HE WROTE:

 

Muslims twist Genesis 3 to mean that Eve is held primarily responsible for plunging humanity into sin for eating from the forbidden tree first and tempting Adam.

 

 

 

RESPONSE:

 

The Book of Genesis is very specific and clear that Eve was the first sinner; she ate the fruit and enjoyed the taste, so she seduced Adam to taste the fruit and “live forever” according to the serpent’s false promise. Hence, Eve wanted to live forever and wanted Adam to live forever too. Adam’s ingestion of the fruit occurred before he acquired the knowledge of good and evil, he unknowingly disobeyed God. Another factor is that Eve’s beauty enticed Adam to partake the fruit; he was deceived by the woman’s gesture.

 

A clear examination of the story compared with the Quran shows that Eve is responsible for deceiving Adam. The devil was not brave enough to attack Adam, so Eve seduced him to the tree, he did not refuse because the knowledge was not given to him yet. God warned Adam to avoid the tree (Genesis 2:17), he obediently stayed clear. Eve is described as the weaker sex, she couldn’t resist temptation (1 Tim. 2:14). Yet, Jesus on the other hand, overpowered Satan (Matt. 4:10) and conquered evil.

 

Adam did not possess the knowledge to distinguish between good and evil, he only had the knowledge to choose good or evil. . When Adam ate the fruit, the knowledge was bestowed on him, and he realized for the first time he was naked. In fact, both Adam and Eve covered up their nakedness (Gen. 3:7).

 

There is no “twisting” on the Muslim’s part. Christian scholars interpret Genesis to mean exactly what Muslims say, that Eve is responsible for deceiving, or seducing Adam, who is totally innocent.

 

For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety. (1 Timothy 2:13-15)

 

But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:3)

 

 

 

HE WROTE:

In the first place, the Holy Bible does not say that childbearing or pregnancy is the result of God’s curse upon the woman. In fact, the opposite is true since God had already decreed that childbearing would be the means of propagating the human race long before the fall:

"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 upon the earth.’ And God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day." Genesis 1:28-31

 

RESPONSE:

The Bible opposes the law of marriage:

But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this. (1 Corinthians 7:28)

There is difference [also] between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please [her] husband. (1 Corinthians 7:34) 

The implication is clear that women should remain virgins and take a vow to celibacy, or else they would defile their body and spirit. Paul says the “married woman” only care to sexually satisfy the lusts of her husband, he prefers the unmarried woman who is chaste, and totally abstaining from sex. Paul denies the rights of reproduction given to woman. The statements above contradict what God said to Adam and Eve: “multiply and replenish the earth” (Genesis 1:28).

Strangely, the Bible teaches God destroyed the whole world during Noah’s flood, yet after the waters receded, God told Noah and his sons to “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” (Gen 9:1). This seems strange, because God is repeating His “mistake” of creating mankind; he gives the same instructions which he gave to Adam and Eve. (Gen. 1:28). According to the Bible, God doesn’t learn lessons!

 

Here are the points:

 

(1)   God created Adam and Eve

(2)   They disobeyed God, and were cursed.

(3)   God allows Adam to procreate

(4)   God discovers mankind is corrupted.

(5)   God destroys the world, and re-creates mankind again!

(6)   God never learned His lesson, (according to the Bible). He gave the same instructions to Noah (Gen. 6:5) which he gave to Adam a few hundred years before (Gen. 1:28).

 

Biblically, God made childbearing difficult, but Eve nevertheless fulfilled the role to produce children. Regardless of before or after the fall, the role of Eve did not change, even though she was cursed and her descendants punished.

 

 

HE WROTE:

The Scriptures speak of children being a blessing from God, and a means of salvation for women:

"Sons are a HERITAGE from the LORD, children a REWARD from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate." Psalm 127:3-5

"Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in his ways. You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours. YOUR WIFE WILL BE LIKE A FRUITFUL VINE WITHIN YOUR HOUSE; your sons will be like olive shoots around your table. Thus is the man blessed who fears the LORD." Psalm 128:1-4

"But women will be saved THROUGH CHILDBEARING - if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety." 1 Timothy 2:15

We therefore see that childbearing was not a sign of the curse. Rather, the curse was that women would suffer labor pains as a consequence of Eve’s sin. The pain was the curse, the punishment, not the act of conceiving and bearing children.

