The purpose here, however, is to discuss his interpretation of it as an image of sovereignty and governance. A group of advocates of union with the divine, along with others, went further, saying that man is Allah’s vicegerent: He appointed him as His vicegerent by placing within him some of His names and attributes, through which he resembled the Divine Presence.

These people fall into two groups. One affirms the Lord beyond the world and regards man as Allah’s vicegerent. The other affirms no existence for the Lord apart from the world. Rather, they identify Him with the very existence of the world and regard man as a copy and epitome of that existence; he is thus the all-encompassing vicegerent within it. In this, they agree with those philosophers and others who say that man is the microcosm, just as the world is the macrocosm—the greater human being—since man brings together within himself what is otherwise dispersed.

It is not our purpose to dispute these ideas here. What is rejected, however, is their claim that the statement, “He created Adam in His image,” means “in the image of the world,” because man is in the image of the world, which is Allah’s image—either a created image belonging to Him, as maintained by those who acknowledge a Lord distinct