The Divine plan in Man’s creation, The objection from the angels, Knowledge endowed in man, and made to manifest to the angels through Adam, the submission of the angels excepting Iblis who disobeyed and was cast off, Adam and Eve stationed in the Garden of Bliss, warned against the Forbidden Tree, Satan causes the fall of Adam and Eve, Adam repents through the Words learnt from the Lord, The virtuous shall be rewarded and the wicked shall be punished.

Al-Baqarah Verses 30 - 39

وَإِذْ قَالَ رَبُّكَ لِلْمَلَائِكَةِ إِنِّي جَاعِلٌ فِي الْأَرْضِ خَلِيفَةً قَالُوا أَتَجْعَلُ فِيهَا مَنْ يُفْسِدُ فِيهَا وَيَسْفِكُ الدِّمَاءَ وَنَحْنُ نُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِكَ وَنُقَدِّسُ لَكَ قَالَ إِنِّي أَعْلَمُ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ

“(Recollect O’ Our Apostle Muhammad) When said thy Lord unto the ‘angels: ‘Verily I (intend to) appoint a vicegerent in the earth’ they said, “Wilt Thou (O’ our Lord!) appoint therein one who will cause mischief and shed blood, while we celebrate by Thy praise and hallow Thee alone?” Said (the Lord to the angels) “Verily, I know what ye know not” (2:30).

وَعَلَّمَ آدَمَ الْأَسْمَاءَ كُلَّهَا ثُمَّ عَرَضَهُمْ عَلَى الْمَلَائِكَةِ فَقَالَ أَنْبِئُونِي بِأَسْمَاءِ هَٰؤُلَاءِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ

“And He taught Adam the Names, all of them, and then set them unto the angels and said, “Declare ye unto Me the names of these if ye be truthful” (2:31).

قَالُوا سُبْحَانَكَ لَا عِلْمَ لَنَا إِلَّا مَا عَلَّمْتَنَا إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْعَلِيمُ الْحَكِيمُ

“They said: “Glory be to Thee (O’ Lord!) we have no knowledge save what Thou hast taught us; Verily, Thou, Thou (alone) art the All Knowing, the All-Wise” (2:32).

قَالَ يَا آدَمُ أَنْبِئْهُمْ بِأَسْمَائِهِمْ فَلَمَّا أَنْبَأَهُمْ بِأَسْمَائِهِمْ قَالَ أَلَمْ أَقُلْ لَكُمْ إِنِّي أَعْلَمُ غَيْبَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَأَعْلَمُ مَا تُبْدُونَ وَمَا كُنْتُمْ تَكْتُمُونَ

“Said He “O’ Adam! inform thou unto them their names,” and when he had informed unto them their name; Said (the Lord): “Said I not unto you that verily, I know the secrets of the heavens and the earth and know that which ye declare and that which ye conceal?” (2:33).

وَإِذْ قُلْنَا لِلْمَلَائِكَةِ اسْجُدُوا لِآدَمَ فَسَجَدُوا إِلَّا إِبْلِيسَ أَبَىٰ وَاسْتَكْبَرَ وَكَانَ مِنَ الْكَافِرِينَ

“And when said We unto the angels “Prostrate ye before Adam!” they all prostrated save Iblis, he refrained and was puffed with pride and was turned into one of the disbelievers” (2:34).

وَقُلْنَا يَا آدَمُ اسْكُنْ أَنْتَ وَزَوْجُكَ الْجَنَّةَ وَكُلَا مِنْهَا رَغَدًا حَيْثُ شِئْتُمَا وَلَا تَقْرَبَا هَٰذِهِ الشَّجَرَةَ فَتَكُونَا مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ

“And said We “O’ Adam! dwell thou and thy mate in Garden and eat ye two therefrom freely as ye two wish but approach not ye two this tree lest ye two will be of the transgressors!” (2:35).

فَأَزَلَّهُمَا الشَّيْطَانُ عَنْهَا فَأَخْرَجَهُمَا مِمَّا كَانَا فِيهِ وَقُلْنَا اهْبِطُوا بَعْضُكُمْ لِبَعْضٍ عَدُوٌّ وَلَكُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ مُسْتَقَرٌّ وَمَتَاعٌ إِلَىٰ حِينٍ

“But Satan made them slip and drove them out of what they were in; and (whereupon) said We, “Get ye down! the one of you as an enemy unto the other and there shall be an abode for you in the earth and provision for a (fixed) time” (2:36).

فَتَلَقَّىٰ آدَمُ مِنْ رَبِّهِ كَلِمَاتٍ فَتَابَ عَلَيْهِ إِنَّهُ هُوَ التَّوَّابُ الرَّحِيمُ

“And received Adam from his Lord (certain) words (of prayer) and God turned unto him (mercifully) (for) verily, He is the Oft - turning (unto mercy) the Most Merciful” (2:37).

قُلْنَا اهْبِطُوا مِنْهَا جَمِيعًا فَإِمَّا يَأْتِيَنَّكُمْ مِنِّي هُدًى فَمَنْ تَبِعَ هُدَايَ فَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ

“Said We (then), “Get down ye therefrom all together and when there cometh from Me unto you a guidance, and whoso followeth My guidance, no fear shall come on them, nor shall they grieve!” (2:38).

وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَكَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِنَا أُولَٰئِكَ أَصْحَابُ النَّارِ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ

“But they who disbelieve and belie Our signs, they are those who shall be the fellows of the (Hell) Fire: they shall abide therein” (2:39).

Commentary

Verse 30

Malaika i.e., angels. Angels according to the Holy Qur’an are finite and non-material beings. We are living in a three - dimensional world and hence unable to reasonably conceive about the existence of anything beyond this three - dimensional world, though the possibility of existence in higher dimensions is an admitted truth in the science of Mathematics. Angels are described by the Ahmadi commentator as mere powers or energies which description does not suggest the angels having any freedom of individual will, whereas the reply given to God’s declaration about His Will to Create His Khalifa on earth, clearly suggests that angels are beings endowed with the freedom of their individual will and the liberty to give expression to their own views whenever they choose to do so. And God’s reply to the angels recorded in this verse to say that they know not what God knows, clearly indicates the possibility of the angelic beings to err.

One cannot but believe in the existence of angels, in as much as one knows that all things in and about him are made to function, and are fully controlled by the forces of nature, to fulfil one harmonious and solitary plant of a single Omnipotent Will, motivating the various forces to different functions but with perfect unity and harmony. The truth is that the beings called angels belong to a wholly different plane of existence unknown to us.

‘Khalifa’ i.e. the one who comes after or succeeding another, meaning a successor, but here it means a vicegerent in a position of authority. The English word ‘Calif’ or ‘Khalif’ means this same word Khalifa, meaning the successor of the Holy Prophet Muhammad. The explanatory meaning of the word Khalifa is the one who judges or one who rules the creatures of God by His Command (Tabari):

يَا دَاوُودُ إِنَّا جَعَلْنَاكَ خَلِيفَةً فِي الْأَرْضِ فَاحْكُمْ

“O’ David We have made thee Khalifa on earth, so do thou rule (i.e. Judge) among mankind with Justice” (38:26).

An intelligent reading of the Holy Qur’an demands the reader to know the real significance and the seriousness and the greatness of the position of a Khalifa, to rule or to judge among mankind on behalf of the All-Just Lord of the Universe. When Adam was the declared Khalifa of God on earth of what greatness and magnitude could be the Khilafat of the Holy Prophet Muhammad who was the perfector of Adam’s mission on earth and who was the Executor of the Final Will of the Lord of the Universe.

When one successfully arrives at the correct conclusion about the real position of the Holy Prophet as the Khalifa of God, the simplest argument of Logic would be sufficient to inform the intelligent reader that the Khalifa or the Successor of the Holy Prophet Muhammad cannot but be the one commissioned with the same serious responsibility of the divine office, and as such the incumbent for divine godly office could not be chosen or appointed at the democratic fancy of any people. It is clearly stated in this verse that the appointment of a Khalifa is not the job to be left to anyone else but it is God Himself Who decides about it.

The statement ‘Inni Jayilun fil ardi Khalifa’ i.e. Verily I make or appoint a Khalifa is not a matter of God’s consulting the angels about any proposal but an open declaration of His independent will and decision.

The word Khalifa is not a term coined by Islamic history, but the word has been used by the Holy Qur’an.

Knowing the greatness of the office and seriousness or the gravity of the responsibility, the question of the succession of the Holy Prophet Muhammad or the appointment of the Khalifa to succeed Muhammad in the apostolic office of guiding mankind, was not at all left to the people, even to the Holy Prophet himself. In compliance with the command to first warn the nearest relations1, the Holy Prophet when declaring his ministry, called for a candidate to be his successor. History gives the reader the details how the Holy Prophet was ridiculed and how his invitation to join his task, as his Vicegerent, Khalifa or Successor, was mocked at, and how none but Ali son of Abu Talib, who then could be called only a young lad, braved the assembly of the great veterans of the people and offered himself, and was ultimately accepted by the Holy Prophet and declared as the Vicegerent, the Successor or the Khalifa of the Holy Prophet Muhammad. History openly announces the open declaration of the Holy Prophet about Ali’s position as his Vicegerent or Khalifa ordering those who follow him to listen to Ali and to obey him.

There is one point an intelligent reader should note that the Holy Prophet did not of his own accord appoint anyone whom he liked but threw the office of the Khalifa open to anyone who chose to occupy it and ultimately when none, but Ali came forward, the Holy Prophet desired Ali to sit down and repeated the call for a successor and yet at every repeated time none but Ali stood up, only then he declared Ali as his Khalifa. If this had not been done, later the world could have raised an argument that the Holy Prophet appointed Ali arbitrarily without giving any chance to the others to offer for the post.

