there resides nothing at all of light or knowledge; rather, he is entirely dark, never emerging from darkness, rejection, absolute denial, and disbelief. He shall never return [to the Light], nor shall he ever obey, for the eternity of eternities and the endless duration of epochs.

[195] And the Sage [al-'Alim]—Mighty is His Majesty—stated in Kitab al-Ums, when he was questioned regarding Iblis: 'Is he manifest [zahir] or hidden [batin]?' He replied: 'He is manifest through actions, yet hidden within compositions.' He further stated: 'Humanity is divided into two categories: the free and the enslaved. The free are the scholars, and the enslaved are the ignorant. As for the disbelievers, they are the slaves of slaves, consisting of those destined to be consumed, ridden, and slaughtered.

They cannot be offered as a means of proximity to Allah the Exalted as long as they remain in human form—out of reverence and veneration for that form itself. However, once they depart from the human form and are driven into animal transfiguration [al-masukhiyyah], they are indeed offered to draw closer to Allah the Exalted.'