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The Story of Adam and Eve in the Light of the Qur’an and the Christian Bible

1. Introduction

Adam and Eve are the most famous and well known couple in the history and in many

religions, it is believed that the couple made the beginning of humanity and were the first

humans on the face of the planet. It is believed that when GOD created the heaven and the entire

universe, he then created Adam and then Eve to accompany each other in the heavens. God told

Adam and Eve to eat anything from any tree, but forbidden to touch and eat from one tree. Adam

and Eve were distracted by Satan or a Sepent to eat from that particular tree as this will help

them in learning those things that are only in the Knowledge of the God (Morgan). Eve and

Adam both ate the fruit from that particular tree and God sent them to the earth in punishment of

their activity. The story of Adam and Eve is showing sin and temptation that is the part of the

human nature. The story of Adam and Eve is narrated in many holy books such as the Qur’an,

the Christian Bible, Torah and many others. In this paper, the comparison of the story of Adam

and Eve will be made in the light of the Qur’an and the Christian Bible. Although, the story is

narrated in both the holy books, however, still there are some differences and similarities

between the two.

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In the Holy Qur’an, the Story of Adam and Eve states that God had first created the

universe and everything that is in the earth, then he created the seven heavens and finally

informed the angels that he is willing to create a man as his vicegerent on the earth. Then God

created Adam as a hollow body from the wrought mud with his own hands and left him as a

hollow body in that place for years. Later, God breathed life into the hollow body and made him

alive. God taught him various things that were never been taught to the angels. God, then asked

the angels to bow him, it was just to show the superiority of a man over the angels. All angels

bowed him except Iblis (satan) and when God asked him that what stopped him from not

obeying the command of the God, he replied that he is better than Adam because Adam is

created from clay and Iblis was created from fire (Morgan).

God created Eve for Adam as his companion in the heaven. In the Qur’an, for the wife of

Adam or for the first woman, an Arabic name Hawwa is used while Eve is the name of the same

lady mentioned in the Christian bible, however, it is supposed that Eve and Hawwa are the two

names of a woman (Morgan). In Qur’an, the details of the creation of Eve/Hawwa are not

mentioned, despite, God says in Qur’an “It is He Who created you from a single person, and

made his mate of like nature, in order that he might dwell with her in love” (Al-A’raf, verse

189). Both Adam and Hawwa were placed in a Garden in the paradise to live together and to

enjoy the blessings and mercy of the God. In the garden, Adam and Eve/Hawwa were free to eat

everything except a particular fruit of a tree as God warned them that if they did so they will

become wrongdoers or aberrant (Naqvi). In Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 35, God says "O Adam,

dwell, you and your wife, in Paradise and eat therefrom in [ease and] abundance from wherever

you will. But do not approach this tree, lest you be among the wrongdoers." Adam and Eve were

distracted by Satan and they approached the tree and ate its fruit. Satan whispered to Adam “O
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Adam, shall I direct you to the tree of eternity and possession that will not deteriorate?" Qur’an

tells us that when Adam and Hawwa ate that fruit (the fruit is not mentioned) they became naked

and realized that they did a mistake and Satan aberrant them. To cover their body, both Adam

and Hawwa used tree leaves. Moreover, according to the Qur’an, both Adam and Hawwa were

responsible for the sin as well as there is no concept of the original sin. According to the Qur’an,

each soul is responsible for its own sins and sins are not hereditary to humans. Adam and Hawwa

were then expelled out from the heaven in the punishment of their activity and sent to the earth to

live their entire life till death. GOD also told them that they have choices to live their life,

whether, to follow the signs of God or to be tricked by devil/Satan (Ahamed).