 

RESPONSE

 

The passage 1Timothy 2:15 shows that women are not saved through Jesus’ sacrifice, they are rather saved through “childbearing”.

 

The scholar Bonnie Thurston comments:

The Pastoral writer states that a woman “will be saved through childbearing”. On the face of it, this suggests that Christ’s redemptive and saving work does not extend to women; they must save themselves by a particular form of “work”. (Women in the New Testament, p. 146)

The sacrifice of Jesus did not eradicate the pain of childbearing – proving that Jesus was not crucified.

“…in sorrow, thou shalt bring forth children”. This is a major plank of the curse. It defies explanation, that Jesus is reputed to have been sacrificed by alleged crucifixion, in order to wipe out the curse upon mankind placed by God upon Adam, Eve, and their progeny. In brief, if Jesus was crucified as a ransom for mankind i.e.; to expurgate, negate or nullify the curse on Adam and Eve then it follows that the curse would have been nullified, abrogated and neutralized and thus would have ceased to apply upon Jesus’ supposed demise. Today, however, womankind continues to labour under labour pain distress and sorrow during the natural birth process.

 

Thus, the deranged theology of the Church is vexatious, null and void and illogical. The Church’s primitive reasoning of a blood ransom accords with pagan-philosophy, very much as the cannibalistic ritual of the symbolic eating of the flesh and the drinking of the blood of Jesus is insensitive, barbaric and horrendous to the delicacy of refined humanism. (Farouk Hosein, Fundamentalsim Revisited, 1996, p. 8)

 

Does the Bible really say that children are a blessing? Read the following verse that portrays God as a child-killer:

And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house. And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city.  (Ezekiel 9:5-6) 

 

 

HE WROTE:

Second, Genesis 3 also blames Adam, not just Eve, and punishes him as well:

"To Adam he said, ‘Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, "You must not eat of it," Cursed is the ground BECAUSE OF YOU; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.’" Genesis 3:17-19

 

RESPONSE:

 

Shamoun always “reads into the text” something which is not there. Adam is not cursed, only the ground he was standing on.

 

And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; (Genesis 3:17)

 

And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed. (Genesis 5:29)

 

Here is what Origen said about the Genesis story; he also agreed that God cursed the ground:

 

“…But he does not see that Moses, who is much older than the Greek literature, introduces God as promising to those who lived according to His law the holy land, which is "a good land and a large, a land flowing with milk and honey;" which promise is not to be understood to refer, as some suppose, to that part of the earth which we call Judea; for it, however good it may be, still forms part of the earth, which was originally cursed for the transgression of Adam. CHAP. XXVIII., Against Celsus, Book 7 [online Source]

 

Superiorly, the Quran does not place any curse on Adam or Eve, whereas the Bible says God cursed Adam and Eve.

 

-  Part I
-  Part II.
-  Part III.
-  Part IV.
-  Part V.
-  Part VI.
-  Part VII.
-  Part VIII.

 

 

HE WROTE:

The Hebrew is even more emphatic in showing that both Adam and Eve were held equally responsible for their actions:

The concept of pain in childbirth, the so-called curse of Eve, cannot be traced to Scripture in the original languages, or to early Judaism. Genesis 3:16 is used as proof that pain is inevitable, ordained by the Creator as punishment for Eve's sin. The word translated as "sorrow" or "pain" is the Hebrew word etzev. However etzev is used for Adam in the following verse, Genesis 3:17, a fact most translators have overlooked! The Hebrew Bible with English translation reads as follows: "Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow (etzev) and thy pregnancy: in pain (etzev) thou shall bear children… And unto Adam he said,… cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil (etzev) shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life." (Hebrew Bible, 1965)

