Adam is the first human God created. He was a Prophet. God favored the human kind over the other kinds of creations. However, that does not mean that all humans are better than all other creations. It means that from the humans, God made some of them Prophets. The Prophets are better than any other creation.
All Prophets have the best human attributes. They are Muslim all their lives. They never blaspheme, lie, cheat, betray, or commit any other major sins, both before and after receiving Prophethood. The only sin that is possible for them to commit is a small sin without meanness in it. If a Prophet committed one of these non-mean sins, he immediately repented of this sin before others followed him in it. Hence, the Prophets were and are the perfect examples for us to follow. They all are our guides, showing us the way.
THE CREATION OF ADAM
The creation of Adam occurred in the last hour of the last of the six days, a Friday. Our Prophet, Muhammad (blessings and peace be upon him), said that Friday is the best of the days; it is the day Adam was created.
God ordered an angel to gather soil from the Earth, different colors, white, black, red, and yellow, and types, soft, firm, good and bad, and what is in between. This made the children of Adam come like the soil: black, white and what is in between, and have their natures, hard and soft and what is in between. The Prophet, as reported by Ibn Hibban, said this. The angel took the soil to Paradise and it was kneaded with the water of Paradise until it became clay. God made the form of Adam from the clay. God created Adam as an adult, not as a baby.
Adam is called “Adam” because he was created from the soil of the Earth, which is called adimul-ard in Arabic. It is narrated that Adam had a swarthy complexion, as opposed to a white complexion. God created Adam in the form that is honorable to God. Saying that Adam was created having “God’s image” means that Adam was created with an image that God created and made honorable. God owns this image, so it belongs to God. It does not mean that God Himself has an image and man’s image looks like it.
Adam was sixty cubits high, and was seven cubits wide, as Abu Hurayrah heard from Prophet Muhammad, which is reported in the Musnad of Ahmad. The people of Paradise will have this height and width. Mankind did not come from an ape that developed. To say that man came from apes is sheer blasphemy.
When Adam’s form dried in Paradise, the first jinni (Satan) was in Paradise and went around the form of Adam. At that time, Satan was still a believer. Imam Ahmad in his Musnad said that the Prophet said, “Verily God created the form of Adam as He Willed. He left him for the period of time that God Willed, and the first jinni went around the form of Adam. The first jinni noticed that the body had cavities in it. It was not solid.” Adam was not like angels, who have no hollow parts and do not sleep, eat, or drink. This jinni wondered why God created this creation. This jinni deduced that this type of creation would not survive without support from others things, like food and drink.
Abu Ya^la said that the Prophet said that Satan would pass by the form of Adam and say “God created you for an important matter.” This jinni had hollow parts, thus he needed food, water and other things for survival and sustenance.
Satan (a jinni) then was a Muslim, worshipping God. Satan saw himself as great and objected to the order of God. Satan was made out of the pure flame of fire. The name of Satan, before he became a disbeliever was ^Azazil. When he disbelieved his name became Iblis, which means the one who is driven away from goodness.
ADAM BECOMES ALIVE
God made the soul go into the form of Prophet Adam, after which he became alive, with blood and flesh. He was an unimpaired human. Immediately, he became sane (^aqil). God endowed Prophet Adam with a lot of knowledge, without Adam learning from a teacher. The first thing that Adam did was that he sneezed. The first thing that he said was, “Al-Hamdulillahi Rabbil-^Alamin” (praise and thanks to God, the Lord of the worlds).
God ordered the angels to prostrate to Adam, and they all did. The prostration of the angels to Adam was not a prostration of worship, but one of salutation and honoring.
All of the angels submitted to the order of God, but they did ask God a question, for the sake of understanding, and not out of objection. They asked about why God assigned the children of Adam the responsibility of being on Earth, to benefit from the things that God created for them on Earth, and to live their lives according to certain norms. The angels asked God about the wisdom behind giving the humans that role, when they are going to shed blood and do ill doings on Earth.
God ordered the angels to ask Adam about the names of everything. The angels realized that they did not have that knowledge, and that Adam was given that knowledge. God ordered Adam to tell the angels about the names of things. This is how the angels knew that Prophet Adam was better than their kind.
The scholars said that the Prophets and Messengers are better than all the angels. The special angels like Gabriel (Jibril) and Michael (Mika’il) are better than the highly righteous beings (awliya’), among the Muslim humans and jinn. Awliya’ are better than the other angels who do not have a special rank.
