Questioner: It’s written in the Quran that all the angels were commanded to bow before God, to bow for Adam.
Huzoor (rh): For Adam, for Adam, yes, that’s right.
Questioner: Illa Iblis (اِلَّاۤ اِبۡلِیۡسَ), but Iblis was no angel, but why was it a sin for him not to bow?
Huzoor (rh): I’ll explain, it’s very simple, please sit down. The word illa (اِلَّاۤ) in Arabic is used to cover not only people belonging to one species, but also things belonging or animals belonging to different species. For instance, it says, ja’al qawmu illal himar, all the people came, illal himar (اِلَّاۤالحمار), except the donkey. So the donkey does not belong to human beings, yet the word illa (اِلَّاۤ) makes an exception for the donkey while it shouldn’t be covered by the word people. So this is the Arabic way of saying things. So although Iblis was not of the angels, yet when the order was given to the angels, he was below them. And as I have mentioned, the Arabic idiom, a higher species is mentioned sometimes which covers all the species below, and the exception does not mean that the lower species, which is covered by that order, is of the higher species.