Though it was divinely destined as to who could rightfully and naturally occupy the office, yet it was openly shown that the office of the Khalifa of Muhammad was not the one to be created for the job hunters or the aspirants for power and glory, after the Holy Prophet with all the sacrifices had established his position as the soul monarch, both temporal as well as spiritual of the vast Muslim empire, but it was the task to have taken up at the very outset of the great venture of establishing the lonely Truth in the place of all - dominant terribly powerful falsehood.

This one verse is so eloquent in its meaning that any intelligent reader will very easily gather guidance he needs towards the truth. This verse clearly declares:

1. God alone appoints His Khalifa.

2. When Adam was the Khalifa naturally the Last of the Apostles of God was the Khalifa of God in the degree of perfection in which his godly mission was.

3. God allows not any interference in the execution of His Will, nor likes to be questioned even by the angels about the appointment of His Khalifa.

4. The Khalifa or the Successor of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, is also the Khalifa of God - Thus, the Khalifa or the Successor of the Holy Prophet could be appointed only by God, and not by the people themselves. This Divine Phenomena is supported by the verse 38:26 in which God declares that He Himself appointed David as His Khalifa.

5. The Holy Prophet, before the very start of his ministry in compliance with the commands of God, had appointed Ali as his Khalifa, lest the great godly office might not be usurped by any vested interest among the selfish ones among the people, and the faithful adherents of Islam be misled.

A dispassionate study of the conduct and the character of those monarchs who called themselves the Khalifs and the terrible havoc played by them in the field of religion and the general ethics, will prove how Satan exploited the lust for power and glory among the Omayyids and the Abbasides, and what heinous crimes of unpardonable immoralities and heartless bloodshed and brutal tyrannies were committed by those who assumed the titles of Khalifs in the place of the Divinely Commissioned holy Imams, and how each one of those godly souls, the Holy Imams, were mercilessly tortured and put to death one after another.

The infinite mercy of the All-Merciful Lord, even after the conclusion and the termination of the office of His Apostleship with His Last Apostle Muhammad, did not leave mankind to stray, misled by any false leaders of self-assumed authority, but gave the start to the line of His own inspired Guides called the Imams, and then it was left to the independent choice of every individual man and woman, either to use one’s own conscience and common - sense and follow the right guidance or to be deluded by the false claims of the self-assumed leadership in the religion.

إِنَّا هَدَيْنَاهُ السَّبِيلَ إِمَّا شَاكِرًا وَإِمَّا كَفُورًا

“Verily We have shown him (man) the (Right) way, be he thankful (and follow it) or be ungrateful (and reject it)” (76:3).

Important Headings For This Verse

This verse needs to be dealt with under the following headings:

1. The linguistic development of the word ‘Malak’ used for the angels.

2. The nature of the Angels and the Jinns.

3. The meaning of the title ‘Khalifa.’

4. The significance of God’s announcement saying, ‘I am appointing.’

5. The nature of the conversation between God and the angels.

6. How the angels judged man with their allegation and claimed themselves to be superior to Adam.

7. The Genesis of Adam and Satan.

8. How and why God taught Adam the Names and why He did not do it to the Angels.

9. What were the Objects named.

10. How the named Ones were placed before the Angels.

11. What is the significance of the Divine Command to the Angels.

12. What is the nature of ‘Iblees’ and how he defined the Divine Command.

13. What was the nature of the Paradise.

14. What the prohibition meant and what was the Prohibited Tree.

15. How Satan got approach to Adam and Eve.

16. How Satan drove Adam and Eve out of the state they were in.

17. The significance of God’s Command to Adam and Eve to descend down from Paradise.

18. Is Satan included in the order to descend down from Paradise.

19. What were the Words that Adam received from God for his repentance.

The Linguistic Development Of The Word ‘Malak’ Used For The Angels

The word ‘Malak’ has not been derived from the Hebrew root ‘Alaka’ but from the Arabic word Malaka’ i.e. to hold as any holding authority is termed as ‘‘Malik’ or ‘Malak’Maalik’, and anything held is termed as ‘Mulk’, ‘Milk,’ or ‘Mamluk’, and the term ‘Malakoot’ means holding. For God, the Holy Qur’an uses ‘Malik’ i.e. King or ‘Maalik’ i.e., Owner, and for the universe held by Him ‘Mulk,’ Malk’ and ‘Malakoot’ meaning power and hold. This is the linguistic usage, the justification of which is that the dimensional world is ‘Milk’ or ‘Mulk’ something held with no holding power in it and it is termed as ‘Aalam al-Mulk, and God is the Absolute. Holding Authority, the hold of everything being in His hand. He is the Absolute Owner, Holder and the Authority Who is not held by any other power. Between the Absolute Owner or Holder and the entirely held ‘Mulk’ (i.e. Dominion) there are intermediary dominions of holding authorities who are held in relation to their dominion above them, and exercise the holding authority on the dominions below them. Each of these dominions, is termed as the ‘Malakoot’ or the holds and each holding authority is termed as ‘Malak’.

The pagans of Arabia, Greece, Rome, Babylonia, and India held each of the ‘Malaik’ as the holding and the exercising authority in some aspect of the human life and held them as the objects of their worship as independent authorities and some of them have taken them even as the children, and particularly as the daughters of higher authority, who could intercede and intervene with the higher authorities, and had coined their own symbols and idols representing them. The logical background of these views is analogous with the lack of faith in the existence of the non-material sphere2.

It is in this sense as a holder and authority, the Holy Qur’an repeatedly says that none else other than God, holds any authority on himself or on others, without His Will to benefit or to harm. Every being in the heavens and the earth is subject to His Independent Will, and whomsoever man may consider as an interceding authority, shall not be accepted save those whom God Himself has delegated the authority or power to do it3. Hence no worship or devotion to anyone except to God is acceptable in Islam.

The Nature Of Angels And Jinns

As regards the nature of the angels, we have to take it for granted that these intermediary beings are not of the terrestrial nature as they are known. Whether originated on the earth and then raised to the higher spheres or they are entirely of a different origin, is a controversial matter among the Christian and the Muslim theologians. However, there is no decisive logical argument to refute one or to accept the other, as both the ways are possible.

At present they belong to the celestial realm, and they are not material or any physical beings, but beings of conscious nature. Taking this view, we confine ourselves in the definition of the angels to what has been generally conceived by the theologians, that the angels are of a non-physical light, endowed with consciousness and intelligence, acting in the fulfilment of the Divine Plan, able to assume any physical form to human vision, except the forms of the animals of the low grades.

The same definition is given by the theologians for another kind of the hidden conscious beings termed as Jinns. The difference between these two species, is that the Angels are made of light with the illuminating gracious nature, and nothing proceeds from them but good, whereas the Jinns are made of fire which has the dark and evil aspect too. Being of the nature lower than the angels they can assume any physical form, even the form of the base animals.

Islam alone is not the advocate of such beings, as it is generally believed by the other schools of thought also, except by the extreme materialists who pose not to believe in anything beyond the empirical sphere, but they could not present any positive or decisive argument in support of their negative stand. They content themselves with a mere denial. On die other hand there are innumerable evidence forwarded by every school of thought of the various people throughout the ages, which prove beyond any doubt the existence of such spiritual beings. There are the other presentations and the definitions of the angels and the jinns mostly of philosophical nature which are difficult to be reconciled with the universally accepted statements of the religious authorities.

Meaning Of The Term ‘Khalif’

‘Khalif’ means succession, in time, place or degree or status. The night succeeds the day (Time). One succeeds the other in place (Place). One succeeds the other in ownership of something, in office or in authority (Degree or Status). This word and its derivate form is used in the Holy Qur’an in all these senses. Here undoubtedly it has been used in the sense of succeeding God on the earth which means representing Him on the earth, in reacting to His Will, and to exercise His Authority. And Khalifat in this sense is Vicegerency. This is the basis of the institution of Prophethood. While accepting that the Creative and the Legislative authority of the entire universe is exclusively God’s, the question remains of the delegation of His Power, partly or wholly to a particular person in a particular region or in the universe as a whole.

Some schools of thought who profess to believe in God, deny the delegation of this power in this way4 and they adhere the view that the human power of reasoning and the intellectual faculties are enough to be an efficient authority to represent God and there is no need of appointing any particular ‘Khalif’. Against this view the Holy Qur’an in this verse establishes the necessity of a Vicegerent of God on earth. It is a self-evident proposition that ‘Khalifa’ in the sense of a vicegerent cannot and shall not be appointed but by God Himself. None can appoint a vicegerent or a successor to somebody else. ‘Khalifatullah’ i.e. the Successor of God, is the person to whom God Himself has delegated His Power. No democratic or aristocratic way or any other system has any room in appointing the Vicegerent of God.

The public in general or any particular class of people may vote for a person or persons to represent their respective will and not the will of anybody else. This divine vicegerency as has been frequently referred to in the Holy Qur’an as the exclusive right of God5. Sometimes God’s authority is termed as Kingdom, and the Vicegerent as the King as in the case of Taloot. Sometimes this term is used for the chosen or the selected one, and sometimes for the inheritor of the divine heritage. All these refer to one and the same position that authority is exclusively God’s, and He Himself delegates it to whomsoever He pleases, and this is the established institution which never changes. Here in this passage and in all the subsequent passages dealing with the delegation of the power or authority, it has been asserted that His Will and choice is not arbitrary but always based on merit. God appointed Adam as His Vicegerent in preference to the angels on the merit of certain knowledge which the angels lacked.

