Whom Does the Vicegerent Succeed?

Qur’an 2:30 · Al-Baqarah · With other exegetes

وَإِذْ قَالَ رَبُّكَ لِلْمَلَائِكَةِ إِنِّي جَاعِلٌ فِي الْأَرْضِ خَلِيفَةً ۖ قَالُوا أَتَجْعَلُ فِيهَا مَن يُفْسِدُ فِيهَا وَيَسْفِكُ الدِّمَاءَ وَنَحْنُ نُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِكَ وَنُقَدِّسُ لَكَ ۖ قَالَ إِنِّي أَعْلَمُ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ

And when your Lord said to the angels, “Indeed, I will make upon the earth a vicegerent (khalīfa).” They said, “Will You place upon it one who causes corruption therein and sheds blood, while we glorify Your praise and sanctify You?” He said, “Indeed, I know that which you do not know.” (2:30)

The question

Every vicegerent (khalīfa) stands in for someone. Whose vicegerent is the human being in this verse?

Views answered: Shaykh al-Ṭūsī (reporting Ibn ʿAbbās), and readings drawn from narrations · With: ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī

Jawādī Āmulī’s argument

Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī lists five views of the one succeeded (mustakhlaf ʿanhu): the angels who ruled the earth after the jinn, the extinct jinn, all beings, earlier humans (the nasnās), or God. Only the last is correct. Succeeding jinn or earlier creatures would bring no honour, would not need knowledge of the Names, and would not have prompted the angels’ question. I will make … a vicegerent means a vicegerent for Himself; the angels prostrated to the vicegerent, which they would not do for the deputy of anyone else; and the many generations that succeeded one another were never called vicegerents. The human being is also, through God, the vicegerent of the world, but indirectly.

Views compared

Each view is given as al-Tasnim reports it. Each point opens al-Tasnim at that place.

1. The angels who ruled the earth Read →

From the narrations of al-ʿAskarī and al-Qummī; Shaykh al-Ṭūsī from Ibn ʿAbbās

Angels who fought the jinn and then ruled the earth were to be replaced and taken up to heaven.

Jawādī Āmulī

This contradicts another narration that jinn and nasnās lived on the earth then; an earthly community cannot be entirely infallible; and the angels could not then claim to be more deserving.

2. The extinct jinn Read →

Shaykh al-Ṭūsī, from Ibn ʿAbbās

Humans succeed the corrupt, bloodthirsty jinn.

Jawādī Āmulī

Succeeding jinn brings no honour and needs no knowledge of the Names.

3. All beings Read →

A reading

The human being is a copy of the whole world and represents all beings.

Jawādī Āmulī

A great perfection, but not what “vicegerency” means; it can be a ground for God’s vicegerency. Adam can stand in for the world, but the world cannot stand in for Adam.

4. Earlier humans, the nasnās Read →

A narration from Imam al-Bāqir in al-Qummī

Earlier generations of humans before the present one.

Jawādī Āmulī

Historical succession was common, yet God never called any of it vicegerency.

5. God Read →

ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī

It is the vicegerency of God, not of earthly beings that preceded humans and became extinct. In al-Mizan ↗

Jawādī Āmulī

The correct view: the verse speaks of a vicegerent for God Himself, which the angels’ prostration and the teaching of the Names confirm.

Reading guide

Each step opens al-Tasnim at that point.

1. Five views of the one succeeded
2. The angels who ruled the earth
3. Why the fifth view is correct
4. All beings: the human being as a copy of the world
5. Further evidence from the narrations

The whole commentary on 2:30 → · ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī on 2:30 in al-Mizan ↗