Story of Prophet Adam (A) 1/8 - 16th Ramadan 1435/2014

Allah has put His representatives on this earth - their (i.e., our) purpose is be God-like in character, to be able to represent God - Allah promised His representatives all the riches of the world at their disposal - The representatives need to be created with certain faculties (intelligence, desires, rationale, self-control) Who is the khalifa supposed to be representing? Three possibilities: - 1) Representative of the angels who used to live on the earth at one time - 2) Representative of different creations who previously lived on the earth - 3) Representative of Allah SWT (most plausible meaning) The angels replied and asked if He would send someone who would shed blood and cause corruption; Allah replied back that He knows what they do not know. - The angels' question was to gain more knowledge, not to argue against Allah - How did the angels know that human beings would cause corruption? Possible answers: -- God had previously informed them -- Angels knew that the natural result of humans being put on earth would be corruption -- There were previous humans that had lived on earth and the angels had seen the result - The angels knew that the purpose of humans is to obey Allah -- but they failed to understand that there's a difference between the obedience of angels and the obedience of mankind Hadith from Nahjul Balagha Sermon #1 about the creation of Adam (as)