God appointed Abraham as the Imam after his cent per cent success in the trial and of his descendants, those who would be unjust, were denied the office. Taloot is appointed by God as the chosen one, on the merit of the extent of his knowledge and his strength, in preference to those who claimed to be more worthy of the choice on account of their worldly position6. Dawood is appointed by God as His Vicegerent on the merit of his wisdom, the sound power of judgment and his obedience to God’s Will. A student of the Holy Qur’an will have no doubt about the fact that the persons chosen by God as His Messengers, Vicegerents, Imams or the Guides, Kings and Rulers possessed all the requisite qualities which entitled them to represent Him. The requisite qualities have been given in the Holy Qur’an here and there; the most important of which are:

1. The unceasing remembrance of God, and under no circumstances the heart to be diverted from it.

2. Never to be moved by any of his tendencies (Hava al-Nafs).

3. Following nothing but the revelation from God.

4. Being the first and foremost in every goodness and excellence.

5. Knowledge to be so extensive and deep that he should not be in need of any guidance from anybody else.

6. No amount of any adversities, prosperity or happiness of any crisis should affect the tranquillity of the mind and the heart. This is termed in the Holy Qur’an as the ‘Sakeena’.

7. The purity of birth, character and conduct and the clearance of heart and the mind to be the highest and the ideal one7.

With these qualities in view the Holy Qur’an pronounced that God has selected Adam, Noah, the family of Abraham and the family of Imran (Aaron), one descending from the lineage of the other8 , and in many other passages the names of the prophets descended from Abraham in the line of Isra’il, and of the Holy Prophet of Islam who is the descendant from Abraham through Ishmael have been mentioned to signify that this peculiar lineage inherits in it certain basic aptitude which made some of its members, successful in securing the qualities needed for the holy offices. The Holy Qur’an does not advocate any hereditary right of succession as recognised in the system of monarchy as the prerogative of Brahmanism but undoubtedly asserts that the lineage has a distinctive divine peculiarity out of which God’s chosen vicegerents have been appointed. Why this privilege has been bestowed on the house of Abraham, God alone knows, as He has answered the angels for the privilege bestowed on Adam, and He alone may answer the question why man had to inhabit the earth and not any other star or planet. Once we accept the grace and justice of God and accept the limitation of our knowledge, this objection disappears.

The matter about the principle of the divine vicegerency has been indisputably continued down to the Holy Prophet of Islam. The passage 4:54 is a reference - undoubtedly to the Holy Prophet of Islam the last of the prophets of the House of Abraham. The question arises whether the vicegerency of God has come to an end with the Holy Prophet or still to continue, and if to continue, is there any change or modification in the principle and the method already adopted by God or the same method is still adopted by Him, or the same method is still in force, for God Himself declares that His law shall never suffer any change9. The passage 24:55 confirms that the divine covenant regarding the vicegerency continues after the Holy Prophet in the same way and manner as was in vogue here before.

In 35:31-32 it is shown that the divine book in its latest complete form (i.e., the Holy Qur’an) was given in inheritance to those servants of God, whom He has selected of the House of Abraham and not to all of them, as some of them are unjust and medium or moderate in their conduct, and some the first and the foremost in the excellence by the grace of God, and of the House of Abraham only the latter could be entitled to the divine heritage. Who are the qualified persons of the House of Abraham after the Holy Prophet of Islam?

The question is answered by 33:33 i.e., those whom God says that He has Himself purified them. As to who are those whom this verse 33:33 applies, there is no doubt that those meant in verse 3:60 are the ones, and no Muslim of any shade of opinion has any doubt about the sacred names of the holy personalities whom the Holy Prophet, under the command of God, called to accompany him to respond to the proposed challenge against the Christians as a positive proof of the Truth of Islam.

The attempt to include the wives of the Holy Prophet or the other members of the Hashemite family in the verse 33:33, is against the verdict of the Holy Qur’an and the authentic saying of the Holy Prophet. It is an opinion from those who desired that they should have some voice in the selection or the election of Vicegerent of God.

Some scholars of modern tendencies, have elaborated a reconciliatory view between the absolute theocracy and the modem democracy, termed as the Theo - democracy, accepting that the sovereignty of the whole universe is exclusively God’s and He alone can delegate His powers or authority to whomsoever He pleases and that the prophets were the chosen personalities to whom He had delegated His power and authority, Legislative, Judiciary and the Executive. They say that after the Last Prophet i.e. the Holy Prophet Muhammad, the authority for the further divine legislation ceases and what remains is the authority of the application of the divine legislation and the judicial requirements, which is included in the term ‘Application and the Execution’.

The authority to be exercised in this connection has been delegated by God to the faithful adherents of Islam in general. Hence, every Muslim is the Vicegerent of God to exercise His authority within the limitations of the ‘Kitab’ the Book and the ‘Sunnat’ i.e. the sayings of the Holy Prophet. It is Therefore, left to these vicegerents of God to elect or appoint or authorise a person or persons to exercise the authority vested on behalf of the voters. Thus, it is ‘Theo’ (i.e. godly,) and the part played by the public (i.e., the Muslims,) is democracy. We are not concerned here with the fallacies in democracy. We are not concerned here with the fallacies and the sophistries implied in this view from the point of view of political science.

We have only to point out here from the Quranic point of view the fallacy of the argument forwarded in support of this view10. In the first verse it is definite that the divine covenant regarding the vicegerency of the Muslims is the same as before, and it is obvious from the Holy Quran itself that the democratic method has no room in the apostolic ministry.

The second verse, 6:165, asserts God’s appointment of the people as His vicegerents, and meanwhile to avoid any room for any assumption of the equal share of the people in the vicegerency, it is said that God has raised some above the others in degrees. And verse 58:1 shows that God has raised the believers above the unbelievers and those whom He has given knowledge above the believers in degrees. The given knowledge stands for the Book and the Wisdom which has been given as a heritage to the chosen children of Abraham who are the first and foremost in excellence and the closest ones to God. In short, the Holy Qur’an. does not recognise any method to decide about the vicegerency but a clear and an open declaration of God through the Holy Prophet, in the form of Holy Qur’an or the Hadith. And for the inseparable status of the Holy Qur’an and the Ahl Al-Bayt11.

The Significance Of God’s Announcement I Am Appointing

This reserves the right of the appointment of a vicegerent of God exclusively to God Himself. The delegation of this power can never be ascertained or verified but through an open and a clear declaration by God Himself through a revelation and this has been done beyond doubt, the testimony of which Holy Quran and the traditions of the Holy Prophet bear. The Holy Qur’an declares every aspect of it in such definite terms that they cannot be applied to anyone save those whom the Holy Prophet has mentioned12.

The Nature Of The Conversation Between God And The Angels

It is enough to be said here that the conversation between the Absolute and the finite beings cannot be in the form of any physical verbal communication as known to and experienced by us. It would naturally be in the form of the telepathic exchange of views.

The Necessity Of God’s Communicating His Decision To The Angels

The Angels are the intermediary conscious beings acting in the administration of the physical world and its development. Hence the creation of Adam was a new phase to be developed. Hence the angels were informed of the new move.

How The Angels Judged Man With Their Allegations And Claimed Themselves To Be Superior To Him

This communication made the angels to realise that the proposed vicegerency will be of some earthly nature. The experience of the angels regarding the earthly living beings of the higher and the lower stages of the Pre-Adam period was nothing but struggle and conflict resulting in bloodshed and destruction. They judged Adam from the earthly aspects to be the same as the other earthly ones. It was natural for the angels to feel themselves as above the earthly beings as they were always busy in carrying out God’s orders and praying to Him and glorifying Him. God warned the angels of their partial view and their ignorance due to the limitation of their knowledge (A.P.)

How And Why God Taught Adam The Names And Why He Did Not Do It To The Angels

The angels whether of the higher or the lower order, each one of them has a fixed status according to which a particular function has been entrusted to each one of them. There is nothing potential in the angels. There is no stage of becoming (change) in the angelic sphere. They are what they can be. They cannot but be obedient, whereas man made of matter which is endowed with infinite potentialities and unlimited scope for the possibilities for progress and development, is more fit to reflect or react to the various aspects of the higher will.

The potentiality of matter comes into actuality, reveals itself to some extent in the various forms of the material beings, but it is only through the organism of mankind that the unlimited potentiality can reveal itself through the factor of reasoning which the other material beings lack. The potentiality of matter and the force of reasoning is combined in Adam of which the angels lack the former and the matter lacks the latter. These two aspects are referred to in Verses 38:71-76, wherein God has said that He has created Adam with His two hands. The two hands stand for the two aspects i.e. Matter and the Spirit.

This distinctive power with which man is endowed as the result of his combination is termed in Holy Qur’an as ‘Biyan’ i.e. the power of expression. This expressive power is synonymous in every respect and aspect with the term vicegerency. The ‘Khalif’ is the person who represents some one and expresses him. To do this one should have the recipiency and the reflective power. Even in man, this power is a matter of degree. The higher the degree, the greater will be the extent of the representation. The man of lesser degree is always subordinate to the one with the superior degree, and it is on this basis that the Holy Prophet had said. Adam and the other prophets who succeeded Adam, all will be under my standard which shall be with Ali on the day of Resurrection.

What Were The Names Which Adam Was Taught.

It has been said that the Names were of God. It has been said also that the names were of things material and non-material. Both views have been supported by authentic traditions from the Ahl Al-Bayt and each has some justification. But the point to be noted here is that the names of the objects, the knowledge of which made Adam superior to the angels cannot be only of the material ones, as the angels being in the administration also knew them and cannot directly be the names of God, as the objects referred are in plural term ‘Arazahum’, ‘hum’ does not refer to the names but to the named ones. Secondly the pronoun used here referring to the names is the pronoun singular in feminine gender which is used to refer to several objects of inanimate nature but when the objects are conscious beings the pronoun will be in plural of the masculine gender as it is used here pointing to the named ones as ‘Arazhum’ The same is the case with the demonstrative pronoun. If the object referred to be of inanimate nature the pronoun singular in feminine gender should have been used, as ‘Tilka’ or ‘Hazihi’.

