Temptation - Scholarly Article

The Qur’an presents Iblis as both among the angels and as a jinn, which creates tension.
Islamic scholars disagree on how to understand this.
Episode 2 follows the biblical view of Satan as a fallen spiritual being.

Episode 2 follows the biblical framework, where Satan is understood as a fallen spiritual being who opposes God and tempts humanity. In contrast, the Qur’an presents Iblis in a more complex way.

Surah 18:50 states that Iblis “was one of the jinn,” yet in the same passage he is included among those commanded with the angels to bow before Adam. This creates an interpretive tension: if angels cannot disobey, how could Iblis rebel unless he was something else?

Islamic scholars have long debated this. Some insist Iblis was never an angel but a jinn placed among them. Others acknowledge the ambiguity, noting that early sources sometimes blur the distinction. Reference works like Encyclopaedia Britannica highlight that traditions on this issue are numerous and conflicting.

The Bible, by contrast, does not include the category of jinn. Instead, it distinguishes between faithful angels and fallen beings (demons), with Satan as their leader. Some Christian thinkers, like Thomas Aquinas, suggested that these beings originally had the ability to choose obedience or rebellion, after which their state became fixed.

So when Episode 2 describes Satan as a “fallen angel,” it is not attempting to reflect Islamic categories, but rather presenting the biblical understanding of a rebellious spiritual being who tempts humanity.

While Surah 18:50 teaches that Iblis “was one of the Jinn,” it also says that when God told the angels to prostrate themselves before Adam “they prostrated themselves, except Iblis,” which entails that Iblis was one of the angels.

While the Qur’an calls the devil (Surah 35:6) “Iblis” (which is likely an Arabicization of the Greek diablos from which the English “devil” is derived), it also calls him “Shaytan” (translated in English as “Satan”). In the Qur’an “Shaytan” is both used generically of demons and specifically of the devil (Surah 2:36),[16] whereas in the Bible, “Satan” is specifically used as a name for “the devil.” Surah 18:50 says:

(Remember) when We said to the angels: “Prostrate yourselves before Adam,” and they prostrated themselves, except Iblis. He was one of the Jinn, and acted wickedly (against) the command of his Lord . . .[17]

Hence, according to the Qur’an, Iblis was one of “the angels” to whom God spoke the command about prostration, and Iblis “was one of the Jinn.” Qur’an translator J.M. Rodwell comments that: “Muhammad appears . . . to have considered Eblis not only as the father of the Djinn, but as one of their number.”[18] The Islam Question & Answer Website affirms that: “Iblis was not an angel for a single day, not even for an instant. He is one of the jinn.”[19] However, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica:

Iblīs has long been a figure of speculation among Muslim scholars, who have been trying to explain the ambiguous identification of Iblīs in the Qurʾān as either angel [S 38:71-76] or jinnī [S 18:50], a contradiction in terms, as angels are created of light (nūr) and are incapable of sin, while jinn are created of fire (nār) [Surah 7:12 & 15:27] and can sin. Traditions on this point are numerous and conflicting . . .[20]

The term “angel”, which literally means “messenger”, is applied in the Bible to human messengers (e.g. Luke 7:24, James 2:25) and to demons as “messengers” of Satan (Revelation 12:7). The Bible also applies this term to those naturally unembodied spirits created by God (Biblical descriptions of these spirits as having wings etc. are figurative), who bring divine messages to humans, carry out various divine missions amongst humans (occasionally being given bodily form for this purpose), or are simply described as worshipping God (Revelation 5:11-12), all of whom are presented as having consistently good wills. In contrast with angels, evil spirits called demons also appear in the Bible, and the ruler of these demons is “the devil” called “Satan.”

The Bible doesn’t share the Qur’anic concept of Jiin, i.e. non-human beings who are presently able to choose between serving and rejecting God (Surah 72:11). However, influential theologian-philosopher Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) argued that angels and demons were originally beings with a capacity for such choice (for or against serving God) granted a probationary period in which to choose irrevocably one way or the other, thereby becoming “angelic” or “demonic” in nature.[21]

From the second century, Christian thinking about angels and demons was heavily influenced by “the antecedent Greek view that regarded the daimon as an ontologically intermediate subject composed of an aerial substance.”[22] This view appears to be reflected in the Islamic description of angels as made out of light and of Jinn as made out of fire. However, since the medieval period, Christian thinkers have overwhelmingly returned to a non-physical understanding of personal spirits, including angels and demons.[23]

The Bible does not explain exactly why Satan rebelled.
Episode 2 suggests jealousy as a possible motive.
The Qur’an adds a later tradition about refusing to bow, which comes from earlier Jewish writings.

