Âdam or Aadam (Arabic: آدم‎, romanized: ʾĀdam) is believed to have been the first human and nabi (Arabic: نَـبِي‎, prophet) on Earth, in Islam.[1] Adam's role as the father of the human race is looked upon by Muslims with reverence. Muslims also refer to his wife, Hawa (Arabic: حَـواء‎, Eve), as the "mother of mankind".[2] Muslims see Adam as the first Muslim on Earth, as the Quran states that all the Prophets preached the same faith of Islam (Arabic: إِسـلام‎, 'Submission' (to God)).[3]
In the Qur'an Adam is given the name by God known as the (Adam-I-Safi) or The Chosen One.
Synthesizing the Quran with hadith and Islamic exegesis can produce the following account.
Before Allah created Adam, He ordered the archangels to bring seven handful of soil from Earth, in different colours, hence the different skin colours. But the earth sought refuge of God, thus the earth will not be distorted. Only Azrail succeeds, due to seeking refuge of God, for he will not return with empty hands like the other archangels before. Azrail took dust from different parts of earth, therefore his children may have different skin colours.[6][7] Hadith add that he was named Adam after the clay he was made out of, or the skin (dim)of the earth.
Returning to the Qu'ran, when God informed the angels that he was going to put a successor on Earth, they questioned whether the human would cause bloodshed and damage, but He told them that He knew what they know not[8] and taught Adam the names and commanded him to call them. When the angels failed to call the names Adam called out the names. When God called to prostrate to Adam they all obeyed, except Iblis. He said, "I am made from fire when Adam is made from clay. I am better than him. I am not going to prostrate before him." God created Adam from clay and breathed life into him.
A widely accepted, yet not based on the Qur'an, narration in Islamic literature says, that while Adam was sleeping, God took a rib from him and from it he created Eve; however, the exact method of creation is not specified.[9] The Qur'an then says that God commanded that Adam and Eve not approach (come closer to) the one tree in the garden of Eden, but Iblis was able to convince them to do that. They then began to cover themselves because they now knew that they were naked.[10] For this God banished Adam and Eve to earth; non-canonical Sunni hadith say that fruits were turned to thorns and pregnancy became dangerous. Non-canonical Sunni hadith also say that Adam and Eve were cast down far apart, so that they had to search for each other and eventually met each other at Mount Arafat.[9]
In Islamic theology, it is not believed that Adam's sin is carried by all of his children.[11] Hadith say that once Adam was on earth, God taught him how to plant seeds and bake bread. This was to become the way of all of Adam's children.[12] Adam proceeded to live for about 1000 years, though this has been a topic of debate