Iblis

This article is about Iblis the devil. For other uses of the term, see Iblis (disambiguation).

Iblīs (Arabic إبليس), is the name given to the primary devil in Islam.

He appears more often referred in the Qur'an (Islamic holy Book) as the Shaitan, a general purpose term used to refer to all of the evil spirits in alliance with Iblis, but which is often used to refer to just Iblis. Iblis is mentioned 11 times, and Shaitan "al-Shaitaan" (‏(الشيطان is mentioned 87 times. He is chief of the spirits of evil (Shaitan), he is known as Satan, or "the devil" to Christians.

Iblis was a Jinn, a creature made of 'smokeless fire' by God (like humans are made of 'clay'). In an outburst rooted in envy, Iblis disobeyed Allah and was expelled from the grace of Allah. He was later sent to earth along with Adam and Eve after having lured them into eating fruit from the forbidden tree, although in this role he is always referred to as al-Shaitan. He was condemned consequently by Allah (God) to Jahannam (Hell). He replied with saying that he wanted to bring the inhabitants of Earth down with him, and Allah (God), to test Mankind and Jinn, allowed him to roam Earth to attempt to misguide others.

He tempts humans through his whisper (waswas, "he whispered") of sinful ideas in their head and false suggestion (haiif). In the end, it is believed, he will be cast into Jahannam (Hell in Islam) along with those who give in to his temptation of sinful ideas and disobeyed Allah's (God's) true message to mankind (Islam), while those who successfully try to follow a righteous path will be rewarded with the pleasures of Jannah (Paradise or Heaven in Islam).

The Qur'an does not depict Iblis as the enemy of Allah, for Allah is supreme over all His creations and Iblis is just one of His creations. Unlike the Zoroastrian beliefs, all good and bad deeds are from Allah Himself and only He can save humanity from the evils of His universe and His creations. Iblis' single enemy is humanity. He intends to discourage humans from obeying God. Thus, humankind is warned to struggle against the mischiefs of the Shaitan and temptations he puts them in. A commonly shared belief in both Islam and Christianity is that the universal existence of evil in personal lives is usually experienced because of the devil.

Etymology

Non-Muslim scholars generally hold Iblis to be a contraction of the Greek word diabolos, meaning "devil." They claim that the Christian and Jewish communities of Arabia during Muhammad's time are likely to have known the word from Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible and the Gospels. Muslim scholars, on the other hand, are more inclined to derive the word from the Arabic verbal root balasa بلس, meaning "the despaired."

Origin

In contrast with the Christian tradition, the Qur'an names Iblis a Jinn (18-50) rather than an angel. The Jinn are created from fire (7-12)(38-76), and in the Islamic tradition are considered to have free will. (In the opening pages of the Qur'an, Iblis demonstrates this by refusing to obey Allah's command to kneel before Adam (2-34).) In Islam, angels are specifically messengers and do not posses free will. There is, accordingly, no parallel in Islam to the Fallen angel story in some Christian and Jewish traditions.

According to the Qur'an, after Allah (God) had completed the creation of everything else (2-29), God announced that He will create a Khalifa (vicegerent) on Earth, causing the angels to exclaim how He intends to place on earth one who shall make mischief and shed blood while they hymn His praise and sanctify Him. It caused them to receive the answer that He knows what they do not (2-30).

So Allah (God) created Adam and gave him from His knowledge what no other creature of His possesses, by teaching him the names of everything, and by presenting them to the angels, Allah (God) demanded that they tell the names (2-30), knowing that they would fail.

After the angels had admitted that they had no knowledge except that which Allah(God) had given them (2-30), God commanded Adam to display his knowledge in front of the angels (2-33), and when Adam did, He commanded the angels to prostrate before Adam and so they did except for Iblis (2-34), (7-11), (20-116).

In another telling of the story Allah (God) informs the angels that He will create Man (Bashar) from clay (15-28) and that as soon as He has completed his creation they should all prostrate before His creation (15-29), and so they all do (15-30), except for Iblis (15-31), (38-74) When Allah demanded an explanation from Iblis of why he refused to prostrate to Adam (15-32), and Iblis explains that he would not prostrate before Adam whom Allah has created from clay (15-33) (17-61), while he himself Iblis was created from fire (38-76), and as such he was better than Adam (7-12).

Trivia

• In the Dune prequels science fiction series there is a corrupted high priest named Iblis Ginjo.
• In the original (1978-1979) Battlestar Galactica, there was an alien known as Count Iblis. He was seen to be a science fiction equivalent of the Devil and was also the voice of the Cylon Imperious Leader.
• In Sonic the Hedgehog (2006 game), Silver (the newest character in the Sonic Series) believes that Sonic is the mysterious 'Iblis Trigger'. Iblis is a fiery demon who destroyed the world.
• The second installment in the Quest for Glory series of adventure games, Trial by Fire, the antagonist Ad Avis plots to release a djinn by the name of Iblis. Releasing him will result in the destruction of the world as well as a gameover. Iblis can only be freed according to a strict prophecy involving the Hero from the East, being you the player.
• There is a character in the Star Wars universe named Garm bel Iblis (Garm being the hellhound, like Cerberus, in Norse mythology, and Bel (Baäl) a pagan god). He first appeared in Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy. In contrast to the original Iblis, he was a highly moral senator who opposed Palpatine, and later played vital roles in the Rebellion and New Republic.
• In the Playstation 2 exclusive game Primal, in which there are four demon worlds for the user to explore the fourth and most dangerous world Volca is home to the Djinn who are ruled by their King, King Iblis.
• In the Wheel of Time series, the Nae'blis is Shai'tan's regent on Earth.
• In World of Warcraft there is a sword called Iblis, Blade of the Fallen Seraph.
• In the Tom Clancy novel "The Teeth of the Tiger," a federal agent invokes the name of Iblis while forcing a dying Islamic terrorist to hold pigskin in order to induce fear and insult.
• MF Grimm has an album entitled The Downfall of Ibliys: A Ghetto Opera.

See also

• Shaitan
• Jannah
• Qiyamah
• Hell
• Islamic eschatology
• Devil in Christianity
• Satan
• Devil
• Lucifer

External links

• Short summary on Iblis
• Another short summary
• Iblis

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Gustav Weil, The Bible, the Koran and the Talmud (London, 1846).

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