Al-Isra 61: We had Commanded the angels; “Prostrate before Adam!” Except for Satan (Iblees), all of them prostrated immediately. Satan said, “Am I to prostrate to someone You have created from mud?”

Yes, we had said to the angels: prostrate to Adam; they all prostrated except Iblis. Iblis said: shall I prostrate to someone You created from clay? We said that Iblis erred here, the accursed one erred. And along with his error he fell into great mistakes. If Allah Almighty says prostrate, not just to clay but even to a lizard, then we are obliged to prostrate. Because He is our Creator and we are bound to obey the command. In this case, the pride and arrogance in Satan, or in Iblis, kept Iblis from prostrating to Adam. Where do Iblis's pride and arrogance come from? He says to Allah Almighty: there is not a handspan of earth, he says, where my forehead has not come down in prostration to the Most Merciful; that is how he worshipped.

So they named the accursed one Haris. Haris. That is, Haris means all of worship. Yes. The angels envied him for this worship, and he rose as far as being the teacher of the angels. So he became convinced that no one was more learned than himself. Now in this situation, after Allah Almighty created the body of our father Adam from clay, what does He say to him? After I breathe My spirit into him, prostrate, He says. After breathing the spirit, He says; He does not say: before breathing the spirit, before giving him life, prostrate to him. Had He made them prostrate before breathing the spirit, Allah Almighty would have made people too prostrate to beings other than Himself, or made beings prostrate too.

What is understood here is that Allah Almighty created man very honourable. Indeed He says: We created you honoured above the worlds. His honourable creation: that He gave man a part of His Self, that is, a part of His spirit, and so held man as one addressed by His Self; and if He invited the angels and jinn to prostrate, if Allah Almighty invited them to prostrate, then surely humans, above the angels and in the universe, as the most excellent of created beings, are a being Allah (?) has created. In this case: shall I prostrate to someone You created from clay? Before our forefather Adam was created in body, Iblis, for the worship he had performed on earth for Allah Almighty, rose in return, and to teach the angels he went up as far as the realm of malakut.

After Allah Almighty created our forefather Adam from earth and gave him of His spirit, He commanded the angels and Satan to prostrate to our forefather Adam. All the angels prostrated except Iblis; Iblis, growing proud, in grandeur and arrogance, did not prostrate to our forefather Adam. Since egotism, arrogance and pride were at their peak in Iblis, he said: shall I prostrate to someone You created from clay? Pride and arrogance prevented the truth from being shown to Iblis. Before Allah shaped our forefather Adam and gave him of His spirit, He did not say: prostrate to Adam. After giving him of His spirit, He said: prostrate to Adam.

Prostration to Adam was prostration to Allah. Because in Adam there was the spirit, which is a part of Allah. Allah makes no being prostrate to any being other than Himself. This being so, the accursed one, seized by pride and arrogance over a knowledge in himself, displayed the very peak of ignorance and rebelled against Allah. Had Satan had knowledge, he would have known that Allah Almighty cannot be defied, and would have obeyed Allah. So a useless knowledge got the accursed one driven out from Allah's presence and cursed. In truth Allah, who knew that all these events would happen this way, since He knows the traits of His creatures, created them all under His rule.