of all that is in the universe prevented reviling, the rational soul would never be reviled. Since it may be reviled, yet the Lawgiver forbade reviling the face because Allah created Adam in His image—with no distinction in this regard between the face of the righteous and that of the wicked—it is clear that the prohibition is not due to resemblance to the universe.

Tenth: The statement, “The human form is in the image of the Most Merciful,” singles out the form, just as the face was singled out in those hadiths. This rules out interpreting it as referring to all of man’s bodily members and his soul.

As for the claim made by a group of these people and others that man is Allah’s vicegerent, whom He appointed to act in His stead, making him succeed Him in governing the kingdom, and that man is therefore in His image in this respect: this encompasses the notion of kingship and that of man’s being a replica of the universe. Yet it contains a further falsehood peculiar to it: their claim that man is a vicegerent acting in Allah’s stead. This is false, for nothing whatsoever succeeds Allah, exalted is He. Rather, what is meant by Adam, David, and human beings being successors is that they