The Worship of Adam in the Qur'an

I decided to re-read the Qur’an in chronological order as I will be helping my local missionaries a bit over the next few weeks as they will be having lessons with Muslims. In my reading today, I read one of the narratives retelling the fall of Satan (Iblis)—the reason for Satan’s fall? Refusing to worship Adam! In 38:71-74, we read the following:

Your Lord said to the angels, ‘I will create a man from clay. When I have shaped him and breathed from My Spirit into him, bow down before him.’ The angels all bowed down together but not Iblis, who was too proud. He became a rebel. (M.A.S. Abdel Haleem translation [Oxford, 2010])

In 7:11, we also read:

We created you, We gave you shape, and then We said to the angels, 'Bow down before Adam', and they did. But not Iblis: he was not one of them who bowed down.

Firstly, for Muslims to claim that Christian veneration/worship of Jesus is “shirk” can be reversed on them—after all, worship of Adam is endorsed in the Qur’an, so if that is acceptable, their “knee jerk” reaction against the high station of Jesus within the broad Christian spectrum is inconsistent.

Secondly, the worship of Adam is something that is found in many texts pre-dating Muhammad (570-632). One example is that of the Sibylline Oracles 8:442-444, God commands creation to give λατρευω (cultic worship) to Adam due to his being made in God's image (cf. Gen 1:26-27):

Behold, let us make man in a form altogether like our own, and let us give him life-sustaining breath; Him being yet mortal all things of the world will serve (λατρευω).