Iblees
The following passage is from; “My Ordeal with the Qur’an,” By Abbas Abdul Noor:
God made Iblees and raised him amongst the most honoured creation in the holy company in Heaven. He was present during the theatrical moment when God asked everyone to bow down to Adam. But he refused and so God cursed him and sent him away — though clearly not far enough, because he sneaked back into Heaven to tell Adam and Eve to go and eat from the tree that God forbade them from approaching.
God then reproaches Adam and Eve and sends them both down to Earth, where Iblees has promised to lie in wait for them and their children and mislead, tempt, and seduce them.
Now if God knew Iblees would turn evil, which He must have, why did He create him? The only answer can be that God intended all this to happen. Nothing can happen unless Allah wills it, nor can it happen if it is not in God’s plan. So God wanted him to turn evil and wanted him to sneak around, misguiding humans.
Iblees, for his part, seems to think he can prove something to God. Which is very odd, to say the least, since Iblees knows he’s dealing with an Omnipotent and Omniscient Being, so therefore he knows he stands absolutely no chance.
It is said he wants to take as many of mankind down to Hell with him. But how that would give him satisfaction when he is being eternally tortured is beyond me. It’s hard to understand what a supposedly-intelligent being who had firsthand experience of this omnipotent God was thinking?
It’s a bad move, indeed. But one that God clearly intended him to make, so He could fulfil His grand plan. Now, an impartial observer might say that it is God who is the wicked one here, while Iblees is simply a pawn in His game…but far be it from me to suggest such a thing!
So what is this grand plan? To test man so that believers can be separated from unbelievers? The former to Paradise, the latter to Hell? Though this was, of course, not for God’s benefit, because He already knew who would be good and who would be bad. It was for our benefit so we can’t complain that we weren’t given a chance. Though, if he didn’t create the bad people in the first place, there would be no need for anyone to complain!
I do not see the purpose of this whole charade from the Most Merciful?
Also, if it’s true that Iblees could still rebel against God even though He was in Heaven, then couldn’t this same problem arise amongst those who go to heaven? Or will God take away their free-will? Or, perhaps, those in heaven are of such a good nature that they will never rebel?
If so, couldn’t God have spared us this pantomime by only creating them right from the start? No need for Iblees, tempting, sin, burning fire, roasted skins, hooked rods of iron, or vats of boiling oil.
Or is God incapable of doing that?
