29- The meaning of إِنِّي جَاعِلٌ فِي الْأَرْضِ خَلِيفَةً
Question:
What is the meaning of this statement of Allah, the Exalted:
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
“And when your Lord said to the angels, ‘Indeed, I am going to place a successor on the earth.’ They said, ‘Will You place on it one who will cause corruption in it and shed much blood, while we glorify You with Your praise and declare Your holiness?’ He said, ‘Indeed, I know what you do not know.'”
Does this mean that Allah, the Exalted, created mankind before Adam (peace be upon him)? And if not, then how did the angels know that he would cause corruption on the earth and shed blood? And what is the meaning of appointing a successor, and a successor of whom?
Answer:
It is understood from this noble verse that Allah, the Exalted, made Adam (peace be upon him) the human being and appointed him as the successor of the creation that inhabited the earth before him. And this creation used to cause corruption on the earth. Keeping this situation in view, or on the basis of knowledge obtained through other means, the angels said that this one too would cause corruption on the earth. Allah, the Exalted, said that what I know, you do not know. And the work of this successor would be that he would spread and promote on the earth the Shari’ah, the religion, the call to Tawhid, sincerity, and faith in Allah, the Exalted, and his children would continue to do this same work. Among his children would be prophets, messengers, extremely righteous scholars, and people who worship Allah purely, as a result of which the worship of the One Allah, the enforcement of the Shari’ah, and works such as enjoining good and forbidding evil would be carried out.
So, by the blessing of the effort and labor of the prophets, messengers, righteous scholars and the sincere, the wisdom stated by Allah, the Exalted, was fulfilled and the religion of Islam attained dominance, and afterwards the angels also came to know that creating Adam was not merely corruption but that there was much good in it. Before Adam, the jinn inhabited this world.
The summary of the discussion is that whatever creation inhabited the earth before Adam, Allah, the Exalted, settled Adam after it. Allah, the Exalted, has knowledge of this creation, and we have no firm and decisive evidence by which we could specify this creation and describe its attributes and say what work they used to do on the earth. But the appointment of Adam (peace be upon him) as successor does make clear that some creation certainly inhabited it. Therefore, He appointed Adam to make the truth manifest, to explain the Shari’ah sent down by Allah, the Exalted, and to explain the things that become a means of Allah’s pleasure and nearness to Him, and He created him to prevent the corruption occurring on the earth. The children of Adam (peace be upon him) also carried out this obligation: they settled the earth through obedience to Allah, Tawhid, and judgments according to His Shari’ah, and made every effort to restrain those who opposed, and all of this work fell to the share of the prophets and the righteous.