When the word is translated as "pain" for the woman and "toil" for the man, it is clear that the translator's cultural beliefs have biased his judgment as a scholar of the text. The best description of giving birth is toil, or labor. When Eve's first child Cain was born there is no mention of pain or any kind of difficulty in the birth, but only the joyful statement, "I have obtained a man [from] the Eternal" (Genesis 4:1). In the Talmud, Eve's "curse" is divided into 10 parts, embracing the whole of a woman's life. Adam's "curse" is paired with Eve's, and divided into 10 parts also. (Helen Wessel, "Biblical and Talmudic Images of Childbirth", in "The Encyclopedia of Childbearing", ed. Barbara Katz Rothman, 1993, p. 29)

The Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible made by 70 scholars nearly 300 years before Christ uses the Greek word lupe to translate the Hebrew word etzev in Genesis 3:16. The word lupe refers only to an emotion. Three Greek words are used to translate chul and yalad. These words are gennao, tikto, and odino. Gennao means to have a child and is used of either parent. Tikto simply means "to give birth." Odino means to labor in birth. These same three simple words are found in the Greek New Testament. But again, translators have too often imposed on them the false assumption of pain or anguish in birth, even though the Bible describes the bearing of children as one of the most rewarding and joyous experiences of a woman's life. (Source)

 

 

RESPONSE:

 

Despite these quotations, the Hebrew Bible and the manuscripts contain several passages where woman are degraded. The inspiration is derived from the Genesis story, which is the only explanation for why the Bible despises woman. 

 

Regarding the Hebrew word etzev, read this article:

 

http://www.answering-christianity.com/karim/women_are_cursed_in_bible.htm

HE WROTE:

 

For instance, the Quran is unlike the Holy Bible in that it leaves out important details which makes it unclear and vague regarding who actually ate the forbidden fruit first. In fact, not only does the Quran not come out and say who ate first, it also fails to mention Eve by name!

 

 

RESPONSE:

 

The Quran states they both ate from the tree, and they were forgiven equally.

 

So by deceit he brought about their fall: when they tasted of the tree, their shame became manifest to them, and they began to sew together the leaves of the garden over their bodies. And their Lord called unto them: "Did I not forbid you that tree, and tell you that Satan was an avowed enemy unto you?" (Al-Quran 7:22)

 

God is speaking to both Adam and Eve, they did not blame each other as neither Adam nor Eve ate first, and both were seduced by Satan.

 

The Holy Quran is book of Guidance for mankind, it’s not a biographical book which records every detail like the Bible, the Quranic stories are very concise and yet so full of detail.

 

The Quranic stories make more sense than the Bible; God forgave Adam and Eve whereas the Bible says He cursed them. 

 

The Bible says that when the couple heard the sound of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, they hid from him among the trees. So God called out to Adam asking where he was, and asking if he ate from the forbidden tree. On the other hand the Qur'an does not depict God in limited human form. The Qur'an and the Bible both teach that God knows everything always.

According to the Bible, when the couple was confronted with their mistake, they blamed each other, and Adam even blamed God because God gave him the woman who gave him the fruit. According to the Qur'an they did not pass the blame. Instead, both repented.

According to the Bible, God cursed them. According to the Qur'an, God forgave them and guided them.

According to the Bible, they were driven out of the garden because God was afraid that they may eat from the tree of life and live forever. According to the Qur'an, God's plan was to educate our first parents in paradise, then send them into the world for a limited time to resist Satan, the enemy. They were sent to earth as part of God's plan for them; not as a way of preventing them access to the tree of life, but as a test to distinguish those deserving of everlasting enjoyment in God's paradise. (Shabir Ally, Common Questions People Ask About Islam, p. 34)

 

 

The Quran Corrects the Bible

The Qur’an describes the ruler of Egypt being addressed as “King” in the time of Joseph, whilst Moses addresses the ruler as “Pharaoh”. This is a small but telling accuracy, for in the time of Joseph the rulers were from the Hykos Dynasty, and were Semites. They did not refer to themselves as “Pharaohs”. The term was used by the native Egyptian dynasties that supplanted the Hykos, in the time of Moses. The Bible again proves inaccurate on this point referring to both as “Pharaoh”. The Qur’an also correctly describes aspects of the ancient Egyptian religion, in particular the worship of Pharaoh as a god. (ibid)

