{"id":394,"date":"2020-08-21T08:32:51","date_gmt":"2020-08-21T06:32:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/?p=394"},"modified":"2021-11-26T08:46:19","modified_gmt":"2021-11-26T07:46:19","slug":"and-breathed-into-him-of-my-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/2020\/08\/21\/and-breathed-into-him-of-my-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2026and breathed into him of My spirit\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"twoclick_social_bookmarks_post_394 social_share_privacy clearfix 1.6.4 locale-de_DE sprite-de_DE\"><\/div><div class=\"twoclick-js\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\/* <![CDATA[ *\/\njQuery(document).ready(function($){if($('.twoclick_social_bookmarks_post_394')){$('.twoclick_social_bookmarks_post_394').socialSharePrivacy({\"txt_help\":\"Wenn Sie diese Felder durch einen Klick aktivieren, werden Informationen an Facebook, Twitter, Flattr, Xing, t3n, LinkedIn, Pinterest oder Google eventuell ins Ausland \\u00fcbertragen und unter Umst\\u00e4nden auch dort gespeichert. N\\u00e4heres erfahren Sie durch einen Klick auf das <em>i<\\\/em>.\",\"settings_perma\":\"Dauerhaft aktivieren und Daten\\u00fcber-tragung zustimmen:\",\"info_link\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.heise.de\\\/ct\\\/artikel\\\/2-Klicks-fuer-mehr-Datenschutz-1333879.html\",\"uri\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\\\/zekkblog\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/21\\\/and-breathed-into-him-of-my-spirit\\\/\",\"post_id\":394,\"post_title_referrer_track\":\"%E2%80%A6and+breathed+into+him+of+My+spirit%E2%80%A6\",\"display_infobox\":\"on\"});}});\n\/* ]]> *\/<\/script><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Modern trends in theology do hardly deal\nwith the scriptural figure of Satan. It is probably because it would cause more\nperplexity to our theological struggle with the problem of evil and the\nquestion of free will. Nevertheless, the Qur\u2019anic account of Satan\u2019s\ndisobedience towards God and the attitude Satan assumes against human being is\nvery enlightening if one takes this scriptural figure as a metaphorical\nmanifestation of human darkest potentials. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Qur\u2019anic account of Satan\u2019s dismissal\nfrom Divine proximity is centred around the story of the creation of Adam:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYour Lord said to the angels, \u201cI am creating a human being from clay. When I have formed him, and breathed into him of My spirit, fall prostrate before him.\u201d So the angels fell prostrate, all of them. Except for Satan. He was too proud, and one of the faithless\u201d         (Q 38:71-74).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After the creation of Adam, God commands Satan as well as all angels to prostrate to his creation. Satan rejects prostrating to Adam due to the latter\u2019s inferior nature (as he was created from clay) and becomes, therefore, the bad man of the story. The traditional interpretation of this narrative regards Satan, rejecting Divine command, as a bad role model or a vicious guide for those human beings who disobey God\u2019s commands and reject God\u2019s law. In the thought of certain Sufis, including \u2018Ayn al-Qu\u1e0d\u0101t Hamad\u0101n\u012b and R\u016bzbih\u0101n Baql\u012b, however, Satan is regarded highly for having an exclusive love for God. According to this interpretation, Satan did not include any other being than God as subject to veneration, at the expense of being dismissed from heaven. Satan\u2019s disobedience in this respect is thus interpreted by those Sufis as true submission to Divine will, which actually required Satan\u2019s disobedience. Although Sufis agree upon the fact that Satan\u2019s love for God was of an imperfect sort as it did not recognize the manifestation of the Divine in Adam, I would like to put into question the very claim that Satan\u2019s attitude should, by any means, be identified as <em>love<\/em>. No matter how innovative the Sufi interpretation, it overlooks the deeper understanding of the concept of love, which bears respect and recognition. &nbsp;The traditional interpretation, on the other hand, already neglects a very subtle point (implied in Sufi interpretation) which would bring into light an important aspect of Satan\u2019s sin: the fact that God has breathed into human being of His spirit. I would like to suggest that a big part of Satan\u2019s sin in this regard lies in Satan\u2019s refusal of acknowledging the Divine spirit in man. Satan is indeed a bad role model, but not only because of refusing God\u2019s command, but also because of rejecting the Divinity within human being; the Divinity whose recognition in Adam would be a sign of love for God himself. Now the question is if this Divine element within human beings does not really require respect from all of us towards each other? Isn\u2019t it the case that most evil we cause to each other is actually rooted in our disrespectful disregard of the Divinity within our fellow human beings and, therefore, in our lack of love for God and for each other? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/files\/2020\/08\/sky-437690_1920-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-396\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/files\/2020\/08\/sky-437690_1920-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/files\/2020\/08\/sky-437690_1920-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/files\/2020\/08\/sky-437690_1920-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/files\/2020\/08\/sky-437690_1920-450x300.jpg 450w, https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/files\/2020\/08\/sky-437690_1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-blue-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\">Nasrin Bani Assadi ist Doktorandin am Zentrum f\u00fcr Komparative Theologie und  Kulturwissenschaften in Paderborn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Modern trends in theology do hardly deal with the scriptural figure of Satan. It is probably because it would cause more perplexity to our theological struggle with the problem of evil and the question of free will. Nevertheless, the Qur\u2019anic &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/2020\/08\/21\/and-breathed-into-him-of-my-spirit\/\">Weiterlesen <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8844,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-allgemein"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8844"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":824,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394\/revisions\/824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}