduce our first parents and then, afterward, us away from God.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The story of his fall, which is repeated multiple times throughout the Qur\u2019an (the holy book of Islam), portrays him as having been summoned\u00a0with all of the angels and the jinn<\/em> \u2014 he is the leader of the jinn<\/em>, the \u201chead jinni<\/em>\u201d \u2014 to gaze upon the newly created human, Adam. \u00a0God then invites those assembled to kneel and do homage to Adam, who is being placed on the earth as God\u2019s vicegerent or representative.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
All the others do so, but Satan refuses to kneel. \u00a0Adam, who had been created from dust or mud, was unworthy to receive such homage from someone who, Satan says of himself, had been created from a pure flame.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of course, Satan should have obeyed simply because the command came from God. \u00a0But he doesn\u2019t. \u00a0And, for his pride and arrogant rebellion, he is cast out of heaven.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
This should sound at least slightly familiar, as should the titles by which he\u2019s called in the Qur\u2019an and Islamic tradition:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
He is known as al-Shaytan<\/em> (pronounced ash-ShayTAN<\/em>) or \u201cthe Satan.\u201d \u00a0He is also known as Iblis<\/em> (sometimes spelled Eblis<\/em>, and pronounced ih-BLEES<\/em>), which almost certainly comes from the same Greek word (diabolos<\/em>) as do our English words diabolical<\/em> and devil<\/em>.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anyway, that, in a nutshell, is the answer to the question.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 One of the questions that I was asked at the Phoenix-area events over the weekend went roughly as follows: \u00a0 In Islam, does Satan rebel against God and attempt to take away the agency of humanity? \u00a0 The answer to this is \u201cNot quite.\u201d \u00a0 There is nothing in the Qur\u2019an to suggest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>