31 Preface وَعَلَّمَ آدَمَ الأَسماءَ كُلَّها ثُمَّ عَرَضَهُم عَلَى المَلائِكَةِ فَقالَ أَنبِئوني بِأَسماءِ هٰؤُلاءِ إِن كُنتُم صادِقينَYusuf AliAnd He taught Adam the nature1 of all things; then He placed them before the angels, and said: “Tell me the nature of these if ye are right.” The literal words in Arabic throughout this passage are: “The names of things:” which commentators take to mean the inner nature and qualities of things, and things here would include feelings. The whole passage is charged with mystic meaning. The particular qualities or feelings which were outside the nature of angels were put by God into the nature of man. Man was thus able to love and understand love, and thus plan and initiate, as becomes the office of vicegerent. The angels acknowledged this. These things they could only know from the outside, but they had faith, or belief in the Unseen. And they knew that God saw all - what others see, what others do not see, what others may even wish to conceal. Man has many qualities which are latent or which he may wish to suppress or conceal, to his own detriment.