above others in rank, that He may test you in what He has given you.”

And His words, Most High:

“We certainly destroyed the generations before you when they did wrong”—through to His words—“Then We made you successors upon the earth.”

Another example is His saying, Most High:

“Allah has promised those among you who believe and do righteous deeds that He will surely grant them succession upon the earth, just as He granted it to those before them, and that He will surely establish for them their religion which He has chosen for them”—to the end of the verse.

Some who have spoken on this matter in error—such as Ibn ‘Arabī—have supposed that the “successor” is someone who acts in Allah’s place, like a deputy of Allah. They claimed that this is what it means for man to be appointed a successor. They sometimes interpret “teaching Adam all the names” in terms of man encompassing the meanings of those names. They also interpret “creating Adam in His image” in this sense.

They adopted the philosophers’ statement that man is the microcosm. This is plausible. But they added to it that Allah is the macrocosm, basing this on their unbelieving doctrine of the unity of existence: that Allah is the very existence of created beings. Thus, among the manifestations, man is the successor who encompasses the names and attributes. From this stem their eventual claims to lordship and divinity, which lead them into Pharaonic, Qarmatian, and esoteric doctrines.

They sometimes treat “messengership” as one rank among others and claim that they are above it. Thus they acknowledge lordship, oneness, divinity, and messengership, yet lapse into Pharaonic doctrine. Such is their faith. Or, in their conduct, they go so far as to become (unrestrained, subject to neither command nor prohibition, neither obligation nor interdiction).