and of Moses, the other prophets, and the believers. Then, they say, the Lord will challenge him, asking, “On what grounds, O Iblis, did you deem it permissible to seize My soul?”
Iblis will answer, “Because of Your sin.”
He will reply, “My human nature carries no sin—unlike the human natures of the prophets, for they had sins that made their souls liable to be taken to Hell, whereas I have no sin at all.”
They further allege that once Allah had thus established the decisive argument against Iblis, it became lawful for the Lord to seize Iblis, punish him, and deliver Adam’s descendants from being dragged down to Hell. This statement brims with falsehood and imputes injustice to Allah to such an extent that a full description would be lengthy. The Lord’s knowledge, wisdom, and justice have thus been impugned as no one else has impugned them, in several respects:
First: If Iblis took the offspring because of their father’s offense, there is no distinction between the Messiah’s human nature and theirs. But if he took them for their own sins, then he did not seize them for their father’s sin—yet they claim he seized them solely because of Adam’s sin.
Second: Those of Adam’s progeny created after the Messiah are like those created before him. How, then, could Iblis be empowered over the earlier generations but not over the later ones, when all are equally related to Adam? Indeed, the later people commit sins far graver than those of the earlier prophets. So how could Iblis be allowed to punish the former prophets while being prevented from punishing the unbelievers and tyrants who came after the Messiah?
Third: Iblis’s seizing of Adam’s descendants and casting them into Hell must have been either an act of injustice on his part or one of justice; if it was justice