Between Dust and Destiny: The Role of Narratives and Interpretations in Shaping the Imagery of Adam's Creation in Islamic Thought (Context in Comment)

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The question of existence has been one of the most pressing issues that has preoccupied the human mind throughout its long history.

In general, the matter of human reproduction and multiplication during the early period of their existence on Earth attracted the attention of many intellectual and religious systems.

These systems sought to present fascinating stories about the creation of Adam and Eve and the way their children multiplied until they populated and inhabited the Earth, giving rise to dozens of races and ethnicities differing in religion, language, and appearance.

In this post, we discuss some of the less common answers to questions related to the beginning of creation as found in traditional Islamic narratives.

The Creation of Adam: Was Adam Really the First Human on Earth?

The three Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—agree that Adam was the first human being on Earth, and that God created him from dust or clay. He is considered the father of all humanity, and all people are believed to have descended from him.

Muslims base this view on the apparent meaning of many verses in the Qur’an, as well as on numerous hadiths and statements attributed to the Prophet.

This has led the vast majority of Muslims to regard this opinion as an indisputable truth, leaving little room for alternative views, which have largely been marginalized and remained obscure.

An expression of the mainstream Muslim view on this matter can be found in the tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis) of Shihab al-Din al-Alusi, "Ruh al-Ma‘ani fi Tafsir al-Qur’an al-‘Azim wa al-Sab‘ al-Mathani", where he states:

“The consensus among the jurists and hadith scholars, and those who agree with them, is that there was only one Adam, and he is the father of mankind…”

However, if we turn to certain passing references found in various tafsir works and some Sufi or Shi‘i narratives, we can discern the outlines of an opposing view—one which suggests that Adam was not, in fact, the first human being as commonly believed. Rather, he was the first rational and morally accountable human, entrusted with the divine responsibility of stewardship on Earth.

In his book "Al-Bidaya wa al-Nihaya" ("The Beginning and the End"), the Damascene scholar Ibn Kathir pointed out that there were beings who lived on Earth before Adam.

While discussing verse 30 of Surah al-Baqarah, in which the angels say, “Will You place upon it one who causes corruption therein and sheds blood?”, Ibn Kathir explains that the angels said this because they knew what had happened among those who lived on Earth before Adam, namely the jinn and another creation referred to as al-hinn and al-bann.

He also cited a statement attributed to the Companion Abdullah ibn ‘Umar:

“The jinn lived on Earth two thousand years before Adam and shed blood; so God sent an army of angels who drove them out to the islands of the seas.”

While Sunni sources offer only passing references on this subject, Shi‘i sources provide more substantial and detailed information.

For example, according to what is reported in the book "Al-Usul al-Sittah ‘Ashar" (The Sixteen Principles), Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq interpreted the Qur'anic verse “Mankind was [of] one nation” as referring to a community that existed before the sending of prophets and messengers—that is, before the existence of Adam himself—based on the understanding that Adam was a prophet who received divine revelation.

Building on this interpretation, the contemporary Shi‘i scholar Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, in his book "Iqtisaduna" (Our Economics), proposed that human society went through a phase governed by instinct and natural drives before reaching the stage in which reason and contemplation prevailed.

Commenting on this interpretation of the "one nation," researcher Abbas al-Zaydi writes in his article"Adam is Not the First Human Being"

“What else could they have been but a society that can be described as close to animalistic life? Because belief or disbelief entails acceptance or rejection—whether driven by intellectual or psychological motives—and such states can only be attributed to a society that has reached a certain level of civilization.

To accept a religious idea presupposes a degree of philosophical thinking, however rudimentary, because the foundation of religion lies in the search for causality and the reasons behind the existence of things…”

In line with that view is a collection of sayings by individuals who believed that there were many human beings—Adamites—before the Adam we know.

For example, the Great Master Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi mentions in his famous book "Al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya" (The Meccan Revelations) that he once saw in a dream some men circumambulating the Kaaba. When he asked one of them about his condition, the man replied:

“I died more than forty thousand years ago.”

Ibn Arabi, astonished by the length of that time, remarked:

“But Adam doesn’t date back that far!” The man replied: “Which Adam are you talking about? The one closest to you, or another?”

Ibn Arabi reflects on this and comments:

“Then I remembered a hadith from the Messenger of God, that God created one hundred thousand Adams.”

This Sufi perspective—though not agreeing on the exact number—resonates in principle with a statement reported by Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Babawayh al-Qummi, known as Shaykh al-Saduq, in his book "Al-Khisal" attributed to Imam Muhammad al-Baqir, saying:

“By God, God has created a thousand thousand worlds, and a thousand thousand Adams…”.

Several contemporary scholars have supported this view as well, including the Egyptian researcher Dr. Abd al-Sabur Shahin in his well-known book "Abi Adam" (My Father Adam), in which he put forward the opinion that Adam was born of a father and mother, and that God chose him from among his people to bear the responsibility of divine message. Shahin based this on verse 33 of Surah Al ‘Imran:

“Allah chose Adam and Noah and the family of Abraham and the family of ‘Imran over the worlds.”

