Al-A'raf (The Heights): (11) And We have certainly created you, then We formed you...

Issues in the Verse:

Know that Allah, the Exalted, first encouraged the nations to accept the call of the Prophets (peace be upon them) through warning, and then through encouragement (Targhib). This encouragement was to draw attention to the abundance of Allah's blessings upon creation.

He began explaining these blessings by saying: {...and We established you in the land and made for you therein means of livelihood} (Al-A'raf: 10). Then, He followed this by mentioning that He created our father Adam and made him prostrated to by the angels. The favor bestowed upon the father is considered a favor upon the offspring. This is the rationale for the coherence (Nathm) in these verses.

A parallel example is found at the beginning of Surah Al-Baqarah: {How do you disbelieve in Allah while you were dead and He gave you life? ...} (Al-Baqarah: 28). There, Allah forbade disobedience by saying, {How do you disbelieve in Allah?} and justified this prohibition by citing the abundance of His blessings: they were dead and He gave them life. Then, He created for them all the benefits on earth. He followed this benefit by making Adam the vicegerent on earth, to whom the angels prostrated. The purpose of all this is to establish that, despite these immense blessings, rebellion and ingratitude are not fitting for them.

Similarly, in this Surah, Allah mentioned the very same meaning, albeit with a different arrangement. This is the most excellent explanation of the coherence of the verses.

Know that Allah has mentioned the story of Adam (peace be upon him) along with the story of Iblis in seven places in the Qur'an:

1. Surah Al-Baqarah.
2. This Surah (Al-A'raf).
3. Surah Al-Hijr.
4. Surah Bani Isra'il.
5. Surah Al-Kahf.
6. Surah Taha.
7. Surah Sad.

Given this, there is a question regarding this verse: The Almighty's saying, {And We have certainly created you, then We formed you...} implies that the addressees of this discourse are us (the current generation).

Then He follows it with: {Then We said to the angels, "Prostrate to Adam"} (Al-A'raf: 11). The particle Thumma (then) indicates a temporal sequence (Tarakhi). The apparent meaning of the verse suggests that the command to the angels to prostrate to Adam occurred after our creation and formation. This is known to be incorrect.

Therefore, people have differed in interpreting this verse into four opinions:

The First Opinion (The Preferred View): The meaning of {We have certainly created you, then We formed you} is: We created your father Adam, and We formed Adam. Then, {Then We said to the angels, "Prostrate to Adam"}. This is the view of Al-Hasan and Yusuf Al-Nakh'i, and it is the chosen view. This is because the command to the angels to prostrate to Adam occurred after Adam's creation and formation, but it did not occur after our creation and formation. At most, one might ask: How is it appropriate to use "our creation and formation" as a metaphor for the creation and formation of Adam? We reply that since Adam (peace be upon him) is the origin of humanity, this metaphor is justified. It is similar to His saying: {And [recall] when We took from the Children of Israel their covenant and raised over them the Mount...} (Al-Baqarah: 63), meaning the covenant of their ancestors during the time of Moses (peace be upon him). Similarly, one might say, "The Banu Asad killed so-and-so," even if only one of them did it. The Prophet (PBUH) said: "Then you, O Khaza'ah, have killed this slain man," even though only one of them did it. Allah also addressed the Jews in the time of Muhammad (PBUH): {And [recall] when We saved you from the people of Pharaoh...} (Al-A'raf: 141) and {And [recall] when you slew a person...} (Al-Baqarah: 72); the intent in all these addresses is their ancestors. Thus, it is the same here.

The Second Opinion: The meaning of {We have certainly created you, then We formed you} is: We created Adam, then {We formed you} means We formed the progeny of Adam (peace be upon him) in his loins. Then, after that, We said to the angels, "Prostrate to Adam." This is the view of Mujahid. He stated that Allah first created Adam, then brought forth his offspring from his loins in the form of dust/particles (Dhurr), and only then commanded the angels to prostrate to Adam.

The Third Opinion: {We have certainly created you, then We formed you} means: We created you and formed you, and then We inform you that We said to the angels, "Prostrate to Adam." In this case, the conjunction implies the sequence of one report following another report, but it does not imply the sequence of the reported event following the reporting event.

The Fourth Opinion: The word Khalq (creation) in language can mean estimation or decree (Taqdir), as we established in this book. Allah's decree is His knowledge of things and His will to assign a specific measure to everything. Thus, {We have certainly created you} refers to Allah's judgment and decree to bring forth humankind into this world. And {We formed you} refers to Allah establishing in the Preserved Tablet (Al-Lawh Al-Mahfuz) the form of everything that will come into existence until the Day of Judgment, based on the narration that Allah said: "Write down everything that will occur until the Day of Resurrection." So, Allah's creation refers to His decree and will, and the formation refers to establishing the forms of things in the Preserved Tablet. Then, after these two matters (decree and recording), Allah brought Adam into existence and commanded the angels to prostrate to him. This interpretation, in my view, is closer than the other views.

We mentioned in Surah Al-Baqarah that there are three opinions regarding this prostration:

1. It meant mere veneration (Ta'dhim) of the act of prostration itself.
2. It was a prostration, but the one prostrated to was Allah, making Adam like the Qibla (direction of prayer).
3. The one prostrated to was Adam himself.

We also mentioned the difference of opinion regarding which angels were commanded to prostrate to Adam: whether they were the angels of the heavens and the Throne, or the angels of the earth. These discussions have already been covered in Surah Al-Baqarah.

The apparent meaning of the verse indicates that Allah excluded Iblis from the angels, which necessitates that he was one of them. We have also fully discussed this issue in Surah Al-Baqarah.

Al-Hasan used to say: Iblis was not among the angels because he was created from fire, whereas angels were created from light. Angels do not become arrogant against worship, nor do they feel weary or disobey. Iblis is not like this, as he disobeyed and became arrogant. Furthermore, angels are not Jinn, but Iblis is from the Jinn. Angels are messengers of Allah, but Iblis is not. Iblis is the first creation and the father of the Jinn, just as Adam (peace be upon him) is the first creation and the father of humankind. Al-Hasan said: Since Iblis was commanded along with the angels, Allah excluded him. Iblis's name was something else before, and when he disobeyed Allah, he was named Iblis. He was a believing worshipper in the heavens until he disobeyed his Lord and was cast down to earth.

[The subsequent verses are quoted in the original text, followed by the translation of the next section:]