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48-658: Archdemons are described as the leaders of demonic hosts, just as archangels lead choirs of angels . Based upon the writings of Saint Paul (Col. 1:16; Eph. 1:21) the angelic court had been constructed by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and comprised nine orders of angels with three orders each to three hierarchies. The first hierarchy consists of seraphim , cherubim and thrones . The second hierarchy consists of dominations , virtues and powers . The third hierarchy consists of principalities , archangels and angels . This system of classifying angels has been accepted by

96-478: A guardian angel . Of the angelic orders, he asserted that only the lowest five are sent by God to manifest themselves in the corporeal world, while the four highest remain in Heaven at His presence. The Chaplet of Saint Michael the archangel, a Catholic devotion also called the rosary of the angels, approved by Pope Pius IX, includes prayers and specific invocations for each of the nine choirs of angels. There

144-475: A jurm . These individuals are described in the Quran as having arrogance towards the believers. Behold, those who commit jurm used to laugh at those who believed, winking one at another when they passed them by, and when they went back to their own fold, they returned jesting, and when they saw them they used to say, 'Lo, these have indeed gone astray! Junah and Haraj have a similar meaning to that of ithm ,

192-479: A process of spiritual conversion toward constant awareness of God's presence. Muhammad reputedly requested God's forgiveness several times daily. It is the act of leaving what God has prohibited and returning to what he has commanded. The word denotes the act of being repentant for one's misdeeds, atoning for those misdeeds, and having a strong determination to forsake those misdeeds (remorse, resolution, and repentance). If someone sins against another person, restitution

240-548: A religious leader. There is also no concept of original sin in Islam. Islam has no concept of original sin, need for atonement, or ecclesiastical confession. Another contrast to Christianity is, that sin isn't seen as the worst. Abu Uthman al-Maghribi argues that sin is better than complacency, since the sinner makes tawba . Repentance and forgiveness are a direct matter between the individual and God, requiring no intercession. In cases of sin against another person, restitution

288-443: A sin that warrants a punishment. In fact, these words are used almost interchangeably with ithm in the same chapters in the Quran. Like ithm , these words are found frequently in legislative portions of the Quran, particularly relating to regulations regarding marriage and divorce. It is no sin ( junah ) for you that you [indirectly] allude proposal of marriage to (recently widowed (Iddah stage)) women or keep it to yourself. Sin

336-627: A sin; and ithm , which is used for grave sins. According to Cyril Glasse, Islam recognizes two kinds of sin ( khati'ah ): dhanb , a fault or shortcoming which is to be sanctioned; and ithm , a willful transgression which is to be punished. Several different words are used in the Quran to describe sin—1) Dhanb 2) Ithm 3) Khati'ah 4) Jurm 5) Junah/Haraj . By examining the choice of words in Quranic verses used in connection with these terms, scholars have attempted to determine which sins are associated with which terms. Dhanb (plural dhunub )

384-482: Is considered by many scholars to be a "moral lapse" or a "mistake". This interpretation has led some scholars to believe that Khati'ah is a lesser sin than ithm; however, the word Khati'ah is frequently used in conjunction with ithm in the Quran. Whoso, having committed a khati'ah or an ithm , throws it upon the innocent, has burdened himself with calumny and an obvious sin ( ithm ). "Say: "O my Servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of

432-481: Is considered the worst sin of all, shirk . Shirk signifies associating partners with God. The Quran states that: He who associates with God has surely forged a great sin ( ithm ). This association with shirk is noteworthy for shirk is considered unforgivable if not repented of. God forgiveth not (the sin of) joining other gods to Him; but He forgiveth whom He pleaseth other sins that this: one who joins other gods with God hath strayed far, far away. Khati'ah

480-412: Is constituted as an ithm ( Quran 4:24-20 ). However, ithm is also used in connection with haram , or committing an unlawful deed, a taboo, such as consuming food or drink that is forbidden by God: They will ask thee about wine and gambling . Say, 'In both of them there is great sin (ithm) and also some uses for men, but their sin is greater than their usefulness.' Ithm is also associated with what

528-558: Is discussed extensively in the hadith , (the collection of Muhammad 's sayings). It is reported by An-Nawwas bin Sam'an: "The Prophet (Muhammad) said, "Piety is good manner, and sin is that which creates doubt and you do not like people to know it." Wabisah bin Ma'bad reported: "I went to Messenger of Allah (SAWS) and he asked me: "Have you come to inquire about piety?" I replied in the affirmative. Then he said: "Ask your heart regarding it. Piety

