The Refusal to Prostrate

Certainly Allah created them, then fashioned them, then said to the angels: make prostration before Adam. And they all fell prostrate, except Iblīs, who was not of those who prostrated, who did not listen to Allah's command. There is an account behind this: the jinn, living on earth, had turned renegade, killing the messengers Allah sent to them, until Allah, angry with them, sent this being — who was, at that time, praying among the angels — telling him: go down and destroy them. So he came as a general leading the angels, fought the renegade jinn, and killed a great many of them; some fled. As he was coming back up to the heavens, he heard talk there.

What was the talk? There was a new arrival, much spoken of — a name called Adam. He had been expecting some recognition of his own from Allah — some accolade, some promotion — and when that place in the light was taken from him, envy, ḥasad, entered his heart, for he is a discerning being, mukallaf, morally accountable, as human beings are. Somebody had taken his favoured position — impossible! He was consumed with jealousy. When he came and looked at Adam, who at that point was no more than a shell, without a single breath of spirit in him, he said to himself: what — this is made of nothing but filthy earth? And I am made of energy? I am better than him. Envy had entered him. Then Allah said: I have created Adam with My own hands, I have breathed My spirit into him, and I have commanded the angels to salute him.

Prostration was the form that salutation and respect took, and all of them made prostration because Allah commanded it. The only one among the thousands of millions of angels who did not was Shayṭān, standing apart. Allah asked him what had stopped him from prostrating when commanded — and here comes an answer that is, on its face, absurd: it is My command, He said, I am your God, I am your Creator. Iblīs answered that he was better than Adam: Allah had created him of fire, and Adam of dust, dirt, filth, clay.

What a reasoning — it had nothing at all to do with the command; he could not see the command itself, only himself. What did fire and clay have to do with obedience — no more relevant than the price of fish in a Chinese market, or the price of red onions in a Spanish one. But he was thinking as an arrogant man thinks, consumed with envy, his vision blurred, and he lost everything as a result. Allah said to him, when he disobeyed the command to prostrate before Adam — this is the conversation given in Sūrat al-Ḥijr, verses thirty-four and thirty-five:

For he was rejected, accursed, and the curse would remain upon him until the Day of Judgement. Then what happened? He was taken by the angels to be checked into Jahannam. Allah, who knows everything, asked him what he was looking at so defiantly — this is kibr, arrogance: an impediment that will not allow a person to say sorry to anyone. Shayṭān said:

Grant me a chance, he asked, to prove that I am better than them. Allah replied:

Respite was granted, exactly as he wished, until the appointed time.