Al-Baqarah: (30) "And when your Lord said..."

(And when your Lord said to the angels, "Indeed, I am going to set a vicegerent [khalifah] upon the earth.") When He, glory be to Him, bestowed a favor upon those who preceded, He followed it with a general grace and a complete honor; for benevolence toward the root is benevolence toward the branch, and the child is the secret of his father.

(And when [id]) is a temporal adverb for the past, built upon its resemblance to a particle in formation and in its need for a clause. What follows it is either a verbal or a nominal sentence. The sense of time is derived from it either by its second constituent being a verb, or by its content being famously known to have occurred at a specified time. When it enters upon the present tense, it shifts it to the past. It is inseparable from being an adverb, unless a time noun is added to it. There is disagreement regarding its occurrence as an object of a verb, a particle of cause, a particle of suddenness, a place adverb, or an extra particle. In al-Bahr, it is stated that it does not occur as such, and if anything is inferred from that, it is due to the context.

The grammarians disagreed about it here: it is said to be extra, having the meaning of qad (indeed). It is said to be in the nominative case, implying: "The beginning of your creation [was] when..." It is said to be in the accusative case due to an omitted verb, implying: "He began your creation [when]..." or "He brought you to life [when]..." It is considered an extended time, not merely the moment of speech. It is also said that it and its governed clause are an object of the aforementioned "He created for you," with the waw being extra, and the separation [between them] by what is almost a surah in length [is for the purpose of] being linked to "Mention." It suffices for the validity of the adverbial relation that it be the adverbial relation of the object, like "observing the game in the sanctuary." These are several views; some are incorrect, and some are forced. The most appropriate [view] is that it should be taken as governed by the "they said" which follows, as there is a clear correlation between them, and the sentence, with all it contains, is a conjunction to what preceded it—the conjunction of a narrative to a narrative. So it has been said, and you know that the latter view is the more famous and is perhaps the most appropriate; so ponder it.

It does not escape notice that the attribute of Lordship here is added to his pronoun (peace and blessings be upon him) by way of address. In this variation and the transition from the general to the specific, there is a symbol that the one addressed has the greatest portion and the most ample share of the mentioned [matter]. For he (peace and blessings of God be upon him) is in truth the greatest vicegerent in creation and the leading Imam on earth and in the high heavens; were it not for him, Adam would not have been created, nor would anything else. May God reward my master Ibn al-Farid, who speaks from the tongue of the Muhammadi reality: "And indeed, though I am the son of Adam in form, I possess a meaning that bears witness to my fatherhood." The lam (in lil-mala'ikah) is for transmission.

(And the angels [al-mala'ikah]) is the plural of mal'ak, on the measure of shama'il and sham'al. It is a metathesis of ma'lak, which is a passive participle according to al-Kisa'i—and this is the preference of the majority—derived from al-alukah, meaning the message. Thus, they are messengers to the people and like messengers unto them. It is said there is no metathesis; Ibn Kisan held that it is fa'al from al-milk with the addition of a hamza, because he is the owner of what God Almighty has entrusted to him, or due to his strength; for [M-L-K] revolves around strength and intensity. It is said: "I kneaded (malaktu) the dough," meaning I kneaded it firmly. This is a distant derivation, and fa'al is rare. Abu Ubaydah held that it is muf'al from la-ka, meaning "when he was sent," a noun of time or place implying intensity; this is also a distant derivation, and la-ka is not famous, whereas al-kun (to be) is frequent in usage—"Be for me a messenger"—and no form came other than this one. He considered it to have a hamza as its middle radical, with its root being a-la-ka. Some made it hollow from la-ka, ya-lu-ku. The ta is for the feminization of the plural, or for intensity, and not meant for the feminization of the word—like al-zulmah (darkness)—due to their consideration of the figurative feminine in every plural; for they said: "Every plural is feminine by interpretation of 'group.'" It has occurred without a ta in the saying: "O Abu Khalid, the angels (mala'ik) have prayed upon you."

