Satanism Today - An Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore and Popular ...

128 Invitation to Hell
January 3, 1996.
http://members.aol.com/IngramOrg/papworth.
htm.
Pendergrast, Mark. Victims of Memory. 2nd ed.
Hinesburg, VT: Upper Access Books, 1996.
Thompson, Loreli. “Supplemental Officer’s Report.”
April 20, 1989.
http://members.aol.com/IngramOrg/thompson.
htm.
Wright, Lawrence. Remembering Satan: A Case of
Recovered Memory and the Shattering of an
American Family. New York: Knopf, 1994.
Invitation to Hell
In this 1994 film, yet another family moves into a
new town and stumbles onto a diabolical conspiracy,
this one headed up by a demon who runs the
Steaming Springs Country Club.
Islam
Notions of hell, demons, and Satan (Arabic Iblis)
have been part of Islam since the time of
Muhammad. Both the Koran (the Islamic scriptures)
and the Hadith (the sayings of the Prophet
Muhammad), refer to these concepts. The story of
the origin of Satan is told somewhat differently in
the Muslim tradition than in Christianity.
In the Muslim account, when God created
Adam, He commanded the angels to worship him.
Iblis refused on the grounds that Adam, who, after
all, was a mere creature of dust and dirt, was inferior
to the angels, who were made from light. As
punishment for his disobedience, Iblis was transformed
from an angel into a jinn, which is a being
made of fire.
When the Lord said to the angels, “See, I am
creating a mortal of clay. when I have shaped
him, and breathed My spirit in him, fall you
down, bowing before him!” Then the angels
bowed themselves all together, save Iblis; he
waxed proud, and was one of the unbelievers.
Said he, “Iblis, what prevented thee to bow
thyself before that I created with My own
hands Said he, “I am better than he; Thou
createdst me of fire, and him Thou createdst of
clay.” Said he, “Then go thou forth hence; thou
are accured. Upon thee shall rest My cures, till
the Day of Doom.” (Arberry 1969, 163)
Then Iblis and other angels who shared his
viewpoint were removed from their stations, and
exiled from heaven. They subsequently became
demons, with Iblis playing the role of the Islamic
Satan. Ejected from the presence of God, these
former angels turned to trickery and causing
trouble for mortals. According to the Koran, Iblis’s
first misdeed was to lead Adam and Eve astray in
the Garden of Eden. The Koran also notes that at
the end of time Iblis and his hosts will be tossed
into hell.
Muslim tradition also mentions specific “dark”
angels, such as Malik, who guards hell. The Koran
asserts that Malik is aided by nineteen other angel
guards (sbires or zabayniya). When the sinful residents
of hell beg Malik for help, he tells them that
they must stay in hell forever because they denied
the truth when it was once showed to them: “And
they shall call, ‘O Malik, let thy Lord have done
with us!’ He will say,‘You will surely tarry . . . most
of you were averse to the truth’” (Arberry 1969,
205). Malik makes life even worse for them by
stoking the fires and making jokes. The only relief
comes for the Muslim sinners in hell who can
escape such treatment by reciting “Allah, the
Compassionate, the Merciful.” Malik knows that
these true believers will one day be freed from hell
by Muhammad.
In an interesting variation on tradition, Sufis
(Islamic mystics) reinterpreted Iblis’s disobedience
as an act of love for God, and as an act of
obedience to the law that only God should be
worshiped. To bow down to Adam, in other
words, would have been an acknowledgment of
another god other than God, and thus an act of
idolatry—a severe sin in the Muslim tradition.
Iblis, to continue this line of interpretation, was a
true lover of God, and thus a Sufi. Iblis knew that
the consequences of his actions would be punishment,
but he preferred remaining true to his love
of God (and the consequences of being
condemned to hell) over being untrue to his love
of God and remaining in heaven.
The Koran is especially focused on the day of
judgement, when humankind will be bodily resurrected.
When human beings die, they remain in a