Does the statement of Allah: “Indeed, I am going to place on the earth a successor” imply that there were inhabitants on the earth before that, other than the children of Adam?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
May Allah reward you, Your Eminence, father. The questioner says: In the saying of Allah the Exalted,[Al-Baqarah 2:30], does this verse imply that there were inhabitants on earth before that, other than the children of Adam?
Answer:
Yes. A successor means one who comes after the one before him. The successor is the one who replaces the one before him. So the earth still has inhabitants and creatures in it. Yes.
May Allah reward you, Your Eminence, father. The questioner says: In the saying of Allah the Exalted,
Indeed, I will make upon the earth a successive authority
إِنِّي جَاعِلٌ فِي الْأَرْضِ خَلِيفَةًAnswer:
Yes. A successor means one who comes after the one before him. The successor is the one who replaces the one before him. So the earth still has inhabitants and creatures in it. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [2771- 4717] هل يفهم من قول الله:﴿إني جاعل في الأرض خليفة﴾أنه كان في الأرض سكان قبل ذلك غير بني آدم؟ — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.