People have differed regarding their reality, after agreeing that they exist by revelation or reason. Most Muslims held that they are luminous bodies. It is said they are airy, capable of taking form and appearing in different shapes by the permission of God Almighty. The Christians said: "They are the rational, detached souls; specifically, the pure and good ones, while the evil ones among them are devils." The idolaters said: "They are these stars; the lucky ones among them are the angels of mercy, and the unlucky ones are the angels of torment." The philosophers say: "They are abstract substances, different from the rational souls in reality," and some of them explicitly stated that they are the ten intellects and the celestial souls that move the spheres.

According to us, they are divided into two categories: a category whose affair is total immersion in the knowledge of the Truth and transcendence from occupying themselves with anything else—they exalt Him night and day and do not slacken; these are the 'Illiyyun and the angels brought near. And a category that manages the affair from the heaven to the earth according to what has been decreed and written by the Pen ("They do not disobey God in what He commands them and they do what they are commanded"); these are the "managers of the affair." Among them are those of the heavens and those of the earth, and none knows their number except God. In the report: "The heaven has creaked, and it has the right to creak; there is not a space of a foot in it but there is an angel prostrating or bowing." They are different in forms and vary in magnitude; they are not seen as they truly are except by those possessed of holy souls. They sometimes appear in bodies whose visibility is shared by the elite and the common, while they remain as they are. It is even said that Gabriel (peace be upon him), at the time of his appearance in the image of Dihyah al-Kalbi before the Chosen One (peace and blessings be upon him), did not depart from the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary. Similar things happen to the perfect ones among the saints, and this is beyond the realm of reason, and I am of the believers in it.

The people of God, may God sanctify their secrets, have mentioned that the first manifestation of the Truth, majestic is His glory, was the Cloud ('Ama). When it was dyed with light, He opened within it the forms of the Cherubim, who are above the world of natural bodies; no Throne or creature preceded them. When He brought them into existence, He manifested to them with His name, the Beautiful, so they were bewildered in the majesty of His beauty and they do not recover. When He willed to create the world of recording and writing, He singled out one of them—the first angel to appear from the angels of that light—and called him the Intellect and the Pen. He manifested to him in the mirror of divinely-bestowed teaching whatever He willed to bring into existence of His creation without an end goal. So he accepted in his essence the knowledge of what will be and what the Truth possesses of the divine names that demand the emergence of this created world. He derived from this Intellect what He called the Tablet and commanded the Pen to hang over it and deposit therein what shall be until the Day of Resurrection, and nothing else. He gave this knowledge three hundred and sixty "years" from its being a Pen, and from its being an Intellect, three hundred and sixty manifestations or subtleties. Each "year" or subtlety branches off into three hundred and sixty classes of summary sciences, [which are then] detailed in the Tablet. The first science acquired therein was the science of nature; thus it was below the soul.

All this is in the world of pure light. Then He, may He be glorified, brought into existence the pure darkness, which is in opposition to this light, in the position of the absolute non-existence that corresponds to absolute existence. He poured upon it light with an essential effusion, with the help of nature; so that light gathered its scattered [elements], and the Throne appeared. The name al-Rahman (the Merciful) mounted it with the Manifest Name, so it is the first thing that appeared from the world of creation. From that mixed light, He created the angels who encompass the Throne; they have no occupation other than being encompassed around the Throne, exalting Him with His praise. Then He brought into existence the Footstool (Kursi) within this Throne and placed in it angels of the nature of its substance; every sphere is a root for what was created within it of its inhabitants, like the elements in what was created within them of their inhabitants. He divided the word in this Footstool into "report" and "command," and they are the two feet that hung down for Him from the Throne, as it came in the report. Then He created within the Footstool the spheres, one inside the other, and created in every sphere a world of it which they inhabit, and He adorned it with the stars ("And He inspired in each heaven its command"), until He created the forms of the generated beings and manifested to each class of them according to what they are upon. From that, the souls of the forms were formed, and He commanded them to manage them and made them undivided, rather a single essence, and distinguished some from others. So they were distinguished, and their distinction was according to the reception of the forms from that manifestation. These forms are in truth like mirrors for those souls. Then He, may He be glorified, brought into existence the physical, imaginary forms through another manifestation and made for each of the souls and forms a food that suits it. The Truth, may He be glorified, continues to create angels from the breaths of the world as long as they are breathing. Glory be to Him who says to a thing, "Be," and it is.

