Читать книгу A Dictionary of Islam. Being a cyclopedia of the doctrines, rites, ceremonies, and customs, together with the technical and theological terms, of the Muhammadan religion онлайн

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Iblīs, we are told by another authority, was sent as a governor upon the earth, and judged among the Jinn a thousand years, after which he ascended into heaven, and remained employed in worship until the creation of Adam. The name of Iblīs was originally, according to some, ʿAzazīl (as before mentioned), and according to others, al-Ḥāris̤; his patronymic is Abū Munnah or Abū ʾl-G͟himr. It is disputed whether he was of the angels or of the Jinn. There are three opinions on this point: (1) That he was of the angels, from a tradition from Ibn ʿAbbās; (2) That he was of the Shait̤āns (or evil Jinn), as it is said in the Qurʾān, “Except Iblīs, [who] was [one] of the Jinn”; this was the opinion of al-Ḥasanu ʾl-Baṣrī, and is that commonly held; (3) That he was neither of the angels nor of the Jinn, but created alone of fire. Ibn ʿAbbās founds his opinion on the same text from which al-Ḥasanu ʾl-Baṣrī derives his: “When we said unto the angels, worship ye Adam, and [all] worshipped except Iblīs, [who] was [one] of the Jinn” (before quoted); which he explains by saying that the most noble and honourable among the angels are called “the Jinn,” because they are veiled from the eyes of the other angels on account of their superiority; and that Iblīs was one of these Jinn. He adds, that he had the government of the lowest heaven and of the earth, and was called the T̤āʾus (lit. “Peacock”) of the angels; and that there was not a spot in the lowest heaven but he had prostrated himself upon it; but when the Jinn rebelled upon the earth, God sent a troop of angels, who drove them to the islands and mountains; and Iblīs being elated with pride, and refusing to prostrate himself before Adam, God transformed him into a Shait̤ān. But this reasoning is opposed by other verses, in which Iblīs is represented as saying, “Thou hast created me of fire, and hast created him [Adam] of earth.” It is therefore argued, “If he were created originally of fire, how was he created of light? for the angels were [all] created of light.” The former verse may be explained by the tradition that Iblīs, having been taken captive, was exalted among the angels; or, perhaps, there is an ellipsis after the word “Angels”; for it might be inferred that the command given to the Angels was also (and a fortiori) to be obeyed by the Jinn.