Jinn vs Angels/ what is the difference?

[6Roman6Catholic6]

From what I have read Islam does not believe that Satan is an angel. As in Islam, an angel does not have free will. In the Ethiopian Orthodox bible their is a book called Enoch 1. Their are three books of Enoch, though only the first one is considered scripture. Most translations are of poor quality in English. Though, I own a decent copy. The first book was written in about 300-100BC. This book is very descriptive in detail of the fall of a group of Angels called the "Watchers". They rebelled against God by choosing to mate with the daughters of Eve (humans) and teach man the art of war.  The book is very clear that these "fallen ones" were angels. Their is a long list of fallen angels that are named in Enoch 1. More to the point, even in the Western bible of Christendom, Satan is called "the God of this world". Satan in Christianity has great authority in this world. But, it seems that in Islam, Satan has little power. And, is in fact inferior to both man and the angels. Christianity claims in the book of Revelation in the bible, that Satan possesses angels of his own, executing great authority over all of the earth. It is said, he held great power in heaven before being cast down to the earth after a great battle in which Saint Michael the Arch Angel was victorious. I have read that Satan in Islam is a creature made from fire called a Jinn. And that Jinn are far inferior to angels as well as man. How is the Islamic Satan so different from the Christian Satan?

Edited June 1, 2016 by 6Roman6Catholic6

[Gaius I. Caesar]

Iblees is a suggester and whisperer into the hearts of men. Iblees does not rule anything as in the Christian sense, but he deludes people into thinking that he has power. The key difference between Jinns and Angels is that Jinns have free will to follow their desires like humans, but still have super natural abilities and cannot be seen like the angels. Whereas angels do not have free will and only obey Allah's (swt) will.

Question 16: The Angels and free-will | Faith and Reason | Books on Islam and Muslims | Al-Islam.org

P.S. It goes into more detail about Iblees and the Jinns in questions 17 and 18. I thought this would help you understand the differences.

Edited June 1, 2016 by Gaius I. Caesar

[andres]

Could the belief in jinns be a relic of the pagan religion that preceded Islam?

[Gaius I. Caesar]

27 minutes ago, andres said:

Could the belief in jinns be a relic of the pagan religion that preceded Islam?

Jinns were actually worshiped in Pagan Arabia as ancient spirits or gods with power over nature, not unlike the spirits in Native American and Aborigine Australian mythology.. In Islamic theology, Jinns are merely another race of beings with free will and a moral compass, albeit invisible and with supernatural abilities. Humans are descendants of Adam (as) and Jinns are descendants of Iblees (la) The difference between the pagans of old and Muslims today is the former openly worshipped and prayed to jinns  while we acknowledge their existence, we don't worship them. 

[certainclarity]

Hello,

Shaytan was a jinn. His name was Haris before Allah called him iblis/Sheytan.

Iblis in Arabic means " in despair/ one who is in despair"

Shaytan in Arabic means " far from the path / expelled)

There are three type of jinns according to the prophet:

The ones that are microscopic, the once that are snakes and spiders etc, and the ones that are similar to humans.

Jinns procreate and have families but have a very peasant style life, but have super abilities, like telepathy, teleport etc. They do not need technolgy like us as they are technology themselves.

We have both believing and good jinns and non believing and bad jinns.

Iblees or Sheytan ( title given not name ) after being thrown out of the first heaven was given the permission to create Devils at will. So all Devils / Sheyatan are the product of iblis who is a jinn and was formerly known as Haris.

The first jinn Allah created was called Marij and his spouse was Marijeh. They have a child named Jaan.

Haris was the descendent of Jaan from the Jinns Marij and Marijeh.

Similar to how Adam and Eve were created and had Two Sons.

Angels are beings that strictly follow the commands of Allah.

There is a misconception that Angels don't have free will.

They too have free will, but use their free will to fully obey Allah.

Everything Allah created has a level of conscious and has free will.

The best source of proof that Angels have free will is the Quran, where it mentions some Angels were trying to hide something from Allah.

If you don't have free will , you won't be able to choose to hide or not to hide some thing.

If you know abit Arabic you will know via Arabic grammar Allah is talking to the Angels here.

English or any other translation is rather very weak and inaccurate .

Quran:

They( Angels) said, "Exalted are You; we have no knowledge except what You have taught us. Indeed, it is You who is the Knowing, the Wise."(Quran 2:32)

O Adam!  Inform them of their names,’ and when he had informed them of their names, He ( Allah ) said:  Did I not tell you ( to the Angels ) that I know the unseen in the heavens and the earth, and I know what you ( Angels) reveal and what you have been hiding?” (Quran 2:33)

*****

Everything having consciousness such as mountains and the skies:

We offered the ***TRUST*** to the heavens, and the earth, and the mountains; but they refused to bear it, and were apprehensive of it; but the human being accepted it. He was unfair and ignorant. (33: 72)

 Allah was in communication  with the heavens and the earth in this verse and made them an offer, so that they can CHOOSE to accept or reject.

