who makes the evil suggestions, is as much a fact as the existence of the angel who makes the good suggestions—the Holy Qur’ān requires a belief in angels and a disbelief in devils.19 This, of course, is not to say that one must deny the existence of the devil. The significance is clear enough: one must obey the commandments of God and refuse to follow the suggestions of the devil. Faith in the angels, therefore, only means that every good suggestion— and such is the suggestion of the angel—must be accepted, because it leads to the spiritual development of man.
There is a popular misconception, into which many writers of repute have fallen, that Iblīs or the Devil is one of the angels. The misconception has arisen from the fact that where the angels are commanded to make obeisance to Adam, there is also mention of Iblīs and his refusal to make obeisance: “And when We said to the angels, Be submissive to Adam, they submitted, but20 Iblīs (did not). He refused and was proud, and he was one of the disbelievers” (2:34). From these words it is clear enough that Iblīs or the Devil was one of the unbelievers and refused to obey, and, therefore, he could not be an angel, because, of the angels, it is plainly said that “they do not disobey Allāh in that which He commands them, but do as they are commanded” (66:6). And elsewhere it is stated in so many words that Iblīs was not from among the angels but from among the jinn: “And when We said to the angels, Make submission to Adam, they submitted except Iblīs. He was of the jinn, so he transgressed the commandment of his Lord” (18:50). Now jinn and angels are two different classes of beings; their origin and their functions have nothing in common. The jinn, as we have seen, are mentioned as being created from fire, while the angels are created from light, and the function of the jinn has also been shown to be quite different from the function of the angel. It is, therefore, an obvious error to look upon the jinn as being a branch of the angelic creation.
The word jinn is derived from janna meaning he covered or concealed
19 “So whoever disbelieves in the devil and believes in Allāh, he indeed lays hold on the firmest handle” (2:256).
20 The word illā, which ordinārily means except and is used as indicating istithnā, (exception), is sometimes used to indicate istithnā, munqaṭi’ (lit. an exception which is cut off), the thing excepted being disunited in kind from that from which the exception is made, so that the two belong to two classes. Thus they say, jā’ al-qaumu illā ḥimār-an, the meaning of which is that the people came but an ass did not come, the people and the ass belonging to two quite different classes. It is exactly in this sense that the word illā is used here, the angels and Iblīs belonging to two quite different classes. Hence the rendering adopted. It is sometimes argued that if the devil were not an angel, he would not have been spoken of at all in connection with the commandment to the angels to make obeisance to man. The fact is that the commandment to the angels was in fact a commandment to all creation, and the lower beings jinn, were, therefore, included in it. The words idh amartu-ka (when I commanded thee), occurring in 7:12 regarding the devil, show that the lower beings called jinn were included by implication in the commandment to the higher beings.