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576-612: Is equal however and some are thought to be more spiritually hurting than others. The greatest of the sins described as al-Kaba'ir is the association of others with God or Shirk . Hadiths differ as to how many major sins there are. Different hadith list three, four, or seven major sins. In contrasting major sins with minor sins, the eighth-century Shafi'i scholar Al-Dhahabi found the hadith collections of Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj listed seven major sins. Ibn Ḥajar al-Haythamī (d. 974/1567) found 467 major sins, and "often-quoted definition attributed" to " companion of

624-459: Is established in the Hebrew Bible , Talmud , Rabbinic literature , and traditional Jewish liturgy . They are categorized in different hierarchies proposed by various theologians. For example, Maimonides , in his Mishneh Torah or Yad ha-Chazakah: Yesodei ha-Torah , counts ten ranks of angels . The most influential Catholic angelic hierarchy was that put forward by Pseudo-Dionysius

672-451: Is frequently applied to heinous sins committed against God. One of the main examples of Dhanb in the Quran is of "crying lies of Allah's signs", or having excessive pride that prevents an individual from believing the signs of God. For in Allah's sight are (all) his servants, (namely), those who say: 'Our Lord, we have indeed believed: forgive us, then, our sins ("dhunub"), and save us from

720-419: Is my life, if you were not to commit sin, Allah would sweep you out of existence and He would replace (you by) those people who would commit sin and seek forgiveness from Allah, and He would have pardoned them." The Islamic concept of repentance for any sins and misdeeds is called tawba . It is a direct matter between a person and God, so there is no intercession or formal, ecclesiastical confession to

768-556: Is no standard hierarchical organization in Islam that parallels the Christian division into different "choirs" or spheres, and the topic is not directly addressed in the Quran . However, it is clear that there is a set order or hierarchy that exists between angels, defined by the assigned jobs and various tasks to which angels are commanded by God. Some scholars suggest that Islamic angels can be grouped into fourteen categories, with some of

816-433: Is required. The most heinous sins in Islam are known as al-Kaba'ir ( Arabic : كبيرة ) which translates to the great or major one. Some authors use the term enormity. While every sin is seen as an offense to God, al-Kaba'ir are the gravest of the offenses. God's power is thought to be only eclipsed by his mercy and thus minor or small sins ( al-sagha'ir ), are tacitly understood to be forgiven after repentance. Not every sin

864-506: Is required. In cases of sin against God, repentance, remorse, and resolution to change one's behavior are considered sufficient. Although classical scholars emphasized the individual dimension of repentance, many revivalists and reformists have tied individual actions to larger issues of public morality, ethics, and social reform, arguing for reimplementation of the Islamic penal code as public expiation for sins. Sufis understand repentance as

912-533: Is that which contents the soul and comforts the heart, and sin is that which causes doubts and perturbs the heart, even if people pronounce it lawful and give you verdicts on such matters again and again." In Sunan al-Tirmidhi , a Hadith is narrated: The Prophet (Muhammad) said, "Every son of Adam sins, the best of the sinners are those who repent." In Sahih Muslim , Abu Ayyub al-Ansari and Abu Huraira narrated: The Prophet (Muhammad)," By Him in Whose Hand

960-416: Is the taking on of supernatural powers in order to make the practitioner a being above the normal human. This challenges the power of God as the person in question has superseded their mortal position to become something greater and akin to a god. The same can be said of murder, as ultimately the power to decide who shall live and die is believed to belong solely to God. Life is thought to be a gift from God and

1008-472: The Antichrist . According to Middle Eastern Folkmagic usually, seven kings of the jinn are assigned to each day of the week. Although they can do, unlike the spirits of heavens , both good and evil, they have responsibility given by God regarding the affairs of the earth. In some reports, they are rather infernal demons ( ʻIfrīt ) than explicitly jinn . A hadith from Wahb ibn Munabbih reports that

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1056-523: The New Testament , specifically Ephesians 1:21 and Colossians 1:16 , to develop a schema of three Hierarchies, Spheres or Triads of angels, with each Hierarchy containing three Orders or Choirs. Bonaventure summarized their nine offices as follows: announcing, declaring, and leading; regulating, enforcing, and commanding; receiving, revealing, and anointing. Thomas agreed with Jerome 's commentary on Mt 18:10 that every living human possesses

1104-547: The jinn and div . According to Zoroastrian dualism , the world is created by two opposing forces. The good deity Ahura Mazda created everything good, but for everything good created Ahriman created an evil opposite. These results in the existence of seven Archdemons, who in return command a countless numbers of demons . These archdemons stay in exact opposition to the Amesha Spenta . The Lesser Key of Solomon , an anonymous 17th century grimoire, lists 72 of

1152-689: The pagan gods of neighboring cultures were identified as extremely pernicious demons in order to prevent Jews from worshiping them. Therefore, the pagan deity Ba'al was reinterpreted as the archdemon Bael or Beelzebub , and the pagan deity Astarte was reinterpreted as the archdemon Astaroth . These two in particular were seen as some of the worst enemies of God . By the Middle Ages, these pagan deities were no longer worshiped, so their characterizations as archdemons were no longer important, but they still persisted anyway. New archdemons were invented over time, most of them revolving around Satan and

