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There is no rib, no apple, no serpent, and no Original Sin. The Qur’an is simply silent about such matters.
Ka‘b al-Ahbar ((d. 652) and Wahb Ibn Munabbih (654-729 CE), two Jewish converts to Islâm, have transmitted many Isra’iliyyat narrations into Islâmic literature. Many of the early ‘Tafsir’ such as those of al-Tabari, al-Zamakhshari, al-Razi, al-Baydawi, al-Qurtubi and others were predisposed by Isra’iliyyat to an extent that it became difficult to isolate them from the original norm and precedent. As Islâm spread and came into contact with various cultures to its North - Judaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism – Muslims assumed many of their values and assumptions. To quote an example, the Qur’an says absolutely nothing about the Eve’s creation from the rib of Adam. There is no rib, no apple, no serpent, and no Original Sin. The Qur’an is simply silent about such matters. Yet, within a hundred years of Prophet Muhammad’s (Pbuh) death, Islamic literature had made its own theory that Eve was created from Adam’s rib! We have to realize that there are lots of fundamental differences between Biblical and Qur’anic depictions of the Adam incident in the Paradise. The following are, indeed, very striking:
A). St. Paul extrapolated his theology based on the primordiality of the creation of Adam over Eve (see for example: I Timothy 2:13). Eve was specifically blamed by name as the one responsible for leading mankind astray (2Corinthians 11:3, 1Timothy 2:14). The Bible excluded Eve; she was not created until after God realized that Adam needed a helper. The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” (Genesis 2:18).The Qur’an delineates the fact that Iblis, who was attached to the hierarchical principle (see Qur’an 7:12), incurred God’s eternal wrath. Eve, according to the Qur’an was not a delayed product of Adam’s rib, as in the Christian and Jewish traditions; instead, the two were born from a single soul (4:1). A similar verse points to this interpretation: ‘It is God who has made from your species your mates’ (16:72). Actually the word ‘minha’ (from the soul) in the verse does imply that both were human. Literal translation of the words ‘ja‘ala lakum min anfusikum azwaja’ would mean ‘it is God Who has created your mates from you.’ It does not imply that every wife is made from her husband as Eve was! The word ‘anfus’ (plural of ‘nafs’) in this verse means ‘species’ or ‘kind’ and not ‘physical being’. `A single soul’ (‘nafs’), used in Qur’an 4:1, is neither male nor female. In fact `soul’ is feminine and `mate’ is masculine! The argument is not that woman came first as in other parts of the Qur’an, the creation of Adam is described; and thus the gender relationship here is ambivalent. It is absolutely sure that the mate was created from the `soul’ and not the humble `rib’. As Hibri writes: “Nowhere does the Qur’an say that Eve was crafted out of Adam. Instead it states that males and females are created by God from the same soul or spirit (nafs). The founding myths as such are not inherently patriarchal when read in this way.” (Azizah Y. Al-Hibri, “Is Western Patriarchal Feminism Good for Third World/Minority Women?” in Susan Moller Okin (ed.), Is Multiculturalism Bad For Women? Princeton University Press: Princeton, l999, p.42)
B) Unlike the Bible, the Qur’an makes it very clear that both Adam and Eve were misled (2:36, 7:22, 20:121). They both sought forgiveness from God and were forgiven (7:23). The Original Sin and the resultant eternal perdition, described in the Bible, is simply absent in the Qur’anic depiction of the story of Adam.
C) The term used in the Qur’an to denote “mate” is ‘Zawj‘- a word that is neutral and can be used to denote both male and female. Hence there is no indication in the Qur’an as to who came first, Adam or Eve. The Qur’an also taught that man is neither created for woman, nor woman for man, but sexes complement one another (Qur’an 3:195, 9:71, 66:19-21, 33:35-36). The word ‘Adam’ occurs twenty five times in the Qur’an but it is used in twenty-one cases as a symbol for self-conscious humanity (Qur’an 3:33, 20:121-2, 7:23, 3:59, 5:27, 2:31, 2:34, 7:11, 17:61, 18:50, 15:28-33, 20:116-117, 38:71-75, 7:172). In verse 2:31, “Adam” refers to the whole human race as is clear from the preceding verse 2:30, where Adam is referred to as “one who shall inherit the earth” and as one “who will spread corruption on earth and will shed blood.” Adam, in the Qur’an, thus, symbolizes the whole human race. So when the Qur’an says that He taught Adam the Names (asma’), all of them (2:31), it is actually connoting that all human beings have been taught all the Names.
D) In Genesis 3:16 of the Bible, Eve is told that because of her sin Adam shall rule over her. The verse further says that all women must suffer great pains during child birth due to Eve eating the fruit of knowledge. Genesis 3:16, thus, made motherhood a God-inflicted curse degrading her status in the world. On the other hand, Qur’an exalts pregnancy and child birth as an upliftment of the status of woman (31:14, 46:15, 4:1)!
(The writer is sub-editor of ‘Al-Harmony’ and can be reached at: vamashrof@yahoo.com)
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