Wednesday, November 20, 2019

What It Means - Day 247

"'O Adam! Dwell thou and thy wife in the Garden, and eat from wheresoever you two will, but approach not this tree, lest you two be among the wrongdoers.'"
Quran 7:19

I've drawn quite a bit from surah 7, al-A'raf, here rendered as "The Heights" already, and doubtless will again. I chose this passage for a couple reasons, mainly related to the reference to Adam. People who are completely unfamiliar with the Quran or Islam more generally are often initially shocked by the appearance of characters from the Old or New Testament; their response often taking on a "wait, why are you trying to steal our guys?" feel. From the Islamic sense these are "our guys" as well, which is why Jews and Christians are Peoples of the Book. Eve is not mentioned by name in this section. As we know the only woman in the entire Quran who is ever mentioned by name is Maryam (Mary), the mother of Jesus. In the extra-Quranic literature she is always referred to as Hawwa. As Nasr tells us, "In this case, however, Eve can be said to have been created not from Adam as male, but rather from the original androgynic Adam who is the prototype of humanity, both male and female."




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