Tafseer this ayah [2:30] "إِنِّي جَاعِلٌ فِي الْأَرْ ضِ خَلِيفَةً"

Question

The translation is:

Remember, when your Lord said to the angels: "I have to place a trustee on the earth ¹....." [2:30]

And these two ayah shows us how Adam and his wife lived in Janna, but after they made a mistake, God send them to Earth.

[2:35]

And We said to Adam: "Both you and your spouse live in the Garden, eat freely to your fill wherever you like, but approach not this tree or you will become transgressors.²

[2:36]

.... Go, one the antagonist of the other, and live on the earth for a time ordained, and fend for yourselves."³

I heard the story like this:

Adam and his wife were living in Janna, they made a mistake for eating the tree because of Shaitan's temptation, Allah send them on the Earth.

But as we see, Allah told angles I have to place a trustee on the Earth, then Does Allah made his decision to put them on the Earth even before their mistake? OR Does the word Earth in first ayah means Garden or Janna but in implicit way?

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1, 2, 3: From tanzil.net, the translation of Ahmed Ali

Answer 1

According to this Aya (Al-A'raf [7:27]):

From http://quran.com/7/27

O children of Adam, let not Satan tempt you as he removed your parents from Paradise, stripping them of their clothing to show them their private parts. Indeed, he sees you, he and his tribe, from where you do not see them. Indeed, We have made the devils allies to those who do not believe.

According to that aya, Allah only mentioned (parents) that removed from Paradise, therefore, we can conclude that Allah only placed our parents (Adam and hawa (lilith)) in Paradise but not us, then, it was clear from begging that Allah crated Children of Adam to live on earth...

Answer 2

As we see, Allah told angles I have to place a trustee on the Earth, then Does Allah made his decision to put them on the Earth even before their mistake. yes it means this earth. because you should a faith that prophets do not commit error.it was the decision of ALLAH to send his khalifa on land so ADAM alaihi salaam was acting upon masihat e rabbani.That he knew he will commit this error and then ALLAH will send him on earth,because ALLAH has stated " have to place a trustee on the Earth" but placed him in jannah so it was WISDOM OF ALLAH. This is what heard from Islamic Scholars which also acceptable and sensible which gives the output that ALLAH is TRUTH and Speaks the Truth and Prophets are Innocent.

Answer 3

When Allah (SWT) said in the Quran:

And [mention, O Muhammad], when your Lord said to the angels, "Indeed, I will make upon the earth a successive authority."

Al-Baqarah 30

and in the same verse the angels replied:

They said, "Will You place upon it one who causes corruption therein and sheds blood, while we declare Your praise and sanctify You?"

Al-Baqarah 30

According to tafsir Ibn Kathir and Qurdubi, the angels said this statement because allah has created the jinn before Adam and the jinn caused shed and killing on Earth.

This can be proven from the verse,

And the jinn We created before from scorching fire.

Al-Hijr 27.

However, al-Qurdubi added another interesting interpretation, Allah has already told the angels that this man(Adam) will cause corruption and shed blood because the word "خليفة"(khalifa) suggests or gives an impression to the angels that some of his children will not be as good as Adam since the word Khalifa means one who lead and have power to set justice on Earth.

But why would Allah create Adam ? Allah says in the Quran:

And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me.

Ad-Dhariyat 56

As you can see he wanted the humans to worship him. So he let him enter the Jannah(Tafsir Ibb Kathir and Qurdubi say that the word Jannah means the Jannah) to test him. But he was misleaded by the satan so he was sent to Earth. and this is the wisdom of Allah. He promised Jannah(heaven) to those who will obey him and follow his orders. Those who will disobey will have severe punishment.

Answer 4

It would seem quite possible that there were races / humans / peoples on the earth before Adam and his progeny, and that the Angels were referring to them:

al-Mas’oudi’ has a book entitled Akhbar al-Zaman. It has a chapter called “On the Peoples before Adam”.

I don't have the book but apparently it explains that there were 28 groups of peoples created on this earth before Adam, including a mankind that resembled the people of Adam. These groups mixed and interacted, leading to the expansion of the peoples to 120 groups.

Al-Maqdisi reportedly wrote about 3 pre-Adamic intelligent beings before Adam: two were Jinn, and the third flesh and blood. The 3rd group could be those referred to as “one who will make mischief therein and shed blood”.

here seems to be some mention of this topic in Tarikh at-Tabari-"تاريخ الرسل والملوك or Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk or Tarikh al-Tabari"

Previous ‘ulama have been discussing pre-Adamic and/or pre-human history for some time, and longer than the debate over evolution has existed.

I would love for anyone who has access to these books to fill me in, in English or Arabic.

For detailed information - ‘Adams’ Before Adam?