Keeping all this in view...

Keeping all this in view, the angels at once understood that what Allâh intended to create was not only an individual, but a species. The members of that species would have to live together, cooperating with one another; that is to say, they would have to establish a society, a social order. And with a venture like this, they were bound to cause mischief and to shed blood.

On the other hand, they knew that vicegerency - setting one thing in place of another - was unthinkable unless the vicegerent were a true copy of his predecessor in all the characteristics, traits and intrinsic abilities. The proposed earthly creature was to be made vicegerent of Allâh in the earth.

Allâh has got for Himself the best names, the sublime attributes; His mercy and power are beyond the comprehension of His creatures; He, in His person, is untouched by any defect; and, in his actions, is free from all kinds of evil and disorder. How could an earthly vicegerent, with all his defects and deficiencies, represent the majesty and splendour of Allâh in the earth? Well, could a lowly creature of earth be a mirror of divine beauty and sublimity?

This was their question - and it was no more than a ques­tion. It was not a protest, not an objection; they actually wanted to know the truth. They later asserted their belief that Allâh was the Knowing, the Wise. They believed that what Allâh intended to do was based on knowledge and wisdom; and their question was put in order to learn the underlying wisdom of the decision of Allâh.

What their question - or, pleading - amounted to was as follows: Allâh intends to appoint a vicegerent in the earth; in order that the said vicegerent should represent Allâh by celebrating His praise and glorifying His holiness through his worthy pres­ence. But his earthly nature would not let him do so; it would irresistibly pull him towards mischief and wickedness.

So far as the main purpose of this vicegerency - celebrating Allâh's praise and glorifying His holiness - is concerned, we are already doing it. Therefore, we are Allâh's de facto vicegerents; and if Allâh wishes, He may bestow upon us this designation. What is the need, then, of a new creation to act as vicegerent of Allâh in the earth? For the reply, Allâh used a sentence, "Surely I know what you do not know", and an action, "And He taught Adam the names, all of them".