Here the personal demonstrative pronoun used to refer to the objects named shows that the objects were beings of conscious nature, and they should be of a very superior kind and status even the very knowledge of whose names became the criteria to entitle Adam to the vicegerency in preference to the Angels. About the class to which those beings belonged we can say from the Quranic point of view that they were above the angelic sphere as the Holy Qur’an repeatedly says that all the angels without any exception have been commanded to pay obeisance to Adam and all of them did it, the exception was only of Iblees who actually did not belong to the angelic order but was only admitted to it from the lower sphere of the jinns and he was asked to account for his refusal to obey the order, if it was owing to mere vanity or he was of the higher order.

Thus, the existence of the beings of the higher order of non-angelical status and nature, has been established and it shows also that there is an affinity between Adam and those higher beings the ‘Aaleen’ through which Adam was capable of being the medium of their manifestation. The passage 95:4 shows that the status of man in the order of creation is the highest in excellence. The conclusion would be that the beings of the higher order referred to in this verse will naturally be identified with the men most perfect and the highest or the most blessed ones and not the ordinary human beings for whose manifestation in the Arc of Ascent, Adam alone has been chosen to bear the potentiality and through him alone the angels could be acquainted with the excellence of those glorious beings. Adam was judged by the angels from his earthly aspect known to them, they could not have the insight into the other aspect of him, unless they were expressed through Adam.

The qualities expressed by Adam were the names and symbols of those higher beings whose collective and comprehensive status can be termed as the holy names of God from one aspect and the names of his own creatures from the other, the details of which are given hereunder. These are the very objects that have been termed in mysticism as ‘Haqiqate - Muhammadiya’ Kalemate Tamma al-Ilahiya’, Noore - Muhammadi’ etc. This statement covers all that has been said about the named and objects named referred to.

The Genesis Of Adam

The following facts should be taken into consideration that when we discuss about the genesis of Adam, we are dealing with the appearances of the species in the Arc of Ascent which starts from matter in its most primitive form which means that matter in its primitive state carried the potentiality of the development into various species of the mineral, vegetable, animal, and the human spheres. It is obvious that every part of matter does not carry the same potentiality which the other parts might do, viz., taking our solar system, the Sun in the centre and the various planets revolving around it.

This portion of the matter which constitutes the solar system has a centre and a circumference, the orbit of the remotest planet. All the planets do not revolve with the same velocity, the closer to the centre being less and the farthest being the greatest in speed. The same is their condition in respect of the energy they receive from the centre through the radiation. This variation is responsible for the variation of the potentiality they carry with them.

Due to this variety in the degree of the potentiality some may be less capable than the others. The planets closer to the centre due to the excess of the energy they receive, and the slowness of their velocity are not capable of any appreciable development, and the planets farthest also due to the excess of their speed and the minimum energy they receive are not capable of much development. The planets medium in the system such as the Earth and the Mars, due to the moderation of their velocity and the moderate amount of the energy they receive are better placed for a progressive development. How far this statement is correct, we are not concerned here, but undoubtedly none can expect the same earthly development in the other planets, even the development in Mars if any, cannot be the same as here on the Earth.

Regarding the other planets we cannot altogether discard the possibility of the existence of some conscious beings in them. But we can definitely say that those beings cannot be the same as those here. Therefore, it will be true to say that the portion of the matter turned into earth carried the potentiality of development into human beings as well as the other animate and inanimate objects. The same argument is true of the various portions of the earth as it is the particular portion of the Earth which carried the potentiality of development into human beings and the other portions carried the potentiality of development into the other species. And this is also true of the portion of the matter which carries the potentiality of development into a particular individual of each specie. The portion which carries the potentiality of development into an individual X is not the same portion of the matter which carries the potentiality to develop Y. A portion capable of development into the species of animals is different from the portion capable of developing a human being, as a tree grows only out of a seed of a tree, an animal is born of an animal and man from a man.

Secondly the development in the Arc of Ascent is undoubtedly gradual. This is the question of the potentiality coming into actuality, which means motion, and motion is another word for the gradually in time. No specie has come into being as a sudden change into matter. To this gradual development the Holy Qur’an refers in 71:11-17. This passage is supported by many other passages in the Holy Quran which will be dealt with in their respective places. Regarding the time factor in the gradual development there are traditions which mention of days, but it is obvious that those days are not those of our calculation in the physical world. They are periods or the stages of development in the Arc of Ascent.

Thirdly, the portion of the Earth which carried the potentiality and was designed to be developed into man, was the finest part of matter which included the extract of excellence in its totality. This is termed in the Holy Qur’an ‘Sulalatim min Teen’13 i.e. the extract taken from the hardest portion of the Earth, and in another place this same portion has been termed as ‘Salsal’ i.e. hard i.e. excellent14. It is true to say that man is made of the most excellent essence of matter in which the potentiality as a whole has been endowed. This essence in the course of its development assumed a jelly - like form which termed as ‘Hama’ in Masnoori and ‘Teen - i - Lazib’15 .

Fourthly as stated before whatever develops in the Arc of Ascent is in correspondence with the corresponding affinity with them. This means that the distinctive aspect of each of the beings in the Arc of Ascent (differentia) are the reflections of their corresponding beings in the Arc of Descent, and the beings in the Arc of Descent as the radiating souls responsible for these reflections. The developed species of the lower nature are in correspondence and in direct control of the corresponding beings in the Arc of Descent. The angels are conscious elements administrating the development of the plant in the lower sphere in the arc of descent in comparison to the angels administrating the development of the animal species.

The conclusion is that the portion of the matter referred to as the Essence and the total extract of the potentiality of matter, is administered by the angels of the higher order in the course of its development. The human soul is the reflection emanated directly from the Absolute which is termed as ‘Min Roohi’16. The term emanation or radiation here does not mean the separation of anything from the Absolute as the Absolute is indivisible. It means attention or a direct command.

The other beings in the Arc of Ascent also are the reflections of His command and attention but through the angelic spheres. Man’s ‘Teenat’ is under God’s direct attention. The term ‘Roohi’ is the immediate result of the command. It is not conditioned but with the state of its source. The soul is the reflection of ‘Rooh’ conditioned with both, the state of its source as well as the state of its recipient the ‘Teenat’ Spirit or ‘Rooh’ may be one, but the reflections may be many, and those reflections also may differ in degree in reflecting what they have received. The conclusion is that man’s soul which is referred to as ‘I is the reflection of the glimpse of the divine command or the attention of God, which is termed in the Holy Qur’an as ‘Roohi’ i.e. My spirit. And the ‘Teenat’ as said before is the extract of the total excellence in the matter.

The primitive stage of this total extract has already been referred to, for which the total energy in the Arc of Descent was in work, and now it has to develop into such a state to reflect the divine spirit. Such a human soul is to be the development out of ‘Teenat’ and the divine attention. These two factors are the origin or the genesis of man. Regarding the course adopted for this evolutionary movement from the potential state to the actual form of man as the Holy Qur’an and all the sacred scriptures state, is that man in particular and all the other species in general, have been developed from their respective origins which carry their respective potentialities and not from one or a few origins, against what is imagined by the schools of mechanical evolution.

Fifthly it should be noted that the first womb for the development of the living beings in any case is the earth and the mother’s womb is the secondary one.

Sixthly, in the same way the earth is the first womb for the development of man and the mother’s womb is the secondary one for the development of each individual’s body, one should consider the body of each individual as the womb for the development of the portion of the matter into a soul which is referred to as ‘I ‘and ‘that’, is non-material. Thus, the matter is always transformed into a non-material state which means the continued destruction of matter.

‘Rooh’ is the Spirit mostly used in the Holy Qur’an and in the traditions, refers to what proceeds from the Absolute through the Arc of Descent, call it the Divine Command, Act, Spirit, Blessings, or Will etc. The ‘Nafs’ i.e. soul the corresponding reflection or the reaction in Arc of Ascent, the reflection being conditioned with the ‘Teenat’ or the ground, cannot have any existence prior to the development of the ‘Teenat’ into the state. On the contrary the spirit or the corresponding action in the Arc of Descent must have its existence prior to the ground in the ground of reflection in the Arc of Ascent. Taking this point in view the question of the pre - existence of the human soul and spirit is distinctly solved.

If the reference to the radiation or the acting source in the Arc of Descent, it exists before the body and is eternal with the eternity of the source. And if the reference is made to the reflection i.e. the human Ego Soul or Self, it comes into being after the formation of the ground. Hence the soul of each individual is created and developed after the preparation of the body. It depends on the matter in its creation and becomes independent in the course of its development. The spirit exists before the matter independently and remains so always. Thus, the old problem which concerned many schools of philosophy and religion as to how the non-material soul and spirit join the matter and becomes dependent on it, is solved.

The spirit which pre-exists, never joins the matter and never becomes dependent on it. It acts on the matter, and the soul i.e. the Ego which acts through the body never exists before as it is only reaction of the spirit and when it develops into a state of non-materiality, itself becomes the ground for the spirit to act on it, and once it becomes independent, it never deteriorates and becomes dependent again: Hence, no possibility of transmigration and no need for the childish story of the body being considered as the blind and the soul as the lamp joining together to help each to supply the need of the other temporarily and after their separation from each other, each remaining as it was before resulting no progress either side. What is presented here shows the real progress and the development of the matter into the higher state of non-materiality, the inner and passive matter reaches the state of a conscious active form.

