In the second lesson on Tuesday we were asked to draw a picture what we believed the devil to look like. This was part of an effort to introduce us to Mephistopheles, the miniature devil that acts as the intemediatry between Faustus and Satan to broker a deal for Faustus to sell his soul. Interstingly though, Mephistopheles really challenged the class's ideas about how a devil should act, he is a sympathetic and even warns Faustus against selling his soul. All of this talk of devil's got me thinking about the way that the devil is presented in different religions. Obviously, the Christian faith teaches that Lucifer is a fallen angel that rules as the overlord of hell. But what do Islam, Judaism and Buddhism have to say about the devil?
In Islam, the devil (Iblis) is a great deciever. He is a jinn, created from smokeless fire by God. The Islamic story of the devil goes that Iblis refused to bow before Adam (humanity) as God desired him to. He deliberately disobeyed the will of God causing him to be cast out by God. Iblis is seen in Islam as being the enemy of humanity, not the enemy of God. It is aim to try and tempt human beings into sin and away from God so that when resurrection day comes and Iblis is cast into the fires of hell, all of those that he has decieved will be cast their too.
Interestingly enough, Judaism does ot have a concept of the devil like Christianity does. This really surprised me as it is one of the three Abrhamic relgions. Instead mainstream Jews consider the devil to be "the adversary" which translates directly from the hebrew word ha-satan. Wikipedia states that the reason why the devil is viewed as an adversary or prosecutor is because of the need to recognize God as the ultimate judge.
Buddhism's devil-like figure is Mara. Mara is the thing that tempts people, even Buddha himself. He tries to make things that are bad seem good as well as distracting people from their tasks by making other things seem more appealing, it is Mara that causes procrastination (somewhat ironic as I am on facebook at the same time as writing this). Buddhist's view Mara not as a separate entity but as part of the mind itself, something that must be overcome in order to lead a spiritual life.
Buddha battling Mara...
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