Disobedience to the creator: An Islamic perspective

Disobedience to God is something that exists as an action within Islamic theology which merely means to do anything that Allah has forbidden, or is displeased with.

We are shown the severity of this in the example of Satan disobeying to bow to Adam A.S when he was ordered to. We will touch upon that later in the article.

A human’s savior will not be his argumentation and justification for his sin. Often time we find ourselves and others justifying their sin. Not admitting, at the very least, that indeed what they are doing wrong and we seldom find ourselves seeking sincere forgiveness.

The conditions for forgiveness are sincere repentance, regret and the intention to leave that sin behind. We are shown the importance of repentance and the dangerous of making excuses or arguments to justify our sin in the story of satan disobeying orders of Allah and the merit of accepting ones sin sincerely and asking for forgiveness.

In the story, we learn that satan’s argument against Allah for disobeying his command was that he was created from fire.

And [mention] when We said to the angles, “Prostrate to Adam,” and they prostrated, except for Iblees. He said, “Should I prostrate to one You created from clay?”

We see that his argument was a mere justification for his disobedience to Allah. On the contrary, how did Adam A.S react when he realized he failed to obey Allah?

“Our Lord! We have wronged ourselves. If You forgive us not, and bestow not upon us Your Mercy, we shall certainly be of the losers.”

The difference between what Adam A.S and what Hawa A.S responded is the how a human being should respond when he has sinned. We must realize from this that our protection on judgement day does not lie in making excuses, arguments and loop holes. It lies in admitting our wrongs. That was the difference in the way Adam & Eve and Iblees responded.