702 - Muḥammad ibn Sinān al-Qazzāẓ narrated to us, he said: Abū ʿĀṣim narrated to us, from Sharīk, from a man, from ʿIkrima, from Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: Indeed, Allah created a creation and said: "Prostrate to Adam." But they said: "We will not." So Allah sent a fire upon them that burned them. Then He created another creation and said: "Indeed, I am creating a human from clay, so prostrate to Adam." But they refused, so Allah sent a fire upon them and it burned them. He said: Then He created these, and said: "Prostrate to Adam." So they said: "Yes." And Iblīs was among those who refused to prostrate to Adam (1).

Abū Jaʿfar said: These are explanations that indicate the weak understanding of those who hold them. That is because it is not to be rejected that Allah, majestic be His praise, created the types of His angels from various kinds of His creation. So He created some from light, some from fire, and some from whatever else He willed. And Allah's omitting to inform about what He created His angels from (2), while informing about what He created Iblīs from, does not necessitate that Iblīs is excluded from their category. For it was permissible that He created a class of His angels from fire, among whom was Iblīs, or that He singled out Iblīs by creating him from the fire of scorching wind (nār al-samūm) unlike the rest of His angels. Likewise, his having offspring and descendants does not exclude him from having been one of the angels, because of the desire and pleasure installed within him—which were stripped from the rest of the angels—due to what Allah intended for him of disobedience. As for Allah informing that he was "of the jinn," it cannot be denied that whatever things are concealed (ijtanat) from sight entirely are called jinn—as we mentioned previously in the poetry of al-Aʿshā—so Iblīs and the angels would be among them, because of their concealment from the sight of the children of Adam.