Satan

[Nura]

Salam all,                                                                                                                                         Recently a question has been bothering me and I can't seem to come up with a convincing answer myself. Hence I am here to get an answer from the collective wisdom of all you people. Why do you think Allah created satan? If it is satan who misleads us then who misled him? After thinking for a long time I came up to a conclusion that the capacity to disobey was given to all jinns and humans! So Allah knew about that when jinns and humans were given free will! So in that sense we all can disobey but what makes satan evil is his promise to lead others astray , that is what is what makes him abhorrent not his capacity to disobey! At the end of the day adam disobeyed as well when he ate of the tree! But adam was repentant and sought to redeem himself! So all satan does is try to influence but it is upto us to follow him or not! Because there are good beings among jinns as well! It is not that he does not whisper to good jinns to lead them astray? Does satan only lead humans astray? Or any being with the capacity to disobey Allah is fair game? Am I right or do you have another way of looking at this! Any point of view will be greatly appreciated

[Hassan A]

Salaam Nura,

I agree with much of what you wrote.

You asked:

Why do you think Allah created satan

Satan (also refered to in the Quran as Iblis) was one among the Jinns (see: Quran 18:50). So he was created when the Jinn were. To the best of my limited knwoledge and understanding, Allah did not create Satan/Iblis with the intent of him (Satan/Iblis) one day disobeying Allah and working to mislead mankind. So, having established that, I am not quite sure why Allah created him (and Adam for that matter) to being with.

You also asked:

If it is satan who misleads us then who misled him?

What mislead Satan/Iblis was his refusal to bow down to Adam out of sheer pride, because he thought he was "superior" to Adam (Quran 15:28-33; 7:12). It was then that Allah condemned him for his pride and thus became among the mislead.

You asked:

Does satan only lead humans astray

It is my believe that Satan/Iblis atempts to mislead the Jinn, as well; as per the following verse:

"And that the foolish one among us used to speak concerning Allah an atrocious lie." [Quran 72:4]

You asked:

It is not that he does not whisper to good jinns to lead them astray?

As alluded to above, I do believe that he does attempt to mislead the Jinn but (just as in humans) there are those among the Jinn whom his evil whispers fail to sway:

"Say, [O Muhammad], "It has been revealed to me that a group of the jinn listened and said, 'Indeed, we have heard an amazing Qur'an. It guides to the right course, and we have believed in it. And we will never associate with our Lord anyone. [Quran 72:1-2]

"And among us are the righteous, and among us are [others] not so; we were [of] divided ways." [Quran 72:11]

Peace.

[Sardar Miyan]

I think Satan misleads Jin & Ins as the Jinns also given Free Will as Ins.