The First Man: Exploring the lessons from the story of Adam (AS)

Lessons from the story of Adam AS

We have to understand our history to understand our present. Our history paves way for the future. Our history starts with Adam AS. He is our father and we have to know his story to understand ourselves. We have to understand our identity and also take lesson from the first instance that happened in the history. The entire purpose of giving us good things in life was to make us grateful . The first guidance of the Quran is “Alhamdulliah” [Al-Fatiha 1:1] . We are suppose to appreciate what Allah did for us here. The way he made the Earth , all its blessings specially for us , the food , the trees , the plants, everything . Sometimes people say that Adam AS was sent down as a punishment by Allah but Allah had already decided that he will be sent down to Earth once he was created [Al-Baqarah 2:30] When Adam AS was created and was in Jannah , he made a mistake, Allah told him to go with Hawwa AS and live on the Earth . This was predecided by Allah and he had already announced it to the angels [Al-Baqarah 2:30]. When Allah created Adam AS he asked the angles to do sajdah. Iblis refused [Al-Baqarah 2:34] and had the following reason to state Allah .

1) Shaitaan believed he was better than him .

2)You made me from fire and you made him from dirt [Saad 38:71-85]

This act of arrogance by Iblis was the first ever act of disobedience/error/misdeed committed by any of Allah’s creatures. Because of Satan' arrogance and disobedience to prostrate, Allah punishes him by expelling him from heaven.

Iblis's entire obsession was just comparison. He only compared himself to another creation . He wants the same for us. He wants us to be on the comparison race our entire life. It can be about anything , It can be about race, color, education, family. When Allah asked for an explanation he forgot about all the Ibadah he had done for Allah swt and said that “I am better than him “ [Al-A’raaf 7:12]. The jealously and comparison had taken over him so much that he forgot what good he had done. Allah says “I always knew what’s in your heart “. The intention was to get attention but not the ibadah of Allah . Sometimes the importance to get attention can be superior to any materialistic pleasure in life . We must constantly ask Allah to save ourselves from making us attention seekers and also refrain us from the company of the people who are attention seekers.

After commanding the angels to prostrate before him, Adam was given a place by Allah in heaven/paradise and for him created Eve to accompany him and become his life friend, eliminating his loneliness and completing his natural needs to develop offspring.

And Allah said, "O Adam, both you and your spouse live in the Paradise, eat freely to your fill wherever you like, but approach not this tree or you will become transgressors/wrongdoers.” (Surah Al-Baqarah 2:35)

Allah’s statement was basically a test for Adam and Eve. There are different opinions over the nature of the tree mentioned here. Some said that it was the grape tree, barley, date tree, fig tree and so forth (neither Allah has mentioned anything in the Quran nor there is any authentic Hadith about the nature of this tree). The point here is that Allah forbade Adam and his wife from eating from a certain tree in Paradise. Adam and Eve understood that they were forbidden to eat the fruit of that tree. Adam was, however, human and man tends to forget. Satan summoned all the envy within him and took advantage of Adam’s humanity to exploit it. He started to whisper to him day after day “Shall I guide you to the tree of immortality and the eternal kingdom”.

But Satan whispered to them to make apparent to them that which was concealed from them of their private parts. He said, "Your Lord did not forbid you this tree except that you become angels or become of the immortal." And he swore [by Allah] to them, "Indeed, I am to you from among the sincere advisors." (Surah Al-Arraf 7:20 – 21)

Years went by but both of them were preoccupied with the thoughts of that tree. Then one day, they decided to eat the fruit of this tree. Both forgot about Allah’s warning about that tree. Adam picked one of its fruit and offered it to Eve. They both ate the forbidden fruit of the tree. Adam hardly finished eating when he felt his heart contract and he as filled with pain, sadness and shame. He discovered that he and his wife is naked so they both started cutting tree leaves to cover themselves. At this time, Allah called out to them: "Did I not forbid you that tree and tell you: Verily, Satan is an open enemy unto you.'' (Surah Al-Arraf 7:22) In reply, Adam said:

They said, "Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves, and if You do not forgive us and have mercy upon us, we will surely be among the losers." (Surah Al-Arraf 7:23)

After realizing that they both have violated the Allah’s warning/command, they started to repent and sought forgiveness of Allah by reciting the words mentioned above.

His is the first and perfect example of the same situation. You have to submit to the will of Allah , you have to humble yourself to the supreme power and understand that he is the above all . When Iblis was criticised he gave a logical explanation, when Adam AS accepted with humility that it was his mistake . The best of the people are who keep on making mistake and keep on repenting to Allah and turning to Allah . They have humility in them to accept the mistake. “Give me some time , until they are resurrected” [Al-A’raaf 7:14 ] Shaitaan responded to Allah. Someone who has been in the company of Allah and angels, he wants us to believe that we have a lot of time . The death is away , the judgement day is away. He wants Allah to believe that it’s not me but everyone is a loser . He can never see us succeed . He tells Allah “You made me turn the wrong way , you did this to me and now I will do this to the human beings” [Al-A’raaf 7:16 ] He is always wanting us to go astray. He wants us to trick into believing that his path is the right path . The trick happens in the following process 1)He is going to make us disobey Allah - Like he said I will not prostate before Adam AS . 2)Then you start giving logical explanations to the sin - Like he said "I am better than him ". 3)Blame it on Allah . - “It is because of you I have gone astray , it’s not my fault” . The exact stepwise procedure he took to go away from Allah but he wants us humans to follow the same steps and go away from Allah. He said “I will specially divert people who are on the path of Allah”. Shaitaan is our enemy and he makes sure he attacks us in different directions. He knows weakness of each person and accordingly makes plan to attack them. He tells Allah I will take attack them from the front, from the right, from the left and from the behind [Al-A’raaf 7:17 ] The main goal of shaitaan is to make sure that we are not grateful . Most of them are not grateful to Allah . You have to think about the good things in life . You have to be positive, see good in people. Shaitaan biggest problem was arrogance and the way to defend yourself from the attacks of Shaitaan all we have to do is to be grateful. Once we are grateful to what Allah has given us then we can never have arrogance or disobey Allah!

The teaching from Adam AS's story.

Pride and arrogance are always the result of loss and destruction. See Satan who deprived of his position among the angels and expelled by Allah from heaven with curses that will attach to him until the Day of Judgment because of his arrogance and his pride as he refused to prostrate before Adam despite being commanded by Allah.