TOPIC ONE

AFTER ADAM
(Peace be upon him)

Learning Outcomes After studying this topic, you should be able to:

Understand why the devil envies Adams children. Describe how the devil worked hard to mislead the children of Adam. Explain how the devil set up a long-term and multi-stages plan to draw people away from worshiping Allah alone.

Realize how the meaning of things changes over time. Understand how terrible idolatry is. Understand that sins, especially idolatry, are sources of ALLAHs anger.

1. Introduction Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds Who said to His noble Prophet, We relate to you (O Muhammad) the best stories through Our Revelations unto, of this Quran. And before this (i.e. before the coming of Divine Inspiration to you), you were among those who knew nothing about it (the Quran). (Ch 12:3). Peace and blessings be upon His Prophet and Messenger, Muhammad, his family, companions, and those who follow their path till the Day of Judgment. The Prophets were sent by Allah the Almighty with Divine Revelation to call their people to worship Allah alone without associating any partner to Him. Their mission was difficult and full of challenges and severe hardships because their effort to call people to the path of Allah met strong opposition from their people, especially from the rich, the elite, and ignorant from their communities. The Holy Quran has narrated to us their stories and their struggle in their mission of counseling their people to the Right Path. This topic focuses on the period after Adam (peace and blessings be upon him). The chapter covers the envy of devil towards the sons of Adam and the cunning of devil in his effort to misguide them. It also describes how Satan leads the sons of Adam to make pictures of Good people; then drive them from making pictures to making statuses of these righteous people; from statuses to the idols; and finally to the anger of Allah.

2. The envy of devil After the death of Adam, humanity witnessed a constant growth and spread over many parts of the earth. The sons of Adam established cities and founded civilizations. They followed the religion of their father, worshipped Allah alone without associating any partner to Him. This state of authentic monotheism of Adams descendants saddens the devil and his followers. The devil was expelled from Paradise when he disobeyed the command of Allah and refused to prostrate to Adam. For this reason, he openly declared his enmity to Adam and his sons and swore to drive them to disobey Allah as mentioned in the Quran, He said: Because Thou hast thrown me out of the Way, Lo! I will lie in wait for them on Thy Straight Way: then will I assault them from before them and behind them, from their right and their left: Nor will Thou find, in most of them, gratitude (for Thy mercies). (Ch 7: 16-17) Thus, the devil has taken it on himself to drive the children of Adam away from worshipping Allah alone. This why Allah warns the children of Adam about the tricks of the devil when He says in the Holy Quran O children of Adam! Let not Satan deceive you, as he got your parents (Adam & Eve) out of Paradise stripping them of their rainments; to show them their private parts. Verily he and Qabiluhu (his soldiers from the jinn or his tribe) see you from where you cannot see them. Verily, we made the devils (protectors and helpers) for those who believe not. (Ch 7: 7) The devil has clearly declared his enmity to the sons of Adam and he is committed to do whatever it takes to mislead them. Now that the sons of Adam are one united community worshipping Allah alone, it is the right time for him to act. But the sole question is how to proceed?

3. The cunning of devil The devil decided to call the sons of Adam to worship idols so they would go to the Fire with him. Since Allah forgives people all sins except Shirk which is associating other things besides Allah in worship, he would mislead them so that they worship idols with Allah. But how could he proceed to persuade? The task at hand this time is more difficult for the devil than the case of Adam and Eve when he deceived them and made them the forbidden tree. He knew that Adam and Eve were allowed to enjoy everything but one tree in Paradise. So, he summoned all the envy within Adam and started to whisper to him day after day Shall I guide you to the Tree of Immortality and the Eternal Kingdom?1 He said to them: Your Lord did not forbid you this three save you should become angels or become of the immortals. He (Satan) swore by Allah to them both saying: Verily I am one of the sincere well wishers for you both. (Ch 7: 20-21). He used lies and wrong promises to make them disobey the command of Allah. He also took advantage of humans tendency to aim for high status (becoming angels) and for living eternally (becoming immortals) to convince them to eat the forbidden tree. This is just for Adam and Eve. But how would he proceed to mislead a whole community? If he went to the people and said to them worship idols, do not worship Allah, they would curse him and chase him off. They would say: Allah forbid! How can we associate other things with our Lord? How can we worship idols? You are a cursed Satan! You are a foul Satan!2
1

Ibn Kathir, Imam Abi al-Fidaa Ismail. Stories of the Prophets = Qissasul anbiya. Trans. Muhammad Mustapha, Azhar Unversity. From: www.islambasics.com
2

Sayyed, Abul Hassan Ali Nadwi. 1990. The Stories of the Prophets. UK ISLAMIC ACADEMY. P. 10.

