Azazil should not be confused with Azazel.
Azazil (Arabic: عزازيل ʿAzāzīl, also known as Arabic: حارث Ḥārith) is a figure in Islamic tradition, and believed to be the original name of Satan (Iblīs).[1] The name does not appear in the Quran, however, is frequently mentioned in tafsīr (authorized exegesis of the Quran). According to a ḥadīth by ibn Abbas, Satan was once an angel called ʿAzāzīl or al-Ḥārith. He states that God created most angels from "light" (Nūr), but ʿAzāzīl and the angels with him from "poisonous fire" (nār as-samūm). The djinn were created from "a mixture of fire" (mārijin min nār).[2]
The djinn were the first to inhabit the world and God entrusted them to govern the earth. When corruption increased among them, God sent an army of angels under the leadership of ʿAzāzīl to punish them. After driving the djinn away, ʿAzāzīl grew arrogant. When God 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.
The name resembles Azazel, a fallen angel in the Apocalypse of Abraham, and might be its etymological origin.[3] Feinberg argues that the name relates to Arabic ‘azala (to remove) and is given to this angel because he "removes or separates" by Muslim authors.[4]
Some Islamic philologists construct his name from the words aziz and il (God's dear), meaning that his name derived from the meaning that he was once God's favorite angel.[5]
According to many Arabic scholars, ʿAzāzīl was the personal name of Satan (Iblis). Ibn Manzur[6] (June–July 1233 – December 1311/January 1312) writes in his dictionary of the Arabic language:
Quranic tradition can be divided into two camps in regards on the identity of Satan. This dispute roots back to the formative stage of Islam.[2] When Surah al-Kahf states, in reference to Satan, "(...) he was one of the jinni (...)", the strand of Hasan al-Basri and ibn Abbas differ in meaning. According to al-Basri, angels are infallible.[7] Thus, he argues, Satan could not have been an angel.[8] Instead, the verse is supposed to mean that Satan is one of the jinn, distinct from the angels.[2]
According to ibn Abbas, the term is interpreted as jinān, meaning that Satan was "an inhabitant of paradise" (i.e. an angel).[9] 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.[10] [11] 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).
He is further blamed to claim divine authority for himself by calling for obedience among God's creation. Surah al-’Anbiyā (26-29) is understood as a reference to Satan:[2]
"And they say, "The Most Merciful has taken a son." Exalted is He! Rather, they are [but] honored servants. They cannot precede Him in word, and they act by His command. He knows what is [presently] before them and what will be after them, and they cannot intercede except on behalf of one whom He approves. And they, from fear of Him, are apprehensive. And whoever of them should say, "Indeed, I am a god besides Him" - that one We would recompense with Hell. Thus do We recompense the wrongdoers."[12]
Unlike the tradition of al-Basri, ibn Abbas' interpretation accepts that angels can sin and be expelled from heaven.[2] This interpretation is favored in Sunni tradition by scholars such as Tabari, Suyuti, and Nasafi.[2]
Drawing from legends by some Turkish sources, ʿAzāzīl was a unique being, created from fire. He grew up pious and was lifted up to live with the angels in the first heaven. As the ruler of the lower earth, he was sent by God to the djinn communities on earth in order to persuade them to follow the right path. However, most djinn refused to obey and were burned by God's fire. ʿAzāzīl's piety increased and he was bestowed with angelic qualities when he reaches the seventh heaven. However, he loses his previous achievements when refused to prostrate himself before Adam.[13]
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.[14]
Although ʿAzāzīl is considered an angel (muqarrab),[15] [16] who was already created when God created the earthly djinn, the Brethren of Purity[17] and Tarikh Khamis[18] depict ʿAzāzīl as someone who lived among the djinn until he was taken captive by the angels or was elavated to their rank.[19]
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.[20] He argues that, since ʿAzāzīl originated from fire, fire must be his final destiny.[21]
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.[22] 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.[23] [24] ʿAzāzīl and his angels were reduced to the principle of evil, when they rejected repentance and justified their persistence by their creation from fire.[25]
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.[26] ʿAzāzīl is the worst tempters, since the fallen angel has the power to lead even saints astray, however, still fails against the prophets.[27]
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. As with the Gnostic Demiurge, ʿAzāzīl traps the life-forces of the heavenly realm and captures them in the material realm.[28] [29]
Umm al-Kitab's depiction of ʿAzāzīl might be a reaction to religious dualism. By claiming divinity for himself, but getting rebuked by God and presenting ʿAzāzīl merely as an angel inferior to God, belief in two eternal principles is rejected. In one instance, Ahriman, the Zorastrian creator of evil, appears namely as a later incarnation of ʿAzāzīl.[30]
ʿAzāzīl features as one of the first angels in an Alevi oral tradition, there he is informed by the archangel Cebrail (Gabriel), about their creator. Along with the other archangels, Cebrail leads ʿAzāzīl to a lamp with seven doors. They shall serve here for 1001 days, so the door will open. After the archangels entered the lamp, they saw two lights forming one body. The archangels were commanded to prostrate before the light. All followed the order but ʿAzāzīl, who refused to prostrate himself, since the light, as something that was created, could not be the creator, so he turned back to the door to stay in the former service of God. This narration explains that ʿAzāzīl stood at God's service, but he despised that he saw when the door opened and decided to move into the Ego World, causing the later enmity between Satan and humanity.[31]