[2:33] He said, 'Adam, tell them their names'; And when he had told them their names He said, 'Did I not tell you that I know the Unseen in the heavens and the earth?, And I know what you reveal and what you were hiding.'
Among the traces of the divine solicitude to Adam (ʿa) is that when He said to the angels, 'Now tell Me' [2:31], they were seized with a fear of speaking, especially since He asked that they tell Him something their types of knowledge did not comprehend. But because of the information Adam (ʿa) had, [God] directed him to inform [the angels] and said, 'tell them their names', and Adam was not overly fearful in speaking to them. When Adam (ʿa) informed them of the names their types of knowledge lacked, his merit became apparent to them, and He said, 'Did I not tell you that I know the Unseen in the heavens and the earth?', meaning what the different types of knowledge of creation lack. 'And I know what you reveal regarding [your] acts of obedience and [what you] hide in believing in [your] superiority over Adam (ʿa)'.
[Section] When the Real (s) wanted to choose Adam, He protected him, taught him, and showed him the effects of his care until he said what he said [about the names]. When He wanted to execute His decree regarding him, He caused forgetfulness to enter him so that he forgot His covenant in the presence and transgressed His limit. God Most High said, 'And We made a covenant with Adam before, but he forgot, and We did not find in him any constancy' (20:115). The moment which solicitude favored promoted knowledge and goodness completely, while the moment which made the decree take effect returned him to the state of forgetfulness and disobedience. Thus the decrees of the Real (s) are in what they make come and go. The worshipper is made lowly by His decree and He is doer of what He desires [11:107, 85:16].
[Section] When they imagined obtaining preference for themselves by their glorification and sanctification, He informed them that the carpet of majesty is too holy to be adorned by the obedience of those who obey or to be defiled by the errors of stubborn deniers. Their returning to prostration before Adam made manifest [God's] freedom from need from any agreement or opposition [of created beings].