The Quran corrects the Biblical flood:

The Qur’an mentions about the ark of Noah: “The Ark came to rest upon Mount Judi” (11:44). Recent archeological research has discovered a boat shaped object with exactly the same dimensions as those of the Ark on Mount Judi. The Bible claims that the Ark came to rest twenty miles away on the Mountains of Ararat. This is not possible, since these mountains are a recent geological formation, and did not exist at the time of Noah. The Qur’an also refers to the flood as a localised event, destroying only Noah’s people. The dates and time offered by the Bible for the flood, and its claim that it was a world wide cataclysm, has been proven false by all archeological evidence. (Shaikh ‘Abdur-Raheem Green paper)

 

The Bible is the history of the Israelites; it preserves the most essential aspects of their culture and lifestyle. Yet the Bible is not guidance for mankind, it speaks more of a genealogy than of the Day of Judgment.

 

“What a book is the Bible in the matter of variety of contents! Whole pages are taken up with obscure names, and more is told of a genealogy than of the Day of Judgment. Stories are half told, and the night falls before we can tell where victory lay. Where is there anything (in the Religious literature of the world) to correspond with this?” (Ahmed Deedat, Is the Bible God’s Word? p. 15)

 

The Holy Quran, on the other hand, speaks mainly of the Day of Judgment; no genealogies are recorded because the Quran is not a history of civilization. It simply warns about the Day of Judgment when no excuses will be accepted.  

 

Just because the Quran omits certain details doesn’t mean it’s not superior to the Bible.

 

On account of man’s interpolations, many things have been inserted in those Books which are against reality, revolting to reason and an affront to every instinct of justice. There are things which are cruel and unjust, and vitiate man’s beliefs and actions. Furthermore, things have unfortunately been inserted that are obscene, indecent and highly immoral. The Quran is free of all such rubbish. It contains nothing against reason, and nothing can be proved wrong. None of its injunctions is unjust; nothing is misleading. Of indecency and immorality not a trace can be found. From the beginning to the end the Book is full of wisdom and truth. It contains the best of philosophy and the choicest of law for human civilization. It points out the right path and guides man to success and salvation. (Abdul A’la Mawdudi, Towards Understanding Islam, p. 77)

 

 

HE WROTE:

Due to the Quran's lack of clarity and incompleteness, Muslims were forced to consult the Biblical story in order to make sense out of the Quranic account. They too realized that the Quran was unclear and vague. One such person who sees the problem is Mahmoud M. Ayoub who, in his comments on S. 2:30-38, openly admitted that:

The story of Adam (30-38) is told in earlier surahs belonging to the later Meccan period. His creation, the obeisance of the angels to him, his dwelling in the garden and subsequent expulsion are all told in some detail. These verses may be seen as a commentary on an already well-known story, because they raise new issues and because they are placed before other and more explicit verses. These nine verses have raised many questions and controversies: Why did God tell the angels of His plan to establish a representative for Himself on the earth? How did the angels know that Adam's progeny would act wickedly? How could they question the will and wisdom of God? How was this vicegerent of God created and why did he soon disobey God's command against eating the forbidden fruit? What sort of fruit did the forbidden tree bear? Who was Satan and how was he able to enter the garden in order to lead the innocent Adam and his spouse astray? Adam's stay in Paradise, the creation of a mate for him, and their sin and expulsion are but briefly mentioned in the Qur'an. The Qur'an leaves many other questions UNANSWERED. It does not, for example, MENTION EVE BY NAME, or the manner in which she was created. For the answers to these and other questions, commentators HAD TO RESORT TO THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK… (Ayoub, The Qur'an and Its Interpreters - Volume 1 [State University of New York Press, Albany 1984], p. 73; bold and capital emphasis ours)

 

 

RESPONSE:

 

The questions are ridiculous; Mr. Ayoub has not studied these questions at all, so we decided to answer for him.

 

(1)   Why did God tell the angels of His plan to establish a representative for Himself on the earth?

 

The Bible records the same, God said to His angel; or the spirit of God (Gen. 1:2) that He would create man (Gen. 1:26).

