Peace,
I feel that The Book does not tell us everything, but it might tell us what need to know, guiding principles for reasoning. I agree with a view that The Book was sent by God and The World is created by God, hence if there is conflict between them, it is our understanding that we need to check.
Let us move on to Hell. Say hell burns, and we know burn causes pain. But which part of our body is responsible for sensing the pain?Brain? Neurons? Maybe the physical matter/cells/molecules/atoms we are made of us do not necessarily sense the pain. A person who just died, would not sense the pain it he/she is incinerated. It led me to believe that there is more than what we can see and feel to our creation. That something else might be soul. It might be our soul that actually feels the pain. Plants do not have souls, they don't feel the pain when burned, but animals have souls and they scream when get burnt.
Even with modern advanced technology we can only observe the interactions taken place on our brain / neurons when we made certain decision or when we dream. Based on the similar patterns exhibited in bran cells, we can tell, to certain probability, that if the person is dreaming a cat and feel hungry. But it is not a proof that pain / pleasure taken place at brain cells, just like we can detect interactions of atom, but we can never see them. Breathing and blood pressure may change during a dream, but that does not mean dream takes place at heart or lung.
Let us say when a person dies, every cell in his body is destroyed and become earth, molecules /atoms. There is no way to differentiate the atoms / molecules which made up your body from my body. If a person's body is re-created after The Judgement Day, that person shall be a totally new person and it is someone else, even same atoms were used to create that person, it will still be new person, different person. How can that person (new him) will be punished for the sins of someone else (old him) committed in this world? We eat and we drink so what made up our body keeps changing and they are not what really makes us what/who we are. Following this logic, I believe there has to be in the body that will remain and will be put into the new creation. Let us say it might be the soul. The same soul in the old body was responsible for the sins or decision making or desire, and when re-created within a new body, the same soul is what will suffer the pain for punishment.
So Iblis, or Shaytan, likely have something like soul within his body/form, even he was created from fire, that actually feels the pain of burning. But this is still not what i want to point out. I feel the whole point people here feel Shaytan was sent as successor to this world is because Muslims are poor, living under poverty and oppression or war, at least in most of the parts of the world in present time, and Shaytan and his followers are ruling the world (really???I think the most powerful man in the world cannot even decide what happens in his backyard.), having much of the wealth. But how could this be allowed to happen to Muslims if God has created the earth and heaven with truth (2944)? The Book encourages thinking / reasoning. Shaytan, I think, saw or at least felt the presence of God, and believed in God without doubt. But believing in God did not help Shaytan, and it might not help Humans as well, if they do not follow the truth, with which everything was created.
Khalifa in 230 has to mean Satan! I think this topic is totally waste of time. What if Satan is Kahlifa? What if he is not? Is the person who asked / wrote this, or anyone of us, is going to change his way of life because of the answer? Or was this a simple intellectual exercise? If The Book answered that question, it would not have been asked here. Many centuries have been wasted answering and pondering over what verses in The Book might mean, mostly to share his own / unique view / guesswork, and probably to feel good or superior about himself for having some insight or an enlightenment. What is behind this motivation for sharing personal view formed without evidence? Many people replied to this topic, stating his own view (including myself), obviously none of us have solid evidence to back up if Satan is or is not Khalifa. This is ignorance. It is ignorance to ask a question that serve no purpose. And it is ignorance to jump into debate or trying to answer what we do not know or do not help us. It is the ignorance that cause many things to be wrong with Muslims. And the root cause of this ignorance is the unwillingness to reason and investigate given evidence before forming a view/concept. Muslims countries, nations, people are suffering from wars, poverty, conflicts, and all of this is because of ignorance. The result of this ignorance is the wrong actions that people take based on the concepts / views that formed on half truth or limited truth. And somehow people hold onto or cherish these concepts too much for too long, and giving up these threatens their value system.
Most people in this forum already disregarded The Tradition (Hadith) and only follow The Book. It now seems many do not know what to do with The Book, but spending most of their time guessing what some verses mean and try to develop new Tradition over the time. It is like Moses took the children of Israel to the straight path to God, and his followers asked for a calf to worship.
