Does Iblis sleep?
Answer:
I first decided not to answer this question as I initially did not find any benefit in knowing the answer. However I then thought that perhaps the wisdom behind the question is whether there can be any breaks from temptation of Iblis. With this in mind I try to comment on this question:
We have not been given much reliable information about Iblis and Jinn, except what has been explicitly mentioned in the Qur'an. Therefore it is not possible to provide any reliable and directly relevant reference in answering this question. However for all practical purposes (for the above mentioned possible wisdom behind the question) we can consider a few points:
1. In verse 39:42 it says that God causes Anfus (plural of Nafs) to sleep. Although the verse addresses human beings, I think it may not be illogical to extend this to other creatures who have Nafs, including Jinn, and therefore including Iblis.
2. Iblis is not the only entity that encourages temptations on the human being. As verses 26:95 and 18:50 say, he also has helpers who may be from both Jinn and human beings. Therefore Iblis being asleep does not mean that his helpers are not in work.
3. It is important to understand the mechanism of temptation in the human being. It is not like, a person is totally innocent and suddenly Iblis causes him to go astray. Iblis can be seen as only an ignition. There needs to be a fuel for Iblis' ignition to create fire. Accordingly, it does not matter if Iblis is asleep at a time or not. Every human being with its weaknesses and arrogance has all the required fuel to be tempted unless he/she work on his/her taqwa (piety). Iblis can ignite something in a person, that can cause the temptation later, whether Iblis is around at that time or not.
My conclusion from the above is that the idea of whether Iblis sleeps or not does not change anything about the fact that human being can always be tempted to go astray. Perhaps this is what Hassan al-Basri meant, when he answered to a similar question (as narrated from him): "If Iblis slept, we would have a break".
I would change the wording as follows: "Whether Iblis sleeps or not, we would never have a break"!
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August 2016
I first decided not to answer this question as I initially did not find any benefit in knowing the answer. However I then thought that perhaps the wisdom behind the question is whether there can be any breaks from temptation of Iblis. With this in mind I try to comment on this question:
We have not been given much reliable information about Iblis and Jinn, except what has been explicitly mentioned in the Qur'an. Therefore it is not possible to provide any reliable and directly relevant reference in answering this question. However for all practical purposes (for the above mentioned possible wisdom behind the question) we can consider a few points:
1. In verse 39:42 it says that God causes Anfus (plural of Nafs) to sleep. Although the verse addresses human beings, I think it may not be illogical to extend this to other creatures who have Nafs, including Jinn, and therefore including Iblis.
2. Iblis is not the only entity that encourages temptations on the human being. As verses 26:95 and 18:50 say, he also has helpers who may be from both Jinn and human beings. Therefore Iblis being asleep does not mean that his helpers are not in work.
3. It is important to understand the mechanism of temptation in the human being. It is not like, a person is totally innocent and suddenly Iblis causes him to go astray. Iblis can be seen as only an ignition. There needs to be a fuel for Iblis' ignition to create fire. Accordingly, it does not matter if Iblis is asleep at a time or not. Every human being with its weaknesses and arrogance has all the required fuel to be tempted unless he/she work on his/her taqwa (piety). Iblis can ignite something in a person, that can cause the temptation later, whether Iblis is around at that time or not.
My conclusion from the above is that the idea of whether Iblis sleeps or not does not change anything about the fact that human being can always be tempted to go astray. Perhaps this is what Hassan al-Basri meant, when he answered to a similar question (as narrated from him): "If Iblis slept, we would have a break".
I would change the wording as follows: "Whether Iblis sleeps or not, we would never have a break"!
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August 2016
