Hārūt and Mārūt at Babel

Wa mā unzila ʿalā al-malakayn — and what was revealed to the two angels. Now, in the Qur'an, Allah (swt) rarely mentions places unless there is a reason for mentioning a locality or a place. The book of Allah is a book of guidance, so you do not find a lot of dates and numbers and chronological order of events and places, like you would find in the Old Testament or the New Testament.

Allah (swt) says: wa mā unzila ʿalā al-malakayn — where? Bi-Bābil, in Babel. Allah (swt) mentioned the place over here in the ayah. And Allah knows best, the reason is because all of this magic, or secret orders, or distorted teachings, came out of Babel. And we know that through history, and Allah (swt) wanted to record that in the Qur'an, so that we would learn where the source of all of this came from: it came from Babel.

Because without reading the Qur'an, by just reading the history and books that deal with this, you would be able to see the association with Babel. So when you read this in the Qur'an, it is an amazing thing, to see how Allah (swt) tied this into Babel; and that then gives us the complete picture of what happened. Because you could do the secular reading on one side, on the history and what was happening — and then, when you read the Qur'an, it would put everything in perspective for you.

Because Allah (swt) says: what was revealed to the two angels in Babel, Hārūt and Mārūt. The mufassirūn have a few opinions, and they could be contradictory to each other. I mention one that was mentioned by a few of the mufassirūn and seems to fit the ayah most: and that is that Hārūt and Mārūt were two angels who descended to Babel, and they were teaching people magic. These two angels were teaching people magic, and they were doing it with the permission of Allah (swt), by the will of Allah.

Allah (swt) says: but the devils disbelieved, teaching men magic and such things as came down at Babylon to the two angels, Hārūt and Mārūt — wa mā yuʿallimāni min aḥadin ḥattā yaqūlā innamā naḥnu fitnatun fa-lā takfur — but neither of these two angels taught anyone such things until they said: we are only a trial, so disbelieve not.

These two angels descended to Babel, and they knew about magic; they knew this knowledge of magic, and people would come to them to learn. The angels would tell them: this knowledge that we are offering is kufr, so do not learn it, because this is fitnah. Allah (swt) wanted this to be a test: knowledge that is offered to you, but you should not learn it. That is what it is about; it is a test from Allah (swt). Here is knowledge you are not supposed to learn, and this is knowledge that will make you disbelieve in Allah — and it is offered; this is the address, if you want to go and learn it. But the angels would not offer it to anyone until they would tell him: innamā naḥnu fitnatun fa-lā takfur — this is a fitnah, so do not disbelieve.

The other stories that are mentioned in the books of tafsīr are that these two angels — actually, that the test was for them. They say that these two angels said: how come these people are sinning? So Allah (swt) said: go down to earth; and Allah put in them the shahawāt of a human being, the desires of a human being; and when Allah put in them the desires of the human being, they committed sins and they started practising magic. But this does not seem to make sense, because we know that the angels lā yaʿṣūna Allāha mā amarahum wa yafʿalūna mā yuʾmarūn — the angels do not disobey the orders of Allah, and they do what Allah has ordered them. So it does not seem to make sense, especially as there is no evidence to support it. If we would go with the literal meaning of the ayah, it would mean that these are two angels who came down, with the permission of Allah, to test the people and to offer them something that is kufr, and they should not learn it.