Page 14 - Satan: The Sworn Enemy of Mankind

SATAN: THE SWORN ENEMY OF MANKIND

However, before departing from Allah's presence, he requested
a respite, a period of time in which he could lead human beings
astray, into error as he was himself. Thus, Allah allotted him the
time until the Day of Judgment to pursue his plot. It was then that
his war against mankind began. Allah related these developments
in the Qur'an as follows:
We created you and then formed you and then We said to
the angels, "Prostrate before Adam," and they prostrated—
except for Iblis. He was not among those who prostrated.
[Allah] said, "What prevented you from prostrating when I
commanded you to?" He [Iblis] replied, "I am better than
him. You created me from fire and You created him from
clay." He [Allah] said, "Descend from Heaven. It is not for
you to be arrogant in it. So get out! You are one of the
abased." He [Iblis] said, "Grant me a reprieve until the day
they are raised up." He [Allah] said, "You are one of the re-

that the Prophet Adam (as), the first human being, was formed in a single act of cre-
ation, which was witnessed by the angels and Iblis. This is an important point to
consider, because, certain circles, who concede to the theory of evolution, originally
put forward in opposition to the idea of creation, make the mistake of maintaining
that the Prophet Adam (as) emerged as the result of an evolutionary process.
The second is that, contrary to what some people would have us believe, Iblis
was not an angel, but a jinn, abiding in the same realm as the angels. That Iblis was
a jinn was revealed in the 50th verse of Surat al-Kahf.
Some have claimed that the jinns are actually angels. The fact is, however, as
we learn from the Qur'an, that there is a distinction between the angels and the jinn.
This distinction was referred to by angels themselves, as related in the Qur'an, in
the 40th and 41st verse of Surah Saba'. There, it is stated that the father of the jinn
was created from "smokeless fire." For that reason, Iblis is evidently a jinn, not an
angel.

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