34وَإِذ قُلنا لِلمَلائِكَةِ اسجُدوا لِآدَمَ فَسَجَدوا إِلّا إِبليسَ أَبىٰ وَاستَكبَرَ وَكانَ مِنَ الكافِرينَMuhammad AsadAnd when We told the angels, "Prostrate yourselves before Adam!"1 - they all prostrated themselves, save Iblis, who refused and gloried in his arrogance: and thus he became one of those who deny the truth.2To show that, by virtue of his ability to think conceptually, man is superior in this respect even to the angels.For an explanation of the name of the Fallen Angel, see surah 7, note 10. The fact of this "rebellion", repeatedly stressed in the Qur'an, has led some of the commentators to the conclusion that he could not have been one of the angels, since these are incapable of sinning: "they do not bear themselves with false pride... and they do whatever they are bidden to do" (16:49-50). As against this, other commentators point to the Qur'anic phrasing of God's command to the angels and of Iblis' refusal to obey, which makes it absolutely clear that at the time of that command he was indeed one of the heavenly host. Hence, we must assume that his "rebellion" has a purely symbolic significance and is, in reality, the outcome of a specific function assigned to him by God (see note 31 on 15:41).