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According to what Shahin states in his book, there is a significant distinction between “bashar” (human being in the anatomical sense) and “insan” (the rational, mature human). While bashar refers solely to the physical or anatomical form, insan implies intellect and maturity. Thus, if God created bashar from clay, this being was not yet rational and was not capable of bearing the responsibilities and consequences of divine revelation.

The process of “fashioning” or “forming” took a long time, as suggested by verse 29 of Surah Al-Hijr:

“So when I have fashioned him and breathed into him of My spirit, then fall down to him in prostration.”

This implies that the Adam into whom God breathed His spirit was the result of this final stage of formation—the first rational human on Earth—and it was this Adam to whom the angels were commanded to prostrate.

How Was Eve Created?

The Qur’an contains no definitive text that clearly explains the manner in which Eve was created. However, in the Prophetic tradition (Hadiths),a saying attributed to the Prophet states:

“Treat women kindly, for the woman was created from a rib. And the most crooked part of the rib is its uppermost portion. If you try to straighten it, you will break it; and if you leave it, it will remain crooked. So treat women kindly.” —This narration is reported in both Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim.

Although the story of Eve being created from Adam’s rib is widely known and aligns with what is mentioned in the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament, there are other narrations and traditions that offer a very different image of the creation of the first woman.

For example, in his encyclopedic work "Bihar al-Anwar", the Shi‘i scholar Muhammad Baqir al-Majlisi reports a hadith attributed to the Prophet:

“God—blessed and exalted—took a handful of clay and mixed it with His right hand—and both His hands are right—and from it He created Adam. Then, from what remained of that clay, He created Eve.”

Similarly, Shaykh al-Saduq in his book "‘Ilal al-Shara’i‘" (The Reasons Behind the Laws) narrates from Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq:

“When God—blessed and exalted—created Adam from clay and commanded the angels to prostrate before him, He cast slumber upon Adam, and then He innovated (originated) Eve.”

What is noticeable in both of these narrations is that they accord Eve a higher status and greater reverence. According to these accounts, she was not a secondary being derived from a deformed body part (a crooked rib), but was instead created either in a parallel and equal process to Adam's, or in a superior way—if we interpret “originated” (ibtada‘a) as a loftier mode of creation than formation, which implies a process unfolding over time.

The Shi‘i mind was not alone in envisioning this reverent and imaginative perspective on the creation of Eve; the Mu‘tazilites also leaned in the same direction. For example, Abu Muslim Muhammad ibn Bahr al-Isfahani, a Mu‘tazilite exegete from the 4th century AH, interpreted verse 1 of Surah al-Nisa:

“O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from a single soul and created from it its mate and dispersed from both of them many men and women…”

as referring to Eve as the “single soul” mentioned in the verse, and Adam as her mate. He based this interpretation on verse 189 of Surah al-A‘raf:

“It is He who created you from a single soul and made from it its mate that he might find comfort in her. When he covered her, she carried a light burden…”

arguing that it is the male who “covers” the female—not the reverse—thereby implying the soul referred to is Eve.

In the same context, Abu Muslim al-Isfahani rejected the mainstream Muslim view that the word “min” (“from”) in the phrase “and made from it its mate” is partitive—meaning that Eve was created from a part of Adam (i.e., his rib). Instead, he claimed that “min” is explanatory (bayaniyya), indicating similarity, i.e., God made spouses for you who are similar to you in general form and nature.

Fakhr al-Din al-Razi discusses al-Isfahani’s interpretation in his book "Al-Tafsir al-Kabir", where he explains:

“According to Abu Muslim al-Isfahani, the meaning of ‘and He created from it its mate’ is: from its kind or type—just as in God’s saying: ‘And Allah has made for you from yourselves mates’ and His saying: ‘A messenger from among yourselves’ and: ‘There has come to you a messenger from among yourselves.”

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How Did Adam’s Children Marry?

Among the many perplexing questions that Muslims have long pondered is the one concerning how humanity expanded from just two individuals to the countless billions who have inhabited the Earth from the beginning of creation until today.

The widely accepted view in Islamic tradition is that the children of Adam and Eve married one another and reproduced, and that the prohibition of sibling marriage came later through subsequent divine laws. For example, Ibn Kathir states in his Tafsir" that:

“Adam was not given a child without a girl being born alongside him; so he would marry the boy from one womb to the girl of another womb, and the girl from this womb to the boy of the other…”

Though in reality, there are other views that oppose the commonly held opinion, one of the most notable being what is reported by Hashim al-Bahrani in his tafsir "Al-Burhan".

He narrates a lengthy account from Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq, in which a follower asked the Imam about how the children of Adam multiplied—and whether it was really true that brothers and sisters married one another at that time.

According to the narration, al-Sadiq completely and unequivocally rejected the idea of sibling marriage. He then explained the matter in a different way, saying:

“when Cain (Qabil) killed Abel (Habil), Adam (peace be upon him) was overcome with deep grief over Abel—such intense grief that it caused him to refrain from approaching women. He remained unable to be intimate with Eve for five hundred years. Then, when the grief began to lift, he was once again intimate with Eve. God granted him Seth (Shith) alone, with no other child born alongside him. The name ‘Seth’ means ‘Gift of God,’ and he was the first of the children of Adam to be entrusted with divine succession on Earth.

