Description
Iblis (Arabic: إِبْلِيسْ, romanized: Iblīs ), alternatively known as Eblīs , is the leader of the devils ( shayāṭīn ) in Islam. According to the Quran, Iblis was thrown out of heaven, after he refused to prostrate himself before Adam. Regarding the origin and nature of Iblis, there are two different viewpoints.
In the first version, before Iblis was cast down from heaven, he used to be a high-ranking angel ( Karub ) called Azazil, appointed by God to obliterate the original disobedient and destructive inhabitants of the earth, who were replaced with humans, as more obedient creatures. After Iblis objected to God's decision to create a successor (or intendance on Earth) ( k̲h̲alīfa ), he was punished by being relegated and cast down to earth as a shayṭān (devil). In the alternative account, God created Iblis from the fires beneath the seventh earth. Worshipping God for thousands of years, Iblis ascended to the surface, whereupon, thanks to his pertinacious servitude, he rose until he reached the company of Angels in the seventh heaven. When God created Adam and taught him the "names of all things" , then ordered the Angels to bow down, Iblis, being a jinn created from fire, refused, and disobeyed God, leading to his downfall.
In the Islamic tradition, Iblis is often identified with ash-Shayṭān ("the Devil"), often known by the epithet ar-Rajim (Arabic: ٱلرَّجِيْم, lit. 'the Accursed'). Shayṭān is usually applied to Iblis in order to denote his role as the tempter, while Iblīs is his proper name. Some Sufi Muslims uphold a more ambivalent role for Iblis, considering him not simply the Devil but actually "the truest monotheist" (because he would worship only the Creator, and not his creations) while preserving the term shayṭān exclusively for evil forces.
*[lit.]: literal translation