If you have known that, then know that they have differed about the angels addressed. It is said: "All of them," due to the generality of the word and the absence of a specificizer, so it includes the Cherubim and others. It is said: "The angels of the earth," by the context that the discourse is regarding the vicegerency of the earth. It is said: "Iblis and those who were with him in the war against the Jinn" who had inhabited the earth for a long time and corrupted it; so God Almighty sent against them an army of angels who are also called Jinn—they are the treasuries of Paradise, and a name was derived for them from it—so they drove them away to the mountain ranges and islands. The view of the Sufi masters, may God sanctify their secrets, is that they—except for the "Knowing Ones" who were entrusted with something of the names and attributes of God Almighty—are the ones addressed, and the "Knowing Ones" are not included in the address nor commanded to prostrate, due to their immersion and lack of awareness of anything other than the Essence. God's saying, "Are you being arrogant or are you among the 'Knowing Ones'?" points to this according to them. They include among those [Knowing Ones] the angel called the "Spirit," the "Supreme Pen," and the "First Intellect," who is the mirror to His Essence, may He be glorified; thus He does not appear in His Essence except in this angel, and His appearance in all creatures is only through His attributes. He is the pole of the worldly and otherworldly worlds, the pole of the people of Paradise and the Fire, the people of the Sand-hill and the Heights; there is nothing but this angel has a face in it, and that creature revolves around his face. He is its pole. He was indeed aware of the creation of Adam and his rank, for he is the one who wrote on the Tablet what was and what will be, and the Tablet had known with the knowledge of "tasting" what the Pen had written on it. This angel has appeared in his perfection in the Muhammadi reality, as indicated by His saying, "And thus We have revealed to you a spirit of Our command." This is why he (peace and blessings be upon him) was the best of God's creation absolutely; rather, he is the vicegerent in truth over the seven heavens. This is not far-fetched, so let it be understood.

(Jā'il [Setter]) is an active participle from al-ja'l (the making), meaning "the transforming," so it governs two objects; the first here is khalifah and the second is (upon the earth). Or it means "the creating," so it governs one object; in that case, (upon the earth) is linked to khalifah, and it was brought forward for the sake of creating anticipation. The description functions because it has the meaning of the future and relies upon a subject. In al-Bahr, it is considered preferable that it be in the meaning of "creating" because of what follows. It is necessary, for it to be in the meaning of "transforming," to mention khalifah or to assume it therein. The intended meaning of "the earth" is either all of it—which is the apparent meaning and the view of the majority—or the land of Makkah; this was narrated as a marfu' report, but it is apparent that it is not authentic, otherwise it would not have been abandoned. He, may He be glorified, specified the earth because it is from the world of change and transformations, so the decree of all the divine names, by which the Truth willed its appearance, appears through the decree of the vicegerency therein, unlike the high world.

