Assalaam Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh,
In the All-Wise Qur’an are numerous minor events behind which are concealed universal principles, and which are shown as the tips of general laws. For example,
"He taught Adam the Names, all of them." Qur’an, 2:31.
This is the ‘teaching of the Names,’ which was a miracle of Adam before the angels because of his ability to be Allah’s vicegerent on earth, and was a minor event. But it forms the tip of a universal principle which is as follows: it was the teaching, due to man’s comprehensive disposition, of countless sciences, and numerous all-embracing branches of knowledge about the universe, and extensive learning about the Creator’s attributes and qualities, which afforded man superiority over not only the angels but also the heavens and earth and mountains in the question of the bearing of the Supreme Trust. And like the Qur’an states that through his comprehensive disposition, man is Allah’s spiritual vicegerent on earth, so the minor event in the Unseen of the angels prostrating before Adam and Satan not prostrating is the tip of a broad and universal observed principle; these hint at a extensive truth which is as follows:
Through mentioning the angels’ obedience and submission before the person of Adam, and Satan’s pride and refusal, the Qur’an makes understood that most of the physical beings in the universe and their representatives and appointed beings are subjugated to man, and that man’s senses are predisposed and amenable to benefiting from all of them. And pointing out what a fearsome enemy and serious obstacle in the path of man’s progress are evil matter and its representatives and evil inhabitants, which corrupt man’s nature and drive him down wrong paths, the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition, while speaking of a minor matter with Adam (Peace be upon him), converses in elevated fashion with the whole universe and all mankind.
http://www.lightofquran.info/20word.htm