and his honorific appellations were Abu Muhammad and Abu al-Bashar (Father of Humankind). When Allah, exalted is He, created him, He taught him the names of all things. This was because, when Allah, exalted is He, said, “Indeed, I am placing upon the earth a successor,” the angels said: “Let our Lord create whatever He wills; He will not create any creature more honored by Him than we are. And if He does, then we will be more knowledgeable than it, for we were created before it and have seen what it has not seen.” Thus Allah, exalted is He, demonstrated Adam’s superiority over them through knowledge. This is evidence that the prophets are superior to the angels, even though the angels are messengers, as held by the people of the Sunna and the community.

Ibn ʿAbbas, Mujahid, and Qatadah said: “He taught him the name of everything, even a large bowl and a small bowl.” It is also said: He taught him the names of all that has been and all that will be until the Day of Resurrection. Al-Rabiʿ ibn Anas said: “The names of the angels.” It is also said: the names of his descendants; and it is said: the manner in which everything is made. The scholars of interpretation said: Allah taught Adam all languages; then each of his children spoke a different language, and they spread throughout the lands. Each group among them was assigned a language. (1)

“Then He presented them to the angels.” He said “presented them” rather than “presented them” in the feminine form because, when the things named include both rational and non-rational beings, they are referred to with the form used for rational beings, just as males and females together are referred to with the masculine form. Muqatil said: Allah created everything, animate and inanimate, then presented those individual forms to the angels. The pronoun therefore refers back to the individual forms; hence He said, “He presented them.”

Then He said, “Tell Me the names of these, if you are truthful”—that is, in your claim that I will not create a creature without your being superior to it and more knowledgeable than it. So the angels said, acknowledging their inability:

“They said, ‘Glory be to You! We have no knowledge except what You have taught us. Indeed, You alone are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.’ He said, ‘O Adam, tell them their names.’ Then, when he had told them their names, He said, ‘Did I not tell you that I know the unseen of the heavens and the earth, and that I know what you reveal and what you have been concealing?’” (32–33)

“They said, ‘Glory be to You!’”—declaring Your transcendence—“We have no knowledge except what You have taught us.” Its meaning is: You are far too majestic for us to encompass any part of Your knowledge except what You have taught us. “Indeed, You alone are the All-Knowing” of Your creation, “the All-Wise” in Your command. The All-Wise has two meanings: the Ruler, who is the just Judge; and the One who perfects matters so that corruption cannot enter into them. The basic linguistic sense of wisdom is restraint: it restrains its possessor from falsehood. Hence the bridle of an animal is so called, because it prevents it from straying.

When their inability became evident, Allah, exalted is He, said: “O Adam, tell them their names”—that is, inform them of their names. So Adam named everything by its name and mentioned the wisdom for which it had been created. “Then, when he had told them their names, He said”—Allah, exalted is He—“Did I not tell you, O My angels, that I know the unseen of the heavens and the earth”—what has been and what will be therein? For He had said to them: “Indeed, I know what you do not know” (30—al-Baqarah). “And I know what you reveal”: al-Hasan and Qatadah said that this means their saying, “Will You place therein one who will spread corruption there?” “And what you have been concealing”: namely, their saying, “Allah will not create a creature more honored by Him than we are.” Ibn ʿAbbas said: This refers to Iblis passing by—