With these verses the sūrah begins to relate the story of man’s creation. It is the story of basic human nature, truth and error and their basic factors, the story of Adam and the substance from which he was created, and what took place at the time of his creation and afterwards. The Qur’ān has already referred to this story twice in previous sūrahs, namely Sūrahs 2 and 7, The Cow and The Heights. Each time it occurs it serves a special purpose, and is recounted in its own special style with a distinct atmosphere. Hence, the episodes highlighted each time are different, as are the approach and the rhythm employed.

In all three sūrahs, the story is introduced with reference to the establishment of mankind on earth as God’s vicegerent. We note that in Sūrah 2, it is preceded by the verse: “It is He who created for you all that is on earth. He then turned to heaven and fashioned it into seven heavens. He has knowledge of all things.” (2: 29) And in Sūrah 7, the preceding verse says: “We have established you firmly on earth and We have provided you there with means of livelihood. How seldom are you grateful.” (7: 10) Here in this sūrah, the story of creation is preceded by the statement: “We have placed various means of livelihood on it for you, as well as for those whom you do not have to provide for. There is not a thing but with Us are its storehouses; and We send it down only in accordance with a defined measure.” (Verses 20-21)

Yet in each of these sūrahs the story of creation is told in a different context, with a definite purpose for each usage. In Sūrah 2, The Cow, the point of emphasis is the appointment of Adam as a vicegerent on earth, which has been placed, with all its contents, at man’s service: “Your Lord said to the angels, I am appointing a vicegerent on earth.’“ (2: 30) As the angels wondered at this appointment, the reason for which was not readily apparent to them, they were told some of its aspects: “He taught Adam the names of all things and then turned to the angels and said, ‘Tell Me the names of these things, if what you say is true.’ They said, ‘Limitless are You in Your glory! We only know what You have taught us. Indeed, You alone are All-Knowing, Wise.’ He said, Adam! Tell them their names.’ When he had told them all their names, He said, ‘Have I not said to you that I know the secrets of what is in the heavens and the earth, and I know all that you reveal and conceal?’” (2: 31-33) The sūrah then relates how the angels prostrated themselves before Adam while Iblīs, or Satan, arrogantly refused. It tells how Adam and his wife resided in heaven before they were seduced by Satan and then their expulsion from heaven and fall to earth so that they could assume their vicegerency, having gone through such a painful experience and repented and asked God to forgive them.

“Indeed We have created man out of sounding clay, out of black mud moulded into shape, whereas the jinn We had created before him out of the fire of scorching winds.” (Verses 26- 27) At the outset the difference in the two natures is clearly stated. The dry clay which gives off a sound when knocked and which is originally black mud given a specific shape is totally different from the fire described here as scorching, blowing fiercely. We learn later that another element is added to man’s nature, namely, the breathing of God’s spirit into it. Satan’s nature, however, remained that of the fire of scorching winds.

Your Lord said to the angels: I am creating a human being out of sounding clay, out of black mud moulded into shape. When I have fashioned him and breathed of My spirit into him, fall down in prostration before him.’ Thereupon, the angels, one and all, prostrated themselves. Not so Iblīs, who refused to be among those who prostrated themselves. God said: ‘Iblīs! What is your reason for not being among those who have prostrated themselves?’ [Iblīs] replied: I am not one to prostrate myself to a human being whom You have created out of sounding clay, out of mud moulded into shape.’ God said: ‘Then get out of here, for you are accursed, and the curse shall be on you till the Day of Judgement.’ (Verses 28-35)

These verses start with God’s address to the angels. When, where and how He said all this are details that we have no way of knowing. We simply have no clear statement in the Qur’ān or the Ĥadīth which answers these points. Since these details belong to the realm of what lies beyond human perception, we have no way of knowing them. Hence any attempt to provide answers is futile. The same applies to man’s creation out of a dry clay, moulded into shape, and infused with God’s spirit.

