Iblis

In Islam, Iblīs (Arabic إبليس), is the primary devil. He appears more often in the Qur'an as being the Shaitan: Iblis is mentioned 11 times, and Shaitan 87 times. He is chief of the spirits of evil, and his personality is adapted to that of his counterpart in Christian tradition. 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 Eve and Adam after having lured them into eating from the forbidden tree, although in this role he is always reffered to as AlShaitan.

Related Topics:
Islam - Devil - Qur'an - Shaitan - Evil - Personality - Christian tradition - Allah - Eve - Adam

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The name 'Iblis' might be a corruption of the Greek word diabolos which is also the root word for the English words diabolical and devil, but it could also be derived from the Arabic balasa ???, meaning "he despaired". While Shaitan ?????, from the root ??n ?????, is an adjective meaning 'astray' or 'distant' which can be applied to 'AlIns' ????? (Men) and Jinn, Iblis is a capital name for the primal devil.

Related Topics:
Greek - English - Diabolical - Devil - Arabic - Shaitan - Jinn

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Quran is unclear about the origin of Iblis, but it mentions that he was a Jinni (18-50) and that he was created from fire (7-12)(38-76) - and not as a fallen angel the New Testament.

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According to the Quranic genesis, after He had completed the creation of everything else (2-29), Allah 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, just to receive the answer that He knows what they do not (2-30).

Related Topics:
Allah - Khalifa

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

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After the angels have admitted that they have no knowledge except what He had given them (2-30), Allah 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, so they do except for Iblis (2-34), (7-11), (20-116) .

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In another version of the story Allah 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 himslef Iblis was created from fire (38-76), and as such he was better than Adam (7-12).

Related Topics:
Iblis - Adam

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