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Coolness of the eye - Appendix 1 - On Angel, Pari and Devil

Appendix 1 - On Angel, Pari and Devil

Tags: Angel, Jami`u'l-Hikmatayn, Devils, Pari

(From Jami`u'l-Hikmatayn, by Sayyidna Pir Nasir-i Khusraw, may God sanctify his secret).

Firishtah-u pari-u diw ra bi-danistam
Kih hast-u niz bi-bayad bi-hast bar, takrar

Za ma-u kayf biguy-u ba-rasm-i burhan guy
Gar amadast birun in sukhant az astar

This man (Shaykh Ahmad b. Hasan Jurjani) says that I affirm that there are angels, paris and devils, but this affirmation without demonstration (burhan) is not enough. Tell me what is the quiddity, i.e essential nature (mahiyyah) and quality (kayfiyyah) of each of them? As he has said: "Tell me (their) quiddity and quality, and tell me according to the principle of demonstration." (It should be known) that quiddity of a thing means its whatness and that is to enquire about its genus. And the quality of a thing is its howness and that is its shape and colour, if it is a body and if not a body, then its attributes of action. For instance, if someone says: "a tree" and someone else asks: What is a tree? - it would be an enquiry on his part about the genus of the tree. And the answer would be, if there is something grown from the plants, that the tree is from this genus. And if there is nothing grown then the answer would be: A tree is a growing body and it transforms dust and water into another form. And the answer to the one who asks: How is a tree? - It would be: One end of it has gone down into the earth and the other is up in the air with many branches and leaves. This is the meaning of quiddity and quality about which is asked in the above verses.
And the rational answer of philosophers to the one who asks what is an angel, is that they said that these heavenly bodies of the stars of the spheres are angels. They are living and speaking and they manage the world by the command of God. thabit bin Qurrah al-Harrani (c. 221-288/836-901), who has translated the books of philosophy from the Greek language and script into the Arabic language and script, regarding the spheres and the stars as living and speaking, argued and said: "Man's life and speech are because of the fact that he has a nobler body and in the nobler body which is the human body has descended a nobler soul which is living and speaking". And this is a true premise. Then he has said: "And the bodies of the spheres and stars are extremely noble and subtle and of utmost purity". And this is another true premise. The conclusion of these two premises is that spheres and stars have an extremely noble soul. Since the soul which is extremely noble is the speaking (rational) soul, therefore, these spheres and stars have a speaking (rational) soul and they are living and speaking. Thus this is a demonstration which this philosopher has adduced that, angels are the spheres and the stars and that they are speaking.
The philosophers do not recognise the pari. However, they affirm the existence of the devil and say: "When the souls of wicked ignorant people leave the body, they remain in this world. Because they leave the body longing for sensuous desires which pull them back and they cannot pass beyond the natures and they come down into an ugly body, wander in the world, seduce people, teach wickedness and mislead the people into deserts so that they may perish". As Muhammad-i Zakariyya'-yi Razi in his book "`Ilm-i Ilahi" has said: "The souls of wicked people that become devils, show themselves to the people in a form and tell them: Go! Tell the people that an angel came to me and told me that God has given you messengership and that I am that angel! So that thereby differences may occur among people and many people may be killed by the plan of that soul which has turned into a devil". We have refuted this view of this audacious confused person in the book "Bustanu'l-`uqul". Here we are not going to occupy ourselves to refute him, lest we fall short of achieving our goal. This is the view of the philosophers about angels and devils.
As for the answer of the people of ta'yid to this question, by the permission of the Treasurer of the Book of God and the Shari`at of the Prophet, may peace be on him and on the heir of his position, we say: The angel is a pure soul, because he has been brought into existence by the Creator through ibda`, such as, the Intellect, Soul, Jadd, Fath and Khayal, whose names in the zahir (exoteric aspect) of the Book and the Shari`at are the Pen, the Tablet, Israfil, Mika'il and Jibra'il. The ibda`i existents have two roots, such as the Intellect and the Soul and three branches from them such as, Jadd, Fath and Khayal. And the natural physical existents also have two roots, such as fathers and mothers, namely, stars and spheres and natures, and the generated things from them are also three, such as minerals, vegetables and animals, the last of which is man. And in microcosm religion also has two roots, such as the Prophet and the Legatee (wasi), and their three branches are the Imam, the Hujjat and the Da`i. And the branches of each of these branches (mawalid) are numerous.
Thus the ibda`i angels are pure because their existence is by their action, which appears in the spheres and stars. That is to say that, the light and the power of the spheres and the stars which are visible and audible angels, are from those ibda`i angels. And the purpose of God in creating these visible natural angels, is to produce potential angels, such as people. And these potential angels are brought into actuality by the Prophet and the Legatee through the Book and the Shari`at. As the stars which are visible angels are intermediaries between the ibda`i angels who are actual angels and the people who are potential angels, so are the Prophets, Legatees and the Imams intermediaries between the potential angels, who are the people and the actual angels who are primordial and ibda`i angels, so that they make the potential angels into actual angels through the Book and the Shari`at. And he who is able to bring the potential angel into actuality has reached the rank of angelicity, and he is the Khalifah (Vicegerent) of God in the earth, as He says: "And had We willed We could have appointed from among you angels to be vicegerents in the earth." (43:60). This was the reason that God told us to believe in His angels, His Books and His Prophets after believing in Him, as He has said: "And the believers, each one believes in God and His angels, and His Books and His Prophets." (2:85).
And God, the Exalted, has mentioned two groups from among His creatures (saying): "I created for My worship". One is jinn, who is called pari in Persian and the other is mankind, as He has said: "I created the jinn and mankind only that they may worship Me." (51:56). And He did not say "I created the devil", rather He said that the devils were paris, they disobeyed God, therefore they turned into devils, as mentioned in this verse: "And when We said unto the angels: Prostrate yourselves before Adam, and they all prostrated themselves, except Iblis. He was of the jinn, and he disobeyed His Lord's command". (18:50). According to this verse the cause of the existence of the devil is the existence of mankind. Because God says that Iblis before He commanded him to obey Adam, was from among the jinns or paris. Thus creatures are of two kinds. One is mankind and the other is pari. And the pari became two groups: one is angel and the other is devil. That is, whoever from the paris remained obedient, became an angel and whoever became disobedient, became a devil. And He in His Book did not make any difference between the angel and the pari except that He said that when the pari disobeyed, he became the devil. Otherwise, He has placed angel and pari in the same rank, according to this verse: "And when We said unto the angels: Prostrate yourselves before Adam, and they all prostrated themselves, except Iblis. He was from among the paris, namely, angels." Thus from this verse it is evident that he was a pari. And from among the paris, whoever did not disobey, became an angel, as whoever disobeyed became a devil. Thus it is evident that the cause of becoming an angel from the pari is obedience and that of becoming a devil from the pari is disobedience. And obedience and disobedience to God cannot be except through the Prophet, for as God says in the story of Adam that, when he did not prostrate himself to him, he became a devil, despite the fact that he was an angel.
Thus it becomes necessary for the Prophet to be Prophet to the pari as well as to mankind, for as God says in His Book: "Say (O Muhammad )! It is revealed unto me that a company of the Jinn gave ear, and they said: Lo! it is a marvellous Qur'an, which guides unto righteousness." (72:1-2 ). And in another place He said to His Prophet: "And when We inclined toward certain of the Jinn, who wished to hear the Qur'an and, when they were in its presence, said: Give ear! and when it was finished, turned back to their people, warning (them)." (46:28). And in another place He has said: "Say (O Muhammad ): O mankind! Surely I am the Messenger of God to both of you all (jami`a)" (7:158), i.e. mankind and pari. And the word "jami`a" (all, altogether) brings the pari together with mankind and indicates that pari is from mankind, when the Prophet says that he was the Messenger of God to both of them. God says: "Say (O Muhammad ): O mankind! Surely I am the Messenger of God to both of you all." (7:158). Also in the surah of ar-Rahman (55), as a rebuke God says in thirty-one places: "Which then of the bounties of your Sustainer (O men and paris!) do you deny (the Prophet)?" (55:13). Thus by these verses, it is established that the Messenger was Messenger to both mankind and paris.
And it is necessary to know that in the world of religion, people are divided into two groups: one is the group of paris and the other that of mankind. Further, paris are also divided into two groups: whoever from them remains obedient leaves this world as an angel and whoever becomes disobedient, leaves this world as a devil. And it is well known among the common people that the pari is beautiful and the devil is ugly. If the ugliness of the devil is due to disobedience, this necessitates the beauty of the pari to be due to obedience. And this beauty and ugliness depend on belief which is a spiritual form, not a physical one. And according to the ordinary people paris are invisible to men. Pari in Arabic is called "jinn", which means hidden. Thus it is evident that, from the ummat of the Prophet, a group is hidden and another is manifest. And those who are hidden are the potential angels: Whoever from them leaves this world obedient becomes an actual angel, and whoever disobeys becomes a potential devil and when he leaves this world becomes an actual devil. And those who are manifest are potential paris and they cannot be potential angels until they become actual paris and he who does not become a potential angel cannot become an actual one. Thus whoever from this manifest group becomes an (actual) pari becomes hidden from others so that by being pari he may become an angel. What we have said is a parable of the people of the zahir and the batin that, whoever comes from zahir to batin, is such that mankind becomes pari and becomes handsome. And from these two ummats there are devils for the Prophet: Those who turn back from the boundary (hadd) of batin are like the devils of jinn and those who turn back from the boundary of zahir to enter the boundary of batin, are like the devils of mankind, as God has said: "And thus We have appointed for every Prophet an enemy, devils of mankind and jinn." (6:112).
And we say that the speaking or rational soul in every human being is a potential angel and as we said, the potential angel is pari. And the sensuous soul and the irascible soul are two potential devils in every individual. He whose speaking soul renders the irascible soul and the sensuous soul obedient to itself, becomes an angel and he whose sensuous soul and irascible soul render the rational soul obedient to themselves, becomes an actual devil. And the Chosen Prophet has said that man has two devils who seduce him, as is said in this Hadith: "For every man there are two devils who seduce him." In this Hadith, it is clear that man as rational soul, is one and he has two devils; one is the sensuous soul and the other, the irascible soul. The Prophet was asked: O Messenger! do you have these two devils? He said: "I had two devils, but God gave me victory over them and they became Muslims". And the words of the Hadith, which the Prophet uttered are: "Kana li shaytanani wa-lakinna nasaraniya'llahu `alay-hima fa-aslama." Thus we have made it clear that, in man, there is angel and also devil and he himself is pari. And the devil is not created by God, but comes into existence due to his disobedience. And paris are potential angels and they become actual when they obey; and the devils also become actual when they disobey. And people (in this world) are potential angels or devils. And that world is full of actual angels and devils. This is a detailed and comprehensive description (of angels, paris and devils).

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