This shows everything has consciousness and free will in Islamic teachings .

If you could have read Farsi or Arabic you would realize there is so many mistranslations in English. The Arabic / Farsi sources are much more accurate than the English sources.

Edited June 1, 2016 by certainclarity

[6Roman6Catholic6]

Is this a good depiction of the Islamic Satan? 

 

[Ali.Isa]

7 hours ago, certainclarity said:

There is a misconception that Angels don't have free will.

They too have free will, but use their free will to fully obey Allah.

Everything Allah created has a level of conscious and has free will.

The best source of proof that Angels have free will is the Quran, where it mentions some Angels were trying to hide something from Allah.

If you don't have free will , you won't be able to choose to hide or not to hide some thing.

Alaikom as Salam, please can you provide the verse, about angels hiding a thing from Allah, but I agree that angels have some kind of free will, as our scholars has said, and one can give a famous verse when Allah said to all angels including the jin [iblis] that than was the teacher of angles, to prostrate to Adam Peace upon Him. It was a test or all of them and why would Allah test angels if they have no freewill.

9 hours ago, Gaius I. Caesar said:

. Humans are descendants of Adam (as) and Jinns are descendants of Iblees (la)

Just a correction, our belief [muslims] is that Jins having faith and being muslims exist, so only bad Jins do not exist without there is believers also. So there is shaitan jin and shaitan ens [human shaitan]. But also there is good humans and good jins!

10 hours ago, andres said:

Could the belief in jinns be a relic of the pagan religion that preceded Islam?

Salam, No, such creation exists and we have even one chapter of the Holy Quran entitled after Jins. The pagans basically knew that God exists and so on, but had corrupted, very corrupted beliefs and was 180 grades opposite of actual teachings of Prophets Peace upon Them.

Q: What is the Reality of Jinn?

Q: What is meant by Shaytan in the Noble Quran?

Q: What is Reality of Angels?

Commentary of Chapter Jinn from the Holy Quran

[Chaotic Muslem]

22 minutes ago, 6Roman6Catholic6 said:

Is this a good depiction of the Islamic Satan? 

 

That's a very nice video lol brilliant!

[certainclarity]

9 minutes ago, Ali.Isa said:

Alaikom as Salam, please can you provide the verse, about angels hiding a thing from Allah, but I agree that angels have some kind of free will, as our scholars has said, and one can give a famous verse when Allah said to all angels including the jin [iblis] that than was the teacher of angles, to prostrate to Adam Peace upon Him. It was a test or all of them and why would Allah test angels if they have no freewill.

Just a correction, our belief [muslims] is that Jins having faith and being muslims exist, so only bad Jins do not exist without there is believers also. So there is shaitan jin and shaitan ens [human shaitan]. But also there is good humans and good jins!

Salam, No, such creation exists and we have even one chapter of the Holy Quran entitled after Jins. The pagans basically knew that God exists and so on, but had corrupted, very corrupted beliefs and was 180 grades opposite of actual teachings of Prophets Peace upon Them.

Q: What is the Reality of Jinn?

Q: What is meant by Shaytan in the Noble Quran?

Q: What is Reality of Angels?

Commentary of Chapter Jinn from the Holy Quran

Salam,

Yes I already have. It is in my post you quoted.

I will repost:

They( Angels) said, "Exalted are You; we have no knowledge except what You have taught us. Indeed, it is You who is the Knowing, the Wise."(Quran 2:32)

O Adam!  Inform them of their names,’ and when he had informed them of their names, He ( Allah ) said:  Did I not tell you ( to the Angels ) that I know the unseen in the heavens and the earth, and I know what you ( Angels) reveal and what you have been hiding?” (Quran 2:33)

Edited June 1, 2016 by certainclarity

[Chaotic Muslem]

14 hours ago, 6Roman6Catholic6 said:

From what I have read Islam does not believe that Satan is an angel. As in Islam, an angel does not have free will. In the Ethiopian Orthodox bible their is a book called Enoch 1. Their are three books of Enoch, though only the first one is considered scripture. Most translations are of poor quality in English. Though, I own a decent copy. The first book was written in about 300-100BC. This book is very descriptive in detail of the fall of a group of Angels called the "Watchers". They rebelled against God by choosing to mate with the daughters of Eve (humans) and teach man the art of war.  The book is very clear that these "fallen ones" were angels. Their is a long list of fallen angels that are named in Enoch 1. More to the point, even in the Western bible of Christendom, Satan is called "the God of this world". Satan in Christianity has great authority in this world. But, it seems that in Islam, Satan has little power. And, is in fact inferior to both man and the angels. Christianity claims in the book of Revelation in the bible, that Satan possesses angels of his own, executing great authority over all of the earth. It is said, he held great power in heaven before being cast down to the earth after a great battle in which Saint Michael the Arch Angel was victorious. I have read that Satan in Islam is a creature made from fire called a Jinn. And that Jinn are far inferior to angels as well as man. How is the Islamic Satan so different from the Christian Satan?