The khalifah is one who succeeds another and acts on his behalf, and the ha' is for intensity; this is why it is used for the masculine. It is famous that the intended meaning is Adam (peace be upon him), and this aligns with the narration, the singular form of the word, and the context. The attribution of the shedding of blood and corruption to him in this case is by way of causation, or it refers to "whoever corrupts, etc." from among those who have the power for that. The meaning of his being a (vicegerent) is that he is the vicegerent of God Almighty on His earth, and likewise every prophet; He made them vicegerents in populating the earth, governing the people, perfecting their souls, and executing His command among them—not because He, may He be glorified, has a need for it, but due to the shortcomings of the one who is succeeded, as he is in the extreme of turbidity and bodily darkness, while His Essence, may He be glorified, is in the extreme of sanctity. Similarity is a condition for the acceptance of effusion, according to the divine custom; thus, there must be an intermediary possessing two sides: transcendence and connection, so that he may receive effusion from one side and effuse from the other. It is said: "It is he and his offspring (peace be upon him)," and the apparent meaning of the angels' speech supports this; their obligation then is to reveal the superiority of Adam over them because he is the root that entails those who come after him. This is like how mentioning the father of a tribe suffices for them, except that mentioning the father is by knowledge, and what is here is by description. The meaning of their being vicegerents is that they succeed those who were before them, from the Jinn, the children of the Jinn, or from Iblis and those with him among the angels sent to war against those, as the reports have spoken. Or that they succeed one another. According to the people of God, may He be glorified, the intended vicegerent is Adam (peace be upon him); he is the vicegerent of God Almighty, the father of the vicegerents, the manifestation for Him, may He be glorified and exalted, and the container of both His attributes of beauty and majesty. For this reason, the two hands were joined for him, and both are right hands. There is nothing in existence that encompasses the Truth except him. From here, the greatest vicegerent (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Indeed, God Almighty created Adam in His image," or "in the image of the Merciful." By this, opposites were joined, the creation was perfected, and the Truth appeared. That vicegerency has not ceased to be in the Perfect Man until the hour of rising—nay, until the hour of rising. Whenever this human leaves the world, the world dies, because he is the spirit by which its stability exists; he is the spiritual pillar for the heaven and the world. The lower world is like a limb of the limbs of the body of the world, for which the human is the spirit. Since this comprehensive name is capable of both stations by his essence, the vicegerency and the management of the world are valid for him, and God, may He be glorified, is the Doer of what He wills, and there is no doer in truth other than Him. In this establishment there is narrowness, and the deniers are many, and there is no help except from God, the Mighty and Majestic. The benefit of His, the Almighty's, saying this to the angels is to teach consultation, because this treatment resembles it, or to exalt the status of the one appointed and manifest his virtue. It is possible that He, may He be glorified, intended by that to introduce Adam (peace be upon him) to them so they would know his worth, because he is hidden from the cosmic form by what he possesses of the divine form, and none knows him for his concealment from the Higher Assembly except the Tablet and the Pen. This statement, according to what the Greatest Sheikh, may his secret be sanctified, mentioned, occurred in the era of the "Sign of the Spike" after seventeen thousand years had passed of the life of the world. Of the life of the Hereafter, which has no end in continuity, it was eight thousand years, and of the life of the natural world, bounded by time and restricted by place, seventy-one thousand years of the known years, whose days are obtained from the cycle of the First Sphere—which is a day and five days of the days of the Owner of the Stairways. To God Almighty belongs the affair before and after. Zayd ibn Ali recited khalīqah with a qaf, and the meaning is clear.

"They said, 'Will You place in it one who corrupts in it and sheds blood?'" This is an inquiry about the hidden wisdom and about what removes the doubt. It is not an interrogation regarding the act of "making" and "appointing a vicegerent" itself, for they had already known that before. So what is asked about is the "making," but not regarding its essence, rather regarding its wisdom and the remover of its doubt. Or, it is an expression of wonder: how can one who corrupts in it be appointed vicegerent for the sake of populating and reforming the earth? Or, can one who is like the people of corruption be appointed in their place? Or can the people of disobedience be appointed in the place of the people of obedience? It is said it is a pure interrogation in which the counterpart has been omitted: "Will You place in it one who corrupts [or will You place one who does not corrupt]?" Some made it a circumstantial sentence: "Will You place in it such a one while we exalt You with Your praise and sanctify You?" or shall we change? Our Sheikh, Ala' al-Din al-Mawsili, may God, may He be glorified, delight his spirit, chose this, and politeness compels me to remain silent about it. At any rate, the hamza is not for denial, as the Hashwiyyah claimed, using the verse as evidence for the lack of infallibility of the angels due to their objection to God Almighty and their criticism of the children of Adam. It is strange that our Master al-Sha'rani, who is among the greatest of the Sunnis, nay, among the sheikhs of the people of God, narrated from his sheikh al-Khawwas that he restricted infallibility to the angels of heaven, reasoning that they are abstract intellects without an adversary or desire. He said: "The earthly angels are not infallible," and for that reason, Iblis fell into what he fell into, as he was among the angels of the earth inhabiting the Mount of Ruby in the East, at the equator. According to this, objection from those who were on earth is not far-fetched, and God save us. One finds solace for this in what came in some reports that the ones who spoke were ten thousand, and fire descended upon them and burned them. In my view, that is not correct. It is said: "The speaker is Iblis," and he was at that time reckoned among the count of the angels, and the attribution of the speech to them is in the manner of "The family of so-and-so killed so-and-so," while the killer is one of them. The correct view is what we have established. The repetition of the adverb is to indicate excess in corruption, and he did not repeat it afterward for the sake of sufficiency, along with what is in the repetition of that which is not hidden.

