Before creating Adam (as), Allah ta'ala spoke to the angels that he would put on earth a chalifah, and the angels said: "Will You place therein those who will make mischief therein and shed blood, - while we glorify You with praises and thanks and sanctify You."
How could these angels know this? Did Allah ta'ala give them this knowledge? Or were there another creatures, before mankind, who caused mischief and shed blood?
And (remember) when We said to the angels: "Prostrate yourselves before Adam.". And they prostrated except Iblîs
Why does Allah ta'ala call Iblis an angel? As far as I know he is a Jinn! How did Iblis make it to be in a such high position with the angels? Was there a fight between angels and jinns and he become a righteous one?
How could these angels know this? Did Allah ta'ala give them this knowledge? Or were there another creatures, before mankind, who caused mischief and shed blood?
From Tafsir Ibn Kathir explaining this verse:
The angels meant that this type of creature usually commits the atrocities they mentioned. The angels knew of this fact, according to their understanding of human nature, for Allah stated that He would create man from clay. Or, the angels understood this fact from the word Khalifah, which also means the person who judges disputes that occur between people, forbidding them from injustice and sin, as Al-Qurtubi said.
The statement the angels uttered was not a form of disputing with Allah's, nor out of envy for the Children of Adam, as some mistakenly thought. Allah has described them as those who do not precede Him in speaking, meaning that they do not ask Allah anything without His permission. When Allah informed them that He was going to create a creation on the earth, and they had knowledge that this creation would commit mischief on it, as Qatadah mentioned, they said,
Will You place therein those who will make mischief therein and shed blood)
This is only a question for the sake of learning about the wisdom of that, as if they said, Our Lord! What is the wisdom of creating such creatures since they will cause trouble in the earth and spill blood "If the wisdom behind this action is that You be worshipped, we praise and glorify You (meaning we pray to You) we never indulge in mischief, so why create other creatures''
Why does Allah ta'ala call Iblis an angel? As far as I know he is a Jinn! How did Iblis make it to be in a such high position with the angels? Was there a fight between angels and jinns and he become a righteous one?
When Allah commanded the angels to prostrate before Adam, Iblis was included in this command. Although Iblis was not an angel, he was trying - and pretending - to imitate the angels' behavior and deeds, and this is why he was also included in the command to the angels to prostrate before Adam. Satan was criticized for defying that command, as we will explain with detail, Allah willing, when we mention the Tafsir of Allah's statement,
(Except Iblis (Satan). He was one of the Jinn; he disobeyed the command of his Lord.) (18:50)
Similarly, Muhammad bin Ishaq reported that Ibn `Abbas said, "Before he undertook the path of sin, Iblis was with the angels and was called `Azazil.' He was among the residents of the earth and was one of the most active worshippers and knowledgeable persons among the angels. This fact caused him to be arrogant. Iblis was from a genus called Jinn.''
Our Lord! Verily, we have heard the call of one calling to Faith: 'Believe in your Lord,' and we have believed.
Our Lord! Forgive us our sins and expiate from us our evil deeds, and make us die (in the state of righteousness) along with Al-Abrar
Thank you! may Allah ta'ala reward you! Well, are there any narrations that tell the situation on earth before creating Adam (as)? Not the story of creating heaven and earth and the qalam but specifically telling about the inhabitants living on earth?
Salam brothers and sisters! Insha'allah you'll forgive me! But these days I need your help. Since I have really much time, Alhamdulillah, I am reading the quran and reflecting each Ayah of the Qur'an, and therefore many questions occur to me :S Those Aayat which are clear to me, I will not mention it. Allah ta'ala says, that Abraham (as) was thinking the moon was his god and so on. To suma up, he was searching the thruth/guidance, therefore Hanifa. But there is a hadith talking about Fitrah that every human is born as a muslim and since Ibhrahim (as) was one of the greatest messengers, how come he worshiped the moon and so on? :S is there any hadith regarding this? :S
Masha'Allaah it is really good that you are trying to study the meanings of the Qur'an. A good site that might help you is: http://tafsir.com/Default.asp
This has Tafseer Ibn Katheer online, which is a very famous tafseer of the Qur'an, and Insha'Allaah it will help you to understand further. There are even some translations like the Muhsin-Khan one which have footnotes explaining aayaat with hadeeth and other aayaat etc.
About the verses you mentioned, Ibn Katheer mentions:
We should note here that, in these Ayat, Ibrahim, peace be upon him, was debating with his people, explaining to them the error of their way in worshipping idols and images. In the first case with his father, Ibrahim explained to his people their error in worshipping the idols of earth, which they made in the shape of heavenly angels, so that they intercede on their behalf with the Glorious Creator. His people thought that they are too insignificant to worship Allah directly, and this is why they turned to the worship of angels as intercessors with Allah for their provisions, gaining victory and attaining their various needs. He then explained to them the error and deviation of worshipping the seven planets, which they said were the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The brightest of these objects and the most honored to them was the Sun, the Moon then Venus. Ibrahim, may Allah's peace and blessings be on him, first proved that Venus is not worthy of being worshipped, for it is subservient to a term and course appointed that it does not defy, nor swerving right or left. Venus does not have any say in its affairs, for it is only a heavenly object that Allah created and made bright out of His wisdom. Venus rises from the east and sets in the west where it disappears from sight. This rotation is repeated the next night, and so forth. Such an object is not worthy of being a god. Ibrahim then went on to mention the Moon in the same manner in which he mentioned Venus, and then the Sun. When he proved that these three objects were not gods, although they are the brightest objects the eyes can see,
(he said: "O my people! I am indeed free from all that you join as partners in worship with Allah.'') meaning, I am free from worshipping these objects and from taking them as protectors. Therefore, if they are indeed gods as you claim, then all of you bring your plot against me and do not give me respite.
I often looked at that verse as the angels addressing chaos caused by the dinosaurs or beastly life on earth, but I don't want to loan my own interpretation ..
Allah swt knows best
Text without context is pretext If your opponent is of choleric temperament, seek to irritate him
Remember that the Qur'an is extremely vast - we are limited in our full understanding of it until we master the sciences of the Qur'an, such as the Arabic language. For more about this, see this thread:
May Allah ta'ala reward all of you! Brother Muhammad, is there another page which I can select the aya that I want plus other Mufassir to comapare? Jazakallahu khairan
That site only has one tafseer - I'm not sure if there is one which compares different tafseer.
Regarding the website I gave - use the drop-down at the top to select the soorah. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to have a search facility to find explanations of specific verses, so you have to browse through the list of topics for each soorah and find your verse among them. If you know the verse number and where about it is, it shouldn't be too difficult to find. At the end of each page, it usually writes the verse numbers for the following page so you can use this as a guide.
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