The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page ccclxii
GENERAL INTRODUCTION reason that the Quran has called them by the name of jinn, which means literally those that dwell out of sight. Some people have applied this word to the genii of tales and fables, but the Quran does not support this interpretation. It expressly states that when Adam and his people went out of the garden (which again, according to the Quran, was a region of the earth and is not to be confused with Paradise) God warned them against Iblis "who was one of the jinn" and told them to be careful of him and his people as they would all have to live together upon the earth wherein they would spend their spans of existence and wherein they would die (7:26, 28). Again, addressing Adam and his people and Iblis and his people God admonishes all of them to accept His Prophets when they should appear among them from time to time (2:39). All this shows that the jinn of the time of Adam and their leader Iblis were of the human race. The genii of the fables do not live in company with men nor are they in any other way connected with men. The Quran does not lend any support to the idea of the Jinn of the fables. Those whom the Quran describes as Jinn in connection with Adam were human beings who dwelt upon the earth but whose mental faculties were not yet fully developed. When the stage of the full development of the mental faculties of man was reached, God sent His revelation to the most perfect man of that generation, namely, Adam. This revelation was confined to a few social rules relating to the formation of a society and the provision of food and other means of maintenance for it. Those whose social sense was not yet fully developed refused to submit themselves to Adam. God punished them and gave Adam victory over them. For the future, God decreed that Prophets would continue to appear and those who believed in them would identify themselves with Adam and his people and those who rejected them would identify themselves with the jinn who had opposed Adam. Each Prophet is raised to help forward the intellectual and spiritual evolution of man. Those, who are opposed to the next stage of evolution and are not willing to submit to the limitations and regulations which God seeks to impose through His Prophet to help forward the process of evolution, reject the Prophet. In short, the Quran teaches that man's physical creation and development are the result of a process of evolution and in the same way his intellectual development is also the result of a process of evolution. Adam was not the first human being but was the first human being whose intellect was capable of accepting and bearing the responsibility of revelation. The Quran nowhere states that God desired to create man and therefore created Adam. The Quran expressly states that God decided to appoint a "Vicegerent in the earth" and appointed Adam. This shows that at the time of the appointment of Adam as God's Vicegerent on earth, there were human beings dwelling upon the earth cccxxxvi