قالَ أَنا خَيرٌ مِنهُ ۖ خَلَقتَني مِن نارٍ وَخَلَقتَهُ مِن طينٍ
‘I am better than him,’ he said. ‘You created me from fire and You created him from clay.’
EXPOSITION
When God asked Iblīs What keeps you from prostrating, Iblīs could have replied that he had not prostrated because he was too proud to do so and that his ego prohibited him. However, the arrogant are always blind to their own arrogance and ignorance. Iblīs revealed his obliviousness and faithlessness by saying I am better than him. This statement was effectively a declaration that he thought he knew better than God. With those words he denied God’s wisdom and knowledge. He made it clear that he had descended to the depths of faithlessness. As the story unfolds we shall see how he only dug himself deeper, further denying God’s wisdom and lordship and thinking he could defy God.
Additional signs of the arrogance of Iblīs have been pointed out. For example, another clear sign of Iblīs’ myopia was to compare himself to Prophet Adam (a) and not the angels. The angels could also have claimed superiority in this manner, but prostrated obediently. Iblīs was also guilty of reducing Prophet Adam’s (a) merit to only the source material. Obviously, it was not the clay that made Prophet Adam (a) honourable, but the noble spirit of God blown into him.
There is a link here to the surah’s theme of conceit, and the Meccan elite who displayed consternation that Muhammad (s) was chosen as a prophet instead of them and considered themselves superior to him and others because of their lineage. Greatness is something that is bestowed by God – all might belongs to Allah – and He gives of it to whom He wills. It cannot be claimed by the undeserving, no matter how great their merits are in their own eyes. The verse strikes a deep blow to the foolish notions that some hold regarding their own merits. Greatness is not merely the result of origin, but rather a result of one’s actions, true knowledge, and spiritual virtues. To claim superiority over others because of lineage or birth is manifest absurdity. Such notions are the result of arrogance and are erroneous whether or not they are held by Iblīs, by the tribalistic clansmen of Mecca, or the racist bigots of today.
There is a deeper layer still though. The supernal elite and all the angels were ordered to prostrate to Prophet Adam (a) because God had created him for greatness with His own two hands. Is this not in contradiction to what was said? Does mere circumstance of birth or origin give one superiority? Pondering the answer to this brings us to the reality of why God ordered the angels and Iblīs to prostrate to Adam (a). It was the potential for greatness that existed in him that made him superior. Man contains within him capacity for great good, and great evil: We certainly created man in the best of forms; then We relegated him to the lowest of the low, except those who have faith and do righteous deeds (95:4-6).
This potential is what God wished the angels and Iblīs to recognise in Adam (a). Iblīs was not convinced though. He believed that man would not rise to his potential for good and would choose the path of evil. To prove this, he set out to do what is described in the following verses (80-85; see also the commentary on 7:16-18).
INSIGHTS FROM HADITH
- From Isḥāq ibn Jarīr, that Imam al-Ṣādiq (a) said: ‘What is the opinion of your colleagues about Iblīs saying You created me from fire and You created him from clay? ‘I said: “May I be your ransom, he said that and God – mighty and glorious – mentioned it in His book …” He said: “Iblīs has lied, O Isḥāq. God did not create him from anything but clay. God – mighty and glorious – has said He, who made for you fire out of the green tree, and, behold, you light fire from it! [36:80]. God – mighty and glorious – has made him from that fire, and that tree, and the origin of the tree is from clay.”’
Note: The narrator may have mistakenly added the part about ‘Iblīs has lied’. If we wish to accept the narration we must understand it in the way that the fire from which Iblīs was created originated from dust, clay, or the earth.
- It is reported that Imam Ali (a) said in one of his sermons: ‘Thereat the angels prostrated, all of them together, but not Iblīs, he was overtaken by bigotry and he considered himself superior to Adam because of the nature of his creation and was intolerant towards him because of his origin. So it is that the enemy of God is the leader of the fanatics, and the forerunner of the egoists. It is he who laid the foundations of intolerance and tried to disrobe God’s garment of dominance. He attempted to dress himself in the raiment of self-appointed might, and laid down the vestment of humility.’
- From ʿĪsā ibn ʿAbd-Allāh al-Qurashī, that one day Abū Ḥanīfah came upon Imam al-Ṣādiq (a) who said to him: ‘O Abū Ḥanīfah, I have been informed that you use analogical reasoning (qiyās)?’ He said: ‘Yes.’ The Imam said: ‘Do not use analogical reasoning, as the first one to use analogical reasoning was Iblīs, when he said You created me from fire and You created him from clay, and he compared fire to clay. If he had compared the light of Adam to the light of fire he would have known the merit and purity of one light over the other.’
REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE
Ṭūsī asserts that the three creatures spoken of in this story were created from three different elements; angels from wind or air (rīḥ), jinn from fire, and man from clay. He says that Iblīs thought he was superior because fire contained within it light. Ṭabarī and others say Iblīs thought he was superior because fire burns clay. Rāzī lists a whole host of reasons for the possible superiority of fire over earth, and vice versa. The reality is that all such arguments are baseless conjecture, like someone trying to argue the superiority of one race over another.
[1] Nemuneh, 19/340.
[2] Alusi, 12/216.
[3] Nemuneh, 19/339.
[4] Qummi, 2/244-245.
[5] Nahj, sermon 192.
[6] Kafi, 1/58.
[7] Tibyan, 8/583.
[8] Tabari, 23/119; Zamakhshari, 4/107.
[9] Razi, 26/413-414. See also Shawkani, 4/511; Nemuneh, 19/339-340.