Exegesis of Sūrat al-Baqarah
Question: What is the meaning of the Almighty’s words,
“-And when your Lord said to the angels, ‘Indeed, I am going to place a vicegerent on earth.’ They said, ‘Will You place therein one who will spread corruption in it and shed blood, while we glorify You with praise and declare Your sanctity?’ He said, ‘Indeed, I know that which you do not know.’-” (Qur’an, 2:30), and how did the angels know that the children of Adam would cause corruption on earth and shed blood when no human beings existed before Adam?
Answer: This verse is one of the favors Allah enumerates at the beginning of Sūrat al-Baqarah. He informed the angels that He would place a khalīfah (vicegerent) on earth—namely Adam (peace be upon him)—that is, He would entrust the earth to him.
- Some have said that khalīfah means a deputy on behalf of Allah, Exalted is He, to implement His rulings and to govern His creation on earth according to the divinely ordained law.
- Others hold that khalīfah signifies a successor to a previous people, for there had been inhabitants on earth before Adam who corrupted it; Allah removed them and installed Adam and his descendants in their stead.
- Yet another interpretation is that khalīfah refers to the fact that the children of Adam succeed one another, generation after generation.
In truth, viceregency (istikhlāf) appears to encompass all of these meanings.
The angels (peace be upon them) then asked their Lord a question for clarification, not in protest: “Will You place in it someone who will spread corruption in it and shed blood?” It is as though they knew this from an earlier race; exegetes mention that a group of jinn had once lived on earth and wrought corruption, after which Allah removed them. The angels therefore inferred from that earlier experience that such a creature would be corrupt and assumed that Adam and his offspring would behave likewise. Yet Allah knows about Adam and his progeny what the angels do not, and that among them there will be those who are righteous.