The following points regarding the genesis of Adam deserve special attention against the misleading imaginary assumptions of the theory of the mechanical evolution of species from one or few origins:

The assumption is based on the affinity between the protoplasm of all the species which made the theorists to assume the variation as of a secondary stage caused by the external factors of the terrestrial nature viz. heredity environment, the struggle for existence, the natural selection and the survival of the fittest. With the development of the scientific instruments and the deeper study, it has been found that the protoplasm of each specie, be that of a plant, of an animal or of a man, is of a peculiar design different from the others. Hence the variation is in the protoplasm itself and not a matter of any subsequent development due to the external factors of the terrestrial nature. The variation of the design in the protoplasm of the species might have been affected by the different potentiality they carry or by the different influence by the celestial bodies through the radiation.

With this possibility one can judge that all the scientific views forwarded by the various schools are mere gestures and assumptions postulated and not necessarily to be correct. Thus, the attempt to discard the revealed statement regarding the genesis of the species in general and of man in particular for the sake of the scientific gestures and assumptions can only be an unwarranted credulity.

The Holy Qur’an and the other scriptures briefly assert that the origin of each specie combines in itself the matter and the potentiality of the development of both the sexes, the distinction taking place in the stages of the development. The determination of the sex is presented by the traditions that the female was formed of one of the ribs of the male and until now this was viewed by the scientists as unfounded but now the scientists have found out that the determination of the sex depends on the number of the chromosomes in the protoplasm of each sex and that of the male lacks one in comparison to that of the female. The number in the male is odd and, in the female, even. This justifies the view asserted by the tradition that the female has been made of a part of the male17.

The evolution theory of genesis presented by the religious schools, while discarding the unity of the origin of the species yet it confirms the existence of the species close to human beings and superior to the highest form of the monkeys, who were inhabiting the earth before the advent of the human species termed as ‘Nasnas’ i.e., the Semi man, Jinns and Banijans i.e. the Demons ‘Ifreet’. And these species were discontinued to progress at the eve of the advent of Adam.

The nature and the character of the species presented by the traditions shows that they were intelligent beings of furious nature and fiery temperament struggling with each other for existence but lacking the human intellect of reasoning excellence. Satan has been depicted by the Holy Qur’an and the traditions as of the same nature who assumed the angelic garb and was exposed when he was put to test with the command to pay obeisance to Adam. His fiery temperament was responsible for his exposure.

As the Holy Qur’an asserts that there are ‘Shayateen’ (Satans) who belong to the human species ‘Shayateen al-Ins’ and the ‘Shayateen al-Jinn’ i.e. the satans of the species of Jinn and there is inter-relation between these two in such a way that one receives the suggestions from the other18. This shows that ‘Shaitan’ (satan) is a term applicable to any active soul dominated by the temperament of lust and anger uncontrolled by the power of reasoning. This source may be in the physical body or they may be active after their departure from their terrestrial bodies influencing human beings who are not fully controlled by the power of reasoning and faith.

There is no doubt that Adam was made on the Earth of the extract of the best of the excellence of the matter to rule and hold the dominion in the earth as the representative of God, capable of rising to the heavens and dominating the celestial regions also. His abode was the earth, and the paradise he was accommodated in, was earthly and not heavenly as the traditions assert.

The earthly paradise means a place of comfort and ease wherein all the requirements of life and enjoyment were provided with, without any effort to acquire them. The verb ‘Hubooth’ to descend or descending, stands for coming down or the transfer from the state of ease and enjoyment which were provided with, without any effort to acquire them, to the state of efforts and misery which could not be overcome but through labour and effort. The word ‘Huboot’ has been used in the sense of settling down in the city instead of wandering in the wilderness, with regard to the Isra’ilites who were ordered to settle down in the city and to have what they asked for19.

What The Prohibition Meant And What Was The Prohibited Tree

Adam was accommodated in the earthly paradise i.e., in some fertile region on earth with the natural resources of the basic requirements of life and its enjoyment. Had Adam been contented with it, he would have remained there with his issues without being worried for his living, but it was not the purpose of his creation. Adam was endowed with infinite potentiality for progress and rise towards the ultimate. Ambition was latent in his nature, unstimulated. On the other hand, the angels thought themselves as superior to Adam, and Satan too. All the three groups had to be put to test to express their latent attitudes.

The order or the command of God acted as a stimulus and each group reacted to it, according to its native tendencies. The angels realised their worth and value and submitted with the due response whereas the furious and the fiery temperament of the satanic character in the angelic garb of the Satan, was exposed. Adam had no idea of the consequences of approaching the Prohibited Tree and had no desire to approach it but there was the ambition in him to march towards the glorious state of the beings with whose holy names he was acquainted. He was happy in the primitive paradise and was not alive to his nakedness as his ambition was not yet stirred.

It was the command of God that acted as the stirring factor and it was a ‘Nah al-Tahreesi’ i.e. a stimulating warning in the sense to say: “Behold: if thou want not worries approach not this tree, lest thou beareth the consequences”

On the other hand, Satan with his underestimation of Adam as an earthly and passive being with ease and comfort, which caused his fall, thought that he would be able to beguile Adam and wreak vengeance on him and his children. Thus, the situation made the two groups to face each other and be prepared for a new development in the transformation of the natural struggle for life into a moral warfare between good and evil or the right and the wrong, de facto and de jure.

What Was The Prohibited Tree

The Prohibited tree was the one, the approach of which was the start of the new warfare. It is said that it was the tree of wheat, and some say that it was of the other fruits and some traditions say that it was the tree of jealousy, greed, and envy. The eighth holy Imam Ali Ibn Musa Ar-Ridha’ says that the tree was of an all - round nature the fruits of which stir in man desire for things which are not necessary for an individual’s life20 and this has been summed by the fourth holy Imam Ali Ibn Al-Husayn Zayn Al-’Abidin as the desire for the worldly gains as the ultimate object of one’s life and not as the means to rise to the higher excellence of spiritual elevations.

Satan could not bear Adam’s living in the comfort and ease and was also helpless to do any harm to Adam without stirring the ambition in Adam but Adam being cautious due to the warning he had received; Satan had no direct approach to him. Nothing could stir the latent ambition in Adam except through the social instinct of attachment to his other sex (i.e. Eve.). It is through the sex medium that man steps out of his individuality into social life and starts feeling wants and develops desire after desire. It was through this medium (Eve) that Satan approached Adam. Both Adam and Eve felt their nakedness and their needs and thus, their worries began.

Thus, Satan drove Adam and Eve out of the state of ease and comfort. Adam felt sorry for the loss, and his ambition began to develop itself. The return to the previous state was impossible because the ease and comfort in that state was due to the absence of the awakening to their nakedness and their need. A child whose social sense has not yet developed does not feel ashamed if it is naked and once the sense is developed the same condition would worry him, and the worry will not be over in him until he covers himself. After the development of the sense, it would not be possible for him to remain naked and be happy. The same was to Adam and Eve when they felt their nakedness as they approached the forbidden tree, and the social sense was awakened in them. They felt their helplessness as it was not possible for them to remain naked as before and be happy and feel comfortable.

To regain the happiness, they had to turn towards God through the holy names whose potentiality they carried in them. Driven out of the lower (earthly) paradise the happiness cannot be recovered unless one qualifies for the heavenly paradise by putting all his faculties and the latent energies into work with harmony and moderation under the divine guidance.

Thus, the history of Adam, Eve, the angels, and Satan is a psychological presentation of a new development on earth along with the advent of the first man (Adam). It shows the turning point in the history of the natural development. The natural process of life being to give room for the conventional way of life. Reasoning begins to modify the instincts. The living beings developed up to the fall of Adam, were reacting to the call and the requirements, by their individual instincts to gain the objects of the animal senses and to defend themselves against the forces detrimental to their sensual interest, as the life for them had no other meaning. Adam was ordained to give a new significance to the life on the earth and that was not possible if he would not have fallen out of the Paradise wherein the object of his life as the Holy Qur’an represents was not more than mere eating and enjoying the sensual pleasures.

Tempted by Satan, Adam gave up the contentment and his ambition for the higher state was stirred. He desired for the eternal life of heavenly nature, hence the change in the object of life. The immediate objects of the human senses yielded to the distant ones of the human intellect which could not be achieved but through strife, labour, and toil. This is the significance of the fall, i.e., the fall from the ease and the comfort of the animal life in the sensual paradise with the desire to gain ease and comfort of the higher order through strife and labour, which means the sense of duty and stepping out of what it is, into what it ought to be, which is the first sense of the moral imperative of the conscience what should be done and what should not be done. Here, Adam enters into the realm of responsibility.

The life now is no more mere meeting the demands of the animal senses but to control the demands and modify them harmoniously, to achieve the higher objects of dominating the higher regions and effecting the expansion of life through space and time. Remoter the object, greater would be the effect and the responsibility, but so long as the object remains within the limitations of time and space the value of life will not be much better than that of the animals. The human life shall have its value distinct from the animal life if the object be beyond all limitations i.e. the Ultimate (God). To have this object in the focus of the human consciousness, special guidance from the Absolute is the need.

Adam with the potentiality he carried and with the names he was acquainted with, stepped out of the Paradise with a clean and a repentant heart shouldering the responsibility, turned towards the Lord. Hence, he was blessed with the guiding revelations. Thus, the life of man starts on the earth, clean, pure, blessed and divinely guided on the path to the ultimate. With this lofty object in view, if man puts all his senses and the faculties into functions, with which he is endowed and the divine guidance, he is on the right path and will be termed as the blessed one. His desires in the form of greed, lust, hatred, anger, harshness etc., will be modified and then become subordinate to the intellect guided by the divine inspiration, will be termed as excellence or good. On the contrary, if the object be anything other than God, the same qualities become condemnable and termed as base, evil and mean.

