Iblis

**Iblis**, formerly known as **Azazil**, was a divine Jinn that fell from grace, becoming a high-ranking demon and King of Hell. He is equated with Satan in Islamic belief and tradition.

## Overview

Iblis is a figure frequently mentioned and appearing in the Quran, commonly in relation to the creation of Adam and the command to prostrate himself before him. After he refused, he was cast out of Heaven. The story regarding his fall from grace is often compared to Satan in Christian traditions.

In Islamic tradition, Iblis is identified with *Al-Shaitan* ("the Devil"), often followed by the epithet *al-rajim* (the accursed). However, while *Shaitan* is used exclusively used for an evil force, Iblis himself holds a more ambivalent role in Islamic traditions.

## Appearance

Iblis' appearance before he fell was said to be unique and grand even amongst the ranks of the Jinn. Similarly to Lucifer before his fall, he was majestic and great to behold with power exceeding that of his peers.

After his fall from the Heavens, Iblis' body is composed entirely of molten magma, or brimstone, and frost that varies between forms. His original form was a giant, swirling ball of flames. Several Islamic scholars state that when he comes in human shape, he has seven hairs on his chin with a menacing grimace and "smoldering embers" for eyes. He was also blind in his right eye after Idris jabbed a needle into it.

## History

### Origins

Iblis was an angelic jinn created by God out of Vril and was known as Azazil. He stood out amongst the jinn as being unique in appearance and power, but regardless, he was no different in the eyes of Heaven when it came to how they viewed the jinn. When the angels took prisoners, Iblis was one of them and carried them to heaven. Since he, unlike the other jinn, was pious, the angels were impressed by his nobility, and Iblis was allowed to join the company of angels and elevated to their rank. However, although he had the outer appearance of an angel, he was still a jinn, in essence, thus he was able to choose in terms of free will.

After being elevated to the ranks of the angels, Iblis became a leader and teacher of his own choir of angels, and a keeper of Heaven. God gave him authority over the lower heavens and the Earth. Iblis is also considered the leader of those angels who battled the Jann. Therefore, Iblis and his army drove these ancient jinn to the edge of the world, Mount Qaf. The jinn, in response, regarded Iblis as a traitor to their own kind and accused of him of slithering his way into the ranks of Heaven mainly to avoid persecution at the hands of the angels.

### Rebelling in Heaven

When God created Adam, He ordered all the angels and jinn to bow before the new creation. All the angels and jinn bowed down, but Iblis refused to do so. Knowing about the corruption of the former earthen inhabitants, Iblis protested, when he was instructed to prostrate himself before the new earthen inhabitant, that is Adam. He assumed that the angels who praise God's glory day and night are superior in contrast to the mud-made humans and their bodily flaws. He even regarded himself superior in comparison to the other angels, since he was (one of those) created from fire. However, he was degraded by God for his arrogance.

As punishment for his haughtiness, God banished Iblis from Heaven and condemned him to Hell. But Iblis requested to prove that he is right, therefore God entrusted him as a tempter for humanity as long as his punishment endures, concurrently giving him a chance to redeem himself. As a result, his punishment was postponed until Judgment Day, when he and his host will have to face the eternal fires of Hell.

### King of Jinnestan

Despite the circumstances of his eternal imprisonment within Hell, he became a demon serving under the reign of Lucifer, and even joined the Stygian Council, taking the name Iblis as a King of Hell, specifically the ruler of Jinnestan and lord of the infernal Jinn. He had the Marid build a glorious palace known as Schadou Kiam to mirror the infernal majesty of Pandemonium the capital city of Hell. Iblis was said to have ordered the building of the palace to elevated himself in equal authority to Lucifer himself.

His exact rank in the demonic hierarchy is not known, but he reports directly to the Satanic Triumvirate, a circumstance he is not too fond of as he hates the idea of a great Jinn such as he reporting his status and findings like a common subject. Moreover, Iblis's damnation is clear and he and his host are the first who enter hell to dwell therein forever, when he is not killed in a battle by the Mahdi, an interpretation especially prevalent among Shia Muslims.