 

Angels were created before man, and God decided to convey His plan to the angels, why shouldn’t God reveal His plan? God’s plan shows that He is the source of knowledge. The angels did not know about Adam until God told them.

 

The question by Ayoub is pathetic because we find similarities in the Bible. God told Zakariya about his son that he would become a father even though his wife was barren:

 

While he was standing in prayer in the chamber, the angels called unto him: "(Allah) doth give thee glad tidings of Yahya, witnessing the truth of a Word from Allah, and (be besides) noble, chaste, and a prophet,- of the (goodly) company of the righteous." He said: "O my lord! How shall I have a son seeing I am very old and my wife is barren?" "Thus" was the answer "doth Allah accomplish whatt He willeth." (Al-Quran 3:38-39)

 

Another logical reason for why God told the angels was to prepare them, because they were to be tested:

 

Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: "I am about to create man from clay: "When I have fashioned him (in due proportion) and breathed into him of My spirit, fall ye down in obeisance unto him." So the angels prostrated themselves, all of them together. (Al-Quran 38:72-73)

 

The “prostration before Adam” was God’s test to separate the angels from the disobedient ones. Islam teaches that life is a test, and earth is a testing ground.

 

Adam and Eve were created with the potential to do either good or evil. They had a free choice either to obey God or disobey Him. They did not realize how deceptive the devil was, and so prompted by him, they made the wrong choice. Will God remain forever angry with them over that one mistake? No! Instead, God taught them how to repair their relationship with Him by praying for forgiveness. Muslims still often recite the same prayer, as follows:
Our Lord, we have wronged our souls. If you do not forgive us and have mercy on us, then surely we are lost (Qur'an 7:23).

What we obtain from that incident is not original sin, but original forgiveness, and an original lesson on how to seek that forgiveness. God set the precedent that He will forgive those who turn to Him in sincere repentance. We will all find ourselves in a similar situation as Adam and Eve. The prophet, on whom be peace, said that every child of Adam is a sinner, and the best of them are those who turn back to God in sincere repentance.

This shows that God does not demand absolute perfection from us humans. That would be an impossible demand, since God alone is absolutely perfect. To err is human. God wants us to know that he will accept us as we are, shortcomings and all, as long as we are trying our best to obey Him. Even in our human situations, it is well understood that absolute perfection is not to be demanded from anyone. Suppose teachers were to demand that all students must score 100% on all their tests, and that if they make even one mistake they will not pass. No one of sound mind will demand this, for it is clearly beyond human capacity. Similarly, God does not demand from people what is beyond their capacity (see Qur'an 2:226).

Some will say that Adam was created perfect and that when he sinned he ruined that perfection. This suggestion makes no sense. If perfection meant that Adam had no ability to choose between good and evil, then how did he exercise that choice which he supposedly did not have? And if he had the ability to choose, as Muslims believe, then why would God remain forever angry with him for his first mistake? Humankind was then in its infancy. We needed someone to pick us up when we fall, not someone to bulldoze us with a tremendous burden of sin and guilt.

Some will say that God could not forgive Adam even if He wanted to do so, since God is Just and He must exact justice. This is as if to say that justice is contrary to mercy, and that God is so fenced in by His own law that He has no freedom to do what He wants to do. How silly! The truth is that God warns us of His punishment, but He also promises forgiveness for those who sincerely repent. If He decides to save sinners, who is there to say He cannot do what He wishes? (Shabir Ally, Common Questions People Ask About Islam)

 

According to the Bible, they were driven out of the garden because God was afraid that they may eat from the tree of life and live forever. According to the Qur'an, God's plan was to educate our first parents in paradise, then send them into the world for a limited time to resist Satan, the enemy. They were sent to earth as part of God's plan for them; not as a way of preventing them access to the tree of life, but as a test to distinguish those deserving of everlasting enjoyment in God's paradise. (ibid)

 

 

The second ridiculous question:

 

(2) How did the angels know that Adam's progeny would act wickedly?

 

The knowledge was revealed to them by God, the angels knew because God told them, Adam also knew he was pre-destined to fail.