(Shedding [al-safk]) is pouring and spilling, and it is not used except for blood, or for it and tears. The conjunction is the conjunction of the specific to the general, to point to the gravity of this disobedience; for by it, bodily structures are annihilated. (Blood [al-dima']) is the plural of dam, and its final radical is either a ya or a waw. Both its shortening and its doubling are heard, and its root is fa'l or fi'l. The intended meaning is the prohibited blood, by the context of the place. It is said it is for the sake of generalization, so it includes all its types—the forbidden and the otherwise—and the intention is the absence of his distinction between them. Ibn Abi 'Ablah read yusfaku with the fa damma-vocalized, and yusfaku from asfaka, and with doubling from safa-ka. Ibn Hurmuz read it with the kaf accusative-vocalized, and it is explained by the accusative in response to the interrogation. It has also been read in the passive voice, and the one returning to "whoever" at that time, whether it is taken as a relative pronoun or as a described word with an omitted adjective, is "in them." The angels' judgment of corruption and shedding [blood] upon humans, based on some of those views, is not from the claim of knowing the unseen or judging by presumption and guessing, but by information from God Almighty. He did not relate to us, in what he narrated from them, [the details] due to the sufficiency of the response's indication of it, for the sake of brevity, as is the habit of the Quran. This is supported by what was narrated in some reports that when God Almighty said that, they said: "What will happen from that vicegerent?" He said: "He will have offspring who will corrupt in the earth and kill one another." At that, they said: "Our Lord, (will You place in it one who corrupts in it and sheds blood?)" It is said: "They knew that from the Tablet," but it is made distant by the lack of knowledge of the answer, and the answer requires force. It is said: "They knew it by deduction from what was ingrained in their intellects regarding the lack of infallibility of others, which leads to the knowledge of the occurrence of disobedience from those other than them, which leads to conflict and dispute; for he who does not show mercy to himself does not show mercy to others, and that leads to corruption and shedding of blood." It is said: "By analogy of one of the two heavy groups [Jinn and Humans] to the other, by the common factor of their lack of infallibility." The content of the two views is not hidden. It is possible that they knew that from His naming him "vicegerent," because vicegerency requires reform and overcoming the one over whom the vicegerency is held, and that necessitates that corruption occurs from him—either in his own essence by the requirement of desire, or in others by shedding—or because he is the mirror of Majesty just as he is the mirror of Beauty, and everything has effects; corruption and shedding are from the effects of Majesty, and they remained silent about the effects of Beauty because there is no strangeness in them. In any case, they did not measure God, may He be glorified, with His true measure, and that does not harm them; for above every possessor of (knowledge is the All-Knowing).

"And we exalt You with Your praise and sanctify You." This is a state from the pronoun of the agent in (Will You place), and in it is the confirmation of the side of the problem. The meaning is: "Will You appoint one as You have mentioned while we are the infallible ones?" The intention is not anything but inquiring about the preponderant factor, not pride and boastfulness, to the extent that it would harm their infallibility, as the Hashwiyyah claimed. The necessity of the pronoun and the omission of the waw in the nominal sentence when it occurs as a corroborating state is not conceded, as in Sharh al-Tashil. The present tense form is for continuity. The advancement of the subject over the verbal predicate is for restriction. It is strange to make the sentence interrogative, omitting the particle, and likewise the counterpart.

