This was the First Commission from God the Exalted in the World of Shadow and Apparition (‘ālam al-ẓill wa-l-shabaḥ), when the objection arose regarding the reports reaching the souls, as per His—the Exalted—saying: {Indeed, I am making upon the earth a successor} 1 .
These [souls] were of His angels, detached from bodies in the Realm of the Kingdom (al-Malakūt),
by their saying: {Will You place therein one who causes corruption therein and sheds blood, while we declare Your praise and sanctify You?} 2 .
And the doubt that occurred in manifested by the one to whom [the Truth] appeared, when he said: {I am better than him} 3 . What he witnessed of the density of the form of the one manifested to him—despite the negation of physical body from his essence—was only due to the darkness of the objection in the face of the [divine] reports.