 

Yahya related to me from Malik from Abu'z-Zinad from al-Araj from Abu Hurayra that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Adam and Musa argued and Adam got the better of Musa. Musa rebuked Adam, 'You are Adam who led people astray and brought them out of the Garden.' Adam said to him, 'You are Musa to whom Allah gave knowledge of everything and whom he chose above people with His message.' He said, 'Yes.' He said, 'Do you then censure me for a matter which was decreed for me before I was created?' " (online Source)

 

God created man with the choice to do either good or evil. But it’s impossible for angels to disobey God; they are not created with a sinful nature. It was God’s plan for humans to be sinful, who are morally inferior to the angels. The Quran and Bible teach that all flesh is sinful; the best of God’s creatures are those who ask for forgiveness. There is no need to sacrifice a “lamb” for the “sins of the world”; God is Merciful enough to forgive the sin.

 

Shabir Ally explains:

 

The saying "every child of Adam is a sinner" means that every human being is a sinner, sin being an inevitable outcome of a fallible human nature. No matter how righteous a person is, he or she may at times disobey God through ignorance or forgetfulness. The prophet, on whom be peace, meant to emphasize that the best person is the one who seeks forgiveness for his or her sins. Furthermore, he said that one who repents from sin is like one without sin. God says in the Qur'an that He will replace the evil deeds with good for those who repent, believe, and do righteous deeds (see Qur'an 25:70).

Another saying of the prophet indicates that God actually intended that humans will be a species that commit sins so they can turn to Him and He would forgive them (see Sahih Muslim, Eng. Trans., vol.4, nos. 6620-2). This is a much better explanation than the popular conception according to which God at first sees that humans are good, then God discovers that they are wicked and so, being sorry that He made them in the first place, God eventually decides to wipe them off the face of the earth; but then he changes His mind again and lets them eventually procreate and fill the earth although they are still sinful as ever. The better explanation is that God knew in advance that we would sin, and we turned out just the way God planned. God does not discover new things - He knows everything always.

 

So, simply put, the Islamic belief is that people are not born in sin but they will eventually commit sins for which they should sincerely repent, and God will ripe out their sins. People do not inherit sins. Sin is something you do wrong. You couldn’t have done anything wrong before you were born; therefore you were born without sin. The Quran teaches that God does not hold us responsible for what others did before we were born, and no innocent person would carry the guilt of another (see Quran 4:111, 6:164). This coincides with our own sense of justice. No one considers it right to blame children for the sins of their ancestors, or to punish the innocent so that the guilty may go free. (Shabir Ally, Common Questions People Ask About Islam, p. 36-37)

 

Here are the facts:

 

(1)   God created man with the choice to do either good or evil

(2)   The evildoers will be punished, and the righteous ones rewarded

(3)   Its impossible for the angels to disobey God

(4)   They are not created with a sinful nature.

(5)   It was God’s plan for humans to be sinful, so God can forgive them.

 

Furthermore, the Angels of God warned Prophet Lot and his family that Sodom and Gomorrah was going to be destroyed. Why didn’t God warn Himself? Why didn’t God descend himself?

So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, "Hurry and get out of this place, because the LORD is about to destroy the city!" But his sons-in-law thought he was joking. With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished."  When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them. (Genesis 19:14-16)

Let us answer the next question:

 

(3) How did the angels know that Adam's progeny would act wickedly?

 

The angels were expressing their superiority over the man, who they claimed was destined to be sinful even before he was created. The angels judged Adam just because he was made out of clay. The angels are created from Light, so they could not sin.

 

God predestined Adam to fail the test and become a sinner; God revealed His plan to the angels who questioned Him regarding Adam’s nature. God explained that He created Adam to worship Him (51:56), He allowed Adam/Eve to be deceived so He can send them to earth as a test (2:37). God created Paradise for the righteous ones; and Hell for the evildoers.

According to the NT, women are not saved through Jesus’ sacrifice: 

And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety. (1 Timothy 2:14-16)

 The scholar Bonnie Thurston comments:

The Pastoral writer states that a woman “will be saved through childbearing”. On the face of it, this suggests that Christ’s redemptive and saving work does not extend to women; they must save themselves by a particular form of “work”. (Women in the New Testament, p. 146)

 

The next question is:

 

(4) How could they question the will and wisdom of God?

