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Iblis: angel or jinn?      

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The Reliance of the Traveler mentions that Iblis is one of the angels, when the Quran says in the chapter of the Cave, that he was one of the jinn. Can you clarify?

Answer:
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

The opinion that Iblis, may Allah curse him, was an angel is transmitted by Sayyidina Ibn `Abbas (may Allah have mercy on father and son). The Reviver of the Sunna, Imam al-Baghawi, said in his tafsir about His saying, Most High, “except Iblis, he was from the jinn” (Kahf, 50), ‘Ibn `Abbas said, that he was a creature among the angels called the jinn’.

There is some difference of opinion in the issue, for it has been related by other than Ibn `Abbas that Iblis was not an angel, but rather was really one of the jinn, and he was actually the first of the jinn, just as Sayyidina Adam, Allah bless him and give him peace, was the first of mankind. The tafsir of Imam al-Baghawi mentions that Imam al-Hasan al-Basri said this.

Amjad Rasheed

[Translated by Ustadha Shazia Ahmad]

السؤال: يذكر كتابُ “عمدة السالك” أن إبليس من الملائكة ، في حين يُشير القرآن في ( سورة الكهف ) إلى أنه من الجنّ . أرجو التوضيح ؟ الجواب : القولُ بأن ابليس لعنه الله كان من الملائكة منقولٌ عن سيدنا ابن عباس رضي الله عنهما ، قال محيي السنة الإمامُ البَغَوي في تفسير قوله تعالى : ( إلا إبليس كان من الجن ) [الكهف :50] :” قال ابنُ عباس : كان من حيٍّ من الملائكة يقال لهم الجن “. اهـ وفي المسألة خلافٌ فرُويَ عن غير ابن عباس أن إبليس لم يكن من الملائكة بل هو من الجن حقيقة وهو أصلُ الجن كما أن سيدنا آدم عليه الصلاة والسلام أصلُ الإنس . قال بهذا الإمام الحسن البصري كما في “تفسير” البغوي.

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