And when your Fosterer said to the angels {4}, “”I am going to make a successor in the earth.”” They said, “”Are you going to make (him, the successor) in it, who would act corruptly in it and shed blood, when we glorify You by praising You and exalt Your Holiness?”” He (Allah) replied, “”I know that which you do not know.””
Angels’expectation of being made the successors of the earth is further indicated by their presentation of their qualification for this post that they are involved in glorification, praise and exalting the holiness of Allah (SWT), which also conveys the sense that they are always busy executing His orders, praising and making everything praise Him for the excellence of His creation and ascribing the credit of His creation only to Him excluding all others, i.e. regarding Him as Pure, He being the Creator and everything else His creation. Allah’s reply to this indirect protest and claim of the angels was that He knew that which they did not know. What was it that the angels did not know? Was it the human capability of receiving, storing in memory, reproducing and utilizing knowledge which was to be imparted to them by Allah (SWT)?
‘Basheer’ means an informer. Does the word ‘Bashar’ used for man (Chapter: 15 Verse 28) convey the sense that man will have the capacity of being a recipient and an informer of news, a news- giver? If we analyze our daily social contacts and our conversation with fellow human beings, most of the time we are either receiving information or passing out information to others. We act like information processing machines. Is it this capability of man which the angels had not known? Angels too receive and convey messages (pass on Knowledge as messengers Chapter: 35. Verse 1) but they do not appear to utilize knowledge. Contrary to this man appears to have the additional capability of utilizing the knowledge he receives, for his development and progress, the proof of which is his advancement in the fields of science and technology and the cause behind which is his control on and utilization of energies like, heat electricity, sound, magnetism, light etc.”
Angels & Jinn: According to the Quran, angels, complying with the orders of Allah, communicate His messages, guard people, record their deeds, punish and help them, cause them to die, are responsible for natural calamities, are incharge of paradise and hell and descend for various other affairs. They thus appear to be involved in doing various works. In scientific terminology, work involves energy.
Allah alone knows their real forms and functions but the above facts tempt us to ponder over few possibilities: Are angels ‘beings’ put in charge of various energies by Allah?
The angels, according to the statement of prophet Muhammed (PBH) reported by Muslim, have been created from ‘Noor’ (Tafsir Ibni Kaseer, Quran, Chapter 18, Page 103, under explanatory notes). The word Noor, normally translated as light, could also mean radiant energy. Besides, the Arabic word ‘Malak’ translated as angel also conveys the sense of strength, power or energy.
The Quran, about the jinn states:
“And He (Allah) created the jinn from the (heat wave) let free from fire (Q. Chapter: 55, Verse 15.).
Something let free from fire, in the terminology of science, could mean infrared rays or heat energy.
Could the angels and the jinn be composed of some forms of radiant energy, whom we cannot perceive through our physical senses but who exist and exert their influence on us without our being conscious of them, just like X-rays, which penetrate the human flesh but do not impart any feeling to the human being concerned?
Does bowing down of angels before Adam, mean that Allah has Himself given human beings control over some of the energies and that the progress in science and technology is not the achievement of man but just a Divine gift?