Thursday, June 18, 2020

Apostate prophet visits hell; what is a shaytan?

In answer to the video "The Jinn Delusion"

Satan or shaytan is used in the Quran for Iblis as well as for any creature that is mischievous, misleading, among the jinn and human beings 2:14,3:175,6:112,25:27-9,114:4-6. Iblis is the archetypical shaytan, the leader of them all, whether they be from among the men or jinn. After his banishement from his nearness to God, Iblis pledged to stray man away from the path of guidance and God allowed him to do so, giving him the respite until the Day of Resurrection that he demanded.

On the other hand, man has an innate capacity to understand good and evil, will receive divine guidance, will be guided through his own reason towards God Whose attributes reflect in the universe inside and outside of man, and is therefore expected to be able to choose good above evil. The mischieving entities, Iblis included, therefore fullfill a definite function in God's plan; tempting through the power of suggestion only, enabling man to exercize his God-given freedom of choice between good and evil
15:39-42"He said: My Lord..I will certainly make (evil) fair-seeming to them on earth, and I will certainly cause them all to deviate. Except Thy servants from among them, the devoted ones. He said: This is a right way with Me: Surely, as regards My servants, you have no authority over them except those who follow you of the deviators".
Iblis and all mischieving entities are therefore not God's "enemies" in the sense that he has no power over them, that they have escaped his grand design and act contrary to His all encompassing will. That is why they are only called mankind's enemies/adversaries 7:22,17:53,36:60. Yet others are called God's enemies, like Pharaoh 20:39 because of his claim to the divine and cruelty. In fact if there is one thing Iblis is never portrayed as claiming, is divinity. He even denounces shirk 14:22. The opposite transpires in Christian writings, Satan wanted man to worship him as a deity Matt4:9, shedding light on the original pagan notions of early Christian converts and the manner in which those notions were projected unto Jewish writings and Jesus' teachings.

Shaytan stems from SHATN meaning the long rope that pulls the bucket out of the well. The verb SHATAN means to pull on the rope so that the bucket is taken out of the well. Therefore SHAYTAN is the one that pulls on that rope and takes the bucket out of its place (out of the well). Metaphorically it is thus any person or being that pulls people out of their own natural place (The natural place is in harmony with God). So SHAYTAN is anyone that takes a person away from God.

Iblis and his followers from the men and jinn misguide man by beautifying ugly deeds 16:63, making false promises 4:120 or playing on our fears and uncertainties in the future 2:268. These tricks disturbs man's innate capacity to distinguish good and evil, truth from falsehood. Man is only misguided if his innate capacity is not trained enough through worship and constant remembrance of God
17:65"Surely (as for) My servants, you have no authority over them; and your Lord is sufficient as a Protector". 

SHAYTAN is therefore not a proper noun, it isnt an independant evil creation, contrary to Chrisitian belief (without any scriptural support). In fact the very notion of YHWH being the creator of evil, a pillar of Jewish belief based on Deut30:15,Isa45:7,1Sam16:14, refutes the notion of an independant evil entity acting against God's will or plan for mankind.

Similarly in the HB, it is haSatan or "the opponent". Satans are both humans and non-humans who "oppose" particular characters Deut22:32-33,1kings11:14,23-5. Hasatan/the opponent is therefore the description of a role that can be played by anyone, an angel or even God Himself. In the Hebrew, the absence of a definite article merely implies an indefinite article. Christian translators of the Hebrew bible are often unaware of this, so they think that 1Chron21 uses "satan" as a proper name because it appears without the definite article.

By doing so, they fail to realize that the verse is talking of God Himself as being David's adversary 1Samuel24. In all other cases, ha-satan is a loyal servant of God. He is neither evil, nor "fallen", rather sent by God to test humans with hardships. There is no Lucifer in the Bible either. Why would the Hebrew and Aramaic HB contain a Latin word all of a sudden? As explicitly stated in the Quran, shaytan, whether from the men or the jinn, is a tool fully encompassed by God and part of a higher scheme whose intricacies only a glimpse can be perceived.

In the book of Job, HaSatan acts as Job's prosecutor, while God is acting as both Judge and attorney for the defense. Nowhere in Job is HaSatan against God. His role is to test Job.

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