Angels · The two angels of Babylon, a test
هاروت وماروت
Harut and Marut
They taught nothing until they had warned: we are only a trial, so do not disbelieve.
The account
In Babylon, in the generations after Sulayman, the shayatin marketed sorcery under a prophet's name, claiming his kingdom had run on it. Revelation demolished the libel: "Sulayman did not disbelieve, but the shayatin disbelieved, teaching people magic" (2:102), and the same verse sets down the strangest entry in the angelic record: what was sent down upon the two angels at Babylon, Harut and Marut. They taught no one until they had delivered the disclaimer that separates a test from a temptation: "We are only a fitnah, so do not disbelieve."
People learned anyway, the verse continues, what separates a man from his wife, harming none except by Allah's permission, learning what hurt them and did not profit them, having purchased it with their share of the Hereafter. The Codex keeps this seal for the discipline it teaches: knowledge itself can be a trial; a warning delivered does not excuse the one who ignores it; and the transaction the verse describes, trading the akhirah for a technique, remains available in every century under newer names. The later storyteller embellishments about the two angels' sins are not in the Qur'an and carry no sound chain; the Codex leaves them where the muhaddithun left them.
The facts
- PlaceBabylon (2:102)
- Disclaimer“We are only a fitnah”
- ClearedSulayman, of sorcery
- LegendsUnsound additions, excluded
The Qur'an on it
وَمَا يُعَلِّمَانِ مِنْ أَحَدٍ حَتَّىٰ يَقُولَا إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ فِتْنَةٌ فَلَا تَكْفُرْ
They taught no one until they said: we are only a trial, so do not disbelieve.
Read beside it
The words
On the Path
Places
The Unseen