"of the names of these, if you are truthful" in your claim that if I appoint you as successors in My earth you would glorify Me and sanctify Me, and that if I appoint someone else therein, his offspring would disobey Me, spread corruption, and shed blood. So when the location of the error in their statement became clear to them, and the mistake of their slip was exposed to them, they turned to Allah in repentance and said: "Glory be to You, we have no knowledge except what You have taught us." Thus, they hastened to turn back from the mistake and rushed to repent from the slip, just as Nūḥ said—when he was admonished regarding his request and told: "Do not ask Me that whereof you have no knowledge" (1)—: {My Lord, I seek refuge in You from asking You that whereof I have no knowledge, and unless You forgive me and have mercy on me, I shall be among the losers} [Sūrat Hūd: 47]. Such is the action of everyone guided to the truth and granted success therein—his repentance to the truth is swift, and his return to it is near.

And some grammarians among the people of al-Baṣra claimed that His statement: "Tell me the names of these if you are truthful" was not because the angels claimed anything, but rather Allah informed of their ignorance of the unseen, and His knowledge of it and His grace, so He said: "Tell me if you are truthful"—just as a man says to another man: "Tell me this if you know," while knowing that he does not know, intending thereby that he is ignorant.

This is a statement which, if anyone contemplates it, he will know that one part of it invalidates another. That is because the one who stated it claimed that Allah, majestic is His praise, said to the angels—when He presented the named ones to them—: "Tell me the names of these," while He knew that they did not know, nor had they claimed knowledge of anything that would warrant being reprimanded with this statement.

And he claimed that His statement: "If you are truthful" is similar to a man's saying to another man: "Tell me this if you know," while he knows that he does not know, intending that he is ignorant.

And there is no doubt that the meaning of His statement, "if you are truthful," is only: if you are truthful, either in your statement or in your action. For truthfulness in the speech of the Arabs is only truthfulness in reporting, not in