Friday Reflections No One Asked For — Technē Beings versus Nómos Beings
When God said in the Quran, “I am teaching Adam all the names,” and Adam demonstrated his command over names to the Malāʾika (sovereign beings or angels), something struck me. These beings, who supposedly hold the keys to how the world functions, appear ignorant of the workings of naming. Despite their dominion over physical laws, time, space, and the material and immaterial realms, granting them supremacy over existence — or at least being within the world — they seem to lack an understanding of language.
Their response to God’s creation of Adam — “Why would you create something that will spill blood while we are here obedient to You?” — seems out of place and out of time. It does not, however, fall outside the realm of physical law or their predictive abilities. These beings, with dominion over material laws, possess foresight: the ability to predict material outcomes. Their statement wasn’t based on witnessing the past but rather on predictive insight into the future. They could see that God’s creation, formed from clay, would lead to bloodshed — not as historical knowledge, but through anticipatory understanding.
However, their knowledge lacked something critical: language. They understood everything else but did not name language or the construction of language itself. They did not know how to learn through the pen or where the language originated. They had no books to open and no means to master this unfamiliar domain. In this, their dominion faltered. I see this as the reason why the Quran was revealed as the final message. Humanity, over time, surpassed the angelic realm — not by mastering the universe’s physical laws, but by mastering language.
The Arabic and Semitic languages, in particular, may have been uniquely suited to convey the complexity of this divine message. This is not because they are inherently the best languages but because their structure and depth allow them to carry the most intricate meanings and layers of revelation. The dominion of stewardship on earth lies in language — a faculty we wield uniquely.
Language is a technology, not a law. It is not a physical law but rather a human artefact, unique to each genus and often unintelligible across species. Alien sounds, modes of writing, and communication among animals reflect this diversity. One example of ultimate dominion over language is the Quranic account of Solomon, who was granted the ability to communicate with all beings — animals, birds, ants, and jinn. His mastery was over their languages and modes of writing, not over physical laws.
In the story of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, he did not personally summon her using physical means but relied on a member of his court to bring her. This might appear as a limitation in his dominion over physical laws. However, his true power lay in communication: the ability to understand, speak, and interact with all beings in their respective languages. This mastery of language reflects a unique dominion, one rooted not in material control but in the ability to bridge worlds through understanding and dialogue.
