Prostrate to Him

Fa-idhā sawwaytuhu wa nafakhtu fīhi min rūḥī. And now, the human being having been given so many privileges, so many merits, so many virtues and excellences — Ādam (peace be upon him) was given that, and from him all human beings have inherited it — Allah (swt) says fa-qaʿū lahu sājidīn. He tells the angels and all of them: fall prostrate; prostrate before him out of respect. They all prostrated, except Iblīs.

Now Iblīs is generally linked with the angels, as though, all of them having prostrated except Iblīs, Iblīs were one of the angels. But according to the strongest opinion, which is stated in the Qur'an itself, kāna mina al-jinn: Iblīs was never an angel. He was never made of light, as is mentioned here; he was made of fire. He is in fact one of the jinn, and of a truly bad category of them. The worst of the jinn are the iblīs. There are good jinn as well; but these are the worst of the worst. And he has charge of misleading the human beings and the jinn folk.

So he refused. And the whole discussion there is of his arrogance. That is one of the chief matters — his arrogance; the reason he refused is that he says: I come from above, and the soil is from below. In that there is a message for the people of Makkah: do not be arrogant merely because you have the power in your hand. And likewise for any other people: do not be arrogant, because arrogance leads you nowhere. A man should bow to the truth when it comes. So this account, which looks like the account of Ādam (peace be upon him), is in substance the account of all humanity, for that is where we come from.