"He said, "Because Thou hast caused me to err, I shall surely lie in wait for them on Thy straight path."
Quran, 7: 16
"Iblis claims that God has caused him to err, and some commentators have considered Iblis's claim to represent a true statement, albeit one that does not excuse his actions and it may be seen as consistent with Quranic verses that seem to indicate that God 'misleads' certain people or allows them to go astray. Others held that God caused Iblis to err only insofar as His command to Iblis to prostrate before Adam uncovered Iblis's hidden pride and stubborness. Nonetheless, this account of Iblis raised profound questions for certain Islamic theologians and mystics. Some even suggested that in commanding Iblis to prostrate before Adam, God put Iblis in a deliberately impossible position - commanding Iblis to do something He already knew he would not do. Since Iblis, like all creatures, was charged with worshipping and obeying only God, prostrating before Adam would simultaneously represent an act of obedience to God's command and - according to the thinking some commentators and mystics imaginatively attributed to Iblis - a compromise of his obligation to worship only God, since prostrating before Adam would mean bowing to something other than God. The Baghdadi mystic al-Hallaj (d. 309/922) famously imagined Iblis as a sincere lover of God who could not bring himself to bow to anyone other than Him, even on pain of his own ultimate destruction and eternal banishment from his Beloved."
Quran, 7: 16
"Iblis claims that God has caused him to err, and some commentators have considered Iblis's claim to represent a true statement, albeit one that does not excuse his actions and it may be seen as consistent with Quranic verses that seem to indicate that God 'misleads' certain people or allows them to go astray. Others held that God caused Iblis to err only insofar as His command to Iblis to prostrate before Adam uncovered Iblis's hidden pride and stubborness. Nonetheless, this account of Iblis raised profound questions for certain Islamic theologians and mystics. Some even suggested that in commanding Iblis to prostrate before Adam, God put Iblis in a deliberately impossible position - commanding Iblis to do something He already knew he would not do. Since Iblis, like all creatures, was charged with worshipping and obeying only God, prostrating before Adam would simultaneously represent an act of obedience to God's command and - according to the thinking some commentators and mystics imaginatively attributed to Iblis - a compromise of his obligation to worship only God, since prostrating before Adam would mean bowing to something other than God. The Baghdadi mystic al-Hallaj (d. 309/922) famously imagined Iblis as a sincere lover of God who could not bring himself to bow to anyone other than Him, even on pain of his own ultimate destruction and eternal banishment from his Beloved."
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