We may refer to other statements in the Qur’ān concerning this point, particularly verse 23: 12, “We create man out of the essence of clay,” and verse 32: 8, “He causes him i.e. man] to be begotten out of a line of a humble fluid.” We may say on the basis of these statements that man and life itself originally come out of the earth’s clay. The basic constituents of this clay are found in the physical constitution of man and all living organisms. There are several stages between the original clay and man’s creation, and to these the term, line’, refers. That is all that may be said on the basis of the texts we have. Any addition is no more than an overload added to the text, which the Qur’ān does not need. Scientific research may proceed with whatever means available to it. It may advance theories which are then either confirmed by hard evidence or amended if they cannot be proven. It cannot, however, make conclusions that are in conflict with the facts stated in the Qur’ān, which tell us that the line of creation started with the elements of clay, and to which water was later added.

How has this clay been elevated from its original constituent nature to the horizon of organic life and then to the more sublime horizon of human life? That is a secret no human being can explain. Indeed the secret of life even in the basic organism or the initial cell remains unknown. No one claims to have fathomed it. Then there remains the secret of a human’s higher life with all its special features of perception, feeling and inspiration that distinguish man from all other animals. Different theories may try to explain this secret, but they have been forced to acknowledge that man has his own distinctive features and characteristics that single him out right from the very inception of human life. They cannot prove any direct relationship with any creature that lived before man, even though some theories claim that man evolved from other creatures. Nor can any of these theories disprove the other premise that different species have emerged separately, even though some are higher than others.

It is this breath of God’s spirit that provides man’s link with the Supreme Society, making him worthy of contact with God, receiving His messages, and going beyond the material world of his physical constitution to the mental world of hearts and minds. It is this breath of God’s spirit which allows man to go beyond time and space, and beyond the reach of his senses and physical ability to formulate perceptions and experience feelings that, at times, seem unlimited.

All this despite the heavy nature of clay which puts him in need of all that his clay constitution requires, such as food, drink, clothing and the satisfaction of desires. He also has his weaknesses, giving rise to faulty concepts and whims. Yet right from the beginning, man is a compound of these two inseparable elements. He has the nature of a compound, not that of a mixture. We need to keep this fact clear in our minds whenever we speak about man’s constitution from clay and sublime spirit. The two constituents are inseparable in his nature. In no situation does either element achieve total domination, completely excluding the other. Man is not pure clay or pure spirit even for a single moment. Every single action and every single deed involves his whole make-up which is indivisible.

Achieving a proper balance between the clay and the sublime elements is the highest level man is called on to achieve. That is the stage of human perfection. He is not required to shed either element of his constitution so as to become either angel or animal. To attempt a rise that disturbs the balance is a shortcoming that does not suit man’s essential characteristics, or the purpose of his creation in this unique fashion.

A person who tries to suppress his basic physical instincts is the same as one who tries to suppress his free spiritual powers. Both go beyond straight human nature, imposing on themselves something that God does not sanction. Both destroy themselves by distorting the basic compound of their very nature. They will have to account to God for such destruction.

Hence the Prophet (peace be upon him) reproached one of his Companions for deciding to remain celibate, vowing not to marry, and another for having decided to fast every day of his life and a third who decided to spend all night every night in worship. His reproach is clear in a ĥadīth reported by his wife `Ā’ishah, and he said at the end: “Whoever turns away from my path does not belong to me.” Islam has formulated its own laws for human life taking into account man’s constitution. It established a human system which does not suppress a single aspect of human potential. The whole purpose of this system is to establish a perfect balance between these powers, so that they all work in concert, without allowing anyone of them to encroach on another. Any such encroachment leads to the negation of the other, and every dominance leads to destruction. Man is responsible for the maintenance of the essential characteristics of his nature and his accountability to God. The system Islam establishes for human life is geared to promote these characteristics which God has given to man for a clear purpose.

