Creation of Adam

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

والصلاة والسلام على رسوله الكريم

والعاقبة للمتقين

In a prior article, I discussed the creation of Adam in the Image of Allah Most High as not having transpired in this dimension, citing the Hadith narrated by sayyidina Abi Huraira رضى الله عنه that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said:

إِنَّ أَوَّلَ زُمْرَةٍ يَدْخُلُونَ الْجَنَّةَ عَلَى صُورَةِ الْقَمَرِ لَيْلَةَ الْبَدْرِ، ثُمَّ الَّذِينَ يَلُونَهُمْ عَلَى أَشَدِّ كَوْكَبٍ دُرِّيٍّ فِي السَّمَاءِ إِضَاءَةً، لاَ يَبُولُونَ وَلاَ يَتَغَوَّطُونَ وَلاَ يَتْفِلُونَ وَلاَ يَمْتَخِطُونَ، أَمْشَاطُهُمُ الذَّهَبُ، وَرَشْحُهُمُ الْمِسْكُ، وَمَجَامِرُهُمُ الأَلُوَّةُ الأَنْجُوجُ عُودُ الطِّيبِ، وَأَزْوَاجُهُمُ الْحُورُ الْعِينُ، عَلَى خَلْقِ رَجُلٍ وَاحِدٍ عَلَى صُورَةِ أَبِيهِمْ آدَمَ، سِتُّونَ ذِرَاعًا فِي السَّمَاءِ

“Verily, the first batch to enter Paradise will be upon the image of the full moon at night, then those who follow them upon the brightest star in the sky. They will not answer the call of nature, spit or blow their nose. Their combs will be of gold, and their perspiration will be musk. The fuel of their braziers will be aloes and their wives will be the Hur al-Ayn. They will be upon the appearance of a single man and will be upon the image of their father Adam, sixty cubits in Heaven.”

(Sahih al-Bukhari)

I take from this Hadith that Adam had a primordial creation in Heaven, and that is the parallel, heavenly Adam آدم المثالي which Allah says He created and moulded directly with His two Hands:

قَالَ يَا إِبْلِيسُ مَا مَنَعَكَ أَن تَسْجُدَ لِمَا خَلَقْتُ بِيَدَيَّ

(Allah) said: “Hey Iblis, what prevented you from prostrating to that which I created with My two Hands?”

(Sura 38:75)

So it was to this primordial Adam in Heaven that Allah Most High commanded the Angels to prostrate. And when Iblis refused to prostrate out of pride, refusing to acknowledge the superiority of man over him, Allah expelled him from His presence:

قَالَ فَاهْبِطْ مِنْهَا فَمَا يَكُونُ لَكَ أَن تَتَكَبَّرَ فِيهَا فَاخْرُجْ إِنَّكَ مِنَ الصَّاغِرِينَ

(Allah) said: “Get down from it for it is not for you to be bigheaded in it. So get out, verily, you are among the lowly.”

(Sura 7:13)

The expulsion of Iblis was from Heaven, from that dimension in which Allah created Adam with His own two Hands. However, there is a second expulsion of Iblis which was from the garden, the earthly paradise:

فَأَزَلَّهُمَا الشَّيْطَانُ عَنْهَا فَأَخْرَجَهُمَا مِمَّا كَانَا فِيهِ ۖ وَقُلْنَا اهْبِطُوا بَعْضُكُمْ لِبَعْضٍ عَدُوٌّ

Satan caused them both (Adam and Eve) to slip from it and removed from them that which the two had. We said: “Get down (all of you), some of you enemies of others.”

(Sura 2:36)

It is apparent from this Ayah that Satan was present in Janna, the earthly garden, and therefore had access to Adam and Eve and was able to beguile them. Incidentally, this is a proof that Adam and his wife were dwelling in an earthly paradise and not in Heaven. Allah had already expelled Iblis from Heaven when he refused to prostrate to Adam - meaning the parallel, heavenly Adam which He created directly with His two Hands. In fact, as I have written elsewhere, Allah literally touched this parallel, heavenly body of Adam. That is what is meant when it is said that He created Adam with His Hands. Adam is among those three things which Allah made directly with His Hands, coming into actual contact, the other two being Jannah, which He planted with His own Hand, and the Torah, which He wrote with His own Hand. So the primordial creation of Adam was in another dimension, in Heaven, and that Adam was created in the Image of Allah, in the presence of Allah, being sixty cubits tall. As for the Adam that was created and appeared on this Earth, it is possible he was planted in the loins of his parents however many thousands, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years ago, Allah knows best. Allah says about the earthly creation of mankind:

