SURAH AL-BAQARAH
Ayah 32
قَالُواْ سُبۡحَـٰنَكَ لَا عِلۡمَ لَنَآ إِلَّا مَا عَلَّمۡتَنَآۖ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ ٱلۡعَلِيمُ ٱلۡحَكِيمُ
They said, “Glory be to You! We have no knowledge except what You have taught us. Indeed You, only You are truly the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.”
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The Angels start with praising Allah and end with praising Allah again
“Glory be to You! .. ” and “.. You are truly the All-Knowing, All-Wise.”
Look at the ethical way of the Angels when speaking to Allah. When we are doing do’a, we should follow the examples of the Angels. This is the respectable way.
سُبۡحَـٰنَكَ = Glory be to You. You are constantly always in perfection.
The Angels admit that by Allah creating humans does not lower Allah's perfection.
لَا عِلۡمَ لَنَآ إِلَّا مَا عَلَّمۡتَنَآۖ
“We have no knowledge except what You have taught us”
“no knowledge” i.e. We don’t know.
The Angels without hesitation admitted that they do not have the knowledge of those things.
We are to follow how the Angels reacted. When we have no knowledge or lack of it to say I do not know or I will come back later if I know the answer or I know some and I do not know the rest, etc.
The Angels have “no knowledge” like the ones that Adam(a.s) had been taught.
It seemed like an unfair question to the Angels to say out the names of those things.
Eg. The teacher taught John some things but he did not teach Sam. The teacher asked Sam the things that he taught John. Surely Sam will not be able to answer.
Remember the Pharmacists analogy with all the terminological jargon? It’s the same here as the Angels have no idea what are all those names.
The idea was to show to the Angels that Angels have knowledge that is suitable for their type of creation while Adam(a.s) has knowledge that is suitable for his creation.
The Angels do not need the knowledge that Adam has acquired since it will not be beneficial for them. Eg. With knowledge, Human invented cars, ships, airplane which Angels do not need.
إِلَّا مَا عَلَّمۡتَنَآۖ except what You have taught us
The Angels said “You taught us”. So Allah taught the Angels and Allah also taught Adam (a.s).
Look at this analogy: Compare these two sentences:
I taught my cat where to find its kitty litter.
I taught my students Algebra.
There is a huge different between how I teach my cat and how I teach my students.
How and what the Angels were taught was different from how and what Adam(a.s) were taught.
When the Angels are given instructions, they will immediately understand and execute them. It might be programmed into them. There might not be a process of learning like what Adam(a.s) has gone through.
When the Angels could not name those things, this was the reply to their own question. This Khaleefah has knowledge that Angels don’t have which justify putting Adam(a.s) on Earth.
Allah do not need to reply to the Angels as He is GOD! However, Allah is teaching us the etiquette of a superior giving the rights to the one below, i.e by replying to a question.
إِنَّكَ أَنتَ = Indeed You, You ..
The word “You” are recited twice. It will be translated as = You and Only You are truly the All-Knowing, All-Wise. Nobody can have all the knowledge in existence except Him. Allah can selectively give the type of knowledge that is suitable to whoever He wants. In this case he gave Adam(a.s) these type of knowledge and not the Angels.
ٱلۡعَلِيمُ ٱلۡحَكِيمُ = the All-Knowing, All-Wise
Allah is both the All Knowing and the All Wise. The Angels acknowledged that it was in Allah's knowledge and wisdom why He created Humans. They admit that as perfect as they were, there were some things that they were not capable of.
Knowing and being Wise are two different things. A person can have knowledge but not wise. A very simple example is a person who knows that smoking is bad for the lungs (having knowledge) but he still smoke (i.e. an unwise habit).
However you cannot be wise without knowledge. A person without knowledge cannot be wise. Wisdom is the ability to apply or manage knowledge beneficially.
Our emotions must be checked with wisdom, i.e. not to blindly follow our emotions but to think wisely. An intelligent person with lots of knowledge but acting arrogantly or behaving stupidly is not wise.