The Abrahamic religions of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all revere both Adam and Eve as the first human creations and mother and father of humanity. Both Christian and Muslim versions of the narrative of Adam and Eve present a broadly similar outline of events: they are the first human beings who, upon being placed in a Garden of rich resources, fall from God’s grace after consuming a fruit from a tree which was forbidden to them. What follows is their descent to Earth as punishment for their actions, and the subsequent proliferation of the human race, providing the foundational Abrahamic worldview that humanity is essentially a single family descended from one man and one woman. Despite this however, both traditions have nuanced differences in their accounts. These differences, including the theological and the structural, have had many implications on both religions.
The biblical narrative is present in both Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, where the older biblical account found in Genesis 1 describes that God decided to make man “in our own image, after our likeness”. The account begins with the creation of all other living things within the first five days, and finally on the sixth day, the creation of the male and the female, where the male was created first. God’s purpose in the creation of man and woman outlined in Genesis 1 is that man would rule over fish, birds and animals and that he would have the blessing of procreation. On the other hand, Genesis 2 provides a much more detailed account of the narrative of Adam and Eve. It is made evident that man was made “of the dust of the ground” before any other creation and that he was placed in the Garden of Eden after God breathed into his nostrils “the breath of life”. Once Adam was put into the Garden, the account describes God commanding him:
“Of every tree thou mayst freely eat, but of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil thou shalt not eat, for in the day that thou eastest thereof, thou shalt surely die”.
Clearly forbidding Adam to eat from the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil”, the account then goes on to explain how animals were created so that Adam could choose one to serve as his helpmeet. When Adam could not find his helpmeet from the animals, he was put into a deep “sleep” and from his rib a woman was made and brought to him. Adam is then claimed to have said: “This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called woman”. A serpent in the Garden of Eden, who has come to be known as Satan disguised, verbally seduces the woman into eating from the forbidden tree. The serpent tells her that if she eats from the tree, she will not die but rather they will be “as gods, knowing good and evil”.
The woman is described as eating from the tree and also feeding her husband, consequently resulting in them becoming aware of their nakedness and thus hiding when they hear God walking in the Garden. God punishes the serpent by ordering the serpent to crawl on its belly and eat dust until the end of time. The penalty for the woman was that her birthing pains would be multiplied and that her husband would “rule over thee”. The account then reveals that both man and woman were expelled to Earth, where Adam names his wife ‘Eve’.
The Qur’anic account of Adam and Eve sits in contrast with that of the account in Genesis. It is evident that the biblical narrative of Adam and Eve is told in chronological order, where the creation of Eve is directly linked to the creation of Adam. Additionally, it is important to note that the account is told in the form a historical narrative, where historiographical and chronological details such as the birth date of Adam and the date of his death are stated. Furthermore, the account provides times, locations, vivid descriptions of place and things. The Qur’an, on the other hand, takes a very different approach. The narrative of Adam and Eve is scattered throughout various chapters and verses in the Qur’an, and this distribution serves for each narration to be used for moral purposes within certain occasions of revelation. The Qur’an utilises the story of Adam and Eve less for literature and story-telling purposes, but rather more so for moral purposes.
God creates Adam from clay, rather than dust, and commands his angels to prostrate to Adam. All but Iblis bow to God’s creation and it is made evident that “in his pride, he refused and became an unbeliever”. After this, both Adam and Eve are placed in the Garden at the same time, as opposed to in the Biblical version where the creation of Adam and thus his placing in the Garden precedes Eve. God tells Adam, ‘Dwell with your wife in the Garden, and eat of any fruit tree you please, but do not approach this tree, or you shall both be wrongdoers.’
Similar to the Biblical account, Satan then cunningly seduces them into eating from the tree, and thus they both become aware and ashamed of their nakedness. The Qur’an describes that God does indeed forgive both Adam and Eve, but as a punishment he forces their descent onto Earth where there they “will die, and thence brought forth” upon their death.
The Qur’an employs a first person narrative voice, where God is the narrator. The language of the Qur’an ensures that the account of Adam and Eve are not meant for historical reference, but rather for metaphorical teachings. On the other hand, the Biblical account utilizes third person narrative, and the tone and literary and historical detail in it gives it its own “literary genre” of its own, which to this day still appeals even to those outside of the faith.
