Read Journeys, chapter 3

Read Dialogue, chapters 2, 3, 4, 14, 15, 16

Adam and Eve

1. My friend and neighbor, a sheikh, told me that the biblical accounts about Adam and Eve made him exceedingly disturbed. Why would that be?

1.1 Because in the Bible, Adam and Eve turn away from God, and in turning away from God, we become sinful. In the Quran, Adam makes a mistake but he never turns away from God, and people are good, not sinful.

1.2 In the Bible, God enters the garden and meets Adam and Eve hiding behind the bush. In the Quran, God sends guidance down, but God never comes down to meet us.

2. The Quranic account of Adam and Eve

2.1 Adam was created in Paradise.

2.2 God breathed His Spirit into Adam. This means:

• The ability to discern right and wrong
• The will to choose
• The authority to make use of creation
• The power of speech

2.3 God taught Adam the names of the animals.

2.4 Satan deceived Adam because he was jealous of the way Adam could learn.

2.5 God sent Adam down to earth to live near the Ka’bah for a period of time as a testing.

2.6 God sent Islam down to Adam to guide him in his conduct.

2.7 God provided the clothing of righteousness for Adam and Eve (7:26).

2.8 God intended for Adam to be his caliph (caretaker) on earth.

2.9 Adam and his descendants are basically good, but they need guidance; God sends down the guidance they need and that guidance is Islam.

2.10 Adam is the first prophet of Islam; he worshiped God in the Islamic way at the Ka’bah.

2.11 They are the servants of God who submit to His will the first Muslims all people are born Muslim. Our nature is to be Muslim.

3. The biblical account of Adam and Eve

3.1 Adam and Eve are both created on the sixth day when other mammals are created.

3.2 Adam and Eve are both created in God’s image. This means:

• The fullest humanity is a right and joyous relationship with God.
• The ability to commune with God and to receive and comprehend the thoughts of God.
• The authority to have dominion over the earth.
• People are living souls with eternity with God as God’s intention for all people.

3.3 Adam and Eve turn away from God looking to nature (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) rather than to God as the center of their worship and authority.

3.4 God enters the garden where they are to meet Him personally.

3.5 God grieves; He knows that in turning away from Him all humanity will experience sinfulness and death.

3.6 God plans to redeem us: a Son will come; God personally clothes Adam and Eve with the skins of an animal (Genesis 3:15; 21).

4. The significance of these different accounts is tremendous.

4.1

• Quran: Adam created in Paradise; he is sent to earth for a time of testing.
• Bible: Adam and Eve created on earth to glorify God and enjoy God forever.

4.2

• Quran: God breathed His Spirit into Adam and Adam is to be caretaker of the earth.
• Bible: God breathed His Spirit into Adam and Eve and they are made in God’s image.

4.3

• Quran: God named the animals.
• Bible: Adam named the animals.

4.4

• Quran: Adam made a mistake. We are all naturally good.
• Bible: Adam and Eve turned away from God and became sinful and experience death. We all participate in sinfulness, for in turning away from God, the image of God in whom we are created is distorted.

4.5

• Quran: God sent guidance (Islam) to Adam. That guidance is righteous clothing.
• Bible: God promised to send a Son to redeem us from sin; God clothed Adam and Eve with the skins of animals a sign of the atonement for sin that we have received in Jesus, the Lamb of God.

4.6

• Quran: Adam and Eve worshipped God at the Ka’bah and submitted to His will as the first Muslims.
• Bible: God met Adam and Eve and confronted them in the garden.

4.7

• Quran: Adam was the first Muslim prophet.
• Bible: Adam and Eve were created for fellowship with God.

4.8

• Quran: The Ka’bah was where Adam first worshiped God and that is the direction all Muslims turn toward in prayer. There is no movement forward toward a future hope.
• Bible: God meets us wherever we are and so there is no geographical prayer center for Christians. There is promise and hope calling us forward as we anticipate God fulfilling His promise of redemption.

Conclusion:

• In Islam, the world is a school house filled with good children. All we need is instruction and leadership.
• In the Bible, the world is a hospital in need of a doctor so that we may be healed and recreated.