One thing that has impressed me in Islam is the treatment and explanation of the Devil. In Christianity, he is seem as pure evil, someone in competition with God for the souls of men. I’ve never really found this to be very convincing or inspiring. Islam has a very different view. Well, at least the Sufis seem to, I got this information from one of my books on Sufism. According to them, Satan was the one angel that refused to bow down to Adam when God created him. Satan did this not out of obstinacy, but out of his love of God. He refused to bow down before anything that had been created, he only bowed down before God. He also argued that it must have been God’s will because he was unable to disobey God. For this, he was banished from Heaven and from God’s presence.
But Satan never lost his love of God. Of all beings in the universe, he toils away without any hope of ever getting any reward. Talk about unrequited love! The Sufis understand that through his efforts, we can rise above him, to a place that he could never achieve. His trials toughen us, strengthen us, and ultimately provide us with the means to work towards God. I find this to be a much richer view than what we see in Christianity and it’s much more useful IMO…
Here’s a story from the Sufi saint Sana’i that helps explain this outlook…
“O Satan,” said Moses, “how is it that despite your cursed existence, your words are sweet?”
“My experiences,” replied Satan, “are those of one who has been tested, Moses. I worshiped God for 700,000 years, craving a better position with Him. My craving in devotion brought about my destruction, I stopped craving, and now my remembrance is keener, my devotion sweeter. O Moses, do you know why God has caused me to be separated? So that I would not mix with the sincere ones and worship Him out of passion or fear or hope or craving.”
The Sufi’s devotion to God is very similar to what I have read about in Orthodox Christianity, it’s all about love, not heaven, not hell, just love. The Sufi’s also seem to use some of the same techniques that Zen masters do in trying to get their students beyond what they see, hear, and feel. It’s quite interesting and I think is the type of Islam that has the most nuanced and the deepest conception of God. It is, of course, also the smallest sect in the Islamic world…