THE OBJECTION OF SATAN
Satan, who is a jinni, was ordered to prostrate with the angels. However, he refused. God told us in the Qur’an in Suratul-Kahf, verse 50 that He ordered the angels to prostrate to Adam and they did. However, Satan the jinni, who was among them and was ordered, refused to prostrate. Satan not only did not do what God ordered, but Satan objected to God making the order itself. This was the first blasphemy Satan committed.
From Suratul-‘A^raf, 12, we know that God sent an angel to convey from Him to Satan, “What stopped you from prostrating when I ordered you to prostrate?” Satan said to God, “I am better than him. You created me from the pure fire and You created him from clay”.
After Satan was damned, being taken away from goodness, he asked God to let him live until the Day of Resurrection. However, God did not grant him that. God granted him life until the time angel Israfil blows the first blow in the horn. At this first blow, Satan will taste death, as well as all others from the humans and jinn who are still alive.
Imam Muslim and others narrated from Abu Hurayrah that the Prophet said, “The son of Adam may recite an ayah of sujud (when a person recites the Qur’an there are times when he prostrates) and prostrates to God, and for that prostration he earns Paradise. At that Satan is alienated and cornered crying. Satan will say to himself, ‘I shall expect a severe punishment. The son of Adam was ordered to prostrate and he did. For that he will be rewarded with Paradise, whereas I was ordered to prostrate and I refused. I earned for myself Hellfire.’”
God created Eve (Hawwa’) the wife of Adam, from the shortest left rib of Adam. This was narrated in the hadith in the books of Al-Bukhariyy and Muslim, from Ibn ^Abbas and Abu Hurayrah. God did not create Eve as a baby either. God created Eve as an adult, suitable in height to the height of Adam.
ADAM AND EVE LIVE IN PARADISE
Adam stayed in Paradise from the early afternoon to sunset. This was one hundred thirty years by our measure, because back then, a day was 1000 years long.
God had ordered Adam and Eve to live in Paradise, the same Paradise the believers will enter on the Day of Judgment. God made Eve married to Adam when He created her.
When Satan blasphemed, God ordered him to leave Paradise. Satan did not leave immediately, and stayed for a period of time whispering to Adam and Eve, so they would disobey God and leave Paradise.
God allowed Adam and Eve to eat from the fruits of Paradise, drink from its waters, and enjoy the pleasures of Paradise without hardships, tiredness, or toil. However, God ordered them not to eat from one specific tree. God gave them a warning about the enmity of Satan and his whispers. It is not cited in the Qur’an or in a sahih hadith the type of this tree. Hence, scholars hold a difference of opinion about it. An apple, fig, palm tree, among others were cited.
Adam and Eve moved from one tree to another, picking fruits, eating them and drinking from the rivers of Paradise. However, Adam disobeyed God by eating from the forbidden tree.
SATAN WHISPERED TO ADAM AND EVE
Satan whispered to Adam and Eve. Satan wept and said, “I feel pity for you because God ordered you not to eat from that tree. If you do eat from that tree, you will be immortal.” Lady Eve encouraged Adam to eat from that tree, and they both ate from it. Then, their private parts appeared because they lost their clothes of light. They started covering these parts with the leaves of Paradise.
God punished them for that sin, in this life only, by making them descend from Paradise to Earth. This sin occurred before Adam became a Prophet. Adam became a Prophet after leaving Paradise. Both Adam and Eve repented of that sin immediately, before anyone followed them in it. It was neither a great sin, nor was it a small sin with meanness. Prophets never commit great sins or small sins with meanness, both before and after Prophethood.
The Christians claim that Adam committed an enormous sin, the consequence of which remained a burden on his offspring, and that Prophet Jesus came to save the people from these consequences. Their claim is a fabrication. Prophet Adam’s sin was a small sin of which he rushed to repent. Adam’s offspring do not bear any sin as a consequence of that.
ADAM AND EVE DESCEND TO EARTH
God made Adam, Eve, and Satan descend onto Earth. The descent of Adam was in Sri Lanka. The place where Prophet Adam landed remains a very fragrant, healthy place. After that, God gave him the Revelation, sending him as a Prophet and a Messenger to his wife and their children.
Eve conceived many times, each time carrying twins, a boy and a girl, except for Seth (Shith). At that time, it was permissible for the man to marry his sister, but not his twin. The brother was allowed to marry his sister from another delivery. The laws revealed to Prophet Seth, the son of Adam, abrogated this law.
ADAM AND EVE LIVE IN AN HONORABLE WAY
God imparted to Adam the knowledge of all languages. However, most of his conversations with his children were in the Syriac language. From him, the people learned cultivation, planting, harvesting, kneading, baking, and making clothes. Prophet Adam taught even the coining of money, the dirham and dinar. They made these coins from gold and silver. Adam and his children had the first monetary system.
