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Satan
The English name “Satan” is derived from the Hebrew word for “adversary,” which has as a cognate Arabic shaytān “Satan” has several meanings in the Islamic traditions. When the word is used generically, it refers to a class of jinn with exceptional powers; this is the case in stories about Solomon, for example, who uses jinn and Satans to do his work. Satans are also considered to be familiar spirits who accompany and inspire poets and other talented people. Someone who is possessed by a jinn or a Satan is thought to be psychologically deviant, but Satans in such cases are not necessarily considered evil. Satans are also said to bring diseases and cause mischief. They are said to be powerless during the fasting month of Ramaḍan except against those who improperly break the fast, and the recitation of the basmalah is said to drive them from any room. In the popular culture, prophylactic amulets worn to ward off Satans are often fashioned in the shape of a hand with five fingers, five being a powerful magic number. Satans in corporal form are said to be ugly, with hooves for feet, and to dwell in dark places and ruins.
In a more specific sense, a Satan is a representative of evil, the chief of the Satans being Iblīs, the rebel jinn who refused to bow down to Adam when all the angels were commanded to do so by Allah (Qurʿān, 15:30–34, 17:61), for which he was cast out of heaven and said to be cursed (rajīm). His real punishment is delayed until the day of judgment. In the interval, he is able to lead astray anyone who is not faithful to Allah. In the story of Adam and Eve, he climbed into the mouth of the serpent to induce them to disobedience; this resulted in the serpent ’s loss of her feathers and legs. Iblīs is said to have married the serpent afterward, thus linking serpents and Satan. Some traditions hold that the jinn are offspring of this union.
Iblīs is not the ruler of hell — that job is reserved for an angel named Malik — but he will be thrown into hell along with all his host and the rest of the damned on the day of judgment (26:94–95). In post-Qurʿānic speculation, there is much discussion about whether Iblīs is an angel or a jinn, and whether jinn, Satans, and angels belong to the same class or are of different classes. Satans and jinn are said to have been created from fire and angels from light, but the story of Iblīs ’s rebellion against Allah seems to classify him with the angels. Some commentators assert that a jinn who is not a Muslim is a Satan; if very large and powerful, it is considered to be an ʿifrīt. The ʿifrīts appear in the Thousand and One Nights and other popular tales and, though often evil, are sometimes helpful to humans. Islamic tradition never really settles the issue of the nature of Satans, jinn, angels, and other similar creatures, although they are all regarded as having been created by Allah and, in the case of the jinn in particular, are capable of becoming Muslim and being saved
In Islamic thought, the Satan Iblīs represents the power of evil and is an enemy of Allah and humanity. Iblīs ’s disobedience comes from pride: his belief that he was superior to Adam and the other angels. In keeping with Islamic monotheism, however, theologians point out that Iblīs has no real power over humans that they do not themselves grant by being deceived by his trickery. He is always whispering in the ears of humans, but they can resist the temptation. In popular tradition, he is also the one who instills the propensity to sin into humans at birth; some stories say that Jesus was preserved from sin by his mother ’s ability to ward off Satan. There is also a popular belief that every human is accompanied by both an angel and a Satan offering contradictory inspirations. (Some popular accounts say that Muḥammad had a Satan to whom he taught passages of the Qurʿān.) Muslims on pilgrimage are reminded of the existence of Satan through the ritual act of stoning Satan in the form of a stone column, an act that ritually repels the evil in the world and recalls Abraham ’s stoning of Satan at Mina.
In the Ṣūfī tradition, Satan or Iblīs is presented as a complex figure whose initial sin of rebellion against Allah was not simply evil or pride. Iblīs, according to the mystic al-Ḥusayn ibn Manṣūr al-Ḥallāj, refused to worship Adam because of Iblīs ’s absolute commitment to monotheism. This absolute preference for the unity of Allah, even at the risk of disobeying Allah, makes Satan an ambiguous figure for the mystic who must ponder the tension between principle and obedience to divine command. Some Ṣūfīs contend that Iblīs will ultimately be forgiven by Allah at the day of judgment because of his staunch unitarian position. Satan has also been identified with the lower appetites of humans, the so-called nafs, and as such has been identified with the serpent. Mystics who have attained spiritual mastery over the nafs can convert the base appetite into something useful, just as Moses ’s rod was transformed into a snake and back again. Such spiritual masters have power over snakes, according to the legends, and can control actual as well as spiritual serpents.
Satan is not only the force of evil leading humans astray, but for some Muslims, particularly in modern times, he can appear in the person of a particular ruler or individual. During the Iranian Islamic Revolution, for example, popular rhetoric identified the Shah and subsequently the United States as the “Great Satan” — a usage paralleling both the Islamic and Jewish use of the term “pharaoh” to represent any evil ruler. In this view, Satan represents the personification of evil and loses some of the nuanced character shown in the Ṣūfī tradition.
Satan
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Last Updated: 07/2021
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