ADAM’S PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE

When the Quran describes Adam as a ‘khalifah’ (inheritor, successor, leader), it simply describes modern man as an inheritor of the Earth.

It is in this sense that humankind is a successor of his anthropoid ancestors as well as the leader of all other species, as he replaces them all on top of the food chain.

In brief, man is an ‘inheritor’ of the top position in the FOOD CHAIN OF EARTH’S ECOSYSTEM (6:133).

As a result of Judaeo-Christian influences transmitted to earlier tafsirs, many commentators incorrectly interpret the word ‘khalifah’ as ‘vicegerent of God’. However, as God must be beyond all our descriptions, and must be without any associate whatsoever, we cannot accept human to be a representative or successor of God.

It is also important to note that the Quran describes man as a ‘khalifah’ (inheritor, successor, leader) of the planet Earth only (2:30, 6:133, 6:165, 27:62, 33:72, 35:39), NOT of the entire universe.

Now, when we compare our ephemeral lifespan with the great aeons of cosmic evolution (76:1-2), and compare our sluggish motion (17:37) with the tremendous speed of light (32:5, 22:47) – a contrast that keeps us in the gravitational hold (55:33) of this ‘sticky Earth’ (37:8-11) and makes our crossing of titanic intergalactic distances next to impossible (15:14-15, 37:8-11, 40:35-37, 52:38) – we readily understand our fleetingness, minuteness and insignificance, compared to the enormous Universe (40:56-57, 52:35-37, 79:27-31), and the consequent limitedness of our minds in these space-time brackets.

Over and over again, we are reminded of this triviality of our knowledge about existence (34:9, 17:85, 48:4, 48:7, 74:31, 40:57). Over and over again, we are reminded of our insignificance compared to the whole of God’s creation (40:56-57, 52:35-37, 79:27-31).

These Quranic concepts about man’s place in the Universe are in complete harmony with our current scientific knowledge.

From scientific point of view, we are but one among hundreds of millions of species that evolved over the course of 3.5 billion years on one tiny planet among many orbiting an ordinary star, itself one of hundreds of billions of stars, possibly billions of solar systems in an ordinary galaxy that contains hundreds of billions of stars, itself located in a cluster of galaxies not so different from millions of other galaxy clusters, themselves whirling away from one another in an accelerating and expanding cosmic bubble universe that very possibly is only one among a near infinite number of bubble universes.

To believe that this entire cosmological multiverse was designed and created for one tiny subgroup on a single species on one planet in a lone galaxy in that solitary bubble universe is irrationally anthropocentric and scientifically absurd.

Instead, science elevates all of us to a higher plane of humanity and humility that we are in this limited time and space together, a momentary proscenium in the drama of cosmos.
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