### Earthly Exploits

As his first demonic act, Iblis, referred to in this context as *Shaitan*. Disguised as the Hatif, the mysterious voice of Arab mythology, Iblis also tempted ʿAlī, Muhammad’s son-in-law, unsuccessfully trying to keep him from performing the ritual washing of the Prophet’s dead body.

Another tale involves how he lost his right eye. Iblis once came to the prophet Idris, who was a tailor, with an egg in his hand and told him that God had shaped the world like an egg. Idris was enraged by this blasphemous talk and answered, ‘No, God made the world like the eye of this needle, look here.’ When Iblis looked at the needle, the prophet thrust it into his eye and blinding him forevermore.

## Myths and Legends

Iblis has long been a figure of speculation among Muslim scholars, who have been trying to explain the ambiguous identification of Iblis in the Quran as either angel or Jinn, a contradiction in terms, as angels are created of light and are incapable of sin, while jinn are created of mist. Traditions on this point are numerous and conflicting: Iblis was simply a jinn who inappropriately found himself among the angels in heaven; he was an jinn sent to Earth to do battle with the rebellious jinn who inhabited the Earth before man was created; Iblis was himself one of the terrestrial jinn captured by the angels during their attack and brought to heaven.

### Sufism

Sufism developed another perspective of Iblis' refusal by regarding Muhammed and Iblis as the two true monotheists. Therefore, some Sufis hold, Iblis refused to bow to Adam because he was devoted to God alone and refused to bow to anyone else. By weakening the evil in the Satanic figure, dualism is also degraded, that corresponds with the Sufi cosmology of unity of existence rejecting dualistic tendencies. The belief in dualism or that *evil* is caused by something else than God, even if only by one's own will, is regarded as *shirk* by some Sufis. For Iblis' preference to be damned to hell, than prostrating himself before someone else other than the "Beloved" (here referring to God), Iblis also became an example for unrequited love.

A famous narration about an encounter between Moses and Iblis on the slopes of Sinai, told by Mansur al-Hallaj, Ruzbihan Baqli and Ghazzali, emphasizes the nobility of Iblis. Accordingly, Moses asks Iblis why he refused God's order. Iblis replied that the command was actually a test. Then Moses replied, obviously Iblis was punished by being turned from a jinn to a devil. Iblis responds, his form is just temporary and his love towards God remains the same.

However, not all Sufis are in agreement with a positive depiction of Iblis. Rumi's viewpoint on Iblis is much more in tune with Islamic orthodoxy. Rumi views Iblis as the manifestation of the great sins of haughtiness and envy. He states: "(Cunning) intelligence is from Iblis, and love from Adam." Iblis represents the principle of "one-eyed" intellect; he only saw the outward earthly form of Adam, but was blind to the Divine spark hidden in him, using an illicit method of comparison. Hasan of Basra holds that Iblis was the first who used "analogy", comparing himself to someone else, this causing his sin. Iblis therefore also represents humans' psyche moving towards sin or shows how love can cause envy and anxiety.

## Trivia

* Iblis is often considered to be the Islamic version of Satan.

## Quotes

*"If I win three things from the son of Adam, I will have earned what I wanted from him: if he forgets his sins, thinks high of his actions, and becomes fond of his opinion!" - Iblis.*

## Powers and Abilities

**Absolute Concealment:** Iblis can render themselves unseen and unfindable by anything, making them unable to be visually, physically, conceptually, etc. detected by any means including magic, technology, divine beings, etc.

**Absolute Wish:** Iblis can make any absolute and perfect wishes for themselves and others without any limitations. They can even make vague or inconceivable wishes come true no matter what, as their power always makes the wishes come out the exact way the wisher intended and desired.

**Alpha Physiology:** Iblis is vastly superior to any member of their species or society, learning and achieving quickly and effortlessly what takes years of hard work for others and growing substantially stronger and better with each challenge. They naturally arouse a strong admiration and desire among their kind, as they personify the pinnacle of their species, and even the most hostile are forced to acknowledge their towering superiority and amazing prowess.

**Corruption Manipulation:** Iblis can manipulate the powers of corruption to take a variety of effects on themselves or others. Iblis may take control of any darkness in the hearts of others to make them into their servants. Iblis can even become stronger with the darkness and corruption of others by just being around them. Iblis can even influence the corruption in a means of combat purposes, energy attacks, or corruption techniques.

