Sender: Umm Ḥamzah Khalīl – 27 May 2012
Peace be upon our Master Muḥammad and his pure Family.
Peace be upon you.My question today is about a common idea: how did creation begin?
What we often hear is that Allah Almighty created our Master Adam, and from him brought forth our Mother Eve. Then they had a son and a daughter (twins), and afterwards another son and daughter (also twins). The son from the first set of twins married the daughter from the second, and the daughter from the first married the son from the second — and thus the offspring of Adam gradually increased, and humanity began to spread.
In reality, this story does not seem logical to me, because Allah would never begin the spread of humankind through an immoral act such as siblings marrying one another. Some may argue, “How else could it have happened?” — but such reasoning, in my view, accuses Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) of incapacity, which is disbelief. For Allah is capable of all things; He who created Adam can surely create many others besides him.
In the end, I admit that I do not know the truth, and I would appreciate your clarification of this concept.
I thank you sincerely for your cooperation and patience with our many questions.
Answer
Dear sister, Lady Umm Ḥamzah — warm greetings and kind regards.
The idea you mentioned has no basis in truth; it contradicts the method and understanding of our school regarding the manner of creation.
The correct account is what has been narrated from the infallible Imams (peace be upon them).1
Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAṭṭār narrated from Ibn Abān, from Ibn Urmah, from al-Nawfalī, from ʿAlī ibn Dāwūd al-Yaʿqūbī, from al-Ḥasan ibn Muqātil, from one who heard Zurārah say:
Abū ʿAbd Allāh (Imam al-Ṣādiq, peace be upon him) was asked about the beginning of human reproduction from Adam (peace be upon him), and about how the generations of Adam’s offspring began. Some people among us claim that Allah revealed to Adam to marry his sons to his daughters, and that all of humankind originated from brothers and sisters.
Imam al-Ṣādiq (peace be upon him) replied:
“Exalted is Allah far above that! Those who say such a thing are implying that Allah — the Mighty and Glorious — created the best of His creation, His beloved ones, His prophets, His messengers, the believing men and believing women, the Muslims and the Muslim women, from an unlawful act; and that He lacked the power to create them lawfully! Yet Allah took their covenant upon purity and lawful origin. By Allah, I have known of certain animals to whom their sisters were disguised, and when one mounted her and realised she was his sister, he withdrew and bit off his organ until he died. Another had the same with his mother and did the same to himself. If this is the case with beasts, then how could a human being — with his intellect, nobility, and knowledge — ever do such a thing? But a generation among this creation whom you see today turned away from the knowledge of the households of their prophets and took from sources they were not commanded to take from, and thus they fell into what you now see of misguidance and ignorance about how creation truly began and how it will always be.”
Then he (Imam al-Ṣādiq, peace be upon him) said:
“Woe unto those people! Where are they from what the jurists of the Ḥijāz and the jurists of Iraq have never differed upon — that Allah, Mighty and Glorious, commanded the Pen, and it wrote upon the Preserved Tablet everything that will exist until the Day of Resurrection, two thousand years before the creation of Adam. And in all of Allah’s Books, upon which the Pen has written, there is the prohibition of sibling relations among the things forbidden. We see among these Books the four well-known ones revealed to His Messengers (peace be upon them): the Torah to Moses, the Psalms to David, the Gospel to Jesus, and the Qur’an to Muḥammad — peace and blessings be upon him and upon all the Prophets — and in none of them is there any allowance for such a thing.
Indeed, I say: whoever claims this or anything like it only seeks to strengthen the arguments of the Magians. What is wrong with them? May Allah destroy them!
Then he continued to tell us how the human race began from Adam and how it continued from his descendants. He said:
Adam (peace be upon him) had seventy pairs of children, each pair a boy and a girl, until the killing of Abel. When Cain killed Abel, Adam grieved deeply for him — a grief that kept him from approaching his wife (Eve/Hawwā') for five hundred years. When his sorrow lessened, he approached Eve again, and Allah granted him Seth (Shīth), alone, without a twin. The name Shīth means ‘Gift of Allah’. He was the first legatee appointed among human beings on earth. After Shīth, a son named Yāfith was born, also without a twin. When both of them grew, and Allah Almighty willed that humankind should continue as decreed by the Pen, maintaining the prohibition of what He had made unlawful — the marriage of brothers and sisters — Allah sent down, after ʿAṣr on a Thursday, a ḥūrīyah (celestial maiden) from Paradise named Barakah, and He commanded Adam to marry her to Shīth, so he did. Then, after ʿAṣr the next day, another ḥūrīyah descended from Paradise, named Nāzilah, and Allah commanded Adam to marry her to Yāfith, so he did. Shīth was granted a son, and Yāfith a daughter. When they reached maturity, Allah commanded Adam to marry the daughter of Yāfith to the son of Shīth. From their union came the chosen lineage of the Prophets and Messengers. Far be it from Allah that the human race should have begun as some claim — through brothers and sisters.”
This is what has been authentically transmitted from the Infallible Imams (peace be upon them), and whatever contradicts it, we do not bind ourselves to it.
- 1The complete narration is found in al-Hidāyah al-Kubrā by al-Ḥusayn ibn Ḥamdān al-Khaṣībī, pp. 254–257 (al-Balāgh Foundation edition, Beirut), under the title “Section on the Beginning of Human Lineage from Adam (peace be upon him).” In it, the Imam (peace be upon him) refutes those who claim that the children of Adam married their sisters. He clearly explains that such an idea is invalid and describes how human reproduction began in another way, according to the command of Allah Almighty.
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