There is one story that i can verify its authenticity about angels coming to earth and some men getting mislead. It is the story of Harut and Marut. They who taught people something akin to witch craft but it isn't? I am not sure honestly. But they are related to the story of Prophet Solomon and part of why Jews said Solomon disbelieved or something.

Also, we do have hadiths about another 2 angels. They asked God how humans are better and that the tests they are under are simple and straight forward. So Allah sent them down and made them have free will and have the human instincts and desires. They went sinful short after. The story has a completion but my fading memory is not helping me.

So, yes, we do have a tradition about fallen angels but these are exceptions.

[Ali.Isa]

14 minutes ago, certainclarity said:

Salam,

Yes I already have. It is in my post you quoted.

Alaikom as Salam, yes the verses, i see, but still to be precise i do not get what has the verse to do with angel hiding something from Allah! From what perspective are you referring.

[certainclarity]

34 minutes ago, Chaotic Muslem said:

There is one story that i can verify its authenticity about angels coming to earth and some men getting mislead. It is the story of Harut and Marut. They who taught people something akin to witch craft but it isn't? I am not sure honestly. But they are related to the story of Prophet Solomon and part of why Jews said Solomon disbelieved or something.

Also, we do have hadiths about another 2 angels. They asked God how humans are better and that the tests they are under are simple and straight forward. So Allah sent them down and made them have free will and have the human instincts and desires. They went sinful short after. The story has a completion but my fading memory is not helping me.

So, yes, we do have a tradition about fallen angels but these are exceptions.

Salam,

The story was not about Harut and Marut. Harut and Narut were sent to teach people how to dispel certain witch craft and asked people not to practise it, and mentioned this is TEST.

Quran:

And they followed [instead] what the devils had recited during the reign of Solomon. It was not Solomon who disbelieved, but the devils disbelieved, teaching people magic and that which was revealed to the two angels at Babylon, Harut and Marut. But the two angels do not teach anyone unless they say, "We are a trial, so do not disbelieve [by practicing magic]." And [yet] they learn from them that by which they cause separation between a man and his wife.

*********

Yes,The Hadith which you mentioned is another one when some Angels said to Allah, if we were humans we would not have committed sins( something in this lines) and when they were sent with a human nafs and they committed all three acts of alcohol , adultry and murder.

This Hadith may or may not be true.

Edited June 1, 2016 by certainclarity

[certainclarity]

28 minutes ago, Ali.Isa said:

Alaikom as Salam, yes the verses, i see, but still to be precise i do not get what has the verse to do with angel hiding something from Allah! From what perspective are you referring.

For this you should check some tafsirs explains what they were trying to hide.

If I recall properly it is  related to something they knew about Ibis, and they tried to hide it in their thoughts.

Regardless this aya is indicating to free will, since it indicating to a choice to reveal or hide something. If there was no free will, they could not have tried to hide something from Allah, when they know Allah knows everything .

Edited June 1, 2016 by certainclarity

[Eddie Mecca]

On 6/1/2016 at 2:32 AM, andres said:

Could the belief in jinns be a relic of the pagan religion that preceded Islam?

Qurʾān serves as Al-Muhaymin (i.e. Protector, Guardian, Overseer, Arbitrator, Adjudicator, Mediator etc.) for any doctrine or teaching (be it Jewish, Christian, "pagan" or otherwise) that preceded it...not everything the pagans said or did was 'wrong'...you have to take each pagan belief on a case by case basis...each pagan ritual, rite, belief, custom etc. should be considered individually rather than applying a wide/blanket condemnation on everything deemed "pagan"

Edited January 24, 2025 by Eddie Mecca

[Eddie Mecca]

On 6/1/2016 at 3:13 AM, Gaius I. Caesar said:

Jinns are descendants of Iblees

I agree with what you stated except this bit here...to the best of my knowledge ʾĀdam is the father of mankind...al-Jānn race are the ancestors and progenitors of the Jinn...Iblīs has a spouse and shayāṭīn offspring (five sons according to some)

[Gaius I. Caesar]

On 1/23/2025 at 10:29 PM, Eddie Mecca said:

I agree with what you stated except this bit here...to the best of my knowledge ʾĀdam is the father of mankind...al-Jānn race are the ancestors and progenitors of the Jinn...Iblīs has a spouse and shayāṭīn offspring (five sons according to some)

The shayāṭīn are a type of jinn, like al-Jann and the Ifrit who helped Suleiman (عليه السلام), no?