This is a very important question because, just as with
their teaching about Jesus Christ, the Koran’s and Hadith’s
teachings about the sin of Adam and Eve raise many
unresolved questions and bear unmistakable traces of
Christian theology. Ultimately, the confusions and dead
ends of Muslim teaching about Adam and Eve can only be
explained by reference to Christian theology — a fact with
enormous implications for any objective seeker of the truth
who examines the Koran.
The story of the fall of Adam in the Koran is in many
ways similar to the biblical account: ‘‘And We said, ‘O
Adam! Dwell you and your wife in Paradise and eat with
pleasure from its fruits, whenever you want, but do not
come near this Tree, lest you become of those who offend’
’’ (Sura 2:35). Like the book of Genesis, the Koran states
that Adam and Eve transgressed the decrees of Allah by
eating the forbidden fruit: ‘‘But Satan misled them, expelled
them from the place in which they were; and We said, ‘Fall
down each one of you a foe unto the other! There shall be
for you on earth a habitation and provision for a time’ ’’
(Sura 2:36).
Except for the suggestion that Satan expelled Adam
and Eve from the Garden, the Koran thus far is in line with
biblical accounts of the Fall. But in other ways, Islam differs
in doctrine substantially from both Judaism and Christianity
on the fall of Adam and Eve. In Genesis, Adam blames Eve,
and Eve blames the serpent: they do not take responsibility
for their sin, nor do they repent. Through their action, sin
came into the world, and death infected all the children of