Adam’s Sin

A Muslim may ask:

What does your faith mean when it says that we inherited Adam’s sin? Every person is responsible for his own sin!

The Islamic story of Adam’s creation, his dwelling in the garden of Eden (or paradise, as Muslims believe), and his later expulsion from it is similar to the story in the Bible (Genesis 3).

God created Adam and Eve, and asked them not to eat from a certain tree in the garden. Through the deception of the serpent, they ate from that forbidden tree, disobeying God’s commandment (Genesis 3:1–7; cf. Quran 7:19–22).

Later God spoke with Adam and Eve about their disobedience to the only commandment He had given them. God decided that the first man and woman could no longer remain in the garden, and they were sent out of it to the earth (Genesis 3:8–24; cf. Quran 7:22–24).

Though it might seem to us that Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the garden to the earth was the only punishment they received, that is not exactly true.

When God created Adam and Eve and put them in the garden, He did not put a limit on their life span. They could simply have lived forever in the garden. Death was not a threat to Adam and Eve in the garden; they did not have to die.

The earth to which they were expelled was a different case from the garden. In fact, the Quran states clearly that Adam and Eve would not enjoy eternity on earth, because there they would have to die:

There shall ye live, and there shall ye die, and thence shall ye be brought forth. Quran 7:25

So we can say that Adam and Eve were not only punished for their sin by being expelled to the earth; they also received death as a punishment for their sin.

Now, do we not die just like Adam and Eve? If God is just, then we have to believe that we somehow inherited at least Adam and Eve’s sinful nature, or their ability to sin, in order for us to receive the punishment of death that they received for their “original” sin. A newborn child dies – what sin did he commit?

And if they had kept their righteousness and not eaten from the tree, they would have remained in the garden. Would we not then have been born in the garden? Would we not have enjoyed eternity in it too?

… sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. Romans 5:12

We cannot say that we are not sinners. All of us are, and therefore all of us deserve the punishment for disobeying God’s commandment: death.

I encourage you to read the next post, “First and Last Adam“, which follows from this one.