What GOD creates belongs to the world of cause and effect, influenced by its primary material substrate – clay for man, fire for the jinn (including Iblis), and light for the angels – and by its regular arrangement, indicated in this instance by made him balanced. These are actions upon the physical world, analogous to those that created seven levels of meaning out of a highly symbolic and yet physical sky (Q2:29). The human physical form belongs to this material realm, and is not even a distinguished part of it (reminiscent of how many of today’s environmentalists talk about the human race).
Indeed, the making of the heavens and the earth is greater than the making of humanity, but most of humankind lacks knowledge. (Q40:57)
لَخَلْقُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ أَكْبَرُ مِنْ خَلْقِ النَّاسِ وَلَكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لاَ يَعْلَمُونَ
However, as I have indicated previously, and as the idea of moral evil itself suggests, there is more to reality than material creation. AL-LAH Himself makes this clear.
Truly His are the creation and command. Blessed be AL-LAH, the Master of the worlds! (Q7:54)
أَلاَ لَهُ الْخَلْقُ وَالأَمْرُ تَبَارَكَ اللَّهُ رَبُّ الْعَالَمِينَ
What is this command? On the one hand, it overrules creation to give it a particular direction or purpose. As it refers to the material realm, this is the command of power.
Do you not see that GOD has made subordinated to you everything on earth, and ships that sail on the sea by His command? (Q22:65)
أَلَمْ تَرَى أَنَّ اللَّهَ سَخَّرَ لَكُمْ مَا فِي الأَرْضِ وَالْفُلْكَ تَجْرِي فِي الْبَحْرِ بِأَمْرِهِ
On the other hand, as in the story of Iblis, the command of GOD may be resisted or ignored. This is the command of obligation, requiring obedience for its performance.
He said, “What prevented your prostrating when I gave you the command? (Q7:12)
قَالَ مَا مَنَعَكَ أَلاَّ تَسْجُدَ إِذْ أَمَرْتُكَ
The very same word for ‘command’, amr, is also used in reference to any business or concern. Sometimes, therefore, the word is obscure, and intentionally so, perhaps to suggest all three meanings.
They question you about the Spirit. Say, “The Spirit is derived from [or deals with] the order [or the business] of my Master, and no knowledge has been given you except a little.” (Q17:85)
وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الرُّوحِ قُلِ الرُّوحُ مِنْ أَمْرِ رَبِّي وَمَا أُوتِيتُمْ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ إِلاَّ قَلِيلاً
The angels and the jinn, prior recipients of GOD’s Spirit, represent the ambivalent potential of the spiritual element in mankind. The angels are creatures of light and harmony, and although they may have doubts and questions (as in Q2:30), they are always receptive to more knowledge, and yield to it. The jinn, contrarily, are creatures of passion and instability, and although some of them are submissive, they are generally inclined to be arrogant and envious, as was Iblis. His I is the first statement of egoism in the Qur’an; he is also the original racist (regarding fiery beings as better than clay beings) and the father of bigotry in all its forms. He became fixated on his material superiority to the point of ignoring GOD’s authority and forgetting the Spirit as the order of my Master.
The presumption of evil begins here, at the mysterious heart of what it is to be a spiritual being. The angels manifest the Spirit’s presence in their obedience, their knowledge, and even in their doubts, which are dispelled by greater light. Iblis manifests the Spirit’s absence* by ignorance, forgetfulness, and pride. Evil in its defiance is altogether irrelevant to the physical world, where fire, whether on earth or in the sun and stars, is totally obedient to GOD. But in the moral realm, where commands of obligation replace commands of power, the devil deems himself under no obligation. He has declared himself free. No wonder, then, that GOD curses him and tells him to Get out. Evil, which never had a hold on the physical aspect of reality, is pronounced not only banished from the spiritual realm but also ‘free’ of reality itself.
* No living thing, including Iblis, is altogether without Spirit, and nothing but GOD Himself is wholly Spirit. Presence and absence of Spirit in creatures are to be understood as descriptors of relative position on a scale, not absolute points at either end.
The GOD You Already Know 