of time, and He has made the Hereafter better than this world, and the endings more perfect than the beginnings. Consider the vast distance between the angel’s first command to the Messenger, “Read!”—to which he replied, “I am not a reader” (1)—and Allah’s proclamation, “Today I have perfected your religion for you” (al-Ma’idah 5:3).

6. Allah, exalted be He, gathered within Adam everything He had dispersed throughout the universe; Adam is thus the small world, containing in himself what is found in the great world.

7. He is the quintessence and fruit of all existence, so it was appropriate that his creation come after everything else.

8. Part of the honour Allah bestowed on him is that He prepared in advance Adam’s interests, needs, tools of livelihood, and means of life; scarcely had he raised his head but that all of this was already present and ready.

9. Allah wished to make manifest Adam’s dignity and superiority over the rest of creation, so He allowed them to precede him in being brought forth. For this reason the angels said, “Let our Lord create whatever He wills; He will never create a being more honoured before Him than we are” (2). Yet when He created Adam and commanded them to prostrate to him, his excellence over them in knowledge and insight became clear. Later, when Adam slipped into sin, the angels imagined that this superiority had been annulled, unaware of the servitude hidden within repentance. But when he turned back to his Lord and displayed that form of worship, the angels realised that Allah has within His creation a secret known to none but Him.

10. Since Allah began the creation of this universe with the Pen, it was most fitting that He seal it with the creation of man; for the Pen is the instrument of knowledge, and man is