with lies and slander. This view and others like it are not the views of Muslims, Jews, or Christians. Rather, they are the views of heretical adherents of philosophy who identify “angels” with the soul’s good faculties and “devils” with its evil faculties. They interpret the angels’ prostration as the faculties’ obedience to reason, and the devils’ refusal as the evil faculties’ disobedience to reason. Such notions are advanced by the authors of the “Epistles of the Brethren of Purity” and others like them among the Qarmatian esotericists, as well as misguided speculative theologians and devotees who follow their path. Similar views may also be found among statements attributed to Quran commentators without any reliable chain of transmission.
The position of Muslims, Jews, and Christians is what Allah has related in the Quran. None of the devils were among those commanded to prostrate; their father, Iblīs, however, was commanded to do so, but refused and disobeyed. Some people counted him among the angels because he was included in the command to prostrate. Others counted him among the jinn because he has a tribe and offspring, and because he was created from fire, whereas the angels were created from light.
The correct understanding is that he was one of them in respect of his form, but not in respect of his origin or his likeness. Not one of the angels failed to prostrate to Adam: neither Gabriel nor Michael nor anyone else. As for the contrary views mentioned by the author of Khawāss al-Qur’ān and others like him, their statements are false. We have explained their unsoundness and falsity in an extensive discussion for which this is not the place. This is among the proofs cited by Ahl al-Sunnah that Adam and others among the prophets and allies of Allah