Tafsir of Sad 38:71

If you ask: How is it valid for Him to say to them, "I am creating a human being," when they did not know what a "human" was, nor had they ever encountered one before?

I say: The explanation is that He told them, "I am creating a creation with such-and-such attributes," but when He recounted it, He sufficed with the name.

{فإذا سويته}: When I have completed his creation and balanced him.

{ونفخت فيه من روحي}: And I have given him life, making him sentient and breathing.

{فقعوا له ساجدين}: Then fall down [in prostration].

• "All" (كل): Indicates totality.
• "Together" (أجمعون): Indicates unity.
• Together, they signify that they prostrated to the last one of them—not a single angel remained who did not prostrate—and that they all prostrated at the same time, not scattered across different times.

If you ask: How was prostration to other than Allah permissible?

I say: What is not permissible is prostration to other than Allah as an act of worship. As for prostration as a gesture of honor and reverence, reason does not reject it, unless Allah knows there is corruption in it and forbids it.

If you ask: How was Iblis excluded from the angels when he was of the Jinn?

I say: He was commanded to prostrate alongside them, so they were grouped together in His saying: {The angels prostrated}. Then, he was excluded—just as one of them would be excluded—in a muttasil (connected) exception.

{وكان من الكافرين}: It is intended that his disbelief existed at that moment, even if he was not a disbeliever before it. For "was" (kāna) is absolute regarding past times, so it is valid for whichever time you choose. It is also possible that it means: he was among the disbelievers in past eternity according to the knowledge of Allah.

{قال يا إبليس ما منعك أن تسجد لما خلقت بيدي أستكبرت أم كنت من العالين * قال أنا خير منه خلقتني من نار وخلقته من طين}