This interpretation of the history of Adam presented by the Holy Qur’an, discards the Christian theory of the fall of Adam as an evil and the original sin, and the dark aspect of the human life, and it also discards the view of Adam being a sinner. The Holy Qur’an has used the word ‘Asa’ and ‘Ghawa’ regarding Adam’s approaching the tree but yet taking into consideration that the prohibition was given when Adam was in the Paradise, i.e., before his shouldering the responsibility and the order was not imperative or prohibitive as already stated, and after shouldering the responsibility he is not accused of any disobedience or committing any sin. Hence Adam came on the earth as the Vicegerent of God, sinless, following nothing but the divine guidance as the tradition says:

‘Kollo mauloodin youlado alal fitrati innama abawahi yuhavvidanihi, yunassiranihi wa yumajjisanihi’

Every human child is born with the nature (of Adam’s origin) verily it is the parents (i.e., ‘the environment that turns it into a Jew, a Christian or Magian). Thus, the goodness in man is natural and the evil is due to the secondary factors of external nature and man is originally sinless.

The term ‘Adam’ in the Holy Qur’an refers to the first man who stepped out of the ease and comfort of the earthly Paradise to march under the divine guidance towards the ultimate excellence, surpassing the beings in the higher sphere. In this march towards the lofty object, he has to face the obstacles of temptations caused by the entities of the satanic forces in the stages within the sphere of time and space.

Whether there was any other Adam prior to this Adam of whose issues we are, there are traditions which assert continuous cycles of Adams before this Adam of ours which might be in this or in any other planet. According to this tradition Adam is a general term used for the beings of this kind.

Regarding the date of the turning point in the life on the earth, no evidence of historic authenticity is available to show the exact passage of time since then. Yet depending on the gestures based on the legends of mythology and the findings of excavations, the life of the first man divinely conditioned and guided, with the moral and legislative authority of the present human genealogy, does not go beyond ten or twelve thousand years.

With the points dealt with here it would be easy to grasp the holy names by means of which Adam secured the divine blessing after his stepping out of the Paradise on earth. They were the names of those glorious beings of the highest spiritual order whose appearance in the arc of ascent was ordained to be through Adam, i.e., in his seed. The holy ones were only those with whose appearance or advent in this world, the divine vicegerency reached its climax, i.e., its destination. It is the spirit with whose reflection ‘Nubuwwah’, i.e., Prophethood concludes and man’s ‘Imamah’ or the guidance of the highest order is fulfilled.

Another important point to be noted is that the history of the advent of Adam as presented in the Holy Qur’an has also a great and an important symbolical value applicable to the ethical and the social aspect of the human life, both of the individual and the collective nature. Man is originally good and is born in the Paradise of ease and comfort as a child not alive to his nakedness and wants. As he grows to maturity and the social sense of responsibility and duty is developed, he is thrown out of the state of ease and comfort, and he has to resort to the faculties and the other energies endowed in him to gain what he has lost. And here along with this effort the temptations of the satanic forces also start working against his achieving the goal. It is not possible for him to get out of the trouble caused by the conflicting desires of the senses and the satanic temptations unless he turns totally towards the ultimate reality as the object of his life.

If this is done the peace and the tranquillity is achieved and no fear and grief would affect him, and all the senses and the faculties external and internal would function harmoniously and the satanic force will have no approach to, or effect on him. Such a state of mind can only be secured by submission to God’s revealed will as exemplified by the order of the prophets and the saints descending from Adam one after another and that is the Right Path, the deviating from which means the real fall from the state of humanity to the state of the degenerative animal nature of the satanic revenge. Progress in the discoveries and the inventions and discipline and organisation and improving the means of communications and the standard of education and the success in the flight to the outer space will never help man to be civilised as he ought to be, if the object is not God and godliness.

Man will be the same animal, more equipped and organised only to be beastly. Revolt and rise against the revealed will of the Absolute means dissension, degeneration and getting victimised by the devilish agencies.

Forwarding the story of Adam as the guiding lesson the Holy Qur’an turns to the Isra’ilites (the Jews) who in spite of the knowledge of the established divine covenant about the advent of the Holy Prophet from the house of Ishmael had become adamant and had adopted a hostile attitude towards him. In the subsequent passages they are reminded of the blessings conferred on them and that the fulfilment of the promise depended on their keeping up the covenant. And this is a general principle that every individual nation is required to be mindful that God is beyond favouritism and partiality. Whosoever carries out the commands shall receive the blessings.

Concluding the story of Adam, his vicegerency as the torch throwing light on the history of the creation of man, man’s responsibility towards God, the criterion of the divine vicegerency, the instrument of it and its continuity on the earth till the day of the final resurrection as the standing covenant between God and man and the covenant as the first and the last test of man’s submission to the universal will of the Absolute as the law governing every aspect of his, man’s life, it is necessary to point out the few guiding factors of universal nature and value applicable to human life on earth which have been confirmed by the start and the development of the vicegerency in the form of the apostolic mission.

1. The reservation of the right of the appointment of the vicegerent or the Khalif to God Himself Who alone knows everything.

2. The appointment is not based on any arbitrary will or any wishfulness but on Merit.

3. The divine declaration regarding the vicegerency takes effect after the test of the merit.

4. The creature’s view however perfect it may be, cannot be but partial. Hence it shall have no right of any say in this regard, be they the angels or the prophets.

5. The most important testing point is the knowledge of the Holy Names through which man can rise from the terrestrial impediments to the glorious heavenly heights of the communion with the universal grace and the will of God in such a way that it becomes a perfect example of God’s will and His grace.

6. The same covenant was renewed through Adam between his son Sheeth and the other children of Adam, i.e., Adam conveyed the Divine covenant to his children regarding the succession of his son Sheeth as the vicegerent of God. This declaration of Adam was opposed by the majority of his issues.

The same was the case when Noah conveyed the covenant of vicegerency to his son Sam, to his people, the majority of whom opposed it. This opposition or the tendency of revolt against the declared will of God - continued to re-assert itself whenever the declaration of the renewal of the covenant took place as in the case of Abraham when it met the same opposition. His descendants did not agree to Abraham’s declaration of the vicegerency being transferred to the issues of Ishmael when the occasion for it would come.

The same opposition was current in the house of Isra’il. Isaac appointing his son Jacob, and Jacob appointing his son Joseph and the transfer of the vicegerency to the house of Lavi. Moses appointing Joshua met the same rise and revolt. The same is the case in the declaration of Talut as the divinely appointed and the chosen king and the ruler. The point worthy of note here and in the case of Abraham and David is that the Holy Qur’an reasserts that these appointments were based not on any arbitrary will but on the tests and the trials proving the merit of the individual for the choice.

The declarations of Moses and the other apostles of God following Moses, about the advent of Christ, Elias and the Promised Prophet from the line of Ishmael and the advent of the Twelve Princes in his line, met the same fate on the part of the Jews. It is to this covenant that the Holy Qur’an repeatedly refers to and reminds the Jews and admonishes them not to break it. . .

Jesus came with the same covenant with the mission to fulfil the Law (of Moses) supported by the declaration of John the Baptist. But the declarations of both John the Baptist and Jesus met the severest opposition of the Jew’s and the pagan Roman rulers who danced to the Jewish tunes. John the Baptist was executed, and the utmost was done to do the same to Jesus, but Jesus was rescued mysteriously by God raising him to a heavenly abode. At the eve of his departure Jesus declared the conveyance of the divine covenant of his vicegerency to Simon designating him as the Rock of divinity on which shall be based the edifice of the faith in God.

And along with this he also announced that his departure was necessary as Otherwise, the’ Parcelete’ (the correct meaning of which Muhammad or Ahmed) will not come and that he had not completed the divine mission as the world was not fit to bear the ‘Whole Truth’ John 14/16. 16/12-13 (and when the promised ‘Parcelete’ would come he will complete the mission by delivering the whole truth and shall never speak but whatsoever he shall hear from the Lord that he shall speak). But very few of his disciples remained faithful and loyal to this declaration after him and the majority was misled by the new comer the ambitious Paul, who was full of hatred and resentment against the declaration of Jesus in favour of Simon. Paul realised that his open declaration against the faith will not meet with any success.

He decided to garb himself as the staunchest devotee and the greatest advocate of the faith claiming the appearance of Christ to him in a vision and commissioning him with the propagation of his creed which meant a claim to the office of the vicegerency against the proved and the acknowledged declaration in favour of Simon. He succeeded in gathering around him the pagan Romans by interpreting the Christian creed in such a way to suit the paganic taste and tendency of the Mithraic cult which they practised. He eclipsed Simon and the true Christians by winning the favour of the majority and caused the defacement of the Original Christianity and substituted the admixture of Christianity and the pagan Roman cult in its place which is now called the Orthodox Christian Church along with its sects and sub - sects and sub - divisional doctrines. All these sects and their sub - divisions unanimously recognised Paul as the saint of the same status and even greater than Simon, the declared Vicegerent of Jesus. The same condition and the state of affairs is mirrored in the question of the vicegerency of the Holy Prophet of Islam.

In spite of the long expectations of the Jews and the Christians based upon the prophecies in their sacred scriptures, when the Holy Prophet of Islam was commanded to preach the truth, he met with the most vehement and the most torturous opposition and persecution by both the Jews and the Christians along with the pagan Arabs. In the third year of his mission when he was ordered to preach the truth openly and that he should start with first warning his closest relations who claimed to be the descendants of Abraham, he asked Ali his cousin and his first disciple to arrange for a lunch and to invite the elders of the Quraishites.

