Exegesis of the saying of Allah the Exalted: “And when your Lord said to the angels, ‘Indeed, I am going to place a successor on the earth,’” and the grammatical analysis of “idh,” the definition of the angels, and a mention of their attributes

The Shaykh : I seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the accursed. Allah Blessed and Exalted is He said: “Idh” always comes in the Noble Qur’an. The grammarians said: It is the object of a deleted verb, the estimation being: “Remember when He said.” So it is in the accusative case because of a deleted verb; this is its estimation. The address in His saying: is to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). And since the address was to him, the “t” of lordship here is from the categories of specific lordship. The “lam” is for transitivity, meaning it makes the verb “saying” transitive to the one being spoken to. And “al-mala’ikah” (the angels) is the plural of “malak,” and its original form is “ma’lak,” because it is derived from “al-uluqah,” which is the message. But there occurred a change in it due to transposition, meaning the movement of a letter to another place, like “ashya’” (things), whose original form is “shayyaa’.” And so you may be surprised and say: How is it that “asma’” (names), the plural of “ism” (name), does not decline, while “ashya’” (things), the plural of “shay’” (thing), does not decline? The reason for that is that the hamza in “asma’,” which is the plural of “ism,” is original, while the hamza in “ashya’” is the hamza of femininity. The important point is that we say the angels are derived from what? From “al-uluqah,” which is the message. For this reason, Allah the Exalted said: The angels are a hidden realm created from light. They do not need to eat or drink. They are the realm of the unseen and are not seen. Otherwise, they exist with us, they attend gatherings of knowledge, they attend gatherings of dhikr, and they stand at the doors of the mosques on Friday, writing the first ones, then the first ones. Then, when the imam arrives, they roll up the scrolls and come to listen to the sermon. But do we see them? We do not see them. And this is from the wisdom of Allah Mighty and Majestic and His trial that He informs us and His Messenger about these beings with these attributes to test us: do we believe or do we not believe? But with that, sometimes they take the form of humans, as Allah the Exalted said about Jibril when he met Maryam: An ordinary human being, there is nothing unusual. And as Jibril came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) while he was sitting with his companions in the form of a man, as ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: And he asked him the well-known questions. And as the angel of death came to Musa (peace be upon him) to take his soul in the form of a human being. And Musa (peace be upon him) was severe and strong, so he struck him in defense of himself, because he did not know that he was the messenger of Allah Mighty and Majestic. Otherwise, if he had known, he would not have done this. But it is the habit of humans that a person defends himself. And as is well known about Musa (peace and blessings be upon him) that he was a strong and severe man, when he sought help from one of his followers against one of his enemies, he struck him with one blow and he perished. Yes? In any case, the original state of the angels is that they are a hidden realm.
He said to them: A successor who succeeds Allah? Or who succeeds those who came before him? Or who succeed one another, reproducing, or what? As for the first, it is possible that Allah the Exalted intended from this creation Adam and his sons to make them successors who succeed Allah the Exalted in His servants by conveying His Shari’ah and calling to it, not out of ignorance of Allah Glorified and Exalted is He, and far is He from that, and not out of incapacity, but He bestows upon whom He wills of His servants, as He said: He is a successor who succeeds Allah in judging between His servants. And likewise, they succeed those who came before them. A successor who succeeds those who came before them. And on this, the word “khalifah” here, on this possibility, means the active participle or the passive participle? On the active participle. And on the first, it means the passive participle. Or that they succeed one another, meaning that they reproduce, this one dies and this one lives. And on this estimation, or on this interpretation, “khalifah” is suitable for the name of the active participle and the name of the passive participle. All of this is possible and all of this is reality.