 

God gave the angels the free will of expression; they were given the right to inquire God because God allowed it. Similarly, Adam criticized God for giving him the woman who seduced him to the tree:

And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"  The man said, "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." (Genesis 3:11-12)

God never punished Adam for blaming Him; he punished Adam for disobeying His command. The angels questioned God the way Adam blamed God, and they were never punished for their criticism.

 

The Israelites questioned the will and wisdom of God!

Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not? (Exodus 17:6-8)

The entire chapter is absent of God’s punishment, showing that God is tolerable and equitable for self-expression.

 

The Bible distorts God by attributing human emotions to His nature:

 

Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous; but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it. (Jeremiah 10:19)

 

Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever.(Psalms 44:23)

 

How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? (Psalms 13:1)

 

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed. 
(Exodus 31:17)

And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife
hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. (Genesis 3:8)

I will also smite mine hands together, and I will cause my fury to rest: I the LORD have said it. (Ezekiel 21:17)

There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. (2 Samuels 22:9)

The Prophet Job was angry at God; he even cursed his own birth, and denied the resurrection of the dead, judging the wisdom of God:

"Let the day perish on which I was born,
   and the night that said,
   'A man is conceived.'
Let that day be darkness!
   May God above not seek it,
   nor light shine upon it.
Let gloom and deep darkness claim it.
   Let clouds dwell upon it;
   let the blackness of the day terrify it. (Job 3:3-6)

"Remember that my life is a breath;
   my eye will never again see good.
The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more;
   while your eyes are on me, I shall be gone.
As the cloud fades and vanishes,
   so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up;
he returns no more to his house,
   nor does his place know him anymore. (Job 7:7-10)

Why didn’t God punish Job for his aggressive behavior? Instead God blessed him at the very end:

And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. He had also seven sons and three daughters. (Job 42:12)

The Book of Job shows that God allows free expression. 

                       

Let us answer the next foolish question:

 

(4) How was this vicegerent of God created and why did he soon disobey God's command against eating the forbidden fruit?

 

The answer to this question is simple, Adam was created from clay (7:12), and he disobeyed God according to His plan. God preordained the destiny of Adam to fail, he was sent to earth as a test, there he copulated with Eve and produced children. The word “soon” here is unimportant, the Bible narrates that Adam and Eve were deceived quite “soon” and God cursed them instantly. Once again, the Holy Quran is not a narrative or story like the Bible; it records the most essential aspects of history and civilization. It’s not right to judge the Holy Quran by the Bible because the Bible has been corrupted and changed. The Holy Quran is not necessitated to record “how long” Adam dwelled in the Garden; the Bible itself does not say.

 

Mr. Ayoub is foolish to come up with these questions, no wonder Shamoun quotes from his ignorant commentaries.

 

 

The next silly question is:

 

(5) What sort of fruit did the forbidden tree bear?

 

This is probably the most ridiculous question, it doesn’t matter what fruit they ate! The Bible, the Talmud, and the apocrypha do not tell us which fruit. The Quran is superior to the Bible because it records Adam and Eve was forgiven.

 

Here is the last foolish question:

 

(6) Who was Satan and how was he able to enter the garden in order to lead the innocent Adam and his spouse astray?

 

The Holy Prophet explained to his followers about the existence of Satan, so the Holy Quran is not obliged to tell us exactly who he was.

 

How did Satan enter the Garden? We can apply the question to the Bible, how did the serpent enter the Garden? The Bible does not say, so it doesn’t matter for the Scriptures are implicatively clear that God Himself allowed Satan to enter the Garden to lead Adam and Eve astray. The earth was created for a reason; it was made for Humanity to dwell and replenish. God sent Adam and Eve to earth along with Satan, who promised to corrupt mankind until the Day of Judgment (38:70-77). Those who obey God will enter Paradise; those who follow Satan will enter Hell-fire. 

Continuing on with Part II.