SURAH AL-BAQARAH
Ayah 37
فَتَلَقَّىٰٓ ءَادَمُ مِن رَّبِّهِۦ كَلِمَـٰتٍ فَتَابَ عَلَيۡهِۚ إِنَّهُ ۥ هُوَ ٱلتَّوَّابُ ٱلرَّحِيمُ
Then Adam was inspired by his Lord with words (of repentance), so He accepted his repentance. Surely He, He is the Accepter of Repentance, Most Merciful
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فَتَلَقَّىٰٓ ءَادَمُ مِن رَّبِّهِۦ كَلِمَـٰتٍ
"Then Adam was inspired by his Lord with words (of repentance)"
Adam(a.s) did not know what to do after making a wrong decision. He had never sinned before. He immediately felt ashamed, regretted what he did and was remorseful.
“Fa” = immediately Allah inspired him with words of repentance.
The words that Allah gave Adam(a.s) can be found in Surah Al-A’raf, ayah 23 :-
رَبَّنَا ظَلَمْنَآ أَنفُسَنَا وَإِن لَّمْ تَغْفِرْ لَنَا وَتَرْحَمْنَا لَنَكُونَنَّ مِنَ ٱلْخَٰسِرِينَ
“Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves. If You do not forgive us and have mercy on us, we will certainly be among the losers”
Remember in earlier ayah, Allah said that they will be “among the wrongdoers”. So now the words of repentance contains meaning of them doing wrong to themselves.
Allah loves the moment where his slaves are asking for his mercy and forgiveness. That's pure sincerity of trying to please the Master, couldn't bear the thought of the Master being angry with him. Like a child who do not want his parents to be upset with him. If a child admits his guilt and apologized, that will make the parent's heart melt. If a child rebelled, that will make the parents getting angrier. We are all "children" of God.
Allah loves to see humans in an act of sincere repentance and improvement from what they have messed up in life. Adam(a.s) did exactly that. Angels never commit a sin hence they never perform the act of repentance while crying to Allah for disobeying HIM. If there is a nation of people where all of them are sinless, Allah will remove them from the earth and create another set of people that will make mistakes, sinned and repent. Because the purpose of creating humans is not to be like the Angels with no sin or mistake.
This was guidance from the Master to those who seek repentance. Allah consoled him like a father consoling a child who had mistakenly made a wrong decision. Making wrong decisions are a part of life. This was a learning process for Adam(a.s).
Allah made it quite casually, example in layman language, "Yes I know you are very regretful of your choice but you can always turn back to me and I will always be ready to forgive you".
Allah did not mention Hawwa directly receiving words of repentance. Adam was to teach Hawwa. The head of the family is responsible to teach the spiritual well being of his wife and children (or to send to someone who knows the religion better to teach them).
Someone from the Christian background reading this story will be expecting God to be angry at Adam but here in the Qur'an there is none.
Once a Math Professor (Dr. Jeffry Lang) read the Qur'an and when he reached this ayah of Allah telling Adam a.s and his wife to go to Earth :
"There will be for you on Earth a habitation and provision for a while."
He was very surprised. He didn't find that God was angry at Adam(a.s) as he was taught as a Christian child. He was expecting shouting and cursing! But there was none.
Instead, Prof Lang described it as someone going to a Hotel and the Receptionist said, "Your room is at #02-30, this is your key. By the way, there are some food in the room for you to enjoy for the time period of your stay"
The Sahabah (companions of the Prophet s.a.w) congratulated Hassan bin Tsabit after he was whipped for his sins as prescribed by the Qur'an for spreading the slander of Aisha(r.a). The Sahabah fully understood the concept behind human creation. After that incident, Hassan became much closer in relationship with the Prophet s.a.w. Each time the Mushrikoon recite a viral Poem against the Prophet s.a.w or the Deen, Hassan(r.a) will be called by the Prophet s.a.w to create another Poem in retaliation. Hassan became the Prophet s.a.w personal Poet.
Adam(a.s) was nurtured in the following:
Follow Allah’s command = Yes.
- Be a student. Gain knowledge.
- Stay and eat freely in Paradise (A command can also be one that feeds your pleasure, eg. getting married, etc.)
Avoid Allah’s prohibition = No. He approached the tree and ate from it.
Immediately repent after making a mistake = Yes. He was remorseful.
Iblees chose to resist all three.
Follow Allah’s command = He did not prostrate to Adam(a.s) as commanded
Avoid Allah’s prohibition = He encouraged Adam(a.s) and spouse to go to the tree.
Immediately repent after making a mistake = He did not acknowledge his mistake and never repent. In other Surah, Iblees was in fact justifying his refusal of not prostrating to Adam(a.s).
[Quran 7:12]
[Satan] said, "I am better than him. You created me from fire and created him from clay."
Iblees (the Jinn) was not a fallen Angel like what the Christians believed. He was never an Angel. Adam(a.s) repented after making a mistake but Iblees refused to repent to Allah for his mistake.
Allah gave him the opportunity to explain himself but instead of asking for forgiveness he gave that infamous Racists comment. Again after Allah rebuked him, he dared to ask for long life in order to destroy and deviate human into a miserable unguided life. A rebellious person is called a Kafir. Kafir does not mean Disbeliever. Iblees believed in Allah but he is rebellious.
