2 ADAM Accompanying Ramadan 2023

2. Adam

Bible

The Bible story of how God created Adam is well known. There are two accounts of this creation. In the first account of the creation, God as it were deliberates before creating man: “Let us make man in our own image”.

It then says: God created man in the image of himself… male and female he created them                                                                                     (Gen.1:26-27).

The second account says that the first human being was made out of dust (adamah) from which comes the name Adam.

Adam is given the task of naming the other creatures. Later God creates woman from out of man, so that the man exclaims: “This is to be called woman (isshah) for this was taken from man (ish)” (cf. Gen. 2:32-33). It is said: “The man named his wife “Eve” because she was the mother of all those who live” (Gen. 3:20).

This man (and his wife) are settled in the original creation to take care of it: “Let them [humans] be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild beasts, and all the reptiles.” (Gen. 1:26). This idea of the dominion of human being in creation is repeated: “God blessed them, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and conquer it. Be masters of all the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven and all living animals on the earth.” (Gen.1:28)).

Qur’an

According to the Qur’an, the creation of the first human being is preceded by a deliberation. God said to the angels:

“I am putting a successor (khalîfa) on earth”, they said, “How can You put someone there who will cause damage and bloodshed, when we celebrate Your praise and proclaim Your holiness?” but He said, “I know things you do not know.” (Q 2:30)

The angels obviously do not think highly of this creature. Yet from him the whole of humanity springs:

People, be mindful of your Lord, who created you from a single soul, and from it created its mate and from the pair of them spread countless men and women far and wide (Q 4:1).

It can be noted that Adam’s wife is not named in the Qur’an, though tradition gives her the name of Hawwâ.

What could be noted also is that in the Quranic version there is no mention of man being created in the image of God. This is seen as bringing human beings too close to God, whereas there is a great distance between them.

God teaches man the names of things (something that the angels do not know) and man tells the angels these names. The angels are then told by God: “Bow down before Adam” and they did so, except Iblis (i.e. Satan).  The Qur’an says that Iblis was arrogant, disobedient (cf. Q 2:34-35).

There is another important pre-creation episode:

When your Lord took out the offspring from the loins of the Children of Adam and made them bear witness about themselves, He said, “Am I not your Lord?” and they replied, “Yes, we bear witness.” (Q 7: 172).

On the basis of this text, which indicates the covenant (mîthâq) between God and humanity, Islam is claimed to be the natural religion; this gives rise to the tradition (hadith): “All human beings are born Muslims, it is their parents who make of them Jews. Christians or Zoroastrians.”