1200-617: The Areopagite in the 5th or 6th century in his book De Coelesti Hierarchia ( On the Celestial Hierarchy ). Dionysius described nine levels of spiritual beings which he grouped into three orders: During the Middle Ages , various schemes were proposed, some drawing on and expanding on Pseudo-Dionysius, others suggesting completely different classifications. Pseudo-Dionysius ( On the Celestial Hierarchy ) and Thomas Aquinas ( Summa Theologiae ) drew on passages from

1248-482: The Day of Judgement and punishes those individuals whose evil deeds outweigh their good deeds. The Quran describes these sins throughout the texts and demonstrates that some sins are more punishable than others in the hereafter . A clear distinction is made between major sins ( al-Kabirah ) and minor sins ( al-Sagha'ir ) (Q4:31–32), indicating that if an individual stays away from the major sins then they will be forgiven of

1296-535: The Mercy of Allah: for Allah forgives all sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful." Surah Az Zumar, 39:53 Again, God says to the believers in a Hadith Qudsi: "O son of Adam, so long as you call upon Me, and ask of Me, I shall forgive you for what you have done, and I shall not mind. O son of Adam, were your sins to reach the clouds of the sky and were you then to ask forgiveness of Me, I would forgive you. O son of Adam were you to come to Me with sins nearly as great as

1344-499: The Ten Commandments rather than the seven deadly sins. They both provide the bottom line for believers in terms of what is acceptable behavior in the faith. The actions themselves differ most of the major crimes in Islam relate to subservience to God. Any form of polytheism is seen to be the most severe offense in the religion and all of the other transgressions are in some form of association with God. Witchcraft, for example,

1392-606: The ability to cast more spells or exercise other magical abilities. For example, Angels in Dungeons & Dragons , a subgroup of the beings called Celestials , come in three different types, the progressively more powerful Astral Deva, Planetar, and Solar. Another game which has summonable angels is Shin Megami Tensei , often classified under Divine, or Heralds. In the game series Bayonetta , Black Angels are supporting and all seven spheres are present, each divided in

1440-562: The agony of the Fire.' This use of dhanb in the Quran exemplifies that this type of sin is punishable in the afterlife. In fact, dhanb is considered a 'great' sin and is often used in the Quran to contrast with sayyi'a , which denotes a 'smaller' sin. The Quran states that if you avoid these great sins, your lesser evil deeds or sayyi'at will be forgiven. If you avoid great sins (kaba'ir or dhanb) which are forbidden you, We will remit from you your evil deeds (sayyi'a). Some scholars believe

1488-480: The archetypes of the jinn are like air, differing from the regular jinn, they don't need to eat, drink and they do not produce offspring. Since they do not move themselves, they send subordinate devils ( shayāṭīn ). They are mentioned in several Muslim treatises, such as the Book of Wonders . The Muslim occultist Ahmad al-Buni sets four of these kings named Mudhib , Maimun , Barqan and al-Ahmar , in opposition to

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1536-434: The basic meaning of ithm to be an unlawful deed that is committed intentionally. This contrasts to dhanb in that dhanb can be both intentional and unintentional. However, this definition is somewhat nebulous and the best description of the word is based on the contextual situations. In the Quran, ithm is found quite frequently in legislative descriptions. For example, falsely accusing your own wife in order to gain money

1584-423: The best they can be. Although many of the ideas for what is unacceptable overlap, the seven major sins of Islam differs from the seven deadly sins of some denominations of Christianity. The Islamic sins refer more to specific undesirable behavior rather than to the general negative characteristics or actions of the cardinal Christian sins. Despite the similar names, the seven main sins in Islam are more comparable to

1632-505: The cardinal directions are the primary point of contention between different editions and translations, and occultist writers. The common composition of the kings is: Hierarchy of angels In the angelology of different religions , a hierarchy of angels is a ranking system of angels . The higher ranking angels have greater power and authority than lower ones, and different ranks have differences in appearance, such as varying numbers of wings or faces. The Jewish angelic hierarchy

1680-545: The earth, and were you then to face Me, ascribing no partner to Me, I would bring you forgiveness nearly as great as it." This Quranic verse indicates that khati'ah is considered an ithm , a grave sin. In fact, the word khati'ah is associated with some of the most heinous religious sins in the Quran. In one Quranic verse this word is used to describe the sin of slaying one's own children for fear of poverty. ( Quran 17:33-31 ). Scholars believe that dhanb or ithm could be used in place of khati'ah in this instance; however,