God said to the angels: “I am creating a human being out of sounding clay, out of black mud moulded into shape. When I have fashioned him and breathed of My spirit into him, fall down in prostration before him.” (Verses 28-29) And what God said immediately took effect, for His word expresses His will, and His will is always done. We cannot question how the breath of God’s eternal spirit mixed with the clay that has limited life. Such arguments are no more than idle play. It is indeed a child’s play with man’s intellect itself. It forces the human mind out of its own realm in which it may exercise its powers of perception, reflection and comprehension. All the controversy that has been raised over this issue, past and present, betrays ignorance of the nature of the human mind, its characteristics and limitations. It simply forces the human mind to try to measure God’s work by human standards. It is an altogether wrong premise.

God simply says that this has happened without saying how. Hence, the event itself is a fact that the human mind cannot deny. Yet it cannot prove it by any interpretation it invents, other than accepting what God has said. Man is a creature with a beginning, and as such, he cannot judge what is eternal, or how the eternal creates. When the human mind accepts this point, it stops expending its power in futile argument.

What happened after God issued His order to the angels to prostrate themselves before Adam? “Thereupon, the angels, one and all, prostrated themselves.” (Verse 30) That is in the nature of this aspect of God’s creation, the angels. They obey God’s orders whatever they are, without argument or delay. However, something else also took place at the same time: “Not so Iblīs, who refused to be among those who prostrated themselves.” (Verse 31)

Iblīs belongs to a different type of creation, separate from the angels. He is created out of fire while they are created out of light. They do not disobey God, whatever His command may be. He, on the other hand, disobeyed God, rejecting His command.

For certain, then, he is not, and never was, one of the angels. That we have here a form of exception, more strongly pronounced in the Arabic text, refers to what is called in Arabic linguistics ‘inconsequential exception’. It is acceptable to say in Arabic: “The Joneses have come except for Ahmad”, when you know that Ahmad does not belong to the Jones family, but is always with them. Now since the order stated here has been issued to the angels, how could it apply to Iblīs? That the same order was issued to Iblīs is clearly stated in Sūrah 7, The Heights. There the order to Iblīs is mentioned in a later verse, when God questions him: “What has prevented you from prostrating yourself when I commanded you?” (7: 12) This is clear proof that Iblīs was given the same order. He might have been included in the order given to the angels, if he was with them at the time, or perhaps a separate order was issued to him. However, this is not mentioned here and this shows that he is of a far lesser position than the angels. Furthermore, the texts we have, and Satan’s own behaviour, all demonstrate that he was not one of the angels.

The story of man’s creation and placement on earth deserves detailed comments, but we will only touch briefly on certain aspects of it, as befits the way it is told in this sūrah.

The sūrah delivers a clear message concerning the special creation known as man.

He has a unique make-up which gives him more than the physical constitution which he has in common with other living creatures. No matter how life emerged and how living creatures came into being, man is distinguished by another quality mentioned in the Qur’ān, which derives from the breathing of the divine spirit into him. This quality is not the result of the continuous evolution of man, stage after stage, as claimed by Darwinism. It came right at the inception of human life, when man was first created. There was no time when man was only a living organic entity, then the spirit entered into his constitution to make of him the man we see today.

Neo-Darwinism, and its main advocate, Julian Huxley, have been forced to admit a part of this great fact. In this respect, it admits the uniqueness of man, and his ability to establish human civilization. Nevertheless, neo-Darwinism continues to claim that this unique human being has evolved from the animal kingdom.

It is very hard to reconcile this view of neo-Darwinism which admits the uniqueness of man with the essential concept of evolution advanced by Darwin. Yet all evolutionists adamantly persist with this attitude, giving it false scientific guise.

This is only because they try to break away from the Church and whatever view it advances. The Jews have always encouraged and promoted this concept, endorsing it as scientific, because it serves their ultimate goal.

