One of the most pressing questions, in as far as Adam (‘a) and Eve are concerned, is this:”How was the first human family established?” Eve gave birth to sons and daughters who were brothers and sisters of one another. Did a brother marry his sister? If the answer is negative, then how else did they multiply?

We have to underscore here the sublime, pristine and irrefutable fact that what Allah (SwT) makes permissible stays so from the beginning of His creation and till the end of time; there is neither alteration nor adulteration to Allah (SwT)’s canons. There is no truly revealed religion in the history of mankind that permits a brother to marry his sister. Adam (‘a)was a Messenger of Allah (S) to mankind, a prophet, and he conveyed the same truth conveyed by all other prophets and messengers who descended from his loins, each and every one of them, preaching the same commandments of our Lord and Creator. The Almighty does not have two faces, nor does he speak to one nation differently from that to the other. His truth is one and the same.

People played havoc with their creeds, neglecting to safeguard them, deliberately altering them in order to satisfy their own whims and desires or to serve their interests or to make money as hired fabricators of hadith. This is why there are so many differences among the world’s religions. All these differences are manmade; Allah (SwT), God, Yaweh, Adiu…, has absolutely nothing to do with them. His word is one and the same; His religions are one and the same; His right and wrong is one and the same; His Fire and Heaven are the same for all. His divine law is one and the same. His halal and haram are as everlasting as His sun and moon, and this will be so till the Day of Judgment. The Almighty never changes His word; people change His word; humans play havoc with divine creeds. So, He could not have allowed His first prophet, our father Adam (‘a), to permit what all other prophets prohibited.

How Did Adam (‘A)’s Offspring Then Multiply?

We would like to distance ourselves from some Muslims who claim that necessities justify violating laws, norms, rules and traditions. We do not buy their argument because it is based on the non-Muslim concept of”All means justify the ends.” They do not. What starts wrong can never end right and vice versa. All means do not justify the ends; this is not an Islamic slogan although some Muslims unfortunately adopt it and use it, and we pray for their and our forgiveness.

Zurarah (1) quotes Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq (‘a) commenting in detail about this matter. The Imam, a great-grandson of the Prophet of Islam, was asked about his views with regard to some Muslims (as well as non-Muslims) claiming that there was time when it was the law of necessity to permit the brothers to marry their sisters in order to form the first human family. The Imam was quite emphatic in his denunciation of, even outraged at, such a preposterous claim. Here is the text of his statement as recorded in ‘Ilal al-Shara’i’:

Woe unto such people! How far are they from a matter about which neither the scholars of Hijaz nor those of Iraq have differed in the least? Allah (SwT), the most Exalted and Great, ordered the Pen to write on the Preserved Tablet (2) what will be till the Day of Judgment, one thousand years before the creation of Adam (‘a). All the Books of Allah (SwT), each and every one of them, were written by that Pen, and they all prohibit the sisters from marrying their brothers.

This is one of the prohibitions which they contain. We all read the four divinely revealed Books which are famous the world over: the Torah (Old Testament, revealed to prophet Moses (‘a)), the Injil (the Bible or the New Testament, revealed to prophet Jesus (‘a) Christ, the Psalms (revealed to prophet David (‘a), now part of the Old Testament), and the Furqan (the Holy Qur’an), revealed to Prophet Muhammad (S), Allah (SwT)’s blessings with all of them. Allah (SwT) sent them down from the Preserved Tablet to His prophets. They do not permit anything like that.

Anyone who claims otherwise or who says something similar only supports what the Zoroastrians (3) claim… Eve gave birth to seventy twins, each time giving birth to a male and a female, till Able was killed. Adam (‘a) felt very grieved about his murder to the extent that he had no desire to cohabit for five hundred years. Then he overcame his grief and cohabited with Eve, and Allah (SwT) granted him one single newborn.

When Allah (SwT) wanted his progeny to be as numerous as you can see, and to effect what the Pen had written, that is, Allah (SwT) prohibiting the brothers from marrying their sisters, it was the time in the late afternoon, on a Thursday, when Allah (SwT) sent him from Paradise a huri named Nazla. Allah (SwT), the Exalted and the Great, ordered Adam (‘a) to marry her off to Japheth (Yafith). He married her to him. Sheth (Seth), too, was blessed with a son at the same time when Japheth was blessed with a daughter. Allah (SwT), the Sublime and the Great, ordered Adam (‘a), when both newborns came of age, to marry Japheth’s daughter to the son of Sheth, which he did. The result of that marriage was the choicest of prophets and messengers. We seek refuge with Allah (SwT) against what some people claim that the brothers (who descended from Adam (‘a)) married their sisters. (4)

