The context shows that...

The context shows that: First: The vicegerent was to get the vicegerency of Allâh; he was not to become a successor of any earthly creature that had preceded him. If Allâh had wanted the man to take the place of that previous creature, the reply, "And He taught Adam the names, all of them", would be quite irrelevant. Assuming that man was given vicegerency of Allâh, this prestige would not be restricted to the person of Adam only, his descendants too would be vicegerents of Allâh in the earth.

Adam was taught the names; in other words, this knowledge was ingrained in human being in such a manner that, since that first day, it has been constantly bearing newer, fresher and better fruits; whenever man gets a chance, he discovers new avenues of knowledge; and thus he always finds himself imbued with previously unknown potentialities that more often than not turn into real achievements.

It is a never ending process; it is a wonder that will not cease, and ever-fresh insight that will never fail to astonish. That this assumption is correct, and the whole mankind is vicegerent of Allâh, is evident by the following verses: And remember (O people of ‘?d!) when He made you successors of Nûh's people . . . (7:69); Then We made you successors in the land after them . . . (10:14); . . . and He makes you successors in the earth (27:62).

The word translated here as "successor" is the same that has been translated as "vicegerent" in the verse under discussion. Second: Allâh did not say that the vicegerent-designate would not cause mischief and bloodshed; nor did He reject the plea of the angels that they celebrated His praise and extolled His glory. By this silence, He confirmed that the angels were right on both counts. But then He made manifest one thing which the angels were not aware of.

He showed them that there was a matter which they could not shoulder the responsibility of, while this proposed vicegerent could do so. Man was entrusted with a divine secret which the angels, in their nature, were unable to know or understand. And that divine gift would more than compensate the ensuing mischief and bloodshed. Allâh told them, first, that surely He knew what they did not know.

Then He referred to the same reply by telling them: "Did I not say that I surely know the unseen (secrets) of the heavens and the earth?" Looking at the intervening sentences it may easily be understood that the "unseen (secrets)" refer to "the names".