The Obdurate Route

The motive in the narrative is excess in doctrine, creed, or dogma.

In this view of the motives of Satan refusing homage or worship of humanity, there is an insistence on advocacy of a belief. When Satan looks on Adam, he sees a dirt, clay, or grime edifice, and is prepared to insist to the rest of the host or even God the primacy of his own belief over theirs. To give obeisance or prostration to mankind would be descent into the baseness of idolatry.

On this view, Satan is the original fomenter, sectarian, literalist, ultraist or usurper.

The key difference between the Obdurate and the Indurate view turns on how the idea of prostration or obeisance is linked to divinity. Prostration or obeisance, as it is viewed in the Indurate view, overtly subordinates the self to the divine. However, in the Obdurate view, the divine is covertly subordinated to the self, as holding the right belief has more priority than interpersonal consonance.

Internal Links and References:

The Hiddenness of the Divine [also designated as the Silence of God]

External links and references:

Murad: Commentary on the Eleventh Contentions, No. 4; he contends Iblis "refused to bow to Adam, seeing only a terracotta statue."