Episode 2 suggests that Satan became jealous of God’s love for humans, but this is presented as a possible motive, not a definitive explanation of his fall.

In the Bible, Satan’s rebellion is mentioned but not explained in detail. There is no clear narrative describing why or how he fell. Later interpretations sometimes connect passages like Isaiah 14 or Ezekiel 28 to Satan, but in context these refer to earthly kings, not explicitly to the devil.

The Qur’an provides a more detailed story, describing Iblis refusing to bow to Adam and being cast out (Surah 18:50). However, this account closely resembles earlier apocryphal Jewish texts, such as the Life of Adam and Eve, where a similar story appears. This suggests the Qur’anic version builds on traditions that developed after the biblical texts.

At the same time, the Qur’an’s description raises internal questions, since Iblis is described both as being among the angels and as a jinn, categories that are usually distinct.

Episode 2 stays closer to the biblical framework, where Satan is already a rebellious being present in the Garden, and offers jealousy as a reasonable narrative explanation for his opposition to humanity.

So rather than contradicting the Qur’an, the episode avoids later traditions and instead fills in the biblical silence with a plausible but non-dogmatic motive.

The Qur’an elaborates the Biblical information about Satan by drawing upon apocryphal Jewish literature from the 1^st-4^th centuries A.D.

While episode 2’s statement that Satan “got very jealous of the creator’s love for Adam and Eve” is speculative, it isn’t offered as an explanation of Satan’s original rebellion against God. Christian tradition sees Satan and his demons as angels who rebelled against God (one reading of 2 Peter 2:4), but the Bible doesn’t describe the why’s and how’s of such a rebellion. The Qur’an fills this Biblical silence with an apocryphal story about Satan refusing to bow before Adam and being ejected from heaven, but in so-doing it raises questions about the coherence of it’s portrait of the devil, by describing Iblis both as one of the angels and as a Jinn (Surah 18:50). The story of Satan refusing to prostate himself before Adam:

is found in the apocryphal “Life of Adam and Eve,” a first to fourth century Jewish Hellenistic work . . . The Qur'anic story of Satan refusing to worship or prostate before Adam has distinct antecedents in pre-Islamic Jewish and Christian sources including elements that were added in stages over the centuries. It would appear that this post-biblical legend has been extensively incorporated into the Islamic scriptures, without an apparent understanding of its origin.[24]

Although many ancient commentators read the lament over the King of Tyre in Ezekiel 28:11-19 as an allegory of Satan’s “fall”:

the actual reference is to the king of Tyre. The king’s arrogance and self-understood greatness is described in mythological terms, drawn from the Bible and the surrounding culture. These mythological attributes emphasize in striking visual symbols the greatness of his fall from the heights of power. The symbolism draws from the fall of Adam and other sources, and not from the fall of Satan, which comes much later in Jewish religion. Compare 31:8-9, which describe the pharaoh of Egypt in terms of Eden also.[25]

Likewise, although some interpret Isaiah 14:12-15 as being about the fall of Satan, its actually about the King of Babylon (Isaiah 14:4).

The Qur’an says Satan deceived them, but not exactly how.
Episode 2 shows this happening through the serpent as an intermediary.
Both views are compatible ways of understanding the same event.

The Qur’an states that Satan caused Adam and Eve to fall and “whispered” to them, but it does not explain how this happened in detail. This leaves room for interpretation.

Episode 2 chooses to portray Satan as working through the serpent, rather than being identical with it. This is one of several ways the Genesis account has been understood. Some interpret the serpent as Satan himself, while others see it as a creature influenced or used by him.

Because the Qur’an does not specify the mechanism, depicting Satan acting through an intermediary is not in conflict with its description. It is simply a different interpretive choice about how the temptation took place.

Episode 2 makes a particular interpretive choice in depicting Satan as acting through the snake an intermediary, rather than seeing the snake as a figurative depiction of Satan himself.

Surah 2 doesn’t say exactly how “Satan caused them both to slip from there . . ,”[27] so it is compatible with Satan achieving this through an intermediary. Surah 7:20 says that: “Satan whispered to them both . . .” Again, one might interpret this as an action carried out via an intermediary, even an intermediary that was possessed by Satan. The figure of the talking snake from Genesis can be understood in a number of different ways.[28] For example, the snake can be understood as a figurative description of Satan himself.[29] Hence, there is no contradiction here between the Qur’an and the Bible.