ADAM AS [ PART 2 ]

Mankind Walks the Earth

With the banishment, Mankind set his first footsteps on earth. Through Jibril AS, Allah educated Adam AS and his wife on the life skills such as agriculture, milling wheat and baking. This was not like life on Paradise, nothing came easy and all required hard work.

Adam AS was the first prophet on earth, for it is through him that the instruction in Islam – the submission to Allah, was relayed to his offspring. While the details of the message may have been refined over the years as society became more complex and sophisticated, the core of it remains the same. We were created to worship Allah, and just as our clear enemy is Iblis, our protection comes from what Allah has taught us to safeguard ourselves against evil.

Life continued peacefully on earth, until one day when the first crime against humanity was committed – murder. Click here to find out more.

Lesson for Us: Lack of Contentment and How Satan Makes us Forget

The reactions of Adam AS and Eve in turning to Allah for forgiveness is the direct opposite of how Iblis reacted. Iblis claimed that that Allah tricked him. This is symptomatic of the ultimate arrogance, for the one who is arrogant never admits any blame for his mistakes, but rather always blames others. The arrogant never believe that they have committed any wrong nor made any mistakes.

This is another illustration of what one disease (discontentment) can generate. The arrogant are always ignorant. Some scholars say that the mother of diseases is not thanking Allah. The key to a serene life in the path of Allah’s pleasure is to be accepting of what Allah has ordained, regardless of the calamity faced. This is the root of all protection. Do not simply look at the material and external aspects, for sometimes a calamity prevents us from committing sins. Calamities can be cleansing to our soul and can elevate us to a higher status in Allah’s eyes. It prevents us from being preoccupied and immersed in our material pleasures such that we become heedless of Allah’s commandments. We have seen this where Allah gives others what they want, to the point that they are drowning in the luxuries of dunia (material or worldly belongings) and accumulation, that there is no coming back for them towards the path of Allah.

Hence take heed of the first lesson. We must crytalise our intention, which is to become contented with what we have. No situation lasts forever, we will get old and ill, as will the people around us, and we will die. We will never get all we desire, because Allah will always realign our balance and sincerity to Him by taking something away from us. True and ultimate perfection only belongs in Paradise, a destination we are all trying to move towards. Dunia,the material world, with all its imperfections, is a temporary state of existence. It is our responsibility to beware of getting too attached to dunia and its materialistic values.

Once we forget to be contented, Satan makes us forget the message. He distorts the message and corrupts it. Satan will never directly persuade us to disobey Allah, but instead makes false promises of material life and happiness which are mirages and lead to unhappiness. He re-labels prohibitions as beneficial, causing us to take such prohibitions lightly. He distracts us with the false enticements of dunia. It is at such times that we lose awareness of the message and our priorities, instead giving emphasis to chasing worldly pleasures. When our hearts are connected to dunia, we easily forget our roots. Once Iblis makes us forget the message, it is easy for him to decorate the wrong, and the sequence of disobedience from then on is easy.

The Qur’an warns us that “Satan makes promises to them and fills them with vain hopes, but whatever he promises them is merely delusion.” (Al Qur’an 4:120)

However, Allah does not expose us to enemies without giving us the protection and the weapons against them. What is the protection? It is the divine knowledge, manifested through our study and application of the Qur’an and sunnah in our daily lives, from our way of thinking, to our actions and our attitudes. These are the prescriptions from Allah that will make us triumph in our battle against Iblis and our base instincts.

Hence, from the time of Adam AS, Allah has sent down upon us numerous Messengers and Prophets, to lead us back to our main home, which is Paradise. Allah may have temporarily banished our forefather from it, but He has also given us the map for us to find our way back to it. If we follow His guidelines we will go there in peace. If we stray or disobey, and give in the evil persuasions of Satan, we will go to hellfire, encountering misery and causing oppression to ourselves and others along the way.

Allah says that Iblis has no power or strength over Allah’s believing slaves. As human beings, we are prone to being led astray by Satan, but we should not let Satan mislead us the way he did our father Adam AS. Allah understands our weaknesses and our tendency to relapse, however, it is our duty to keep on trying, by asking Allah for mercy with ultimate humbleness and sincere repentance. Those who are pure and sincere towards Allah fall within the category of people to whom Allah grants His protection. The more we are pure and sincere towards Allah, the more we are protected, and the less frequent our relapses. This purity and sincerity includes elements of being a slave only to Allah, with sincerity and reliance only on Allah.