We have already discussed this point when commenting on a similar text in Sūrah 7, The Heights. It is useful to quote here from those comments:

The total import of Qur’ānic statements that speak of the creation of Adam (peace be upon him) and the start of human life indicates very strongly that this particular creation was given its human characteristic and special tasks at the time of its coming into existence. Evolution in human history took the form of developing these characteristics and gaining further experience in utilizing them. It is not an evolution of existence which suggests, as Darwinism would like us to believe, that a process of evolution of species has reached its climax with the advent of man.

There might have been stages of advanced animals, with one coming after the other, as evidenced by the theory of natural selection. But this is no more than a theory that does not aspire to any degree of certainty, because the estimation of the ages of rocks in geological strata is again a theoretical process. It is the same as estimating the ages of different stars and planets on the basis of the characteristics of their rays. Future discoveries may amend or change these theories.

But even if we were to learn the ages of rocks with absolute certainty, there is nothing to prevent the existence of different species of animals, some of which are higher than others, in different time periods, and that their advancement makes them particularly suited for the prevailing circumstances. Some of them may disappear when circumstances change drastically to make it difficult for the earth to sustain their existence. That does not make it inevitable that these species have evolved one from the other. All the studies and observations of Charles Darwin and those who followed him cannot prove more than that. They cannot say with any certainty that one species evolved from a preceding one, on the basis of fossils and where they have been found. It simply proves that a subsequent species was higher than a preceding one. This can easily be explained as we have already said: the prevailing circumstances at one particular time allowed the existence of one species. The circumstances subsequently prevailing allowed the existence of another species and the disappearance of the first one.

The unique method of creation which led to the emergence of man, a creature with its own separate existence, is the fact that God breathed in him of His own spirit. This gives us a totally different picture of man and his ‘essential needs’ from those of all materialistic philosophies, with all the economic, social and political doctrines they produce and all the concepts and values they advance for human life.

The claim that man is nothing but an advanced animal species that has evolved from lower animals lies at the heart of the concept promoted in the Marxist Declaration that the essential needs of man are: food, drink, shelter and sex. These are certainly the basic needs of animals. Man cannot be given a more degrading position than what this outlook assigns to him. All his rights that are derived from the fact that he is unlike animals, since he has his unique human qualities, are thus denied to him. He is denied his freedom of belief, thought and expression, and his right to choose his profession and where to live, as well as his right to criticize the system of government and its intellectual basis. Indeed he is denied even the right to criticize the party in power, or those who are even less than the party, such as despotic rulers in hateful dictatorial regimes that treat human beings as though they are no more than a flock of sheep. After all, human beings, in materialistic philosophies, are no different from animals from whom they had at one time evolved. All this misery is then ennobled as ‘scientific socialism’.

The Islamic concept of man, based on man’s special, distinctive qualities, considers that the basic needs of man are different from those of animals. Food, drink, shelter and sex do not constitute the total sum of his basic needs. His intellectual and spiritual needs are by no means of secondary importance. Faith, freedom of thought, will and choice are also basic needs that must be placed in the same category as food, drink, shelter and sex. Indeed, these other needs are of a higher position, because these are the ones that man needs while animals do not. In other words, these are the ones that emphasize his humanity. When he is denied these, his humanity itself is denied.

Thus, in the Islamic system, freedom of faith, thought and expression, choice and will cannot be denied for the sake of increased production so that food, drink, shelter and sex are provided for humans! Nor is it permissible that moral values, as established by God, not by tradition, environment or economy, be denied in order to meet the animal needs of man.

The two outlooks are essentially different in their evaluation of man and his basic needs. Hence, they can never be reconciled in a single system. It is either Islam or materialistic doctrines with all their oppressive products, including what they call ‘scientific socialism’. Indeed ‘scientific socialism’ is just another sordid product of materialism which degrades man whom God Himself has honoured.

The eternal battle between Satan and man on this earth is one in which Satan tries his best to lead man away from what submission to God alone entails in accepting His faith, concepts, worship, systems and laws. Human beings who submit to God alone, which means they worship Him only, are the ones over whom Satan has no power whatsoever. It is God who says to Satan, as related in this story of creation: