Appearance
Iblīs
This page gathers what Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī teaches about Iblīs in al-Tasnim’s story of Adam: who he is, why he refused to prostrate (2:34), his hidden disbelief, his expulsion and descent (2:36), his respite and enmity, the ways he leads people astray, and the way to be safe from him (2:38–39). Each answer is a short summary of his words, with links that open the passage in al-Tasnim.
Who Iblīs is
Was Iblīs an angel or a jinn?
A jinn. The Qur’an says plainly: So they prostrated, except for Iblīs; he was of the jinn (18:50). So “except Iblīs” only looks like an exception from among the angels, because he lived in their company; in reality it is an exception from outside the group. This is the widely accepted Imāmī view, and Shaykh al-Mufīd gave proofs for it: the jinn have offspring and are divided into believers and disbelievers, which is not true of angels, and angels do not disobey, while Iblīs disobeyed.
Some exegetes, like Ṭabarī and the author of al-Manār, hold that angels and jinn differ only in type, not in kind, so that Iblīs is still of the angelic kind. Since the Qur’an is the final reference in such matters, Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī concludes that Iblīs being a jinn, separate from the angels, “is closer to reality.”
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:34 · Connected or Disconnected Exception? · Verse 2:34 · Subtleties and Allusions · Verse 2:34 · A Discussion of the Narrations
See also: Key Debate: Is Iblīs a Jinn or an Angel?
What do the narrations say about his past and his name?
In one narration from Imam al-Ṣādiq, God created beings before Adam, and Iblīs was one of them, ruling on earth. They rebelled, caused corruption and shed blood, so God sent the angels, who killed them and captured Iblīs, raising him to heaven, where he stayed with the angels worshipping God. Reports from Ibn ʿAbbās and Ibn Masʿūd make him one of a tribe of angels called the Jinn and a treasurer of Paradise. His name in heaven is given as al-Ḥārith, and he is said to have been named Iblīs because he despaired (ablasa) of God’s mercy.
Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī notes that these reports are inconsistent, that their chains are weak, and that matters of belief cannot be proven by them; the Qur’an is the final reference. The difference in his names does not change his essence, and the Arabic origin of the word Iblīs is itself uncertain.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:34 · A Discussion of the Narrations · Verse 2:34 · A Discussion of the Narrations · Verse 2:34 · A Discussion of the Narrations
See also: Glimpse: The Nature of Iblīs and His Background
Iblīs among the angels
If Iblīs was not an angel, why was he commanded to prostrate?
Of the events told in 2:30–34 (the announcement of the vicegerent, the presenting of the names, Adam informing the angels, and the command to prostrate), Iblīs is certainly included only in the last. He was among the angels, and so was included under their name by way of predominance (taghlīb). No separate command was issued to him, and his being excepted from the angels shows that one command included him. A narration from Imam al-Ṣādiq says the same: “Iblīs was among them by allegiance, but he was not of the genus of angels.”
How could a jinn live among infallible angels? Angels have different ranks: And there is none of us except that he has a known position (37:164). The angels of the material realm do not disobey, but their surroundings allow beings like Iblīs to enter, just as infallible human beings live in a world where disobedience exists. So it is possible that Iblīs was among a particular group of angels, not those brought near to the Throne.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:30 · Detailed Exegesis · Verse 2:34 · A Discussion of the Narrations · Verse 2:34 · Connected or Disconnected Exception?
How was the angels’ question different from Iblīs’s objection?
Even if Iblīs and the angels were both unaware at first of the high station of humanity, Iblīs did not ask sincerely as the angels did. Instead of trusting God’s wisdom in His commands, he objected arrogantly: “I am superior to Adam!” The angels, protected from arrogance, both asked genuinely and acknowledged God’s wisdom.
Iblīs looked only at Adam’s material origin: You created me from fire and created him from clay (7:12). He questioned to assert his own superiority, and when the truth was made clear he only grew in arrogance; the angels asked to understand, and then showed humility. Whoever questions with arrogance, Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī warns, follows the path of Satan.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:34 · Subtleties and Allusions · Verse 2:30 · Subtleties and Allusions
See also: Key Debate: Was the Angels’ Question an Objection?
His refusal to prostrate
Why did Iblīs refuse to prostrate?
Out of arrogance. In the verse, he was arrogant (istakbara) follows he refused (abā). His refusal was not out of concern and fear, like the refusal of the heavens, the earth and the mountains to bear the Trust (33:72). “What causes a fall from a high position is an arrogant refusal”: the claim of independence of a lowly creature before the Mighty God.
Arrogance (kibr) is not the same as conceit (ʿujb). Conceit is self-admiration, an inner state; arrogance needs an object, since it means seeing oneself as greater than another, and the other as insignificant.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:34 · The Arrogant Refusal of Iblīs · Verse 2:34 · Detailed Exegesis
What was wrong with “I am better than him”?
His refusal grew out of a materialistic view, reliance on ignorant analogies, prejudice and egoism, which showed in his words: I am better than him. You created me from fire and created him from clay (38:76). In a narration from Imam al-Ṣādiq, Iblīs was the first to make analogies.
When God asked him, What prevented you from prostrating when I commanded you? (7:12), Iblīs did not plead that the command had not reached him, which would not have amounted to disbelief. In effect he said that God should not have given such a command: personal reasoning (ijtihād) against the divine text. So the case of Iblīs shows that arrogance before God is the gravest of sins, because it leads directly to disbelief.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:34 · Subtleties and Allusions · Verse 2:34 · Subtleties and Allusions · Verse 2:34 · Subtleties and Allusions
Why did God not accept his offer to worship Him in another way?
Iblīs asked to be excused from prostrating to Adam, promising to worship God as no angel brought near nor prophet sent had worshipped Him. God answered: “I have no need for your worship. I want to be worshipped as I want, not as you want.”
The lesson, Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī explains, is that what matters to God is servitude and doing one’s duty: being as God wants, not as we want. Choosing the way of worship belongs to the One worshipped, not to the servant; whoever sets his own way has taken his desire as his god, and Iblīs, according to this narration, fell into that dualism.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:34 · Subtleties and Allusions · Verse 2:34 · A Discussion of the Narrations
His hidden disbelief
Did Iblīs become a disbeliever, or was he one already?
He already was one. The verse says he was (kāna) of the disbelievers, not that he “became” (ṣāra) one, and God had said to the angels what you used to conceal. Iblīs had already harboured disbelief and arrogance, which he concealed until it came out in the test.
Imam ʿAlī says in the Khuṭbat al-Qāṣiʿa that Satan worshipped God for six thousand years, “yet he became arrogant for a single moment.” Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī reconciles the two: Iblīs’s disbelief was a hidden disbelief (kufr mastūr), not hypocrisy, apostasy or open disbelief. Hidden disbelief is a rebellion against obedience and servitude, buried so deep that neither the person nor others are aware of it, until a trial brings it out.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:34 · The Hidden Disbelief of Iblīs · Verse 2:34 · Subtleties and Allusions
See also: Glimpse: The Hidden Disbelief of Iblīs
Was Iblīs created evil?
No. Though his disbelief was hidden before the test, it was never part of his nature. Every free and accountable being is created upon the innate nature (fiṭra) of monotheism, or at least as a blank slate; otherwise it could plead on the Day of Resurrection that it had been heedless. His arrogance was a trait he adopted, not something essential to him, though it had a long history in him.
No one tempted Iblīs: the cause was within him, an inner desire for greatness, and Imam ʿAlī called him “the leader of the obstinate ones.” Such an inner inclination, even when dominant, is not compulsion; Iblīs had free will.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:34 · The Hidden Disbelief of Iblīs · Verse 2:34 · Subtleties and Allusions · Verse 2:34 · The Hidden Disbelief of Iblīs
Was Iblīs the first to disbelieve?
Yes. Asked whether disbelief or polytheism is older, the Imams answered that disbelief is older, because Iblīs was the first to disbelieve; at first he called no one to worship other than God, and only later did he associate partners. Imam al-Ṣādiq also said that arrogance is the first disobedience by which God was disobeyed.
Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī adds that, since Iblīs’s refusal and arrogance were preceded by his hidden disbelief, the first sin was disbelief, and that “first” is meant in relation to the generation that traces back to Adam and Eve. The Qur’an says he was of the disbelievers, not simply “a disbeliever”: even before any other unbeliever had appeared, he sought support from belonging to the group of disbelief.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:34 · A Discussion of the Narrations · Verse 2:34 · A Discussion of the Narrations · Verse 2:34 · The Hidden Disbelief of Iblīs
His expulsion and descent
From where was Iblīs expelled, and how did he reach Adam in the Garden?
Satan had two descents. The first was from the status and position of the angels, after he refused to prostrate: Then get down from it, for it is not for you to be arrogant therein. Get out; indeed, you are of the debased (7:13). The second was from Paradise as a temporary dwelling, where he had gained access to deceive Adam and Eve; it came with their expulsion, which is why the plural Get down (ihbiṭū) in 2:36 includes him.
How could he enter the Garden? Some Israelite traditions say he came in through the mouth of a snake. The answer is that Adam’s Paradise was the intermediate Paradise, not the eternal one. Satan cannot reach the eternal Paradise, but the intermediate one has lower, imaginal levels, which he can reach and from which his whisperings make people slip.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:36 · Two Types of Satan’s Descent · Verse 2:36 · Subtleties and Allusions · Verse 2:35 · The Command to Dwell and Benefit in Paradise
See also: Glimpse: Two Types of Satan’s Descent · Key Debate: Why “Go Down” Twice?
How was Iblīs’s descent different from Adam’s?
Both came down to earth, but Iblīs came down with the loss of his former rank, while Adam settled on earth keeping his dignity. Adam’s descent came with the acceptance of his repentance, being chosen, purity and guidance; Iblīs’s came with stoning, blame, expulsion and humiliation.
Their aims also differed. Adam came down for vicegerency, prophethood, messengership and the leadership of humanity. Iblīs came down to tempt, seduce, mislead, create false hopes, enjoin evil, forbid good and sow doubts in the hearts of those weak in faith, seeking to stay far from perfection and to keep others from it.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:36 · Subtleties and Allusions · Verse 2:38–39 · The Various Aspects of the Descent of Those Commanded to Descend · Verse 2:38–39 · Subtleties and Allusions
His respite and enmity
Why was Iblīs given respite?
A narration says God gave Iblīs what He gave him for two rakʿas that he prayed in heaven for four thousand years. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī finds this hard to reconcile: no sincere worship came from Iblīs, nor did God grant him any favour. Being given respite to tempt and misguide people is a compounded affliction, not a blessing.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:34 · A Discussion of the Narrations
Is Satan the enemy of Adam alone?
No. Adam was prostrated to as the exemplar of humanity, so Satan’s enmity is not limited to him: Indeed, this is an enemy to you and to your wife (20:117), but also O children of Ādam, let not Satan tempt you (7:27). Because Iblīs fell into arrogance towards God, he is God’s enemy, and so the clear enemy of God’s vicegerent.
Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī calls Satan the main axis of all enmity. Some of you are enemies to others (2:36) may include both his enmity towards humans and the enmity among humans, which first comes from his whisperings: Satan only wants to cause between you animosity and hatred through intoxicants and gambling (5:91). Even the enmity between father and son comes from his plotting.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:30 · Detailed Exegesis · Verse 2:31 · Subtleties and Allusions · Verse 2:36 · Satan, the Main Axis of Enmity
See also: Glimpse: Satan: The Core of Enmity
Does the war with Satan ever end?
Earthly life is for a time, and the conflicts between humans and Satan are not everlasting: all return to God on the Day of Resurrection. There, when people blame Satan, he will answer: I only invited you; do not blame me, but blame yourselves (14:22), while the prophets and reason were calling them to the right at the same time. In Paradise his enmity could only take away a station; on earth he seeks to deny people eternal happiness.
In this life the war goes on for those who have neither won nor lost. If Satan gains the upper hand, he becomes the person’s master (mawlā); if a person prevails over him, like the Ahl al-Bayt and the sincere ones, the war ends. But the end of the war is not the end of enmity: Satan keeps an intense hostility towards those he has defeated, targeting their beliefs, morals and actions.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:36 · Satan, the Main Axis of Enmity · Verse 2:38–39 · Subtleties and Allusions · Verse 2:36 · Subtleties and Allusions
How he leads people astray
How does Satan get to a person?
He comes from every side: Then I will come to them from before them and from behind them and on their right and on their left (7:17). His main method is to work on a person’s thoughts and imagination: he entices with desires and fantasies, and makes earthly adornments, which only adorn the earth, look like adornments of the self.
His way in is the commanding self (nafs al-ammāra). Without it, his influence would be like a poison that cannot affect the digestive system. He first recruits some of a person’s inner forces as his agents; but with planning and perseverance one can stop them and return to one’s original nature (fiṭra).
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:36 · Subtleties and Allusions · Verse 2:36 · Subtleties and Allusions
What kinds of whispering does he use?
Whispering (waswasa) is a subtle thought that arises in the soul through Satan’s influence, often without people knowing where it comes from. His first and main way is heedlessness and forgetfulness: Satan made him forget to mention it (18:63). If that fails, he makes what is harmful seem beneficial: Satan beautified their deeds for them (27:24). This is compound ignorance and delusion (ghurūr): seeing the bad as good. With someone mindful of God, he may even use a recommended act to distract from an obligatory one.
With Adam it was the second kind. Satan did not make him forget the ban; he reminded them of it himself: Your Lord did not forbid you this tree except that you become angels or become of the immortal (7:20). He presented the cause of their fall as a means of rising, and swore that he was a sincere advisor.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:36 · Subtleties and Allusions · Verse 2:36 · Subtleties and Allusions · Verse 2:36 · Subtleties and Allusions
See also: Glimpse: Types of Satanic Whisperings and the Path to Salvation
Does he deceive everyone the same way?
No. He has an approach for each person. For the worldly he adorns things like women, children and wealth. Adam and Eve were not worldly, so he deceived them through what they valued, the promise of becoming angels or living forever. With the ascetic, the scholar or the pious, he works betrayal under the guise of advice and false oaths, unless the traveller reaches pure sincerity (ikhlāṣ), a stage where Satan has no access.
The story carries a warning: if Satan could make those firmly established in Paradise slip, he can more easily mislead those who are not firmly rooted.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:36 · Subtleties and Allusions · Verse 2:36 · Subtleties and Allusions · Verse 2:36 · Detailed Exegesis
What is “Satanic vicegerency”?
Human nature draws a person towards divine vicegerency, but his sensual, comfort-seeking side inclines towards the vicegerency of Satan. If intellect and revelation adorn him with truth and goodness, he becomes God’s vicegerent; if the whisperings of Iblīs pollute him with falsehood and lies, he becomes Satan’s. The Qur’an calls the two groups the Party of God (ḥizb Allāh) and the Party of Satan (ḥizb al-shayṭān).
Imam ʿAlī describes those who took Satan as the sovereign of their affairs: “he nested and laid eggs in their chests … He looked through their eyes and spoke with their tongues.” Just as divine vicegerency is a blessed tree with good fruit, Satanic vicegerency is a wicked tree that bears wicked fruit.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:30 · Subtleties and Allusions · Verse 2:30 · Subtleties and Allusions
See also: Glimpse: Divine Vicegerency and Satanic Vicegerency
Protection from him
How can one be safe from Satan?
Because this enemy never leaves a person alone, asleep or awake, the only remedy is constant remembrance of God. That is why remembrance is the one practice the Qur’an leaves without limit: Remember God with much remembrance (33:41); And remember your Lord within yourself in humility and in fear (7:205). We must treat Satan as an enemy and seek refuge in God whenever he comes: And if an evil suggestion comes to you from Satan, then seek refuge in God (7:200). Seeking refuge (istiʿādha) is not only saying the words: it is the soul moving towards God, as one does not reach a shelter by saying “I am going to the shelter.”
After the descent, with such an enemy on earth, a person cannot reach his goal without guidance: his inner guide is his intellect, and his outer guide is revelation. Whoever follows God’s guidance alone will be free from fear and sorrow.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:36 · Subtleties and Allusions · Verse 2:36 · Subtleties and Allusions · Verse 2:38–39 · Subtleties and Allusions
See also: Glimpse: Types of Satanic Whisperings and the Path to Salvation