Harut (Hárūt), with his companion [marut], is one of the two angels of Babylon in Islamic tradition: a pair of angels sent down to Babylon who, in the well-known account, taught humankind a knowledge of magic — but always with a warning that it was a trial and temptation, and that those who learned it for evil would be lost — figures bound up with the testing of humankind and the forbidden knowledge of sorcery. He is an angel of Babylon, a teacher of the trial of magic.
The Angels of Babylon
Harut (Hárūt), with his inseparable companion [marut] (Márūt), is one of the two angels named in the Qur’an as having been sent down to the city of Babylon. The two are described in connection with the knowledge of magic (sihr) that was taught to humankind — a knowledge that became a source of temptation and trial. The exact nature of Harut and Marut and their mission has been the subject of much commentary in the tradition, but the core Qur’anic account presents them as angels associated with the testing of humankind through the knowledge of magic.
The Teaching and the Warning
According to the Qur’an, Harut and Marut at Babylon taught people magic — but they did not do so to corrupt; rather, they taught it as a trial and a test, and they warned each person they taught, saying: “We are only a trial and a temptation; so do not disbelieve” — cautioning that the knowledge was a test of faith, and that to use it for evil, to cause harm, or to turn from God by it, was to fall into unbelief and ruin. Some people, despite the warning, learned from them that by which they could cause harm (such as sowing discord between husband and wife), and so brought evil and loss upon themselves — harming themselves and not profiting, and forfeiting any share in the Hereafter. Thus the knowledge taught by Harut and Marut was a trial: a test of whether people would heed the warning and keep faith, or misuse the knowledge for evil.
The Trial of Forbidden Knowledge
In the later traditions and commentaries, various stories grew up around Harut and Marut — one famous (extra-Qur’anic) tale telling that they were angels who, having judged humankind harshly for its sins, were sent down to earth to be tested themselves, and fell into temptation (with a beautiful woman, and into sin), and were punished, hung in a pit in Babylon — a cautionary tale of the testing even of angels. But the central Qur’anic image is of the two angels as the teachers of the trial of magic, who warned that their knowledge was a temptation. Harut and Marut thus embody the theme of forbidden or dangerous knowledge as a test of faith, and the peril of misusing it. As one of the two angels of Babylon who taught the trial of magic with a warning, Harut holds his place among the beings of Islamic tradition. In Harut, Islamic tradition gave form to an angel of the trial — one of the two angels of Babylon who taught humankind the knowledge of magic as a test and a temptation, warning that those who used it for evil would be lost, the teacher of the trial of forbidden knowledge.