**Demonic Source:** Iblis has demonic powers, which can be obtained a number of different ways. Iblis may be a demonic being or have demonic ancestry, transform into a demon, channel or act as a vessel for a demon, have the power or soul of a demon, or mimic/steal powers from a demon.

**Evil Manipulation:** Iblis can manipulate evil and anything bad, including the bad/evil side of morality and bad things happening to people, as well as what is evil/bad. Unlike Malefic Force Manipulation, this does not manipulate evil energies, only evil itself.

**Fallen Physiology:** Iblis with this ability has left behind their noble existence to become a much darker and corrupted being. Iblis embraces their new vile life, some might become deformed by their dark personality, emotions, action and/or dark powers they have embraced, sometimes minor such as skin color change or other bodily color change like their eyes or blood, or sometimes radical such as mutilation or transformation. They can even cause their disfigured, crippled or near-death selves to survive and become self-enabled again.

**Fallen Transcendent Angel Physiology:** Iblis either is or can transform into a Fallen Transcendent Angel: a leader of a group of angels who rebelled against God and were cast into Hell. Strangely, Iblis not only keep their power but still have access to angelic powers as well as demonic ones even though Iblis is not a full-fledged demon. Furthermore, Iblis' angelic essence could be different than just plain angel like Transcendent Hybrid of possibly Transcendent Dragonborn (Angelic Dragon),Transcendent Cyborg (Angel-Machine), Transcendent Nephalem (Fallen Transcendent Angel/Ascended Transcendent Demon), Deity (Angelic Deity), Transcendent Nephilim (Fallen Transcendent Angel/Transcendent Human) , etc which in turn could push Iblis' potential and all other abilities far beyond normal transcendent angels.

**Meta-Possession:** Iblis can possess or take over anything, including the living, the dead, objects, animals, plants, locations, powers, attacks, energy, and abstract/conceptual forces etc., and bypass/ignore Possession Immunity or any other immunities and negations. While possessing someone/something, Iblis obtains all its powers, skills and talents and can manipulate it in all ways he likes.

**Multiple Wings:** Iblis has or can grow a varying number of wings, allowing them to enhance their flight, speed, and maneuverability far beyond those with only one pair of wings.

**Omnifabrication:** Iblis can invent and create any item, device, weapon, etc. they want/need with limited resources in exceptionally short time, which can perform actions that manipulate/distort reality. Iblis can invent any item or device they want in limited time with whatever they have access to.

**Omni Fire Manipulation:** Iblis can create, shape and manipulate a variant of fire that contains and controls all types of fire and their various effects and properties.

**Shaitan Physiology:** Iblis with this ability either is or can transform into an shaitan (plural: shayatin. Feminine: Shaitana(h) and Shaytana(h), literally: unruly person, devil, deuce, satan, accuser, adversary, astray or distant), an evil type of jinn, comparable to demons, in Islamic theology and mythology. Usually, shaitans are the worst of the jinn being regarded as the offspring of Iblis, but other beings, such as tyrants and fallen angels are also referred to as shaitans.

**Subordination Manipulation:** Iblis gains significant influence over intended targets, allowing them to control, strengthen or weaken physically, mentally or magically (including all supernatural powers) and otherwise manipulate their victims as they wish, even summoning beings to serve them or dismiss those they wish to.

**Transcendent Genie Physiology:** Iblis with this ability either is or can transform into an all-powerful genie with unimaginable magical power. Their powers and abilities dwarf that of lesser genies and are even able to break the laws of both magic and nature, and warp reality to their liking.

**Transcendent Ghoul Physiology:** Iblis either is or can transform into a transcendent ghoul, the most fearsome ghoul of terrible power and cannibalistic horrors. Transcendent ghouls are powerful enough to kill and devour anything in the universe even other deities to gain more power, entitling the most feared beings in the universe.

**Wrath Embodiment:** Iblis can become a physical manifestation or personification of wrath in their reality and gains power from the anger in others or oneself. Iblis can use anger and endless rage as a power source to extend their life span or as a weapon. They can become immune to death unless certain conditions are met. They can also embodiment the hatred, the violence, the vengeance and the war, concepts related to wrath.