The Christian Bible does confirm Adam and Eve as the first humans, but the story differs

from that of the Qur’an in a few things. In the Bible it is stated that God cause Adam to fall into

sleep and then created Eve from one of his ribs and then covered that part with flesh (Genesis,

1:20). The bible says, that the forbidden tree was named as the tree of Knowledge and instead of

Adam the serpent of the tree aberrant the Eve, who then convinced Adam to eat the fruit. In this

regard, Eve is responsible for the sin. After creating Eve, when God put them in the Eden garden,

he has forbidden them from eating or touching that particular tree and if they do so they will

die. In the Qur’an, God told them that if they disobeyed the command of the God, they will be

considered as wrongdoers. The name of the garden of the heaven is mentioned in the bible as

Eden, which according to the modern research and geological estimation can be a place in

modern Iraq as per the signs of the bible, while in the Qur’an the name of the garden is not

specified (Naqvi).

As a punishment of their sin, Adam and Eve were expelled out from the heaven and

according to the bible, the punishment of Adam, Eve and the Serpent were clearly identified by
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the God. Adam was punished to work hard and it became tedious (Genesis, 3: 17-19). The

woman will bear great pain to deliver children (Genesis, 3:16). The Serpent will crawl on the

ground throughout his life and he will be the most cursed creature (Genesis, 3:14). As per the

information given by the bible, the punishment was given to the animal not to the Satan and it is

believed that Satan will be punished in the future. On the other hand, as per the Qur’an, Satan

was kicked out from the heaven when he refused to bow to the Adam, and will be punished on

the day of judgement for all his evil deeds and actions, however, the Qur’an does not mention

anything about the presence of a serpent. The Christian Bible also confirms the hypothesis of the

original sin. Original sin is the transgression of the command of God made by the first human

couple, Adam and Eve and as per the hypothesis of the Christians, sins are hereditary and can

pass from parents to child. In this regard, as per the Christian beliefs, humans are born sinner and

even the soul of a newborn child is not innocent. “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child”

(Proverbs, 22:15). “The intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” (Genesis, 8:21). “Behold, I

was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” (Psalm, 51:5). These are only

a few verses from the bible, which gives the confirmation of the concept of original sin (Toews).

The similarities between the two holy books about the story of Adam and Eve are their

creation immediately after the creation of the universe, the heaven and everything that are in the

earth and heaven, the knowledge that was given by the God to Adam, the creation of Eve as a

companion of Adam, the command of God regarding not eating the fruit of a particular tree in

the garden, the name of the fruit, the Aberrance of Adam and Eve, their punishment, and their

expulsion from the heaven. Contrary, at some points, such as the name of the garden, the name

of the tree, the warning of death if they eat the forbidden fruit, the birth of Eve from the rib of

Adam, the name of Adam’s wife, the presence of a serpent, the identification of punishment for
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Adam, Eve and the Serpent the bible’s information is different from that of the Qur’an (Naqvi).

The Qur’an and the Christian bible actually confirms that the first human couple was that of

Adam and Hawwa because in Quran several times the two are mentioned as “Adam and his

Wife”. This is showing that both were married when they were in the garden in Paradise.

Although, in some places in the Bible, Eve was called the companion and helper of Adam and

they married after their expulsion from the paradise, however, the Bible does confirm them

husband and wife before their expulsion from the paradise.” Then the man and his wife heard the

sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from

the LORD God among the trees of the garden” (Genesis, 3:8).

2. Conclusion

The story of Adam and Eve shows that both the holy books have lots of similarities about

the creation of human, about the first human couple, and about the transgression of the command

of the God. At many points, it also confirms the presence of one God, the day of judgement, and

the Satan. The term original sin is a myth for the believers of Qur’an while the Christian bible

confirm it in several points. The two sacred books agree on the sin of the couple, their expulsion

from paradise and the beginning of human life on the earth.

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References

Ahamed, Syed V. English Translation Of The Message Of The Qur'an. Lombard, IL.: Book of
Signs Foundation, 2006. Print.

Morgan, Diane. Essential Islam. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Praeger/ABC-CLIO, 2010. Print.

Naqvi, M.D. Ejaz. The Quran: With Or Against The Bible?: A Topic-By-Topic Review For The
Investigative Mind. Paperback, 2012. Print.

Toews, John E. The Story Of Original Sin. Paperback, 2013. Print.