STORY OF HARUT AND MARUT, THE TWO FALLEN ANGELS

NB: This is an already graded assignment of mine, I am only sharing sharing with you, so that we all learn together. I am not an expert on Islamic History. This piece seeks to only enlighten us with it's content.

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Harut and Marut are mentioned once in the Qur’an. Their story has different versions but two popular traditional views. These two traditional views will be dissected in the paragraphs below after which we will evaluate which one is unusual and difficult to understand or accept. In Qur’an Chapter 2 verses 102, Allah says “They followed what the Shaitan gave out (falsely of the magic) in the lifetime of Sulaiman. Sulaiman did not disbelieve, teaching men magic and such things that came down at Babylon to the two angels, Harut and Marut, but neither of these two angels thought anyone (such things) till they said : “We are only for trial, so disbelieve not by learning this magic from us”.……….” (Q 2: 102).
One of these two traditional views as narrated by Ali Ibn Ibrahim and Ayyashi in their tafseer as narrated from Imam Muhammad Albaqir, angels got exposed to the deeds of man by sending it to the heavens day and night. They realised how sinful and disobedient man is and started lamenting to Allah why He has been so lenient to man when He has power and control over all that mankind does and all that happens to man. Allah, the ever merciful and ever glorious told the angels “if angels have been exposed to canal desires like that of man, they will also have had a difficult time controlling themselves.” Allah again said, “Select two amongst you, I will send them to earth and give them the same desires I have given to man, after which I will test them in obedience to me and in worship to me alone”. The angels chose Harut and Marut as they were the ones usually lamenting and calling for the wrath of Allah unto the wrong doers.
Allah put all desires of man including the desire for food and drink and the desire for sex in them, and instructed them by saying “do not worship anybody except me, do not commit adultery, do not commit murder and do not drink wine”. He then sent them to earth, to a place called Babylon.
Upon their arrival on earth, they saw a very beautiful lady approaching them with her face uncovered. The two angels grew interest in her, but upon consultation with each other, they decided to overlook and go away. Their desires overtook the better part of them and they turn to the lady requesting sex from her. The lady upon their request said “I cannot do so as you request, my religion does not allow me to lie with men I am not married to. However, I can only honour your request if you accept to bow down to my god”. They consulted once again and their desire overtook their instinct. They decided to go ahead with the prostration to the god in order to achieve their desire.
After they disclose their intention of prostrating before her god to her, she again said “before one can prostrate to my god, the person must take wine”. They looked at each other and once again agreed to do the third sin.
They drank the wine, prostrated in front of the idol and were preparing to lie with the woman when a beggar appeared. The beggar said to the angels “you are in fear but still you brought a woman into a secret place” and walked away after that statement. The woman again instructed them to kill the man before she allow them to lie with her because he was going to spread rumours about them. Upon their return, the lady was nowhere to be found and their clothing had disappeared from their body leaving them naked. They realised within that short time, they had committed all the sins Allah instructed them not to do when bringing them to earth.(Retrieved, 15^th December, from https://www.al-islam.org/hayat-al-qulub-vol-1-allamah-muhammad-baqir-al-majlisi/account-harut-and-marut)

Allah then revealed: “you have within this little time committed all the sins I prohibited you from without feeling shame for me. This is the reason why I gave you the nature of angels, but upon putting these desires in you, you disobeyed me to achieve what you desire. Now select between a worldly punishment and a punishment in the hereafter”. One of the angels said, “why don’t we continue to enjoy our worldly desires and receive our punishment in the hereafter, but the other drew his attention to the fact that, this world has an end, but the hereafter never end and so they agreed on taking their punishment in this world. So they were hung upside down in a well in Babylon. They then continued to teach the people magic as mentioned in Quran chapter 2 verses 102, (…but neither of these two angels thought anyone (such things) till they said: “We are only for trial, so disbelieve not by learning this magic from us”…)
The Kufan scholar Abu Moḥammad Solaymān is quoted to have said that Ḥajjāj asked the Rʾas al-Jālut (the exilarch) to lead a pious Muslim to the well, and upon arrival, “They saw the two angels, massive as two mountains, hanging upside down, their head just above the ground, and chained from the ankle to the knees. In shock the man proclaimed the name of Allah, which made the angels to tremble violently, and their fright got him to faint”. (Qazvini, Āṯār al-belād, pp. 305-7).

The story above only talk about the disappearance of the lady when they returned from killing the beggar, but the other part of the story, after narrating what transpired in paradise differs a little from the previous story. Ayyashi has reported with another chain that the Amir al-Mu’minin ‘Ali was given a sermon and someone requested to know more about planet Venus. He said: Once Allah made visible the deeds of man to angels,  and two of them, Harut and Marut asked: are these not the people whose grandfather (Adam) you created and made the angels prostrate in front of? Why are they disobeying you without shame? Allah said: if I send you to earth, entangled in the kind of desires they are in, you would have also do same. They replied: we will never disobey you oh Allah.
Allah tested them by giving them all the desires of man and then sent them to earth, they began guiding the people of earth and one day a very beautiful lady came to one of them to seek counsel on an issue, the angel upon sight liked her and requested her to give him power of her body, she promised to do so and set a date and place for meeting. She went to the other one and the same thing happened again. The time was due and the two of them met her at the same place. Initially they were shy and embarrassed, but their desires overtook their instincts and they agreed to go ahead since they were there for the same thing. The woman instructed them to bow before her god, got them to drink wine and again made them kill an innocent beggar. She again told them, she will not fulfil their wish until they teach her about how to go to the heavens, since they go there from time to time. They were resistant and the lady also decided not to fulfil their wish. Finally, they agreed and taught the lady some words with which she can ascend to the heavens, in practise, she uttered those words and she vanished into the heavens and became, planet Venus leaving the two embarrassed angels on earth. This story is looks more strange than the one above, because it is possible for someone with human desires to bow for an idol, drink wine and also commit murder. Also when Allah was sending these two angels to earth, there was no mention of them coming back to the heavens and if Allah put in them the desires of man, he will possibly remove the abilities of an angel from them, such as being able to remember how to come back to the heavens and even what to say to come back to the heavens. Beside these reasons, there is no hadith or Quran ayah that tell us about Angels having to say something before they go into the heavens, getting into the heavens is by Allah’s will and he lifts up whoever he wishes.

Bibliography
1. (Qazvini, Āṯār al-belād, pp. 305-7).
2. musnad Ahmad
3. as-Sunan al-Kobra of Imam al-Bayhaqi
4. tafsir ibn Kathir on verse (2:102)
5. https://www.al-islam.org/hayat-al-qulub-vol-1-allamah-muhammad-baqir-al-majlisi/account-harut-and-marut 

6. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/harut-and-marut