Tasbih (exaltation) in its root is absolute distancing, and the intended meaning is distancing God Almighty from evil. It is transitive by itself and is made transitive by the lam, signaling that the performance of the action is for the sake of God Almighty and purely for His face, may He be glorified. The implied object here can be with the lam according to the context, and it can be without it, as is its root. (With Your praise [bi-hamdika]) is in the position of a state, and the ba' is for the continuity of companionship and accompaniment. The addition of praise is either to the agent—and the intended meaning is its necessary consequence metaphorically, from guidance and success—or to the object: "While we are clothed with our praise to You for what You have granted us to exalt You." In that is a negation of what the attribution suggests of vanity. It is said: "The intended meaning is a specific exaltation: 'Exalted is the Possessor of Sovereignty and Dominion, Exalted is the Possessor of Greatness and Might, Exalted is the Living One who does not die.' This is known as the exaltation of the angels, or 'Exalted is God and by His praise.'" In a hadith from 'Ubadah ibn al-Samit from Abu Dharr, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was asked, "Which speech is best?" He said: "What God Almighty chose for His angels or His servants: 'Exalted is God and by His praise.'" Meaning: "And by His praise, we exalt Him."

Taqdis (sanctification), in the famous view, is like tasbih in meaning, and they needed—to repel the repetition—that one of them is with respect to acts of obedience and the other to beliefs. It is said: "Exaltation is His transcendence from what does not befit Him, and sanctification is His transcendence in His Essence from what He does not see as befitting Himself; so it is more eloquent." This is witnessed by the fact that wherever they are joined, it is like Subbuh Quddus (Exalted, Holy). It is possible that it is in the meaning of purification, and the intended meaning is: "We exalt You and we purify ourselves from filth, or our deeds from disobedience, so we do not perform their deed of corruption and shedding, or we purify our hearts from turning to other than You." The lam in (for You [laka]) is either for the cause, linked to "we sanctify," and the carrying of it to dispute is what is in it of dispute, or it makes the verb transitive, as in "I prostrated to God Almighty," or for clarification, as in "Woe to him." In that case, we attach it to the predicate of an omitted subject, or it is extra and the object is the prepositional phrase. Then, it is apparent that the speaker of this sentence is the speaker of the first sentence. Sheikh Safi al-Din al-Khazraji made strange claims in his book Fakk al-Azrar, making the speaker different, and explained that by saying that the angels, when the address came to them, were collective, and Iblis was included in their collective, so the answer came from them collectively. When Iblis was separated from their collective by his disobedience, the answer separated into two types: one type of objection from him, and one type of exaltation and sanctification from those other than him. Thus, the answer was divided into two parts, like the division of a genus into two species, and each answer was suitable to the one from whom it appeared. The speech is similar to His saying: "And they said, 'Be Jews or Christians [so] you will be guided.'" This is interpretation, not explanation.

"He said, 'Indeed, I know that which you do not know.'" That is, I know of the wisdom in that what you are isolated from. It is said: "He intended by that His knowledge of Iblis's disobedience and Adam's obedience." It is said: "Because there will be from that vicegerent prophets and righteous people." It is said: "The best is that this vague thing be explained by what He, may He be glorified, informed about it in His saying: 'Indeed, I know the unseen of the heavens and the earth.'" It is understood from the speech of the people, may God sanctify their secrets, that the intended meaning of the verse is the explanation of the wisdom in the vicegerency in the most precise and complete way. It is as if He, may His glory be manifest, said: "I will the appearance by My names and attributes, and that is not perfected by your creation, for I know what you do not know due to the shortcoming of your readiness and the deficiency of your capacity. You are not fit for the appearance of all the names and attributes in you, so My knowledge is not completed by you, nor does My treasure appear in you. Thus, it is necessary to manifest one whose readiness is completed and whose capacity is perfected, to be a mirror for Me and a mirror for My names and attributes, and a manifestation for the opposites in Me, and a manifestation for what is hidden in Me. By Me he hears, by Me he sees, and by Me... and by Me..." After that, the glass and the wine soften. To God, may He be glorified and exalted, the affair returns. (I know [a'lamu]) is a present tense verb, and the possibility that it is an elative noun is not something the Book of God, may He be glorified, should be interpreted by, as is not hidden.