Last week, we discussed the type of prostration the angels performed on Adam in Paradise. We now continue with that point:
Also, suppose we view the prostration as a linguistic one, of salutation to one to greet and honour. In that case, the angels are made to be subservient to Adam, at his complete disposal, not only to Adam but to his entire progeny.
First, they are Allah’s emissaries to His prophets and messengers. This is a service to humankind.
Second, they move the clouds and the wind:
- By the emissary winds, (sent) one after another
- By the raging hurricanes,
- By those which cause earth’s vegetation to revive;
- By those who winnow with a winnowing, (Al-Mursalaat)
So, the angels are made subservient to man.
“Bow down to Adam”
They all did, save Iblis, Satan, who refused and became of the disbelievers.
And now to the discussion on where Satan rightly belongs. There are two opinions among scholars: that Satan was an angel and that he was among the Jinn. The most authentic between the two positions, and Allah knows best, is that Satan was a Jinni.
The Glorious Qur’an is very clear on this:
- And (remember) when We said unto the angels: Fall prostrate before Adam, and they fell prostrate, all save Ibis. He was of the Jinn, so he rebelled against his Lord’s command. Will ye choose him and his seed for your protecting friends instead of Me, when they are an enemy unto you? Calamitous is the exchange for evil-doers! (Al-Kahf)
The Qur’an says Satan was among the Jinn. We know the saying of those scholars who saw the Jinn as a species of angels. We respect that view. We do not share it. How can Satan be an angel when he has disobeyed Allah, while angels are described as not disobeying Allah whatever He commands them?
Other proof is that angels are created from light, Satan from fire; angels have no progeny; Satan has family and tribes.
Satan refused to bow down before Adam, though Allah ordered him to do so; he declined by choice. Nobody, nothing hindered him from complying with the command. He chose not to obey Allah. He became arrogant.
What is arrogance? It is narrated under the authority of Abdullah bin Mas’ud that the Messenger of Allah (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) observed: He who has in his heart the weight of a mustard seed of pride shall not enter Paradise. A person (amongst his hearers) said: Verily a person loves that his dress should be delicate, and his shoes should be fine. He (the Holy Prophet) remarked: Verily, Allah is Graceful, and He loves Grace. Pride is disdaining the truth (out of self-conceit) and contempt for the people.
Sahih Muslim 91a
It is behaving unpleasantly, without regard for others, thinking too highly of oneself and looking down on others. That is precisely what Satan did. He was haughty. He deemed himself better than Adam. Thus, he refused to bow down to Adam. If the meaning of Sujud was to be directed to Allah through Adam, Satan refused to bow down to Allah through Adam as Qiblah. If that meaning was linguistic, then Satan refused to make himself serviceable to Adam by bowing, honouring, and giving respect to whom it was due.
The verse ends by saying that Satan was among the disbelievers. When did he become a disbeliever? Was he a disbeliever when he was glorifying Allah and singing His praise with the angels? No. The meaning is that Allah knows that Satan was, ab initio, and in the final analyses, among the disbelievers. This shows that the latter is what counts in reality and not the former. It is not the beginning that matters but the end.
May Allah make the end of our times better than the beginning.
According to some scholars, the Arabic word used in this verse is Kaana, which has another meaning: to become. So, Satan actually became a disbeliever afterwards. The same word, Kaana was used in another place in the Qur’an describing the end of the son of Noah:
- He said: I shall betake me to some mountain that will save me from the water. (Noah) said: This day there is none that saveth from the commandment of Allah save him on whom He hath had mercy. And the wave came in between them, so he was among the drowned. (Hud)
So, according to these scholars, Satan was not a disbeliever at the beginning, but he later became a disbeliever when he flouted Allah’s instruction to bow down to Adam.
Now, this leads us to two questions: one, Satan became a disbeliever; will it be right then to assume that Satan was the first disbeliever, or were there others who preceded him in disbelief?
Yes, some said he was the first disbeliever, while others opined that before this scene, there was another in which the Jinn were sent to the earth where they disbelieved in Allah and committed grievous sins.
The second question. Did Satan disbelieve in ignorance, or was his disbelief in rebellion against Allah?
Here also are two positions. Some said he disbelieved in ignorance because Allah stripped him of all knowledge, so he disbelieved. Others said, no, he disbelieved knowingly. Can a scholar disbelieve in Allah? The Qur’an says:
- Hast thou seen him who maketh his desire his god, and Allah sendeth him astray purposely, and sealeth up his hearing and his heart, and setteth on his sight a covering? Then who will lead him after Allah (hath condemned him)? Will ye not then heed? (Al-Jaathiyah)
Don’t be deceived, O man, by your Ibaadah, for Satan used to be a constant worshiper of Allah. O man, don’t be carried away by your knowledge, for Satan was learned. With his constancy in worship and with all the knowledge that he possessed, Satan ended up being a disbeliever!
35 We said: “O Adam! dwell thou and thy wife in the Garden; and eat of the bountiful things therein as (where and when) ye will; but approach not this tree, or ye run into harm and transgression.”
Uskun (dwell) means staying in a place for some time. That is not a permanent residence. You are staying there for a time before you move to another place. Therefore, Allah has destined that Adam will only remain in Paradise for some time before he will be moved to earth where he shall discharge his duty as Allah’s vicegerent.
Dwell thou and thy wife in the Garden.
The Arabic word is Zauj, which applies to both males and females. Like the word spouse in English, it refers to both husband and wife. It has never been used in the Qur’an in the feminine form of Zaujatun or Zaujatuka, so here we also read dwell thou and thy wife (Zaujuka). And the male is mentioned before the female because the man is the head of the family. It is not what the feminists are advocating. Yes, men and women are created free and equal, but they differ in stature, role and responsibility. One has to lead, and Allah has assigned that task to man. He should discharge it through consultation and mutual respect with his Zauj (spouse).
As mentioned in this verse, this garden was the Garden of Paradise we hope to enter in the next life, or was it another garden situated somewhere on earth? We shall answer this week inshaa Allah.
