Can Angels Disobey?

In one of his articles,

Mr. Katz has pointed out a contradiction in two verses of the Qur'an. According

to one of these verses (Al-Nahl 16: 49 - 50), the Qur'an says that the

angels are not arrogant and they do what God commands them to. While according

to the second of these verses (Al-Baqarah 2: 34), When God commanded the

angels to prostrate before Adam, Iblis (satan) refused to do so. Mr. Katz

writes:

The

command of Allah is given to the angels. Since Iblis is accused of not being

obedient, he has to be one of the angels.

In this article we shall

look into the above contradiction pointed out by Mr. Katz.

The fact is that the above

contradiction stands resolved only by recognizing that the Qur'an has declared

that Iblis was not one of the angels, but a jinn. The Qur'an says:

And when

We said to the angels: 'Prostrate before Adam', they all bowed down, except Iblis

- he was a jinn and he haughtily disobeyed his Lord.

However, one may ask that if

Iblis was not an angel, then how could he be said to have disobeyed God,

by not prostrating before Adam, especially when the Qur'an says that the

directive of prostration was addressed to the angels.

In my opinion, the

answer to this question is that according to the Qur'an, although it was

primarily the angels who were directed to prostrate before Adam, it was,

nevertheless, expected of the jinn who were in the court at that time to

follow suit. In other words, by directing the angels to bow down before Adam,

God had directed a higher cadre of His creation to submit to a command, the

lower cadre creations like jinn and any others that may have been present

at the time, were expected to do the same. This style of speech is used in

almost all human languages. For instance, when someone says: “When the Chief

Justice enters the hall all the parliamentarians shall pay their respects by

standing up for him”, he generally implies that all those present in the hall

(personnel of the press, the foreign diplomats, the media personnel and guests

of the members) should stand to pay their respects to the Chief Justice. The

word 'parliamentarians' in such a sentence is not to signify that the directive

is given only to those who are members of the parliament, but is a

generalization in which a higher cadre of personnel is given a directive with

the implication that others are also expected to follow suit.

However, even if we

assume that the directive was misconstrued by Iblis to be limited in its

implication to the angels only, it would have followed that when God asked Iblis:

'Why did you not bow down?', he should logically have said that 'I did not bow

down because I was not commanded to do so'. But that is not the case. The Qur'an

says:

“All

the angels fell down prostrate, but Iblees did it not. He refused to be

among those who prostrated. Allah said: O Iblees whats wrong with you,

why are you not among those who bowed down. He said: I shall not bow down to

something that you have created from sounding clay.” (Al-Hijr 15: 30

- 33)

At another instance, the Qur'an

explains:

“Then

we said to the angels: Bow down to Adam. They bowed down, except Iblees.

He was not among those who bowed down. Allah said: What stopped you from

bowing down, when I directed you to do so. He said: I am better than

him, you created me from fire and you created him from dust.” (Al-A`raaf:

7: 11 - 12)

Then again, the Qur'an says:

“So

the angels bowed down, all of them. But Iblees did it not. He showed

haughtiness and became a rejecter. Allah said: O Iblees, what stopped

you from bowing down to the one whom I created with my hands. Was it your

pride [that stopped you] or are you among the elevated ones? He said: I am

better than him. You created me from fire while him you created from dust.”

(Sa'd 39: 73 - 76)

The above verses clearly show that

although the words of the referred directive could have been construed to be

addressed to the angels only, yet there was no doubt in Iblis' mind that

he too was commanded to prostrate before Adam. His abstinence from prostration

was not because of any misunderstanding of the directive but because of his

haughtiness and arrogance.

© Copyright February 2000.

All Rights Reserved with the Author