Demons and Prophets Zohar Hadromi Allouche, assistant professor in Trinity’s School of Religion, Theology and Peace Studies, looks at depictions of femininity, liminality, and evil in the Islamic tradition Is Satan the embodiment of evil and is Eve the wicked temptress who got humankind banished from Paradise? The Christian tradition says an unequivocal yes; the Islamic tradition says well, maybe, but… Where Christianity tends to employ decisive terms of good and evil, angels and demons, Islam allows for more liminal, complex and ambiguous interpretations. Satan, for instance, is perceived in Christianity as unequivocally evil, the ultimate enemy of God. The Qur’an, too, refers to Satan (Iblīs, al- Shayṭān) as a rebel against God, and enemy to humans, whom he lures away from the divine path. However, Islamic tradition, while depicting Satan as the enemy of God, also portrays him as acknowledging the authority of God. A saying that is ascribed to the Prophet Muhammad quotes Satan himself as vowing ‘by the power of God’ to lead humans astray. Satan holds religious knowledge, too, which could, under specific circumstances, benefit humans. Sometimes, Satan is depicted as a believer. According to the Qur’an, following the creation of Adam, God commanded the angels to bow before the new creature. All angels obeyed, but Iblīs. God, therefore, banished the proud, disobedient Iblīs, and turned him into Satan. Mystical Islam (Sufism) interprets Satan’s (Iblīs) disobedience as an expresion of ultimate monotheism. The command to prostrate before a creature (Adam), it indicates, contrasts the earlier divine command to only worship God. Through his disobedience Iblīs was at once a rebellious Satan and a faithful follower of God. The complex character of Satan and demons in the Islamic tradition is evident also through their identification with liminal times (dusk), spaces (the marketplace; the area between sunlight and shadow), and substances (abiding between the milk and the froth). Satan is also depicted as an ambivalent, hermaphrodite being, who impregnates himself in order to self-generates demons. Eve, too, is largely perceived in early Jewish and Christian sources as ultimately guilty of the transgression in Paradise, for which all other women must be punished. Her portrayal in Islam, however, is more complex. In the Qur’an, the Paradise transgression is narrated three times. In two of these Satan concurrently tempts Adam and his wife (who is unnamed, yet clearly identifiable with the biblical Eve) to eat the forbidden fruit. In a third narration Satan tempts Adam alone; later, Adam and his wife transgress together, and are expelled from the Garden. Later Islamic sources - such as commentaries to the Qur’an or compilations of sayings ascribed to Muhammad - often echo the more negative view of Eve, prevalent in Christian and Jewish sources. Alongside these, however, there are also positive references to Eve. For example, her feminine traits are presented as a blessing, and she is at times acknowledged as a prophet (seeing that God has spoken to her). Although this latter point has been rejected by most Islamic theologians, it is still evident to this day in online discussions. It has also found its way into Islamic art, for example a 17th century Ottoman painting, which depicts the expulsion from Paradise. We can see that both Eve and Adam have a halo – which in Islamic art characterises prophets. Notably, Adam is illustrated here as having a belly button, whereas Eve has none. This indicates the artist’s subversive suggestion that Eve, indeed, was mother of ALL beings - including Adam himself. Such composite perspectives as we find in medieval Islamic sources echo ancient near eastern, pre-Christian perceptions of demons. In the Ancient Near East demons were perceived as supernatural beings whose actions could be benevolent or malevolent. Angels, too, would have been capable of destructive actions, for example in the biblical stories of Sodom, or Balaam. Early Islamic sources depict angel Gabriel, who communicated the Qur’an to Muhammad, as so fierce that during their first encounter, Muhammad feared the angel would kill him. In later periods we find that these ambiguities were often overcome by more binary tendencies as we find in Christianity. A binary approach simplifies organising the human experience according to clearly-defined categories of good and bad, darkness and light, us and them. Many later sources re-tell the qur’anic Paradise story in a way that holds Eve ultimately
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WINTER 2022 A PUBLICATION FOR ALUMNI & FRIENDS CHRISTMAS CAMPUS NEWS THE CUALA PRESS PROJECT UPDATE FROM TRINITY TO OUTER SPACE A BALLYMALOE TREAT