In that assembly after declaring the divine mission with which he was commissioned he asked as to who among those present there, would promise to help him in his mission and shoulder the task so that he may be his Brother, his Lieutenant, the Executor of his will and his Vicegerent and his Successor in the office after him. None opened his mouth but Ali who was then only a young boy of thirteen, and Ali was the only youngster who was allowed to attend the assembly of elders, viz. the veterans including Ali’s father, Abu Talib, and his uncles and the other dignitaries of the family. The question was repeated thrice by the Holy Prophet, and none answered in the affirmative save Ali. Then the Holy Prophet caught hold of Ali’s arm, presented him before the assembly and declared

“Behold ye! here is my Brother, my Lieutenant, the Executor of my will, my Vicegerent, and my Successor after me. Ye should listen to him and obey him”

The assembly burst into laughter and turned to Abu Talib saying:

“Thy Nephew (i.e. the Holy Prophet) is really mad. He commands thee, the head of the Quraish to obey thy youngest child”

This was the first occasion when the Holy Prophet of Islam declared the renewal of the Divine covenant about Ali’s Vicegerency along with the open declaration of his mission and it met with the mockery and the opposition of the majority of the people present there. But history proved the truth of this declaration and the Divine nature of the covenant between the forty-three years old Prophet of God and the thirteen years old young man, Ali, the son of Abu Talib.

During the twenty years of the life of the Holy Prophet after the declaration, in spite of the changes in the circumstances and in the ups and downs which his mission faced, Ali neither went back on his promise nor ever hesitated even in the least to sacrifice his all, or ever departed in the least from the footsteps or any of the commands of the Holy Prophet, nor did the Holy Prophet ever miss any opportune and appropriate occasion to reaffirm and confirm his first declaration of the Divine Covenant with Ali.

At every hour of trial in every aspect of the march of Islam, Ali proved to be the most faithful and the most successful one, upholding the Divine Covenant with cent per cent sincerity and success with no mark of the least faltering or failure on any occasion whatsoever with a spotless conduct and ideal character. On the other hand, the Holy Prophet continued to acquaint the people on all opportune and appropriate occasions with the Divine and unique status of Ali as his Vicegerent, in various ways and manners of expression, viz.

1. Ali’s occupying the place of the Holy Prophet on the night of the Hijrat (the emigration to Madina).

2. Ali being entrusted with the responsibility of returning the trusts to the respective owners on behalf of the Holy Prophet.

3. The declaration of Ali’s relationship to the Holy Prophet being the same as that of Aaron with Moses.

4. The declaration of Ali being the next to the Holy Prophet as the witness to the truth.

5. Allowing only Ali’s door to be kept open in the Holy Mosque with that of the Holy Prophet while all those of the others were ordered to be closed.

6. Ali’s being taken as the Soul of the Holy Prophet and Ali’s sons (Hasan and Husayn) as the sons of Holy Prophet on the occasion of the historic ‘Mubahila’ with the Christians of Najran.

7. Ali being the second referred to in the verse of ‘Tatheer’ and his wife (Lady Fatima) and his children being the others along with the Holy Prophet, implied in the verse.

8. Ali being declared as having the same mastery and authority on the faithful ones as has God and His Apostle (the Holy Prophet).

9. Ali being declared as the Gate (the entrance and exit) of the City of Knowledge (the Holy Prophet).

10. Ali and the chosen ones of his issues being declared the heirs or the inheritors of the Divine Book, the Holy Qur’an.

11. Ali being declared to be always with the Holy Qur’an and the Holy Qur’an to be always with Ali.

12. Ali being declared to be always with the truth and truth to be always with Ali.

13. Ali’s deputation as the only rightful person to represent the Messenger of God (the Holy Prophet) to convey the first verses of the Chapter ‘Bar’at’ (which marks the uncompromising demarcation between Islam and infidelity), and the Holy Prophet on this occasion saying that none has the right to convey the Divine message save myself or Ali who is mine and I am his. The same closest union of Ali and the Holy Prophet was declared saying, “I and Ali are originated of the one and the same Divine Light”

14. In the same way as Abraham and Ishmael who never bowed before any idol, were ordered by God to clean His House (the Ka’ba) for the use of the pious, the Holy Prophet and Ali who were also Divinely purified and commissioned to the task of cleaning the same House of God of the idols for the second time.

15. Ali being awarded the following epithets exclusively for himself as none else before or after him could ever earn anyone of them:

1. Al-Murtaza - The Chosen One of God.

2. Amir al-Mu’minin - The Commander of the faithful.

3. Imam al-Muttaqeen - The Guide of the pious.

4. Mazhar al-Ajaib - The Manifestor of wonders.

5. Babe - Madinat al-Ilm - The Gateway of the City of Knowledge.

6. Imam al-Auliya - The Guide of the saints.

7. Sayyid al-Ausiaya - The Chief of the heirs or the deputies (of the Holy Prophet).

8. Asad Allah al-Ghalib - The ever - victorious Lion of God.

9. Lisan Allah - The Tongue of God.

10. Yad Allah - The Hand of God.

11. Wajh Allah - The Face of God.

12. ‘Ain Allah - The Eye of God.

13. Wali Allah - The Friend of God.

14. Nafs Rasul Allah - The Soul of the Holy Prophet of God,

15. Akhu Rasul Allah - The Brother of the Holy Prophet.

16. Siddiq ul-Akbar - The Greatest Truthful one.

17. Farooq ul-Azam - The Greatest Distinguisher (of Truth and Falsehood).

18. Abul Aimma - The Father of the Divine Imams (Guides)

19. Abu Turab - The Father of the earth.

20. Saif Allah - The Sword of God.

And finally on the occasion of the Ghadir Khumm, in the presence of the huge assembly of the pilgrims after his last pilgrimage or homage to Mecca the Holy Prophet declared once again and finally Ali as his Vicegerent and the Successor to the covenant and took from the people their oath of allegiance to Ali (Bai’ath) as the Imam and the Supreme Commander of the Faithful. ‘Umar Ibn Khattab, who felicitated Ali addressing him as ‘O’ son of Abu Talib’, was commanded by the Holy Prophet to address Ali as Amir - al-Mu’minin, i.e., the Commander of the faithful and not as what he did, and ‘Umar did it accordingly. The opposition started then and there. The prophecies of the Holy Prophet about the opposition and the revolt of the people against the declared covenant and the acknowledged allegiance, proved by the history after the Holy Prophet, bear testimony to the result of the opposition. The Holy Prophet had prophesied:

‘O’ Ali, my followers will betray thee as they will repeat the same as did the Jews and the Christians against the Divine covenant preached by Moses and Jesus.’

The Holy Prophet addressed his companions to the same effect saying:

“Verily ye will follow the footsteps of the (Unfaithful) followers of the preceding prophets of God to the extent that if they had entered the holes of the reptiles ye will do the same (i.e. enter the holes).

Saying this, the examples of Samari and Aaron and of Simon and Paul were reminded.

This was the task that none could undertake save those who remained aloof from yielding or bowing to any power or being, other than God throughout the lineage of their existence (pedigree). As a testimony to the fact that the lineage of the Holy Prophet and Ali was the Divinely chosen one, besides the Qur’anic verses there are the well-known traditions to the effect that God chose Adam among His creatures, and chose Sheeth among the children of Adam, and Noah among the children of Sheeth, and Abraham’s lineage among the children of Noah through Sam and of the lineage of Abraham chose Ishmael down to Adnan and of Adnans’ descendants chose Qosai (Quraish) and of Qosai chose the lineage of Hashim and of Hashim chose Abdul Muttalib.

Here the tradition says that the Divine Light all through the pedigree from Adam passed from the father to the mother’s womb, all - pure and untouched by any dirt of paganism or of infidelity. The tradition says that therefrom Abdul Muttalib the Divine Light got itself bifurcated into two rays, one passed in the seed of Abd Allah and the other, in the seed of Abu Talib. Here the Holy Prophet says, ‘From Abd Allah I was chosen to be the Last Prophet of God and from Abu Talib came Ali as a Second to me as the First Imam. And this bifurcation was reunited through the medium of the Holy Lady, Fatimah, the daughter of the Holy Prophet and with this started the godly line of the Holy Imams to be continued to the last.’

In spite of all these declarations and the confirmation of the Holy Prophet, the people enacted the opposition as was usual with the followers of the preceding prophets and termed themselves as the orthodox ones and the minority which faithfully adhered to the letter of the Divine covenant (the Shi’as), was termed as heretics.

This had been the usual trend of the human mind which always marched against the Covenant of God and its time-to-time renewal21, This is due to the psychological factor that the majority of the people are mostly after the enjoyment of the sensual pleasures and the material gains in this life while the object of the Divine covenant and its renewal is to turn the human mind towards the real blessings of the eternal life22. This preference of the immediate transitory pleasures to the remote happiness of the eternal nature is termed in the Holy Qur’an as a transaction exchanging the invaluable for the cheap and the mean. This tendency is responsible for mixing the right with the wrong and hiding of the truth and for admonishing the others, forgetting themselves which the votaries of all the religions usually practise.

To fulfil the covenant and to remain loyally and faithfully attached to it, needs utmost patience, self-control and continuous devotion and submission which most of the people feel a difficult task and a great burden, save those who have nothing in view but their communion with the Lord and who believed that their return is only to Him.

Verse 31

‘Asma’ i.e. Names - God taught Adam all the Names. Adam was taught by God the names of the beings in His creation along with the insight to the knowledge of the realities or the latent properties or the hidden native endowments in each of them. Merely naming anything does not guarantee any knowledge of the internal or the latent native endowments in it. The persons which were asked to be named by the angels to disprove the claim to the knowledge of the things must naturally be such beings, the comprehension of whose qualities and excellences had baffled the intelligence of the angels who could foresee the bloodshed which would cause and effect after his advent in the world. They must be the beings who were till then unknown even to the angels. It must lead to the higher knowledge of God’s own Marifat (knowledge). The completeness in naming a thing lies in the name given to it, leading to the knowledge about the in and out of the things tracing its history up to its origin. The name should take the mind from its form to its meaning, from the concrete to the abstract, from the physical existence to the spiritual or the essential reality of the beings.

