If someone says:

'Allah addressed Adam as a single person with a single name in His saying: {O Adam, dwell, you and your wife, in Paradise and eat therefrom in abundance} (Al-Baqarah 35). And likewise His saying: {And We had already taken a covenant from Adam before, but he forgot, and We found not in him determination} (Taha 115).'"

And this is an address to one specific person with one name; how then did it become general for everyone? And is it permissible to address the collective by a single name?

The answer was: "Adam" here is a general name for all the sinners, just as the "praised Adam" encompasses all the obedient. He only named them with one name due to the conformity of state (mushakala fi al-hal) in which He manifested them. In reality, they are neither [the same] forms nor [the same] kinds, but in proximity and appearance, they are forms.

Similarly, Allah the Exalted said: {And to Thamud [We sent] their brother Salih. He said, "O my people, worship Allah..."} (Al-A'raf 73, Hud 61, An-Naml 45).

And His saying: {And to Madyan [We sent] their brother Shu'ayb...} (Al-A'raf 85, Hud 84, Al-Ankabut 36).

Yet they were not [actually] his brothers. How could they be the brothers of the Messenger while they were deniers of him and