Also Read:

I, author of this book, would like to narrate the following incident as an example of how some Muslim imams of mosques mislead their communities:

When I lived in Falls Church city, Virginia, a mosque was built nearby, something for which I praised and thanked the Almighty. But my excitement gradually faded when I saw how the imams of that mosque were ignorant to an unbelievable degree. Here are two examples for their serious misleading ignorance:

One of them kept telling others that it was perfectly alright if they bought meat on the market the animal from which it was taken was not slaughtered according to Islamic rules and regulations. He said to them,”All you have to do is to say ‘Bismillah’ before you eat it, and it will become halal (Islamically lawful).”

He even went further to say that he would carry the sins of all Muslims who did what he suggested while doubting that it was Islamic, thus clearing skeptics of the sin and bearing it on his back,”round my neck,” according to his expression. This is one example.

Another example for such very dangerously misleading ignorance was this: I was once inside the mosque when a Muslim came to inquire about some people, Muslims of course, who were circumcising their daughters. Remember that I am talking about Muslims living in the United States, not in Africa.

I thought that the mere idea was most repulsive and disgusting. To my great surprise, the imam of that mosque told the inquirer that not only was such circumcision”lawful in Islam, it was highly recommended”…

In both incidents, the logic was one and the same: It is an axiom that says in Arabic عند الضرورات تباح المحضورات During times of necessities, what is prohibitive becomes permissible. This is why they claim that Adam (‘a)’s sons”married” their sisters; necessity dictated it… Astaghfirullah!

The account of the first children born for Adam (‘a) and Eve, and the story of Cain killing his brother Able, are both detailed in a very interesting tradition narrated by”Abu Abdullah”‎ Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq (‘a) and recorded by ‘allama al-Majlisi in Vol. 11 of his precious old edition (111 volume) encyclopedia titled Bihar al-Anwar; here is an excerpt from it for the reader:

When Adam (‘a) and Eve cohabited, a daughter was born for them whom Adam (‘a) named ‘Ataqa [which, by the way, means”emancipated from slavery, the slavery of sinning or disobeying the Lord”], and she was the first woman to commit sin from among the human race. Allah (SwT), therefore, sent against her a large wolf and a large eagle that both killed her. After that, Cain was born.

When he attained maturity, Allah (SwT), the Exalted and the Sublime, sent him a woman from among the jinns named Jehana in a human form. As soon as he saw her, he fell in love with her, so Allah (SwT) inspired to Adam (‘a) to marry Jehana to Cain. Then Able was born for Adam (‘a) and Eve. When Able became adult, Allah (SwT) sent Adam (‘a) a huri (from Paradise) named Nezla the huri. When Able saw her, he fell in love with her, so Allah (SwT) inspired to Adam (‘a) to marry her to Able, which he did. Nezla the huri thus became wife of Able son of Adam (‘a).

Then Allah (SwT) inspired Adam (‘a) to entrust the heritage of prophethood and the knowledge (relevant to it) to Able, which he did. When Cain came to know about it, he became angry and said to his father,”Am I not older than my brother and more worthy of what you did for him?” Adam (‘a) said,”Son! The affair is in the hands of Allah (SwT), and it is Allah (SwT) Who chose him for what I did.

If you do not believe me, let both of you offer a qurban (a sacrificial offering). Anyone whose qurban is accepted will be the one worthy of being preferred over the other.” During that time, the fire used to come and consume such qurbans (as the Holy Qur’an tells us in 3:183). Able was a land tiller, so he offered a bad quality wheat, whereas Able used to tend to sheep, so he offered a fat ram. The fire consumed Able’s qurban only.

Iblis, Satan, went to Cain and said,”O Cain! Were you both to have offspring, and were you both to become numerous, his offspring would brag to yours about the favor bestowed on him by your father and about the fact that the fire accepted his qurban and ignored yours. If you kill him, your father will have no choice except to give you what he has given him.” Cain, therefore, leaped at Able and killed him.

Then Iblis said,”The fire that accepted the qurban is surely glorified; so, you, too, should glorify it. Build for it a house and assign people to look after it; worship it well, and look after it, so that your qurban may be accepted, if this is what you want.” Cain did all of that, thus becoming the first human to worship the fire and to build a fire house.

Adam (‘a) came to the place where Able had killed his brother and kept weeping there for forty days during which he condemned the spot that accepted his son’s blood. It is the spot where the dome of Basra’s (main) mosque now stands (in Basra, southern Iraq). On the day when Able was killed, his wife, Nezla the huri, was pregnant. She later gave birth to a son whom Adam (‘a) named also Able.

Allah (SwT), the most Exalted and the Almighty, granted Adam (‘a) after Able another son whom he named Sheth and about whom he said,”This is hibat-Allah (SwT) (a gift from Allah (SwT))!” When Sheth became adult, Allah (SwT) sent Adam (‘a) another huri named Na’ima in a human form. As soon as he saw her, Sheth fell in love with her, so Allah (SwT) inspired Adam (‘a) to marry Na’ima to Sheth, which he did. She gave birth to a daughter whom Adam (‘a) named Hooriyya (huri). When she became adult, Allah (SwT) inspired Adam (‘a) to marry her off to Able (Able II), which he did.

The humans you all now see are from that marriage. When Adam (‘a)’s period of prophethood came to an end, Allah (SwT) Almighty ordered him to pass on his knowledge and the relics of prophethood to Sheth, to order him to follow taqiyya (to be on his guard), to keep this matter to himself and not tell his brother about it lest the latter should kill him as Able was killed. (5)

Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq (‘a) was asked once about the meaning of the verse saying,

“The Day when a man shall flee from his brother” (Qur’an, 80:34).

He said,”Cain shall that Day (of Judgment) flee from his brother Able.” He was also asked about why Wednesday is considered a bad omen day. He stated that Cain killed Able on a Wednesday. (6)

References:

1. He is”Abu al-Hassan” (or Abul-Hassan) Zurarah ibn A’yan ibn Sansan al-Shaybani.”A’yan” means”wide eyes”. His family is one of senior scholars of Kufa who specialized in fiqh, jurisprudence, but he is the most famous of his brothers. He did not leave any part of fiqh without deeply delving into it, being for a long time a companion of Imams al-Baqir, al-Sadiq and al-Kadhim. In Rijal al-Kashi, the author says the following about him:”The early companions of Abu Ja’far (Imam al-Baqir) are all known for their truthfulness, and they are the pioneers in the science of fiqh. The best of these truthful faqihs are six: Zurarah, Ma’rouf ibn Kharbuth, Burayd, Abu Busayr al-Assadi, al-Fudayl ibn Yasar and Muhammad ibn Muslim al-Ta’ifi,” as we read on p. 507 of al-Kash’s work cited above. Zurarah was so knowledgeable, he was able to see the book written by Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib (titled Al-Jami’ah) which was dictated to him by the Messenger of Allah and contained numerous halal and haram related issues. In addition to Rijal al-Kashi رجال الكشي, he is detailed on p. 290 of Rawdat al-Wa’izin روضة الواعظين, p. 34, Vol. 2 of Jami’ al-Ruwat جامع الرواة, p. 398, Vol. 1 of Ikhtiyar Ma’rifat ar-Rijal اختيار معرفة الرجال, p. 61 of Al-Ikhtisas الاختصاص and p. 93, Vol. 2 of al-Ayyashi’s Tafsir تفسير العياشي. Zurarah’s exact year of birth is not known for sure, but it is said to be around 80 A.H./699 A.D., and he died in 150 A.H./767 A.D. almost two months after the martyrdom of Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq.
2. This is what is known as al-Lawh al-Mahfooz اللوح المحفوظ (the Preserved Tablet). There is a great deal of reference to it in the Holy Qur’an and in the Sunnah, especially in qudsi ahadith. It is a record of what was and what will be of each and every matter, small or big, of Allah’s creation. It is from this record that the Holy Qur’an came. The closest of Allah’s angels are the only ones who are acquainted with some of what is recorded in it. It is one of the unknown mysteries about which we are very much in the dark. A thorough research of the Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah will give the researcher a better idea about this divine Tablet.
3. Zoroastrianism is the religion preached by Zoroaster (or Zarathustra or, in some books, Zarathushtra) who lived from 628 – 551 B.C. in ancient Persia. Its scripture is called Zend Avesta, the commentary, or the law, written in ancient Pahlavi language. It falls in the category of dualistic religions, those that believe in the existence of everything in pairs. Nowadays, the Ghebers in Iran and the Parsis in India keep this”religion” alive.
4. al-’Ayyashi, ‘Ilal al-Shara’i’, Vol. 1, pp. 30-31.
5. al-Majlisi, Bihar al-Anwar, Vol. 11, p. 226 (old edition; a newer edition of this encyclopedia was published by Ihya’ al-Kutub al-Islamiyyaاحياء الكتب الاسلامية of Qum, Iran, in 1427 A.H./2006 A.D.
6. al-Jaza’iri, Al-Noor al-Mubeen, p. 94.

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