IBLIS. Iblis refused to worship Adam, so God cast him out of heaven. He is the Islamic equivalent of Satan. I didn't realize that the etymology is uncertain and may even be from Greek diabolos. Almost all the references in the Quran are about the refusal to bow before Adam. Some Sufis propose that Iblis did this only because he wanted to bow before God alone in his pure devotion, although other Sufis see him as cunning and dangerous (that fits with the story in Termedhi!). There is some debate about where he is an angel or a jinn. There is also an amazing legend about Iblis and Eden: the angel guardian kept Iblis out of Eden, but he wanted to get in, so in the form of a serpent he tricked the peacock into carrying him into Eden, unrecognized. That led me to Ridwan.
(a depiction of Adam, Eve, the Serpent,
the peacock and Iblis by Nishapuri at Wikipedia)
RIDWAN. This is the angel in the Muslim tradition who maintains Jannah.
JANNAH. This is the Garden (that is the literal meaning of the word), specifically the Garden of Eden, home of Adam and Eve, and also the abode of the righteous, so it is similar also to Christian heaven. The Wikipedia focuses more on the idea of heaven rather than Eden. There are different layers to Jannah, and different doors by which you enter. Not surprisingly, there was also a link to Jahannam, hell.
JAHANNAM. The word appears 77 times in the Quran. It is a place of fire and torture. It sounds like it must be cognate with Gehenna, but the article did not talk about that. There is fire, boiling water, but there is also the Tree of Zaqqum. That sounded interesting, so I clicked on that.
ZAQQUM. Intense! This is the accursed tree of Jahannam, and its fruits are shaped like devils' heads. The sinners in hell have to eat these fruits and it explodes their bodies. Some people interpret this as the fruit that grew from the seeds of the sinners' actions. I had not heard of this before!
(modern artist's rendering at Wikipedia)
.jpg){kind=link}
No comments:
Post a Comment
To minimize spam, comments are restricted to Google accounts only. You can also contact me at laurakgibbs@gmail.com or at Twitter: @OnlineCrsLady. Comments on older posts will be moderated.