When Adam at the command of God stated the names to the angels, the angels could then see the glory of the infinite power and wisdom of the Lord that could raise up or create such beings from the human stock which they had derided. We are told by the Holy Prophet through his traditions that they were the epithets or the heavenly titles of the Holy Prophet and the Holy Imams through whose medium did the glory of the Lord manifest in its perfection, which divinely stored glory the angels till then had not known.

It is quite logical that the objects presented to the angels must have been such as the angels should not have seen them before and when they see them the angels could not even give out their names to prove that they knew each one of them perfectly with reference to the external appearances as well as the qualities endowed in them.

It is reported that the objects presented to the angels were Five Lights with wonderful radiance. The angels asked the Lord as to what those wonderful Lights were and what were their names. God in reply declared to the angels pointing to a Light saying “This is Muhammad i.e. the most praised, the name drawn from My name Mahmood i.e. the Praised one - This is Ali, the High, the name drawn from My being the Ali - al-A’la the Highest of the High. This is Fatimah, the Original, the name drawn from My being the Fatiru as-Samawati wa al-ard i.e. the Creator, the Originator of the heavens and the earth; This is Hasan, the Bountiful, the Virtuous, the name drawn from My being the Benefactor, the All Good, and this is Husayn the Good, the name drawn from My being the Good in Origin” The declaration of the Lord to the angels continued “O’ Angels! It is in love of these Five have I created the Universe, meaning with the object of manifesting through these Five the various aspects of the divine glory in everything of the created world has come to stay and these have been endowed in the seed of Adam” (Durr al-Manthur)

It becomes a theological conclusion that since God willed these Five wonderful Radiant of His Glory to be manifested through the seed of Adam, Adam had been declared as the Khalifa of God or the agent through whom God’s light had been divinely destined to manifest in the external creation.

Verse 33

‘Wa ma kuntum Taktamoon’ And what ye did hide, i.e., God has the knowledge of all the hidden things of the heavens and the earth, knew also what the angels did hide in their imagination that they deemed themselves more deserving for the high office of being the Khalifa or the Agent or the Medium between God and His creation which belief of the angels made them criticise the divine will about Adam’s being the Khalifa. When the angels had observed the wonderful glory of the Five, endowed in the seed of Adam, they could not but submit to God’s decision and also to the wonderful objects of His glory.

Verse 34

The command to prostrate or offer Sajdah or to make obeisance to Adam was not restricted exclusively to the angels though in the address only the angels are mentioned because angels were the superior - most creation. The word ‘(a’ meaning ‘except’ or ‘save’ and Iblis has been from a different genus, i.e., of the Jinn, which fact is borne out by verse 18:50. It is clear that the angels who were beings infallible and wholly obedient to God, all of them immediately obeyed the divine command. But Jinn, the beings fallible took exception to the divine order. There is one important factor for an intelligent student of the Holy Qur’an to note that is - Sajdah or a formal prostration or the making of obeisance to anyone else other than God being ‘shirk’ (i.e. associating the object with God) how could God Himself demand the infallible beings like the angels to make obeisance to Adam in whose seed had to be borne a world of fallibility’. It is quite clear that Sajdah demanded of the angels was the obeisance or regard or the respect to Adam in whose seed had to be manifested the wonderful Lights of Divine Glory. And Sajdah in regard or respect is something else from the Sajdah or the Submission of absolute servitude of a creature in relation to his Creator Lord, which is due to none but God alone.

Verse 35

’Walataqraba hazihi ‘sh-Shajjarata’ meaning ‘get not ye two (Adam and Eve) near this tree.’ The command was not to go near the tree. People not knowing the logical aspect of the wording of the command hold Adam a sinner for having eaten the forbidden fruit. The point is that the command was not to go near the tree and there is nothing in the wording of the divine command to say that it was openly or definitely forbidden also to eat the fruit of the tree.

Adam in obedience to the divine command did not go near the tree but when the fruit of the tree was brought to him and he was induced to eat of it, he no doubt instead of abstaining even from eating the fruit of the forbidden tree, had of it. Adam can never be termed as a sinner who disobeyed the Lord although his eating of the tree involves him liable to the natural consequences of eating the fruit of the forbidden tree.

Verse 36

‘Ihbitu’ meaning ‘get down’ - suggests the change of the state, from the state of easy life of joy and happiness to the life of toils, sufferings and miseries, Ihbitu means going down from a high place to a place lower in position as it is used in this same chapter, Verse. 61. The people of Moses when not content with the heavenly foods were ordered to settle down in Egypt and lead a life of toils by tilling the ground and live upon the return of their own labours consequent upon their rejecting the food freely offered to them from heaven. It signifies the change in the form and the nature of life from a blissful state to a state of suffering without any implication of effecting any moral degradation in the personal qualities.

‘Ba’zukum liba’zin adu’ meaning the same being the enemies of the others. The plurals used in the sentence clearly imply to refer to all in the seed of Adam - those yet to be born for they were all present in the infinite knowledge of the All-Knowing, God.

Verse 37

The opening words of this verse ‘Fatalaqqa Adamu mir Rabbihi Kalimatin fataba alaihi’ meaning ‘Then Adam received from his Lord some words and then He (God) turned (to Adam) mercifully.’ Any intelligent person would like to know what those words were which the Lord blessed Adam with, and by means of which Adam was shown mercy against his not abstaining from the use of the fruit of the forbidden tree. Mere common sense suggests that what was gifted to Adam by the All-Knowing, All-Merciful Lord cannot be anything of an ordinary prayer. It must be something special or extraordinary which the All-Merciful Himself bestowed upon Adam by means of which Adam or anyone could unfailingly invoke the Mercy of the Lord after having displeased Him.

To know these great words to be used in prayer, to make the prayer wholly and immediately heard by God, it will be quite sufficient here if it is said that one needs only to refer to the well-known Sunni authority, Suyuti’s ‘Durr al-Manthur’ which clearly says that the words taught to Adam by God were the holy names of the Holy Five. The Holy Prophet Muhammad, his cousin and son - in - law Ali, his daughter Fatimah and his sons (i.e. grandsons) Hasan and Husayn (Tafsir Durr al-Manthur).

One should also know the correct meaning of the Arabic word Tauba which is generally understood as repentance, and which literally means returning to the original state of obedience to the Lord. Tauba does not imply the mere utterance of any verbal prayers. It demands a real and active change in the phenomena as well as the active attitude of the individual towards the purity of his life. It demands a moral conversion with a strong and a definite determination on the part of the repenting individual, never again to return to the mistake or the wrong he had committed.

Verse 38

‘Fa man Tabe’a Hudaya’ meaning ‘whosoever followeth my guidance.’ This indicates that the divine guidance was already there along with the creation of Adam. Firstly, it was God Himself who taught Adam the names which were presented to the angels to be named and it was God Himself who taught Adam the holy words, i.e., the names of the Holy Five. This verse clearly indicates that to be free from the dread of the chastisement and the sorrow of the miserable life in the hereafter, a human individual should follow the guidance from the Lord which means the guidance thro’ Muhammad the Last Apostle of God and after his departure from this physical world, the guidance through the divinely commissioned Imams, the disbelief in whose Imamah or guidance and the rejection of the active obedience to their guidance is the rejection of the Risalah or the apostleship of the Holy Prophet Muhammad.

Verse 39

‘Wa allazeena Kafarti ma Kazzabu bi Aayaatina’ meaning ‘as for those who disbelieve and belie Our Signs.’ The question arises as to what the signs of God are. The word ‘Aayaat’ has been translated by some translators as ‘the verses’ (of the Book). It is not a complete meaning. The actual or the literal meaning of the word ‘Aayat’ is sign and ‘Aayaat’ is the plural of ‘Aayat’ A sign is an object or an action which draws attention towards some objective person or event. The verse of the Holy Qur’an is, no doubt, an Aayat in the sense that it draws the attention of the reader towards its meaning. And God’s signs in the perfect sense or the meaning of the word can be only, those beings whose holy personalities draw the attention of the human world towards the glory of God.

The Best and the Greatest Aayaat or the signs of God are the Holy Prophet, his holy daughter Fatimah and the twelve holy Imams. No doubt every apostle of God was during his time a sign of God. Jesus in Verse. 21:91 is called an ‘Aayat’, a sign. Hence those who do not believe in the Imamah, i. e., the guidance of the Holy Imams, come under this heavenly ordinance to be punished as warned through this verse.

Taking the meaning of the word ‘Aayaat’ as the verses of the Holy Scripture, it refers to the Jews and the Christians, owing to whose sectarian, communal and even personal prejudices and bias, much of the revealed scriptures was suppressed, disfigured or even altered altogether.

• 1. Vide: 26:214.
• 2. Vide: 53:26-31.
• 3. Vide: 19:87.
• 4. Vide: 6:91.
• 5. Vide: 2:124 and 2:247-248.
• 6. Vide: 38:17-25.
• 7. Vide: 49:13 and 56:10-11.
• 8. Vide: 3:33-34.
• 9. Vide: 17:77.
• 10. Vide: 24:55 & 6:165.
• 11. Refer to the note to verse 2.
• 12. Refer also to the note to verse 2 above.
• 13. Vide: 23:12.
• 14. Vide: 15:26-28.
• 15. Vide: 15:26–28.
• 16. Vide: 32:9.
• 17. Vide: The Sciences of Life by H. G. Wells.
• 18. Vide: 6:112.
• 19. Vide: 2:61.
• 20. Vide: Tafsir al-Burhari.
• 21. Vide: Inna ad-Deena Inda Allahi al-Islam.
  “Surely the (true) religion with Allah is Islam” (3:19).
• 22. Vide: 87:14.