Since Iblees had been alive for a very long time, his followers among the Jinns grew exponentially. Those were his family, or tribes and those others who are Ta'assub towards him as a great leader who once achieved the ranks of Angels. They were all the unseen Syayateen (plural for Syaithan).
1. Recognize that we have sinned (like Adam did).
2. Feeling remorse and regretful (like Adam did).
3. Say the same words that Adam recited.
4. Happened to do the same sin again = Repeat the process from point 1 again.
5. For the daily small sins that we overlooked = do the daily zikr of “Astaghfirullah” at least 100x (as the sunnah of the Prophet s.a.w)
What we are NOT to do after sinning:
- Not recognizing the sin or think lightly of it.
- Not remorseful and not repenting.
- Tell other people the details of our sin.
The doors of repentance to your Master is always open anytime, anywhere. You do not have to be in a Mosque to repent. There is no “confession” box. You do not have to tell anyone. You admit your guilt and confess directly to your Master, not via an intermediary. The quality of sincerity and regret are what your Master sees.
إِنَّهُ ۥ هُوَ ٱلتَّوَّابُ ٱلرَّحِيمُ
"Surely He, He is the Accepter of Repentance, Most Merciful"
A person may forgive another person’s asking for forgiveness but may not necessarily be merciful towards him. He still have some grudge and may not want to see his face anymore.
When Allah mentioned Accepter of Repentance, Most Merciful, it means in layman term “forgive and forget” and on top of that gave His Mercy to that person. Eg. The reason of a person’s entering hell is because of sins. He needs Allah’s forgiveness to remove his sins. After forgiveness, he needs Allah’s Mercy to allow him to enter Paradise. Therefore each time when you repented to Allah, you will also gain his Mercy.
If Adam was to make a complain that all this was a set up against him and his wife, it might look like a valid complain. He might defend himself that he did not know that he was to be sent to Earth. Why was it that it was his fault (wronged himself)?
But Adam did not file a complain. He did not try to build a case to justify his sin against the Master. He did not even blame Satan. He took responsibility of the mistake. He had defied the command of the Master so he acknowledged his shortcoming and repented. Humans are expected to do sins and expected to repent. He passed the TEST successfully because of his humbleness.
This was opposite of Iblees reaction. When he defied the command of his Master to prostrate to Adam(a.s), he did not admit to the mistake. Instead he tried to justify his refusal by saying that he was far more superior than Adam. He had thousand years of experience worshiping Allah. He had rose in ranks among the Angels. Why was Adam who had no resume whatsoever was suddenly promoted being higher than him? It seemed like a logical complain. He did not repent but instead rebel against the Master. He failed the TEST because of his arrogance.
[Quran 15:39]
[Iblees] said, "My Lord, because You have put me in error, I will surely make [disobedience] attractive to them on Earth, and I will mislead them all."
Iblees blamed Allah for putting him into the error of not prostrating to Adam(a.s). Let’s deduce what are his argument:
God had already planned this.
God already knew the presence of Adam(a.s) will trigger a negative respond from him.
God was unfair to Iblees. He had worshiped and done more than Adam(a.s). He was superior in status than Adam(a.s).
The command to prostrate to Adam(a.s) was purposely made to trap him.
Iblees rebelled and tried to justify his refusal against Allah’s command. Adam(a.s) did not justify his mistake.
Nowadays people tried to justify their sins by any reason that they can think of. People who drink said that I just drank a little, it does not make me drunk. It’s o.k.
Women who do not cover their modesty said that what is important is how kind your heart is. It’s o.k.
Man who beat up wife said that she belonged to me.
People who don’t perform the Solah said that they did many other good deeds like giving to charity, helping the orphaned children, etc.
Allah’s command to prostrate to HIM has become trivial to us.
People say, “Allah already knew what sin I’m going to do just like Adam eating from the tree. It was not my fault that the sin happened. No matter what, my sin will still occur just like Adam will still eat from the tree.”
Are you justifying your action (like Iblees) or are you going to repent (like what Adam did).
Do you think your logic is superior than Allah’s command? Do you think your logic has far more wisdom than the wisdom of Allah?
Both Iblees and Adam(a.s) were once honoured by Allah.
Both of them had disobeyed Allah.
Both of them were given the opportunity to act after defying His command. Iblees chose to rebel (be angry – unsatisfied) while Adam(a.s) chose to repent (fear of Allah’s anger – asking for forgiveness).
The one who repent got Allah’s forgiveness and blessings. The one who rebel got Allah’s wrath.
The story of Adam(a.s) and Iblees were mentioned 7 times in the Qur’an indicating the importance in the lesson that it brought as a reminder that decisions are made each day to either obey Allah or to refuse. It’s a constant battle of one self between being arrogance and humility, between rationalizing mistakes and repentance, between your personal logic and Allah’s wisdom, etc.
After going through the lessons in this story, you can now see Allah’s wisdom. Adam appointed as khaleefah was higher in status than Iblees or the Angels. He showed a unique character that the
Angels never experienced. Angels never sinned and never experience repenting. Iblees sinned and never experience repenting too. Adam sinned and repented. This was the special character of being a khaleefah.
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