Djinn Hierarchy

Lore & Background

The djinn were the first to inhabit the world and Allah entrusted them to govern the earth. When corruption increased among them, Allah sent an army of angels under the leadership of ʿAzāzīl to punish them. After driving the djinn away, ʿAzāzīl grew arrogant. When Allah creates a successor to the djinn and commands the angels to prostrate themselves before the new creation, ʿAzāzīl refuses, claiming that he is better. Thereupon, he is condemned to hell. According to ibn Abbas, the term is interpreted as jinān, meaning that Satan was "an inhabitant of paradise" (i.e. an angel). At that time, he was appointed by God as the ruler of the lower heavens and sent to judge the djinn, until they became corrupt and was commanded to eliminate them. Ibn Abbas further explains that Satan's angelic name was ʿAzāzīl. However, after ʿAzāzīl was banished from heaven, his name is changed to Iblīs and is turned into a "cursed demon" (shayṭān rajim). In the treatise Itbad al wasiyya, God created the djinn and nasnas on earth. When the djinn and nasnas caused corruption and bloodshed, God sends down an army of angels. The leader of the angels was ʿAzāzīl. ʿAzāzīl and his angels deported the djinn and nasnas to the edge of the world, whereas ʿAzāzīl and his companions settled on the central part of the earth. ʿAzāzīl became the ruler of the earth and pretended to be of angelic quality outwardly but disobeyed God inwardly. ʿAzāzīl ruled for 7000 years until God ordered the angels of heaven to look at earth again.

In Their Own Story

Al-Hallaj (c. 858 – 922) mentions ʿAzāzīl in his Kitāb al-Tawāsīn. Here, ʿAzāzīl's disobedience to refuse God's command is described as way to hallow God's name. According to him, ʿAzāzīl proved loyalty to God by declining to bow before Adam. Chapter Six is dedicated to the self-defence of ʿAzāzīl, and in one section Hallaj explains how each of the letters of ʿAzāzīl's name relate to his personality. Unlike many other Sufi writers, Hallaj rejected that ʿAzāzīl could be restored to God's grace, insisting on Satan's damnation. He argues that, since ʿAzāzīl originated from fire, fire must be his final destiny. ʿAzāzīl is also mentioned three times in Rumi's Masnavi, as a reminder for the Muslim to exercise discipline and humility, since when ʿAzāzīl acted arrogantly, he was abandoned to hell in spite of his former high position: "Through discipline and humility this heaven has been filled with light, and through discipline the angel became immaculate and holy. By reason of irreverence, the sun was eclipsed, and insolence caused Azazil to be turned back from the door."

In Umm al-Kitab, an 8th-century Ismaili work, ʿAzāzīl is the first creation of God, the High King. God gave him the power of creation, but ʿAzāzīl boasted with his loaned power, claiming divinity for himself, describing himself as another God beside the High King. To prove that ʿAzāzīl's creation only depends on the power of his own creator, God makes a new creation, opposed by ʿAzāzīl. Every time, ʿAzāzīl again claims to be like God, he and his fellow angels lose colour, becoming darker and inferior and are thrown into lower celestial spheres until they end up on earth, which is made out of the essence of ʿAzāzīl's creations.

Reader's Guide

In Bektashi Alevism, despite its heterodox, believes in angels similar to Sunnis. As in the Quranic tradition, angels are ordered to prostrate themselves, but Azazil refuses. In the Alevi interpretation, however, the prostration was to Ali. In a creation story, the archangels are ordered to bow before a mystical light. After Azazil served God for 1001 days, he refused to bow down, claiming independency of his creator out of pride. Whereupon, he is, unlike the other archangels, not allowed to enter the light and remains in the world of the "Evil Self". This event later manifests in the enmity between the Devil and humanity. Al-Jili describes angels (malāʾikah) and devils (shayāṭīn) as manifestations of God's attributes. While the good angels are made from light in order to guide humanity, ʿAzāzīl and his angels are created as reflecting God's names of majesty, darkness and misleading. As an angel of single-minded devotion, ʿAzāzīl fails to realize that bowing before Adam in accordance with God's command is equal as bowing to God himself. ʿAzāzīl and his angels were reduced to the principle of evil, when they rejected repentance and justified their persistence by their creation from fire. Inayat Khan (1882 – 1927), a pioneer of the transmission of Sufism to the West, similarly teaches that ʿAzāzīl is a devil leading astray from the way of God. He states that evil actions performed by people attract the spirit of ʿAzāzīl (or his minions) who in turn leads them further astray into darkness and wrong actions. ʿAzāzīl is the worst of the tempters, since the fallen angel has the power to lead even saints astray, however, still fails against the prophets.

Did You Know?

• According to a ḥadīth by ibn Abbas, God created most angels from 'light' (Nūr), but ʿAzāzīl and the angels with him from 'poisonous fire' (nār as-samūm).
• Ibn Manzur writes in Lisan Al-Arab that Iblis's original name was Azazil, and the name 'Iblis' is derived from the root 'bls', meaning to be in despair of Allah's mercy.
• In the treatise Itbad al wasiyya, ʿAzāzīl ruled the earth for 7000 years after deporting the djinn and nasnas.
• In Bektashi Alevism, the prostration the angels were ordered to perform was to Ali, not Adam.
• Al-Hallaj (c. 858 – 922) dedicated Chapter Six of his Kitāb al-Tawāsīn to the self-defence of ʿAzāzīl.