Rebuttal to Sam Shamoun’s article Qur'an Incoherence and Contradiction

Is Satan an Angel or a Jinn?

Analyzing the Quran’s Confusing Statements

Shamoun wrote:

Sam Shamoun gives plenty of verses which say that Iblis (Satan) was a jin and an angel. They have not been posted here but just mentioned that he mentions them.

Before commenting on these verses, one must understand that the Quran repeats some points but there is no absolute repetition. Each time a story or message is repeated, there is something new that is told to us by God. The same is the case in the story of Satan.

 

"Behold! We said to the angels, "Bow down to Adam." they bowed down except Iblis He was one of the Jinns."
[Al-Qur’an 18:50]

 

 

My response:

The answer is given by Dr. Zakir Naik as follows:

The English translation of the first part of the verse ‘We said to the angels bow down to Adam: they bowed down except Iblis’, gives us the impression that Iblis was an angel. The Qur’an was revealed in Arabic. In Arabic grammar there is a rule known as Tagleeb, according to which, if the majority is addressed, even the minority is included. If for example, I address a class containing 100 students of whom 99 are boys and one is a girl, and if I say in Arabic that the boys should stand up, it includes the girl as well. I need not mention her seperately.

Similarly in the Qur’an, when Allah addressed the angels, even Iblis was present, but it is not required that he be mentioned separately. Therefore according to that sentence Iblis may be an angel or may not be an angel, but we come to know from Surah Al Kahf chapter 18 verse 50 that Iblis was a Jinn. No where does the Qur’an say Iblis was an angel. Therefore there is no contradiction in the Qur’an.

Shamoun goes on to give various interpretations from different scholars but nowhere does he give the explanation mentioned above.