وَاللَّـهُ أَنبَتَكُم مِّنَ الْأَرْضِ نَبَاتًا

And Allah caused you to grow from the Earth as a vegetation

(Sura 71:17)

Here Allah is explaining the origin of humanity, meaning its earthly evolution. Furthermore, that lowly origin begins from water, and is common for all organic life on this planet:

وَاللَّـهُ خَلَقَ كُلَّ دَابَّةٍ مِّن مَّاءٍ ۖ فَمِنْهُم مَّن يَمْشِي عَلَىٰ بَطْنِهِ وَمِنْهُم مَّن يَمْشِي عَلَىٰ رِجْلَيْنِ وَمِنْهُم مَّن يَمْشِي عَلَىٰ أَرْبَعٍ ۚ يَخْلُقُ اللَّـهُ مَا يَشَاءُ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّـهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ

And Allah created every living creature from water. From among them is the one that moves upon its belly, and from among them is the one that moves upon two legs and from among them is the one that moves upon four (legs). Allah creates what He wants. Verily, Allah has power over every thing.

(Sura 24:45)

The reference to bipedal creatures includes humans and other “humanoids” or “hominins”. The humble and lowly origin of modern human beings is inferred from another Ayah:

هَلْ أَتَىٰ عَلَى الْإِنسَانِ حِينٌ مِّنَ الدَّهْرِ لَمْ يَكُن شَيْئًا مَّذْكُورًا

Has not there come upon the human a period of time when he was not a thing mentioned

(Sura 76:1)

And this is also a reference to the human’s origin from the seed of his father, and the stages of his evolution before he is born. The reader may think I am affirming the theory of human evolution but I am not. I am only affirming the lowly, earthly origin of man and the possibility that the conclusions of modern biology do not necessarily clash with the Qur’anic narrative, for the Qur’anic narrative speaks of the heavenly, parallel Adam that was created in another dimension that today’s creationists, including Jews, Christians and Muslims, have confused with Adam’s earthly creation. On that basis, “creationists” emphatically reject modern theories of human evolution and the origin of life, while I neither affirm nor reject such theories outright. There are indeed some flaws and problems with the theory of human evolution as articulated by biologists and Darwinian evolutionists, though it is not my purpose here to discuss that particular subject. I have only put forward my metaphysical belief in the primordial, heavenly creation of Adam in another dimension and stated that the earthly creation of mankind was indeed through an evolutionary process though the details of it are open for debate.

Here I would also like to make a distinction between the terms Bani Adam and Insan. These terms are often considered synonymous, but according to my understanding, while all the children of Adam are included in the category of Insan, the latter is broader and may possibly include other branches of homo sapiens that are either extinct or lesser forms of the taxonomic humans specie. From the Islamic perspective, they are not the Bani Adam into whom Allah breathed from His Spirit and gave a distinct consciousness, and to whom the message of the Prophets and Apostles was addressed. Therefore, the Qur’anic term Bani Adam should not be considered necessarily synonymous with biological terms like homo sapien or human. When Allah informed the Angels He was going to place Bani Adam on the Earth as khalifa, a successive authority, meaning they would have dominion over it surpassing and overtaking all other forms of life that were already there, the Angels asked:

أَتَجْعَلُ فِيهَا مَن يُفْسِدُ فِيهَا وَيَسْفِكُ الدِّمَاءَ

“Will you place therein one that will cause corruption therein and shed blood?”

(Sura 2:30)

Classical exegetes explain that the question of the Angels, who do not possess knowledge of the unseen, was from an inference based on what they had observed thus far of living creatures on the Earth that resembled Bani Adam. The fossil record, which cannot be ignored, reveal the existence of various ancient “humanoid” bipedal species that walked this Earth, such as the australopithecines and archaic humans (the many species of homo that existed prior to modern human beings or Bani Adam). According to the observation of the Angels, these various bipedals caused corruption through their violence, and so it was asked how Bani Adam could be any different.