They slew those jinn and drove the survivors to the islands of the seas. Iblīs was among those captured, and they took him up with them to heaven, where he remained. When the angels were then commanded to prostrate, Iblīs refused.

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, Ibn ʿAbbās, a group of Companions, Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, and others said: Iblīs was the leader of the angels in the lowest heaven (1).

Ibn ʿAbbās (2) said: His name was ʿAzāzīl; in another report, al-Ḥārith. Al-Naqqāsh added that his kunya was “Abū Kurdūs.” Ibn ʿAbbās also said: He belonged to a company of angels called “the jinn.” They were the keepers of the gardens of Paradise, the noblest among the angels, the most learned and devoted, and he was one of those endowed with four wings. Then Allah transformed him into an accursed devil.

Concerning this, Allah says in Sūrat Ṣād:
“[Remember] when your Lord said to the angels, ‘I am creating a human being from clay. (71) So when I have fashioned him and breathed into him of My Spirit, fall down before him in prostration.’ (72) So all the angels prostrated, every one of them, (73) except Iblīs; he waxed proud and became one of the disbelievers. (74) He said, ‘O Iblīs, what prevented you from prostrating to what I created with My own Hands? Were you too proud, or were you already exalted?’ (75) He said, ‘I am better than he; You created me from fire, and You created him from clay.’ (76) He said, ‘Then get out of it, for you are accursed, (77) and upon you will rest My curse until the Day of Judgment.’ (78) He said, ‘My Lord, grant me respite until the day they are resurrected.’ (79) He said, ‘You are of those granted respite (80) until the Day of the appointed time.’ (81) He said, ‘By Your might, I will surely mislead them all, (82) except Your chosen servants among them.’ (83) He said, ‘Then the truth is—and the truth I declare— (84) I will fill Hell with you and with all who follow you.’” (85) [Ṣād 71–85]

And in Sūrat al-Aʿrāf He says:
“‘Because You have led me astray, I will lie in wait for them on Your straight path. (16) Then I will come at them from before them and from behind them, from their right and from their left, and You will find most of them ungrateful.’” [al-Aʿrāf 16–17]

That is, “Because You misled me, I shall station myself at every ambush point against them and assault them from every direction.” Thus, blessed is the one who opposes him, and wretched is the one who follows him.

Imām Aḥmad (3) related: Hāshim ibn al-Qāsim told us, Abū ʿAqīl—ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAqīl al-Thaqafī—told us, Mūsā ibn al-Mussayyib (4) told us, from Sālim ibn Abī al-Jaʿd, from Sabrāh ibn Abī al-Fākih, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, “Satan sits in wait for the son of Adam at his pathways…”—and he cited the ḥadīth as we have already presented (5) in the section on the description of Iblīs.

The exegetes have differed over which angels were ordered to prostrate to Adam. Was it all the angels—as the universal wording of the verses suggests and as the majority holds—or was it only the angels of the earth, as Ibn Jarīr reported (6) on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk?