Response to the Claim That Adam's Expulsion From Paradise Was a Punishment for His Descendants
The content of the doubt:
Some sophists claim that Adam’s expulsion from Paradise was a punishment for his descendants after him, and that these descendants bore the sin of their ancient father without any fault on their part[1]. It is as if these people are accusing the divine act of injustice, or are comparing the Islamic idea of Adam’s descent to Earth with the Christian idea of redemption , by bringing together the descendants’ participation in both cases in bearing the burden of the original sin.
Two aspects of refuting the doubt:
The Holy Qur’an describes God as just, and describes Him with all the attributes of perfection.
The expulsion of Adam from Paradise, and his descendants, of course, is not a punishment for Adam’s disobedience, but rather the purpose of Adam’s creation was to succeed and populate the Earth.
Details:
First. The Islamic faith is a manifestation of divine justice:
God - Glory be to Him - alone has the attributes of perfection, and among these attributes is justice. You will not find a book that describes God Almighty with the attributes of perfection and justice like the Holy Qur’an. God Almighty says: “And the word of your Lord has been fulfilled in truth and justice. None can change His words, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing” (115) (Al-An’am). God Almighty also says: “The word with Me cannot be changed, nor am I unjust to the servants” (29) (Qaf). God Almighty also says: “And your Lord does not wrong anyone” (49) (Al-Kahf: 49).
In the Holy Hadith: “O My servants, I have forbidden injustice for Myself and have made it forbidden amongst you, so do not wrong one another” [2]. Among His beautiful names are the Just and the Equitable.
The truth is that the Islamic belief in this is far removed from what other beliefs have become entangled in, some of which have a heavenly origin. If the Torah attributes to God - Glory be to Him - that He extends His punishment to the third and fourth generations, and Christianity is based on the idea that Redemption, and that God, according to their claim, sent to the world his redeeming son to bear the burden of the first sin of their father on behalf of the children of Adam. If we find that in the Torah and the Gospel, then we do not find anything of that in the beliefs that Muslims adopt.
Secondly. Adam’s expulsion from Paradise has its significance and meaning:
This understanding is corrupt and does not exist in Islam. There is no inherited sin in Islam, rather man is free in his choice, and he alone is responsible for his actions. God Almighty said: “No soul shall bear the burden of another” (38) and “Man shall have nothing but what he strives for” (39) and “And his striving will soon be seen” (40) and then he will be recompensed with the fullest recompense” (41) (An-Najm), “No soul shall bear the burden of another” (Al-Isra’: 15). The corrupt Christian belief is that which speaks of inherited sin.
Allah, the Almighty, also treats His creation with His grace and generosity, not with His justice. He may honor a child because of the righteousness of his father or grandfather, while He does not punish him and humiliate him because of the sin of his father or grandfather. It is sufficient for us in this regard what Allah, the Almighty, said: “And as for the wall, it belonged to two orphan boys in the city. And beneath it was a treasure belonging to them. Their father had been righteous. So your Lord intended that they should reach maturity and extract their treasure, as a mercy from your Lord.” (Al-Kahf: 82).
Allah, the Almighty, did not wrong Adam, peace be upon him, when He expelled him from Paradise, but he abandoned the obedience of his Lord by eating from the tree, which was the reason for his expulsion from Paradise . His Lord did not wrong him, and this is something that Allah, the Almighty, had decreed for him before He created him.
God Almighty told the angels before He created Adam, saying: “I am going to place a vicegerent on earth” (Al-Baqarah: 30). Who said that it is good for a person to be in Paradise without doing any work beforehand to feel the value of what he has?
If we go into assumptions and probabilities, we will not find anything wiser, more just, or more appropriate than this assumption that was, which is that the free, chosen human being was destined by God to live on this earth as the rest of his kind, the sons of Adam, live on it, so he works and others work, and they differ in their deeds, and this difference results in the reward on the Day of Judgment. This is pure divine justice that is perfect and falsehood does not come to it from before it or from behind it. Al-Aqqad said: “The divine doctrine in Islam is the most perfect doctrine in reason, and it is the most perfect doctrine in religion”[3].
“Sin in the Islamic conception is an individual sin, and repentance is individual, in a clear and simple conception in which there is no complexity or ambiguity… There is no sin imposed on a person before his birth - as the church theory says - and there is no theological atonement like that which says…” The Church has it about Jesus, peace be upon him - the son of God, according to their claim - where it falsely and unjustly claims that God crucified him, to save the children of Adam from Adam’s sin.. No! Adam
‘s sin was his personal sin, and salvation from it was through direct repentance in ease and simplicity, and the sin of each of his children was also a personal sin, and the path is open for repentance in ease and simplicity.. A comfortable and frank image in which every person bears his burden, and inspires every person to strive and try and not to despair and lose hope.. )Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful (12)( (Al-Hujurat) [4].
Conclusion:
Islam describes God only with all the attributes of perfection, including the attribute of justice. He called for justice and commanded it. God Almighty said: “Indeed, God commands justice” (An-Nahl: 90). How can God Almighty command it and describe Him as unjust when He is ignorant? How can He forbid injustice for Himself when He has wronged His servants? He said: “Indeed, I have forbidden injustice for Myself and have made it forbidden amongst you, so do not wrong one another.”
The earth did not become a resting place for the descendants of Adam after him except due to the wisdom of God Almighty in making the earth a resting place and a provision for them for a time, to populate it and be successors on it, then every doer of good will be rewarded for his good and every wrongdoer for his wrongdoing on the Day of Judgment.
(*) Even the Angels Ask, A Journey to Islam in America, Jeffrey Lang, translated by: Mundhir Al-Absi, Dar Al-Fikr Al-Mu’asir, Beirut, 2001.
[1]. Al-Jarrah: Crime and sin.
[2]. Narrated by Muslim in his Sahih, Book of Piety and Kinship And manners, the chapter on the prohibition of injustice (6737).
[3]. The Qur’anic Philosophy, Abbas Mahmoud Al-Akkad, Dar Al-Salam, Cairo, n.d., pp. 107, 108.
[4]. In the Shade of the Qur’an, Sayyid Qutb, Dar Al-Shorouk, Cairo, 13th ed., 1407 AH/1987 AD, vol. 1, p. 61, with some modifications.
The Holy Bible mentioned the reason for creating man in this way: Genesis 1:26 And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the ground.” 27 So God created man in his own image; in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed that is on the face of all the earth , and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; it shall be for you food. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps upon the earth, in which there is a living soul, I have given every green herb for food. And it was so. 31 And God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. And he also mentioned that the reason for Adam’s exodus was like this: Genesis 3:22 And the LORD God said , ” Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he put out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever .” 23 So the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he had been taken.