1728-453: The extensive list of good deeds. There are other fifty-four other notable major sins and countless good deeds. Even the smallest act of kindness such as a friendly word or a smile is considered a good deed and rewardable kind act. Some within this list also represent the opinions of particular scholars and so they do not perfectly represent Islam. Islam encourages all of mankind to work to do good deeds every day and to avoid bad deeds/sins, to be

1776-441: The four archangels of Islam . They frequently appear inscribed in talismans . According to Muslim astrology, one needs to get permission of the king of the jinn for the corresponding day to perform a spell. When the jinn-king is summoned together with the name of the angel responsible for the day, it would be impossible for the jinn-king to deny an order of the sorcerer. According to Mas'udi 's "Annals of Time", four Afarit carry

1824-447: The higher orders being considered archangels . Qazwini describes an angelic hierarchy in his Aja'ib al-makhluqat with Ruh on the head of all angels, surrounded by the four archangelic cherubim. Below them are the seven angels of the seven heavens. Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (d. 1209) divided the angels into eight groups, which shows some resemblance to Christian angelology: There is an informal Zoroastrian angelic hierarchy , with

1872-427: The infernal council is responsible for distracting during prayer, one advocates illicit innovations in religious affairs , yet another one incites lust (etc.). These devils are not thought to fulfill the requests of a sorcerer, but serve as means of punishment in the hereafter or as adversaries of the prophet Solomon . According to the corresponding legend, both Solomon and the arch-devils struggle for their reign over

1920-639: The majority of Christian scholars. However, no similar consensus has been reached on the classification of demons . This is largely due to the fact that, historically, the definition of what an archdemon is and the names of those demons has varied greatly over time. One common medieval classification associate the seven deadly sins with archdemons: In the occult tradition, there is controversy regarding which demons should be classed as archdemons. During different ages, some demons were historically "promoted" to archdemons, others were completely forgotten, and new ones were created. In ancient Jewish lore, many of

1968-465: The minor sins. Sources differ on the exact meanings of the different terms for sin used in the Islamic tradition. A number of different words for sin are used in the Islamic tradition. According to A. J. Wensinck's entry on the topic in the Encyclopedia of Islam , Islamic terms for sin include dhanb and khaṭīʾa , which are synonymous and refer to intentional sins; khiṭʾ , which means simply

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2016-518: The most powerful and prominent demons of Hell in its first part, the Ars Goetia . Satan himself is not mentioned among them considering his overall dominion of Hell as the Prince of Darkness . Below him, the Ars Goetia suggests, are the four kings of the cardinal directions who have power over the seventy-two, next the kings, and onward with other demons with lower monarchic titles. The four kings of

2064-423: The prophet " and mufassir Abd Allah ibn Abbas (d. 68/686–8), states that a major sin is "everything for which God has prescribed a fixed punishment ( ḥadd ) in this world and the Fire in the hereafter", bringing the number closer to seventy major sins. Some of the major or al-Kaba'ir sins in Islam are as follows: Good deeds in Islam include: These references do not constitute all major sins in Islam or

2112-511: The same seven way as the traditional hierarchy. Islamic views on sin Sin is an important concept in Islamic ethics that Muslims view as being anything that goes against the commands of God or breaching the laws and norms laid down by religion. Islam teaches that sin is an act and not a state of being. It is believed that God weighs an individual's good deeds against their sins on

2160-496: The specific angelic beings called yazatas having key positions in the day-name dedications on the Zoroastrian calendar segregated into the ameshaspentas (the second to seventh of the 30 days of the month), yazatas and minoos (the last six of the 30 days of the month). Angels are occasionally presented in role-playing games as having ordered hierarchies, within which higher level angels have more power and

2208-511: The throne of Iblis , analogue to the Hamlat al Arsh carrying the throne of God. In some Middle Eastern legends, an order of nineteen angels of hell exists, each commanding a host of devils. Among them is the Quranic guardian of hell-fire Maalik . Another Quranic member is the fallen angel Iblis , who is also their leader. However, most individual members are not based on the Quran, but integrated to Muslim understanding of sin . One member of

2256-494: The unjust taking of life is a severe spiritual offense, as it is not only seen as morally wrong but also as an affront to God. In addition to what Muslim scholars agree are the principal seven sins, the idea exists that the major sins extend far past the seven. These additional transgressions, potentially up to seventy, are not universally settled upon nor are they explicitly stated in the Qur'an, however they are thought to be implied by

2304-432: The word choice indicates that khati'ah is more than just a moral lapse or mistake and is punishable. And all sins are eligible for forgiveness through God's mercy and repentance. The word Jurum is often considered to be a synonym of dhanb for it is used to describe some of the same sins: crying lies of God and not believing the signs of God. In the Quran, the word mostly appears in the form of mujrim , one who commits

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