Man happens to be created to represent the Divine Being on earth. God endowed Adam, the first man, with characteristics like His own. According to mystics, this power of attorney conferred to man rests on five basic pillars.
Adam had the privilege of being the only creature directly shaped by God. God created Adam whom he took pleasure to contemplate as his own image. Man served God as His mirror. His attributes were projected unto Adam. It should be borne in mind, however, that the image of something is not identical with the object whose reflection is seen in the mirror. Although man is not favored with God's omnipotence he has been given the privilege of manifesting His power when He so chooses. Mercy, grace and kindness on the one hand and might or wrath, on the other, two kinds of contrary divine attributes have been granted to man only. This characteristic has not been given to angels, jinns or Satan. Only Adam has been chosen to manifest God's glory by His permission. Adam had been entrusted with the names of things. We, who are descendants of Adam, are potentially endowed with such opposed forces. Up to us to strive what is hidden in us in order that we may dig them up from our depths. "It is He Who hath created for you all things that are on earth…" (2/29). "Then We made you heirs in the land after them, to see how ye would behave! " (10/14) Man should be aware of the fact that the above potentialities have been 'entrusted' to him for safekeeping.
GOD'S VICEGERENT UPON THE EARTH
Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: "I will create a vicegerent on earth." They said: "Wilt Thou place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood?- whilst we do celebrate Thy praises and glorify Thy holy (name)?" He said: "I know what ye know not." (2/30)
When I have fashioned him (in due proportion) and breathed into him of My spirit, fall ye down in obeisance unto him." So the angels prostrated themselves, all of them together: Not so Iblis: he refused to be among those who prostrated themselves. (15/29-31)
When God had imparted the angels with His intention they had objected to it. “What need is there for such a vicegerent to rule over us?” they had said. “Are we not good enough for being vicegerents?” Prof. Dr. Yaţar Nuri Öztürk, in his work Kur'an'daki Islâm has the following to say: “Angels have deemed prayer, without any reservation, as the greatest criterion of superiority. God Almighty, on the other hand, stressed the fact that merging of polarities, that is coexistence of obedience and prayer on the one hand, and rebellion and objection on the other, has been aimed at. The good without evil or evil without good; i.e. regular and precise conjunction implying correlative variation of the concomitants is not favored by the Creator. Underneath man's loftiness lies the merging of oppositions. Man prides himself on the negative and the positive, the divine and the devilish, the beauty and the ugly that coalesce in him. To take man solely as an angel or as a devil is contrary to actual fact. The concomitancy is therefore an inescapable certainty.”
SUPERIORITY OF MAN OVER ANGELS
And He taught Adam the nature of all things; then He placed them before the angels, and said: "Tell me the nature of these if ye are right." They said: "Glory to Thee, of knowledge We have none, save what Thou Hast taught us: In truth it is Thou Who art perfect in knowledge and wisdom." (2/31-32)
He said: "O Adam! Tell them their natures." When he had told them, Allah said: "Did I not tell you that I know the secrets of heaven and earth, and I know what ye reveal and what ye conceal?" And behold, We said to the angels: "Bow down to Adam" and they bowed down. Not so Iblis: he refused and was haughty: He was of those who reject Faith. (2/33-34)
The names in question were the names of things according to some scholars and of concepts according to others, and according to still other viewpoints they were the names of angels or of Adam's descendants. What one can deduce from the verse was the importance of knowledge that is stressed and taught only to man in addition to angels. The test proved that man had superiority over the angels as far as knowledge was concerned. We said to the angels: "Bow down to Adam" and they bowed down. Not so Iblis: he refused and was haughty: He was of those who reject Faith. (2/33-34) The angels who had suffered defeat had to bow and respect man. Considering that God had projected His divine attributes to man made the latter superior to angels. Angels who represented the positive side of the creation would henceforth remain the friend of man. On the other hand, the angel that had refused to bow before man, Satan and his team, would do everything to beguile and stray man from the right path. The positive and the negative qualifications in man would conflict, tilting the balance sometime in favor of the former and sometime in favor of the latter. The man, who, evolving, becomes perfect, thanks to his devotional performances, will eventually reach a stage far superior to the station of angels and end up by attaining the attribute of vicegerent of God upon the earth and experience the divine bliss. On the other hand, the man, who will fail to abide by God's commandments, will be condemned to lead a bestial life till he passes away.
DIVINE TRUST
We did indeed offer the Trust to the Heavens and the Earth and the Mountains; but they refused to undertake it, being afraid thereof: but man undertook it;- He was indeed unjust and foolish;- (33/72)
And those who respect their trusts and covenants … Such will be the honoured ones in the Gardens (of Bliss). (70/32,35)
Trust, as a noun, is something committed or entrusted to one to be used or cared for in the interest of another before retrieving it when the time comes. Thus positive and negative virtualities, spiritual and material endowments had been entrusted to man by God; life, for instance is given to the custody of man to be retrieved when the appointed hour has come. All our endowments, namely, knowledge, will and power and our body with all its five senses are but given in custody to us; again, whatever we possess, our parents and children, the environment, the sea, the strata of the air, the creatures, humans, beasts and plants should be taken for trusts. Things should, according to the Qur'an, should be entrusted to the care and preservation of the individual capable to manage them with justice. Allah doth command you to render back your Trusts to those to whom they are due; And when ye judge between man and man, that ye judge with justice… (4/58) Communities who were well-advised to entrust the subjects requiring knowledge and technique and the matters having to do with spiritual affairs to the experts have prospered, while those who were ill-advised, either for ignorance of for personal interests, to maladroit persons have declined. The President, the Prime Minister, the MPs, the mayors, the functionaries etc. should be duly selected and elected. We should bear in mind that all the said potentialities have been given to our custody for a transitional period of time and must be ready to yield them back when the term comes as intact as we had received. O ye that believe! betray not the trust of Allah and the Messenger, nor misappropriate knowingly things entrusted to you.
LAWS OF CREATION