And when your Lord said to the angels: “I will place upon the earth a khalîfa.”
They said: “Will You place upon it one who spreads corruption there and sheds blood?”
He said: “I know what you do not know.”
Khalîfa: according to Ibn Kathîr, people who succeed one another on the earth, generation after generation.
The angels were not disputing, he adds. They were asking, to learn the wisdom.
He created him from dust, then said to him: “Be,” and he was.
Elsewhere the Qur'an speaks of clay (7:12), and of ringing clay from dark, altered mud (15:28).
The Prophet ﷺ said that Allah created Adam (peace be upon him) from a handful taken from all of the earth.
“So the children of Adam came according to the earth: red, white, black, and in between.”
“And when I have proportioned him and breathed into him of My spirit,”
“My spirit”: the scholars explain it is a spirit Allah created, honored by naming it after Himself.
On the Last Day, the Prophet ﷺ said, people will tell Adam: “Allah created you with His own hand.”
And He taught Adam the names, all of them.
Then He showed them to the angels: “Tell Me the names of these, if you are truthful.”
They said: “Glory be to You. We have no knowledge except what You have taught us.”
Then Adam told them the names, and Allah said: “Did I not tell you that I know the unseen?” (2:33)
Which names? The commentators differ. The verse keeps what matters: all knowledge is taught by Allah.
Before the first human walked the earth, Allah spoke of him to the angels.
And the angels asked a question. What was it, and what were they told?
The first human was honored before his first mistake: created, given a spirit, taught.
Tonight, before you sleep, say slowly: “Subhânaka, lâ 'ilma lanâ illâ mâ 'allamtanâ” (2:32).