Adam did not stay in Sri Lanka, but went to different places on Earth. When Adam was in the location of ^Arafah (near Makkah), God took from his back the souls of all the people. God shaped them in a size as small as ants, however, with human forms. God gave these small bodies comprehension. All of them testified and admitted that God was our Lord, both the souls of the Muslims and the souls of the blasphemers. We all made the oath to believe and stay steadfast.
An-Nasa’iyy, Al-Hakim, Imam Ahmad, and Ibnu Jarir reported that Ibn ^Abbas narrated that the Prophet said, “God brought all the offspring of Adam from his back, in ^Arafah, and God took the oath from the people. Then he said verse 173, of Al-‘A^raf that has the meaning that God said, ‘Am I not your Lord?’ They took the oath saying, ‘Yes, You are our Creator’.” God said “Alastu bi Rabbikum (Am I not your Lord?)” Hence, it is called the Yawm (day) Alastu. Another name for that day is “Yawmudh-Dharr”. Dharr is the small particle. God brought the offspring of Adam from Adam’s back and shaped them into very small bodies, like small particles.
When the souls join the body in this life, people forget that event. Then, after death and on the Day of Judgment, the veil is lifted. We then remember the event of making that oath. Imam ^Aliyy and other scholars said, “The people are sound asleep; when they die, they wake up.” After the soul is separated from the body in death, then the person remembers the oath that he took.
On the Day of Judgment, the blasphemers will not be able to say, “O God, if you had sent us Messengers, we would have followed them”, because God did send the Messengers and Revelation to them.
The Prophet said that every child is born with fitrah; meaning that every child is born with the readiness to believe in God, in accordance to the oath that one took. Then, the parents of the child train him and teach him. Those taught by their parents the correct belief, grow with the correct belief, and those taught Judaism, or another false belief, adopt that. This is in general.
Even though some Prophets were born to blasphemers, they never adopted the blasphemy of their parents, and were Muslims their entire life, like all the other Prophets. Also, some people who are not Prophets are born to blasphemous parents, but reject their parents’ blasphemy and embrace Islam, like the Companion of Prophet Muhammad, ^Aliyy.
During Adam’s time, the Ka^bah in Makkah was built for the first time and Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem was built forty years after it.
Adam had a beard, but his body did not have hair. He did not have a single hair on his body, totally unlike what the ignorant liars say is the “first man”. He who holds the conviction that humans originated from an ape or a similar animal has belied the Qur’an, the hadith, the consensus of the Muslims, and belied a matter that is equally known to the knowledgeable and the layman among the Muslims. This is blasphemy.
Adam had a beautiful shape, as it is cited in Suratut-Tin, verse 4. This verse means that God created the humans in the best of forms.
The fact that Adam was the first of the Prophets is well established in the Religion, and its evidences can be taken from the texts of the Qur’an, the hadith and the unanimous agreement of the Nation.
THE FIRST MURDER
The first murder that happened on the Earth was the murder of Abel (Habil) by Cain (Qabil), both sons of Prophet Adam. Cain was a farmer, and Abel was a shepherd. One day they were ordered by God to give an offering. Cain gave fruit that was not of good quality, and Abel gave his best lamb. God accepted the offering of Abel, but not the offering of Cain.
Also, Cain could not marry his twin sister and Abel could marry that girl because she was not his twin. All of this made Cain jealous of Abel. Cain decided to kill Abel. Cain said, lying to his brother Abel, “I have a surprise for you. It is over there.” Once Abel turned his back, Cain hit him in the back of the head. A lot of blood flowed and Abel died.
Cain left the body of Abel for some time. Then a crow came and scratched on the Earth, to show him to hide the dead body of his brother. Cain said, “Woe to me, am I not even able to be as this crow, to hide the dead body of my brother?” Cain did not regret the killing. However, it is related that he missed his brother and felt bad that he did not think to bury him.
This sin of murder did not make Cain a blasphemer, but it was a great sin. Cain bears the weight of that sin, and because he was the first to do that sin, he set the example for all the others who murdered after him. Hence, every time someone murders another, they are following the example of Cain, and number of Cain’s bad deeds increases.
THE DEATH OF PROPHET ADAM
Prophet Adam lived on Earth for eight hundred seventy (870) years, thus completing one thousand (1000) years (when you add to it the 130 years that he lived in Paradise). He did not die until he saw forty thousand (40,000) of his offspring. The location of Adam’s burial is not confirmed and is a case of difference in opinion. Some said that he was buried in a cave in Mount Abu Qubays in Makkah, and others said something else. It is narrated that Eve lived one year after him. Then she was buried next to him in the same cave.
