Re: Interfaith Dialogue - Islam and Christianity
Quran 51:56
I created the jinn and humankind only that they might worship Me.
jinn and man were created for worshipping Allah....
the Quran also states that when Allah told the angels that He is going to create man, they said:
Quran 2:30
And when thy Lord said unto the angels: Lo! I am about to place a viceroy in the earth, they said: Wilt thou place therein one who will do harm therein and will shed blood, **while we, we hymn Thy praise and sanctify Thee?* He said: Surely I know that which ye know not.*
which shows that the angels too served the purpose of worship....
then why jinn and man????
well, this is where Islam tells that angels have no free will, they merely do what Allah orders them to do, and have no choice to rebel or disobey (also Islam does not believe Satan to be an angel, but one of the jinn)....
jinn were created before man, but due to their disobedience, they caused havoc on earth....
so Allah decided to replace them with mankind....
jinn, of who Satan was a part, lost their position and man was appointed as Allah's viceroy on earth....
this is what caused Satan to be jealous of Adam (as)....
Allah's reply to the angels on their curiosity over creation of Adam (as) that "I know what you dont know" is where scholars differ on why exactly man was created after jinn were already there as a free-will creation to obey/disobey Allah....
one theory is that jinn were created and let to do whatever they wished, but they chose evil (most of them) and hence were greatly misled....
but when Allah created man, He sought to keep sending reminders throught the prophets and messengers, so that they would not be as disobedient as the jinn before them had been....