Harut and Marut

Harut and Marut are the names of two angels who descended to Babylon to teach people sorcery, as in the story of Al-Baqara 102. God tried them with what people are tried with of sorcery so that they would be a trial and a test, then they disobeyed and people learned sorcery from them, so it became a "greater trial" as in the verse ^{1 2}.

• Al-Baqara 102 is the only place in which they are named: in it is the tidings of Babylon's king that came from his sorcerers, and that God sent down upon two angels "Harut and Marut" in Babylon to teach sorcery, and that "they do not teach anyone until they say to the two of them: We are a trial, so do not disbelieve", then "so they learned from them what they would use to separate between a man and his wife", and in it the Qur'anic conclusion: "and they are not doubly so from anyone" and in another reading "and no one was given the like of them" ².
• The verse came in the context of warning against sorcery and following Satan, and made the story of Harut and Marut an admonition that sorcery is of Satan's whisperings ¹.
• And in it "and they are not doubly so from anyone" — read with the ba and with the muwahhada "and no one was given the like of them" in narrations ².

• Ibn Kathir narrated from Ibn 'Abbas and others that "the king of Babylon" is the one who asked his sorcerers, and that tidings of sorcery came from him so God sent down Harut and Marut to teach them sorcery, and that they did not teach anyone until they said: "We are a trial, so do not disbelieve" ².
• In a narration that the two angels descended and were tried with what people are tried with: they drank wine and worshipped idols? — this is of the Isra'iliyyat, and the principle in tafsir is that God tried them with desire and sorcery ^{2 3}.
• In a narration that Harut and Marut drank wine and persisted on disobedience to God until they were sealed with the curse? — the hadith scholars weakened it ^{4 5}.
• In the books of tafsir: it was said they are two angels of the angels of heaven, and it was said they are of the jinn, and it was said they are two men whom God taught sorcery as a trial ^{2 6}.

• The most famous view: they are two angels of God's angels; God sent down upon them sorcery as a trial, as He tried the children of Adam, so they were a trial and a test ².
• Another view: they are two devils or two men, and in it are interpretations among the theologians so that it would not be thought that angels disobey ⁶.
• A third view: they are not two persons but two names for a place or a state, and in it is a problem ².
• And the Qur'an stated that they are two angels in the place of the verse, so the principle is that they are two angels even if there was disagreement over their being tried ¹.

• That sorcery is of Satan's whisperings and its causes, and that God tries His servants with what He wills so that the examination is complete, and that the "trial" in the verse is not merely a test but is itself the cause of the trial ².
• And that knowing what the two angels taught does not permit imitating them, because they taught, as a trial, "what they would use to separate between a man and his wife" ¹.

• The names "Harut" and "Marut" came in the Qur'an once in Al-Baqara 102, and did not occur in another place.
• What is narrated about their drinking wine and worshipping idols is narrated in the Isra'iliyyat and is weak in it, and the principle is that God tried them with desire as He tried the children of Adam ^{4 5 3}.
• Their companion in the trial is Iblis on the angels page and the angels' prostration page.