"Iblis in The Book of the Rolls"
Sahib Iblis, 18 May 2022
The Book of the Rolls, or Kitāb al-Mağāll, is a Christian Apocryphal work. In this article, I summarize events in the text relating to Iblis.
The Book of the Rolls was originally an esoteric text hidden from laity:
This book is one of the hidden books of Saint Clement the Apostle, disciple of Simon Cepha, which Saint Clement commanded to be kept secret from the laity.The text addresses genealogy, eventually going on to promise that:
I will relate to thee mysteries, and what reason there was for the fall of the Devil, the prince, from heaven.This is the first occurrence of any reference to "the Devil" in the text.
Following these statements and summaries, a rough narrative follows.
I. The First Rift: Iblis refuses fealty to Adam and lays claim to Godhead.
The text states that "God created Adam of dust, and formed Eve from his rib." Then, God appoints Adam as steward of the Earth:
O Adam, I have made thee king and priest and prophet and ruler and chief and governor over all creatures that are made. All creation shall obey thee and follow thy voice. Under thy grasp they shall be. To thee alone I have given this power; I have placed thee in possession of all that I have created.
The angels followed by exalting and glorifying Adam:
When the Angels heard this saying from the Lord they redoubled honour and respect to Adam.However, one member of the host, the highest ranked in their company, refuses to honor Adam in this role and opposes him. This is Iblis:
When the Devil saw the gift that was given to Adam from the Lord, he envied him from that day and the schismatic from God set his mind in cunning towards him to seduce him by his boldness and his curse; and when he denied the grace of the Lord towards him, he became shameless and warlike.
Following this, Iblis, angry at Adam's exaltation, tries to "claim the Godhead":
Iblis had laid claim to Godhead which had entered him in the second hour of that day, and God had hurled him down from heaven to earth.There is no further discussion or what is implied in the effort by Iblis.
The standard Christian view that Satan attempts to replace God is not present in this text. Iblis resents the excess of tolerance to humanity and the ascent of Adam. A few other views are possible, based on meanings of claim:
a. Iblis takes a position not given and asserts authority over Adam.
b. Iblis demands an alteration in the status of Adam and of humanity.
c. Iblis asserts without an appeal to proof a change in the status of Adam.
In the First Rift, Iblis resents the elevation of Adam and seeks its reversal.
II. The Second Rift: Iblis is so named, and is cursed and exiled.
Regardless of how we interpret his effort to "claim the Godhead," we find that the Devil is given the name, Iblis, to signify his new state.
God ... deprived the Devil of the robe of praise and dignity and called his name Devil, he is a rebel against God, and Satan, because he opposes himself to the ways of the Lord, and Iblis, because He took his dignity from him.This second mention of Iblis concerns his name, as one of several for the devil. The word, Iblis [إِبْلِيس], builds on the Arabic root, BLS: to persist in grief.
That is, Iblis is that image of Satan in which his curse and exile is central. To invoke the name Iblis is to refer to either variant of this specific narrative.
In the Second Rift, Iblis is named such, now cursed and exiled.
III. Iblis penetrates Eden and provokes Adam's exile.
Following his curse and exile, Iblis attempts to penetrate Eden. There, he seeks out Adam and Eve, in an attempt to provoke their exile.
Satan remained in his envy to Adam and Eve for the favour which the Lord shewed them, and he contrived to enter into the serpent, which was the most beautiful of the animals, and its nature was above the nature of the camel. He carried it till he went with it in the air to the lower parts of Paradise.The text discusses the reasons that Iblis hides in the serpent:
The reason for Iblis the cursed hiding himself in the serpent was his ugliness, for when he was deprived of his honour he got into the acme of ugliness, till none of the creatures could have borne the sight of him uncovered, and if Eve had seen him unveiled in the serpent, when she spoke to him, she would have run away from him...There is also an expanded discussion of the natural history of his favoritism to the serpent and peacock, one among many birds he teaches tongues:
... he contrived to hide himself in the serpent, the cunning creature, to teach the birds with round tongues the speech of men in Greek and such like. He would bring a broad mirror... he would put it between himself and a bird, and speak what he wished that the bird should know, and when the bird heard this speech, it would glance around and look in the mirror, and see the form of a bird like itself and rejoice at it, and not doubting that it was a bird of its species that was speaking to it would listen to it and attend to its language...Hiding in the serpent, Iblis approaches Eve, and gains her attention:
Eden is a fountain of God lying eastwards, to a height of eight degrees of the rising of the sun, and this is the mercy of God on which the children of men put their trust, that they shall have a Saviour from thence, because God, may He be exalted and glorified! knew in His foreknowledge what the Devil would do to Adam.From this state of exaltation, like Iblis before him, Adam is provoked to exile. In this act of vengeance for his exile, Iblis opens the door to his progeny.
In the Third Rift, Iblis carries his struggle across worlds.
