praise, only informed His angels that He was placing a successor upon the earth to inhabit it—rather, its meaning is what I described earlier.

If someone says: Then what was upon the earth before the Children of Adam inhabiting it, such that the Children of Adam became a replacement for it (1) and a successor in it after it?

It is said: The people of interpretation differed regarding that.

601- Abū Kurayb narrated to us, saying: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd narrated to us, saying: Bishr ibn ʿUmāra narrated to us, from Abū Rawq, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The first to inhabit the earth were the jinn, and they committed corruption therein, shed blood, and killed one another. So Allah sent Iblīs to them among a troop of angels, and Iblīs and those with him killed them until they drove them to the islands of the seas and the edges of the mountains. Then He created Adam and settled him in it. Therefore He said: "I am placing a successor upon the earth." (2)

According to this view, "I am placing a successor upon the earth" means: from the jinn, who succeed them in it, inhabiting it and developing it.

602- Al-Muthannā narrated to me, saying: Isḥāq narrated to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar narrated to us, from his father, from al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas regarding His statement, "I am placing a successor upon the earth," the verse, he said: Indeed Allah created the angels on Wednesday, and He created the jinn on