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God the Almighty revealed: Remember when your Lord said to the angels: 'Verily, I am going to place mankind generations after generations on earth.' They said: 'Will You place therein those who will make mischief therein and shed blood, while we glorify You with praises and thanks (exalted be You above all that they associate with You as partners) and sanctify You.' God said: 'I know that which you do not know.'
God taught Adam all the names of everything, then He showed them to the angels and said: "Tell Me the names of these if you are truthful." They (angels) said: "Glory be to You, we have no knowledge except what You have taught us. Verily, it is You, the All-Knower, the All-Wise."
He said: "O Adam! Inform them of their names," and when he had informed them of their names, He said: "Did I not tell you that I know the unseen in the heavens and the earth, and I know what you reveal and what you have been hiding?"
Remember when We said to the angels: "Prostrate yourself before Adam" They prostrated except Iblis (Satan himself), he refused and was proud and was one of the disobedient to God."
We said: "O Adam! Dwell you and your wife in the Paradise and both of you freely with pleasure and delight of things therein as wherever you will but come not near this tree or you both will be of the wrongdoers."
Then the Satan made them slip there from (the Paradise), and got them out from that in which they were. We said: "Get you down all with enmity between yourselves. On earth will be a dwelling place for you and an enjoyment for a time."
Then Adam received from his Lord Words. His Lord pardoned him (accepted his repentance). Verily He is the One Who forgives (accepts repentance), the most Merciful.
We said: "Get down all of you from this place (the Paradise), then whenever there comes to you Guidance from Me, and whoever follows My Guidance there shall be no fear on them, nor shall they grieve. But those who disbelieve and belie Our proofs such are the dwellers of the Fire, they shall abide therein forever."
Almighty God also revealed: And surely, We created you (your father Adam) and then gave you shape (the noble shape of a human being), then We told the angels, "Prostrate to Adam", and they prostrated, except Iblis, he refused to be those who prostrate.
God said: "What prevented you (O Iblis) that you did not prostrate when I commanded you?"
Iblis said: "I am better than him (Adam), You created me from fire and him You created from clay."
God said: "O Iblis get down from this (Paradise), it is not for you to be arrogant here. Get out for you are of those humiliated and disgraced."
Iblis said: "Allow me respite till the Day they are raised up (Day of Resurrection)."
God said: "You are of those allowed respite."
Iblis said: "Because You have sent me astray, surely I will sit in wait against them (human beings) on Your Straight Path. Then I will come to them from before them and behind them, from their right and from their left and You will not find most of them as thankful ones (they will not be dutiful to You)."
God said: "Get out from Paradise, disgraced and expelled. Whoever of them (mankind) will follow you, then surely I will fill Hell with you all."
"And O Adam! Dwell you and your wife in Paradise, and eat thereof as you both wish, but approach not this tree otherwise you both will be of the unjust and wrongdoers."
What was the tree prohibited for Adam and Eve?
As is known, Adam was in the Garden before his worldly life. While in the Garden, God commanded him and Eve not to eat of the fruit of a particular tree. Then, after they ate of it, they were expelled from the Garden and commanded to live on earth.
Although interpreters of the Holy Book have offered different views on what the prohibited fruit was, it was most probably human inclination towards the opposite sex. Satan approached Adam and Eve and argued that it was a tree of eternity and of a kingdom that would never decay, the fruit of which had been prohibited to them (20:120). Most probably knowing that they were mortal, Adam and Eve must have desired eternity through offspring. This can also be deduced from the verses: Then Satan whispered to them so that he might manifest to them that which was hidden from them of their shame, and he said: ‘Your Lord forbade you this tree only lest you should become angels or become immortals.’ And he swore to them (saying): ‘Truly, I am a sincere adviser to you.’ Thus did he lead them by a deceit; and when they tasted of the tree their shame was manifest to them and they began to cover (by heaping) on themselves some of the leaves of the Garden...(7:20–2). The intuition of, and desire for eternity are intrinsic to man.
Even if we accept Adam’s eating of the forbidden fruit as a lapse, it is difficult to regard it as a deliberate or sustained disobedience, that is, a revolt against God, which might lead us to see the Prophets as fallible. First of all, Adam was not a Prophet while in the Garden. Secondly, this lapse of Adam was the result of not willful disobedience, but merely some sort of forgetfulness. Concerning this, the Book says:
"We had made a covenant with Adam before, but he forgot, and we found on his part no firm resolve (20:115)."
Sins committed because of forgetfulness will not be accounted for in the Hereafter. The Prophet said:
"My community are exempted from being questioned about forgetting, unintentional errors, and what they are compelled to do, not of their will."
The Book teaches us this prayer:
"Our Lord! Condemn us not if we forget or fall into error (2:286)."
Adam did not make this lapse deliberately. Although some have misinterpreted the verse above to suggest that Adam was not determined to fulfill the covenant God had made with him, the context does not allow such an interpretation. For Adam and Eve turned to God immediately after their lapse in sincere repentance and entreated Him, saying:
"Our Lord! We have wronged our own selves! If you forgive us not and bestow not upon us Your Mercy, we shall certainly be among those who are lost (7:23)."
Destiny has a part in that Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit or tree
Destiny had a part in Adam’s lapse. God had destined him to be His vicegerent on earth, before his creation and settlement in the Garden. This is explicit in the Book:
"Behold, your Lord said to the angels: ‘I will make a vicegerent on earth.’ They said: ‘Will you make therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood, whilst we do celebrate Your praises and glorify You?’ He said: ‘I know what you know not.’ (2:30)."
God’s Messenger also points to that truth, saying:
Adam and Moses met each other in the Heaven. Moses said to Adam: ‘You are the father of mankind, but you caused us to come down to earth from the Garden.’ Adam replied to him: ‘You are the one whom God addressed directly. Did you not see this sentence in the Torah: "Adam had been destined to eat of that fruit forty years before he ate of it?"
After reporting this meeting, God’s Messenger added three times: Adam silenced Moses.
The life of Adam in the Garden and the trial he underwent were preliminaries he had to pass through before his earthly life. He passed all the tests to which he was put and, being chosen and saved from being lost in the swamp of sins and deviation, was made a Prophet and honored with being made the father of thousands of Prophets and millions of saints:
"Then his Lord chose him; He relented towards him, and rightly guided him (20:122)."
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