Does the verse {Indeed, I am going to place on the earth a successor} indicate the existence of creatures before Adam?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, regarding His saying (Glorified and Exalted is He)[Al-Baqarah 2:30], meaning a successor to those who came before him, is there evidence in this for the existence of creatures on earth before Adam (peace be upon him)?
Answer:
There is no doubt, no doubt about that. I mean, was there no one on the earth except what was created for Adam? No, there are creatures on it.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, regarding His saying (Glorified and Exalted is He)
Indeed, I will make upon the earth a successive authority
إِنِّي جَاعِلٌ فِي الْأَرْضِ خَلِيفَةًAnswer:
There is no doubt, no doubt about that. I mean, was there no one on the earth except what was created for Adam? No, there are creatures on it.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [3436/1692] هل تدل آية {إني جاعل في الأرض خليفة} على وجود مخلوقات قبل آدم؟ - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.