Azazil


In many Islamic and Islam-related traditions, Azazil is the name of Iblis before he was expelled from heaven. Although not mentioned namely in the Quran, he is well known in different traditions, such as Tafsir, Qisas Al-Anbiya and mystic oral traditions. He is usually seen as an archangel, but also regarded as a jinn according to some reports.

Etymology

Similar to the name of Azazel, one of the fallen angels in Book of Enoch, Islamic philologists relate his name to the words aziz and il or to azl. His name further reflects his inclusion among the archangels.

Islamic exegesis

According to many Classical scholars, based on the reports of the Sahaba, before Iblis was expelled from heaven, he was called Azazil. Quranic exegesis offers two different depictions of Iblis. One with Azazil beginning as a noble angel who later loses his position, while the other counts him as an ignoble jinn, who works his way up to heaven. According to whose interpretations legitimated by the authority of Ibn Abbas, Azazil was the leader of angels and sent by God to terminate the jinn, who lived on earth before humanity. After his victory, he grew arrogant and declined God's command to prostrate himself before Adam. Arguing that he was superior to humans, God expelled him from heaven and he became an accursed shaitan. When the Quran refers to Iblis as one of the jinn, this tradition states it does not refer to Azazil being one of the jinn who lived on earth, but to a group of angels who were entrusted with the task to guard the entrance to Jannah. Therefore, it is their relation to Jannah the term refers to Satan as a jinn in Quran.
Another tradition, by Ubay ibn Ka'b, who claimed to have found it in the Torah, states the jinn were angelic creatures, who descended to earth and became endowed with sexual desires. They stayed pious for a while, but started to murder, drink wine, and cause injustice on earth. Azazil parted from his community and committed his life to the worship of God in isolated places. Soon, Azazil was chosen to send messengers to the jinn community, but everytime Azazil sent one, the jinn killed the messenger. When God sent down an army of angels under the command of Azazil to defeat their corrupted fellows. In yet another tradition, asserted by the Brethren of Purity, Azazil used to be a jinni from earth, but was taken captive by the angels during war. Among the angels, Azazil impressed the angels by his piety and joined them in worship and service, but lose his angelic state after he disobeys God.

Sufism

mentioned Azazil in his collection Tawasin. Here, Azazils disobedience to refuse God's command is a way to hallow His name. Chapter Six is dedicated to the self-defence of Azazil, and in one section Hallaj explains how each of the letters of Azazil's name relate to his personality. Unlike many other Sufi writers, Hallaj declined that Azazil will be restored to God's grace, thus after the Day of Judgment, he will still be damned. Since Azazil originated from fire, fire will be his final destiny.
Azazil is also mentioned three times in Rumis Masnavi, emphasizing the importance of discipline and humility:
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.
When Azazil acted arrogantly, he was abandoned to hell in spite of his former high position.
According to Al-Jili God created the sublime angels out of the light of Muhammad and Azazil and his followers of baser elements. Azazil was an angel of single-minded devotion. Failing to realize that bowing before Adam in accordance with God's command, is equal as bowing to God Himself, he refused to prostrate himself and received God's curse, becoming God's instrument of darkness and misleading.

Heterogen Traditions

In Umm al-Kitab, an 8th century Ismaili work, Azazil is the first creation of God, the High King. God gave him the power of creation, but Azazil boasted with his loaned power, claiming divinity for himself, describing himself as another God beside the High King. To proof that Azazil's creation only depends on the power of his own creator, God makes a new creation, opposed by Azazil. Everytime, Azazil again claims to 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 Azazil's creations. As with the Gnostic Demiurge, Azazil traps the life-forces of the heavenly realm and captures them in the material realm.
Azazil features as one of the first angels in an Alevi oral tradition, there he is informed by the archangel Cebrail, about their creator. Along with the other archangels, Cebrail leads Azazil 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 Azazil, 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 Azazil 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.
In Yazidism, Azazil appears as one of the archangels along with Jabra'il, Mika'il, Rafa'il, Dadra'il, Azrael and Shamkil. An eminent Yazidi legend tells about being Azazil, banished to hell. But he repented his sin, by crying until the fires of hell were extinguished. In the Black Book Azazil is erroneously identified with Melek Taus by Western translators, who confused Azrael with Azazil.