Iblis
&
The Fall

You know

one very famous jinn was closely involved in the story of the creation of humankind.

On most occasions that Iblis is mentioned,

it is as a being that refused to follow an order given to the angels,

which would seem to imply that Iblis is a fallen angel,

but angels of their nature are considered to be incapable of disobeying God,

and in Sura 18 we are told that Iblis was from among the jinn.

Yet clearly Iblis is also something special,

that is ever present

and doesn't seem to be part of a community that pass away.

however,

After being banished, Iblis is no longer referred to by that name,

but is spoken of as Shaitan,

the tempter who has followers amongst jinn and humankind,

so perhaps Iblis can be seen as representing the family of shaitans

in the same way that Adam is seen to represent humankind,

both being grammatically masculine

but with a meaning beyond the purely male.

But jinn or human,

Sura 7 makes it clear that the reward for pride is its opposite,

seeing yourself as the lowest of the low.

And clearly we are not just dealing with pride, but also cruelty and self-pity,

pleading for a reprieve

and then meeting mercy with betrayal,

a pledge to tempt everyone away from the straight path.

And just like humans, who regularly blame their own bad actions on the bad actions of someone else,

Iblis blames God,

saying 'You made me do it'

launching one of the great philosophical discussions,

because of course in one way that's absolutely true.

Somehow a Creator can create free will?

But the story of the Fall of Iblis and humankind

takes place in a time and place quite different to ours,

with creatures in direct communication with the Divine,

and having a very different understanding of the world.

How is the Garden to be understood in relation to the earth we know?

How are we to understand the whole story of the Fall of humankind,

accepting that what is in the Qur'an is of its nature true?

Much of the story is written in dialogue,

Arabic dialogue.

Did God, Iblis and Adam speak Arabic?

Or is that language used for the story

because it was the language of the people who were listening to it,

so that meaning could be communicated in an intelligible way?

Is it not inevitable that access to Divine Truth

can only be given to the extent of a listener's capacity to understand?

To have a different understanding of the meaning of these words

is not to disavow their truth,

simply to disavow what someone else says they have to mean.

The story of the creation and fall of humankind can be taken literally

with a man and woman

imagined much like we imagine a man and woman now

but that quickly turns into a child's fairy tale,

with a horned devil and a god with a long white beard.

And you don't need to consult the classical commentaries

to be able to see a deeper truth than that,

a truth that satisfies any intellectual challenge you like to throw at it.

And if we are to strengthen our faith it is crucial to find a way

not just to somehow vaguely accept these stories

and put them on the back shelves of our brains to deal with later,

but actually have a way of believing these stories

in a way that makes sense.

It is up to us to work out what we mean by truth,

in the knowledge that only God is the Truth,

and whatever we discover will only be true for us

to the extent that we can understand it.

We constantly need to read the Qur'an with new eyes,

looking for meaning beyond the literal.

We need to feel secure in our reading,

not skipping over passages that don't sit comfortably in our heads,

but wrestling with them until we are at ease.

Think of how we are told the story in Sura 2.

We are told that the earth was there before us,

and our purpose is to take care of it,

and although the angels found it incomprehensible,

spilling blood and spreading corruption

are clearly an essential part of the human process.

When Adam was taught the Names,

an understanding and experience of what is named by the Names of God,

the angels could not understand,

not having been taught to see the world that way.

The Names are seen through the human heart.

The angels do not have free will so would inevitably find it hard to understand

that a pair of created beings could be given the freedom of the Garden,

with just one single minimal restraint needed to make it possible,

that is simply to go without one thing

to have everything else,

and humans couldn't do it.

That greed and selfishness makes them slip from the Garden down to earth,

all enemies of each other,

though also sharing in human enjoyment,

but all is not lost, as even though we are all part of a life and death cycle of time,

God promises guidance.

That is if we are prepared to follow it,

and not think that we know better.

What Adam didn't realise was that in being forbidden that tree

they were being protected

from shame and embarrassment

about their animal nature,

aspects of their nature which unlike other animals

they now feel compelled to hide.

In fact

after the description of the Fall in Sura 7,

there follows a sequence of four sections addressed to

the Children of Adam,

giving guidance as to a way of life,

and the first addresses the issue of covering,

saying how our shame and embarrassment can be clothed in beauty,

though also pointing out

that being Mindful of God is a better covering than that.

Next comes a warning against the temptations of Satan

in both the singular and the plural,

saying they are coming from a place where they can see us

but we can't see them.

Nonetheless, the Qur'an advises that

whatever the temptation, humanity should follow the path of justice.

Next the Children of Adam are told how they are allowed the beautiful things in life,

the pretty trinkets rich fabrics and fine foods

drawing on God's provision.

Such things are permitted but kept within limits,

in the knowledge that earth's pleasures terminate here,

but the pleasures of the Afterlife go on forever.

So with that in mind, the muslim way of life is a middle way,

with very few, but some limits.

Forbidden things are what is shameful,

bad deeds, unjust aggression, shirk,

and saying about God what you do not know.

And finally the Children of Adam are told

they will continue to be given guidance

through Messengers and the Signs of God.

In Sura 20 the Qur'an speaks of God making an agreement with Adam before,

saying that he forgot

and that God found that he had no constancy.

But how can we understand this if God creates all and knows all.

These things must have a deeper meaning.

What can we possibly mean by an agreement

when one party is the limitless Creator?

What is meant by 'before' when God is outside time

can only mean before from Adam's reference point,

past and future, the Pen writing human time.

It is less of an agreement and more the explaining of a promise offered and accepted.

And who exactly was doing the accepting?

Are we talking of Adam as the name of the first male,

or the group name of humanity springing from a single soul

who is making the agreement?

When God 'found out' that Adam had no constancy it wasn't a surprise.

God knew Adam would forget.

Humanity's forgetfulness is what puts us in the land of moral choice.

So what is it we forget?

A few ayats later we are told

that on the day of Rising some will be blind,

and they will be told they are forgotten

in the same way that they forgot God's signs.

So we are told to praise and glorify Our Liege

morning noon and night,

to remember what is pleasing about life,

and to make Sala

and remember God's provision,

and be Mindful of God.

A large part of the Qur'an is simply a retelling of old stories

of specific moments of Divine intervention and guidance after Adam,

to make clear that these stories aren't fairy tales.

We need to understand that they are true.

And when telling the first of the stories of the Children of Adam, in Sura 5,

the Qur'an makes a point of describing the story as true,

while at the same time mostly telling that truth as

a conversation in Arabic

as with the story of God and Iblis

the language of the people to whom the story was being directly revealed.

So in the true story of the two sons of Adam

the Qur'an doesn't name them

we can wonder whether 'sons' is literal

or just means two of the Children of Adam,

both good and bad aspects of the siblings behaviour

being common to both sexes of the species.

They were certainly early in Adam's lineage however

as God had to send a raven

to show them what to do with a dead body,

so this was a first encounter with death,

and they were just learning how to deal with it.

Since then, all of us who are Children of Adam

have had to come to terms with our eventual death

and how that affects the meaning of our lives,

as individuals and as a human family,

but after this story

the Qur'an gives us guidance as to a hidden truth of our creation,

repeating a message given to the Tribe of Israel,

that the life of an individual is as important as that of all humankind.

Is that not an extraordinary equivalence to meditate upon?