Friday, February 19, 2021

Bernard J. Bamberger on the Satanology and Demonology of the Qur'an

  

The Koran . . .is full of bits of biblical-aggadic lore, which Mohammed had picked up from Jewish and Christian acquaintances. Sometimes he gave the old stories a new twist, either because he had not understood, or because his own taste prompted him to change, what he had heard . . .IBLIS. The angels—so the rabbis declared—opposed the creation of man and resented the favor God showed him. Adam, however, displayed his superior qualities by naming the animals, a feat the angels could not equal. Mohammed borrowed this legend and combined it with the apocryphal story that Satan fell because in his pride he refused to worship Adam. This combination occurs repeatedly in the Koran; in the fullest version; Iblis explains why he will not worship the man: “I am better than he; Thou hast created me of fire, while him Thou hast created of dust.” Thereupon God banishes Iblis for his arrogance but the Devil is reprieved long enough to lead Adam and Eve astray, and he still tempts mankind to sin (Koran 7.11-24; more briefly 2.30-6, 15.28-44, 17.61-5, 18.50, 20.116-23, 38.71-8).

 

Probably, Mohammed drew here on Christian as well as on Jewish lore: the Adam-books, the chief written sources for these tales, were preserved by the Church. So likewise the man Iblis, derived from Diabolos, suggests Christian influence; for Arabic has an exact cognate, Shaitan, to the Hebrew Satan. In the Jewish-Christian sources of the legend, Satan was a great angel before his fall. The Koran, however, states that “he was of the jinn, so he transgressed” (18.50). This accords with another statement that God created from the jinni of fire (15.27; 55.15). The jinni are demons, like the shedim of whom we learned from the rabbis.

 

One might ask: If Iblis was only a jinn, of a subordinate and spiritually inferior caste, why was it so important that he worship Adam, and why was his disobedience to severely punished? But we should not expect logical consistency from the unlearned prophet of Arabia. He took the existence of the Devil and of demons for granted; yet his uncompromising doctrinaire monotheism left no room for dualistic conceptions He did not worry over the question why Allah, the all-powerful and all-merciful should have created evil and malicious beings and tolerated their plots against mankind; here, as in other matters, he left serious theological difficulties to his more reflective successors. A dim recognition of the problem appears in the statement that the Devil “has no authority over those who believe and rely on their Lord. His authority is only over those who befriend him, and those who set up gods with him” (16.99, 100). This is fair enough, if you don’t scrutinize it too carefully. Mohammed combined the superstitions of his own people, the bits of Jewish and Christian lore he had acquired and his own unbudging monotheism; and he remained comfortably unaware of the contradictions involved. (Bernard J. Bamberger, Fallen Angels: Soldiers of Satan’s Realm [Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1952], 112-13)

 

Further Reading


Amjad M. Hussain on Angels and Humanity (and theosis) in Islamic Theology