the fact that Allah has subjected to human beings every force, mineral, and resource found on earth. In so saying, he has denied what is necessarily known through the explicit word of Allah in His Book and the word of His Messenger. His statement—besides branding Allah and His Messenger as liars—places the disbelievers and transgressors among Adam’s descendants, from the first of them to the last, on the same footing as Adam himself. The plain implication, indeed the explicit sense, of their claim is that the angels prostrated to every member of humankind, be he righteous or wicked. Yet what, then, of the people’s words at the standing on the Day of Resurrection: “O Adam, you are the one whom Allah created with His own Hand, breathed into you of His spirit, and caused His angels to prostrate before you”?

Were it not that such distortions and denials of Allah and His Messenger are found in the writings of those who are held up as scholars, we would have had no need to refute this brazen assertion, whose falsehood is clear to every Muslim whose creed has not been corrupted by false doctrines.

Let us therefore limit ourselves to this brief allusion to the doctrines pertaining to monotheism, prophethood, the Last Day, and recompense. Although the greater part of the Qur’an is devoted to establishing these tremendous fundamentals—because of the constant and pressing need for them—what has been mentioned here, praise be to Allah, provides the necessary reminder and assists with what comes after it. Allah knows best.