The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page 98
CH. 2 AL-BAQARAH PT. 1 قَالُوا سُبْحَنَكَ لَا لَنَا إِلَّا مَا They said, Holy at Thou. 33 عِلْمَ عَلَّمْتَنَا إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْعَلِيْمُ الْحَكِيمُ No knowledge have we except what Thou hast taught us; surely, Thou art the All- Knowing, the Wise. '39 The verse injunction of the Holy Prophet justifies the inference that man has the capability to manifest in himself all the attributes of God. Thus, both the Quran and the Holy Prophet's sayings are agreed that man and angel differ in the manifestation of divine attributes, and the "names" in the clause, He taught Adam all the names, refer to the attributes of God. means that God first implanted in Adam free will and the needful capacity for the comprehension of the various divine attributes, and then gave him the knowledge of those attributes, which was impossible without the power of assimilation. The verse that follows corroborates this meaning; for therein it is stated that the low (attributes) were such as were not wholly known to the angels and it is evident that such Low are only the divine attributes. The words may also mean the qualities of different things in nature. As man was to make use of the forces of nature, God gave Adam the capacity of knowing their qualities and properties. The word ✓ (all) used here does not imply absolute totality. It simply means all that was necessary. The Quran uses this word in this sense elsewhere also (see 6:45; 27:7, 24; 28:58). The pronoun in the words (He put the objects of these names) shows that the objects referred to here are not inanimate 98 things; for in Arabic this form of pronoun is used only for rational beings. The meaning of the expression, therefore, would be that God showed Adam in a kashf (vision) certain human beings from among his progeny who were to be the mani- festations of divine attributes in the future. Such beings were the Prophets or other holy persons who were to enjoy such nearness to God as to become His image and through whom God was to reform mankind. The angels were then asked whether they could manifest the divine attributes like them. This is what is meant by the words, Tell Me the names of these, occurring in the present verse. 39. Important Words: (Holy art Thou). The word is the infinitive of for which سبح see 2:31. The infinitive form is used to intensify the meaning. Commentary: As the angels were conscious of their nature and limitations, they frankly confessed that they were unable to reflect God's attributes as man could do, i. e. they could reflect only such of His attributes as He, in His eternal wisdom, had given them the power of reflecting. Man was a fuller image of God than the angels, or, for that matter, any other created being. Says God: We have created man in the best of constitutions (95:5).