Chapter 2: Surat Al-Baqarah (The Cow), verses 30-33

Translation:

When your Lord said to the angels: ‘I am placing a caliph on earth,’ they replied: ‘Will You put there one that will do evil and shed blood, when we have for so long sung Your praises and sanctified Your name?’ He said: ‘I know what you do not know.’ He taught Adam all the names and then set them before the angels, saying: ‘Tell me the names of these, if what you say be true.’ ‘Glory be unto You,’ they replied, ‘we have no knowledge except that which You have given us. You alone are wise and all-knowing.’ Then said He to Adam: ‘Tell them their names.’ And when Adam had named them, He said: ‘Did I not tell you that I know the secrets of heaven and earth, and all that you hide and all that you reveal?

Tafsir (Commentary):

Everything in nature is required to function according to a norm set for it by God. To follow this norm is to “make peace,” while to deviate from it is to spread corruption. No individual or nation has the permission of God to act in a manner that disrupts the order of nature as established by Him. For example, no man should take the life of another: all actions of this nature disqualify mankind from receiving God’s mercy. But when God created man, He decreed that man should have power and the freedom of will to wield it. This is what God meant when He spoke of Adam as a ‘caliph’. (The literal meaning of ‘caliph’ is ‘one who takes another’s place’—a successor. In the age of hereditary rule, it was generally used for a monarch who took the place of another monarch. According to this usage, the word came to refer to one invested with power.)

The angels, for their part, were apprehensive of man being corrupted by his own power and free-will. As it turned out, their fear were well-founded. Man’s greatest crimes, next to denial of His Lord, were to spread corruption and cause bloodshed throughout the world. And this was a possibility of which God was fully aware. But He had a particular reason for investing man with power and free will: if many human beings were corrupted by their power, this would be morally counterbalanced by the acknowledgment on the part of a substantial proportion of mankind that, in spite of their power and freedom on earth, they were in actuality powerless before the one Almighty God. Such people would, of their own accord, adopt the path of submission and obedience to God. Albeit comparatively few in number, they would be specially prized above all others, just as the foodgrains at harvest time, although greatly outweighed in bulk by chaff and straw, are the truly valued part of the crop. (Indeed, if the chaff and straw are permitted to grow, it is solely for people to have access to the grain.) 

The mixture of good and evil in mankind became evident when God, in His omnipotence, brought all the progeny of Adam before their first father. He said to the angels: ‘Look, these are the progeny of Adam. Can you give me the name of each one of them, and say what sort of people they will be?’ The angels, having no knowledge of them, were unable to answer. Then God told Adam their names and characteristics, and then commanded him to pass the knowledge on to the angels. When Adam had explained to them the nature of the human race, they realized that, besides the wicked and the corrupt, there would also be among their number great, righteous and pious souls.