The Devil was the First Racist
The Devil, or Iblis, ascended to the rank of the angels in the highest celestial assembly through his extraordinary feats of piety. He was known as the “peacock of the angels.” But when he was commanded to prostrate before God’s vicegerent Adam who was taught all the names, he refused. Iblis rejected Adam’s status of vicegerency. In contrast, the angels who only had knowledge of two divine names, All-Glorified! All-Holy! (Subbuh Quddus), affirmed Adam as their teacher and as God’s vicegerent. Iblis proclaimed his own superiority by virtue of his “nature.” He proclaimed: “I am better than him. You have created me from fire, while you have created him from clay.” (Q Aʿraf 7:12).
Iblis was a racist. He is a disclosure of the attributes of distance from God, and distance from God is none other than darkness. Iblis is the engine that drives the human soul into its darkest recesses, which God describes as the “lowest of the low” (asfal al-safilin). In driving the human being to his low-point, Iblis manifests himself through twelve forms, which are shadows of the letters of the formula of tawhid: “No god but Allah” (la ilaha illa Allah). Iblis cannot assume the form of the holy Prophet (s) because he is sheer light and has no shadow.
The function and mission of Iblis, moreover, is to separate and divide the children of Adam. His first divisive move is to create a chasm between the God’s command and the human will. When these two elements become separated from each other, the human being either attaches himself to his own will, or to the divine command. If he clings to his will, he goes astray in his religious practice while deeming himself to be upon the right path. If he attaches himself to the divine command, then ascribes all things to God without being worthy of that station and thereby goes astray.
Once this fundamental division between divine command and human will takes place, Iblis can plant seeds of racism, doubt, arrogance, pride, false hopes, willful disobedience, lack of discernment, disdain for the Shaykh, rejection of revelation and prophets, and accusing God within the human heart. The devil thereupon blows into the human soul and extinguishes the lamp of sainthood within him. For the lamp is no longer protected by a glass container.
This is why the holy Prophet (s) states that the demonic tendency to divide and separate flows through the blood veins of the child of Adam. The holy Prophet (s) encourages the believer to “tighten the passageways of Iblis through hunger.” That is, teach the demonic comrade (qarin) that you carry within you to fast. For when there is less fat, salt, and sugar in your body, you will become more present and watchful over your heart. Once you tame your demonic comrade through fasting, you will lower yourself and honor God’s creatures. Only then can you acknowledge the Adam of your age, give your pledge allegiance under the tree of good pleasure, and cease to regard his earthly nature with disdain.
Paraphrased and adapted from Sh. Mohamed Faouzi’s (Kaf al-astar)
