'Iblis' is a figure in a narrative, which includes an Islamic and Christian variant. Both of these include Three Rifts: In the First, the devil refuses an order by divinity to give fealty to humanity. In the Second, the devil is named Iblis to signify his ensuing curse and exile. In the Third, Iblis sanctions his own struggle against the expansion of humanness across all material and supernatural worlds.
This textual figure in the two core variants of the narrative itself becomes a symbol for the umbral side of divinity, the self, and of the worlds.
Prior to its textual use, the word Iblis may have originated as an epithet, with the ultimate original meaning having been to "remain in grief"; that is, to be in "despair" of divine mercy from the curse and exile imposed on Iblis. This epithet gestures at the primordial incipience of the figure, and if properly grasped by context, can be viewed as relevant to different groups, times, and places.
This textual figure in the two core variants of the narrative itself becomes a symbol for the umbral side of divinity, the self, and of the worlds.
Prior to its textual use, the word Iblis may have originated as an epithet, with the ultimate original meaning having been to "remain in grief"; that is, to be in "despair" of divine mercy from the curse and exile imposed on Iblis. This epithet gestures at the primordial incipience of the figure, and if properly grasped by context, can be viewed as relevant to different groups, times, and places.