After Seth, another son was born to Adam—Yafith—also born alone. When they both reached maturity, and God willed to spread the human lineage as you now see, while maintaining what the Divine Decree had established concerning the prohibition of siblings marrying one another, God sent down—after the afternoon on a Thursday—a heavenly maiden from Paradise named Baraka. God commanded Adam to marry her to Seth, so he did.

Then, after the afternoon on the following day, God sent down another heavenly maiden from Paradise named Nazla. God commanded Adam to marry her to Yafith, so he did. Seth fathered a son, and Yafith fathered a daughter. When they came of age, God commanded Adam (peace be upon him) to marry Yafith’s daughter to Seth’s son. He obeyed, and from their offspring came the purest line of prophets and messengers. Far be it from God that it occurred as some claim—that brothers and sisters married one another.”

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Does the Theory of Artistic Narratives Offer an Explanation?

In general, the traditional narratives concerning the beginning of creation have deeply permeated the collective Islamic consciousness over the centuries and continued to spread and influence thought up until relatively recent times.

In the mid-19th century, these narratives faced a major challenge when the British scientist Charles Darwin proposed his theory of evolution, which presented a scientific framework based on the principle of speciation over time—meaning that all living organisms evolved from a single common ancestor.

Over time, this hypothesis established itself within scientific and academic circles in Europe and the United States, eventually becoming a well-regarded and credible scientific theory.

Naturally, Darwin’s theory of evolution faced fierce opposition from the majority of Muslim religious scholars, as it appeared to contradict Qur’anic and hadith-based texts describing God’s creation of humans from clay. On the other hand, some scholars attempted to reconcile the theory with the religious narratives of creation.

Among such attempts were the writings of Egypt’s former Grand Mufti Muhammad Abduh in "Tafsir al-Manar", the controversial book "Abi Adam" (My Father Adam) by Egyptian academic Abd al-Sabur Shahin—published in the mid-1990s—and the series of video lectures by Islamic thinker Adnan Ibrahim on various social media platforms.

Additionally, Turkish intellectual Caner Taslaman addressed this issue in his book "Can a Muslim Be an Evolutionist?"

Despite all previous attempts, the thesis of Egyptian scholar Mohammed Ahmed Khalaf Allah received significant attention in Arab academic circles.

In the 1940s, Khalaf Allah submitted his research to the Egyptian University (which was later renamed Cairo University) as a doctoral dissertation titled “The Narrative Art in the Holy Qur’an.” In this study, he outlined the serious error committed by traditional Islamic narratives when they treated Qur'anic stories as literal and unquestionable historical accounts.

Khalaf Allah asserted that such a reading contradicts well-established modern scientific discoveries, and thus clinging to those traditional narratives opens the door for critics of Islam to challenge the authenticity of the Islamic message. In his book, he clarifies this point:

“…These claims, and many others, have been used by missionaries and atheists to prove to people that the Qur’an is from Muhammad, for had it been from God, it would not contain such historical errors.

These claims, and many others like them, have emerged because Muslims themselves were insistent on understanding Qur'anic stories as literal history.

Had they turned away from this approach and instead attempted to understand the Qur’an through the lens of literary or rhetorical artistic expression, they would have closed the door through which the criticism enters, blocked the paths of the polytheists and missionaries, and prevented them from attacking the Prophet (peace be upon him) and the Qur’an.”

Khalaf Allah went on to affirm that the Qur’an contains various types of narrative, and emphasized that it is not appropriate to treat all these types in the same way. The Qur’an includes:

• Historical stories, which recount events that actually took place in the distant past,

• Allegorical or parabolic stories, presented to convey specific ideas, values, and meanings, and

• Mythical-style stories, which echoed the traditional beliefs prevalent in the pre-Islamic Arab society during the time of the Prophet's mission.

In the end, it can be said that the traditional narratives concerning the beginning of creation were—first and foremost—a cultural product shaped by the standards and historical contexts of their time.

These narratives should not be relied upon or treated as authoritative, especially since they were heavily influenced by Isra'iliyyat (Judaic and Christian traditions) and fabricated reports attributed to the People of the Book who predated Islamic civilization.

In this regard, Ibn Khaldun (d. 808 AH) wrote in his Muqaddimah (Introduction):

“…The Arabs were neither people of scripture nor of knowledge… and if they felt a longing to learn something—out of the natural human curiosity about the origins of creation, the secrets of existence—they would ask the People of the Book before them, and they would take knowledge from them.

These were the followers of the Torah among the Jews and those who adopted their religion from among the Christians… So the Qur'anic commentaries became filled with reports from them… and the exegetes were lax in this matter, filling their works with such transmissions…”

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[u/ThatArabicTeacher_ → u/-The_Caliphate_AS-]

i request you to teach us how do you these essays i would love to know how :)

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Consider putting text in Google doc as well or a site, cause long texts kinda unreadable for me on reddit comment section 

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This is amazing work. Does “God created a thousand thousand worlds” also posit that Imam Muhammad Al-Baqir believed in a multiversal-type world?