“And when your Lord said to the angels, I am going to place in the earth a khalif, they said: Will You place in it such as shall make mischief in it and shed blood, and we celebrate Your praise and extol Your holiness? He said: Surely I know what you do not know.” (Qur’an 2:30)
﷽
This proclamation of Allah (swt) and the subsequent response of the angels is very interesting.
The first point to establish is that the proclamation of Allah (swt) needs to be clear and without ambiguity.
The second point is that the angels understood from the word that Allah (swt) used two possiblities.
- Yuf’sidu. That it entails the possiblity that the khalif can do mischief.
- wayasfiku l-dimāa. That it entails the possibility that the khalif can be the cause of bloodshed and violence.
This both astonishing and astounding in that this is the initial reaction of these noble beings.
In Islamic teachings the angels are pure and love purity. They do not dwell among or around the places that are impure.
Out of all the possible responses of the angels the initial response to this word chosen by Allah (swt) is recoil.
The response of Allah (swt) was not to correct them, or even to suggest that they are wrong. Allah (swt) simply responds with: “I know what you do not know.”
If a person were to offer a child a banana one would not really think much of it. We don’t think that the banana would harm the child. It surely does not have the properties of being sharp or dangerous. It certainly is not going to cut them.
However, if a person were to offer a knife to a child, one may wonder the intention behind it. A knife is a tool. It can be used as an instrument to cut items that may otherwise be cumbersome to deal with as a whole. However, a knife can also be used to injure either oneself or others.
Yet, also notice that the angels said: “and we celebrate Your praise and extol Your holiness?”
In other words, they did not deny the possibility of this word khalif in addition to creating mischief and shedding blood, that it too could celebrate and praise Allah. However, from the perspective of the angels, the creation of this khalif seems redundant.
The word khalif did not entail (at least to those angelic recipients of the word) one who would be flawless, infallible, rightly guided, necessarily just.
Just as it did not entail as such to those angelic recipients of the word, it does not entail as such to the Ibadi school.
We want just leaders. We want to be ruled by the just and the righteous.
The word khalif to those angelic recipients of the word understood that with it could come the possibility of violent upheaval.
All citizens of just governance always pray and hope for a peaceful transition of power. However, often, the transition of power does not come about by peaceful means.
May Allah (swt) Guide the Ummah.
May Allah (swt) Forgive the Ummah.
Prima Quran 