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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books A Brief Guide To the Study of Islam: Anthropology and Soteriology III. The Creatures of Allah Islamic accounts of the created order recognize several realms, each of which can be defined in terms of relation to its creator. The first two of realms are that of inanimate and animate creatures. The inanimate realm is governed with absolute consistency by natural law, which is nothing other than God's will for inanimate creation.

Animate creatures such as animals live, breed, act, and react according to the traits of their distinctive species, as these have been determined by God. While their actions may appear irregular because they live in relation to a changing environment, they have no ability to reflect on their actions and no free will.

Whether one regards a mineral being slowly compressed into a new form in the bowels of the earth, or a tree budding, or a wolf hunting, one sees the same thing: a creature carrying out unreflectively God's will. (87:2-3, 20:49-50, 17:44) Philosophers would subsequently debate whether God's will was innate in the creature, or represented God's immediate creation of all events as well as things. In either case the creature's submission to God's will was total.

The third and by far most important realm is that of humans, who are distinguished from other creatures by their ability to consciously grasp God's will and then choose to implement it or not. Again, philosophers and theologians would debate the relation of human freedom to divine power. Yet Islam always agreed that humans were responsible for their actions, and for implementing God's will, in a way that set them apart from all other creatures.

The forth and fifth realm consist of spiritual creatures, the jinn and mala'ikah (angels). Unlike humans, who were created of clay animated when God breathed his spirit into them, the jinn are created of fire and the angels of light (21:19 onward, 35, 55:15). Like humans these creatures are created to worship God through submission to God's will. Both the Quran and Muslim theologians have traditionally regarded the jinn as like humans in their ability to choose submission to God.

Thus they have had their prophets and religions, and can be subject to God's punishment or converted to Islam. Despite injunctions in the Quran and Hadith (the collected sayings attributed to Muhammed) against pursuing relations with the jinn, Muslims have always been fascinated with them.