Tradition

It is narrated from Abu Saeed Khudri that a man asked about the interpretation of the saying of Allah to Shaitan when the latter refused to prostrate before Adam (a.s.):

أَسْتَكْبَرْتَ أَمْ كُنتَ مِنَ الْعَالِينَ

“Are you proud or are you of the exalted ones?” (Surah Saad (38): 75)

The Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said: I, Ali, Fatima, Hasan and Husain were in the enclosure of the Arsh and praising Allah. The angels were reciting praise on hearing us, and this was two thousand years before the creation of Adam. When Allah created Adam, He commanded the angels to prostrate before him but we were not ordered to prostrate. All the angels prostrated, but Iblis refused. At that Allah said to him: “You have shown pride against prostrating; have you also became of those exalted ones, that is of those whose names have been written in the enclosure of the Arsh?”