So the devil had to look for another strategy and plan of action, a subtle and clever way to get the people to do as he wanted. He opted for a long-term and four-step plan that was implemented over a number of generations. The four steps are as follows: Step 1: good peoples pictures Step2: from pictures to the statues Step 3: from statues to the idols, and finally Step 4: the anger of ALLAH

4. Good peoples pictures The devil used the same strategy as for Adam to mislead Adams descendants but in an indirect way. He would come to them as a sincere well wisher and counselor. He went to the people and began mentioning the names of dead righteous people of their communities. Those righteous people are well known, loved, and respected by the late generations. So by mentioning and talking about them he built a bridge of sincere communication and trust with the people who praised them and remember their good qualities. He then engaged in the following dialogue with them as mentioned by Abul Hassan3: Satan: How great is your sorrow for them? People: Very great indeed. Satan: How great is your longing for them? People: Very great indeed! Satan: Why dont you look at them every day then?

Sayyed, Abul Hassan Ali Nadwi. 1990. The Stories of the Prophets. UK ISLAMIC ACADEMY. P. 11.

People: How can we do that when they are dead? Unaware of the devils hidden agenda, the people liked his ideas and made such pictures to look at them everyday as he suggested. At this step, the pictures were just a source of inspiration and motivation for them to do more good deeds and acts of worshipping Allah alone by following the good example of those pictured pious dead people. (Step 1 implemented).

5. From pictures to statues Many years later, people went one step more. They moved from just making pictures to making statues of the dead good men. Houses and places of worships became home for more and more of these statues. At this step, people are still aware that Allah alone should be worshipped and that these statues could neither hurt them nor provide anything for them. Years went by and the number of statues is still increasing and people respected them more and more and they even began to look for blessings in them. Whenever one of their holy men died, they would make a statue of him and name it after him 4. At this stage, Satans fourstep plan began to have an impact on people worship since they began to think that they can get blessings from these stone or wooden made statues. (Step 2 implemented).

6. From statues to idols Generations after generations, people were adding new things to what their fathers were doing. They went one step more and moved from just looking for blessings in the statues to actually worshipping them through prostration, invocating things, and sacrificing animals to them. Consequently, the statues were turned into idols that are worshipped besides Allah. The

Sayyed, Abul Hassan Ali Nadwi. 1990. The Stories of the Prophets. UK ISLAMIC ACADEMY. P. 12.

knowledge has gone and these generations of idolaters do not have any idea of the reason behind having these statues in their place of worship in he first place. (Step 3 implemented). They began worshiping them as they had worshipped Allah before. They had many of these idols among which are Wadd, Suwa, Yaghuth, Yauq, Nasr, etc. These are the names of some of their idols as mentioned the Holy Quran: They (idolaters) have said: you shall not leave your gods nor shall you leave Wadd, nor Suwa, nor Yaguth, nor Yauq nor Nasr (Names of the idols). (CH 71: 23). Ibn Abbas (Allah be pleased of them) explained this above verse this way: Following upon the death of those righteous men, Satan inspired their people to erect statues in the places where they used to sit. They did this, but these statues were not worshipped until the coming generations deviated from the right way of life. Then, they worshipped them as their idols .5 The sons of Adam have, by worshiping these idols, disobeyed Allah and done the most evil of deeds that is idolatry (associating other things with Allah in worship).

7. ALLAHs anger By worshipping other things than Allah people have ended up doing the most evil of all sins: idolatry which is worshipping anything other than Allah or worshipping other things besides Allah. People were thus subject to the anger of Allah Who cursed them because of their injustice. What injustice is worse than walking on Allahs earth, eating Allahs provision but worshipping other creatures instead of Him the Creator? Therefore, disbelief in Allah or polytheism, as stated by Ibn Kathir, results in the loss of freedom, the destruction of the mind, and the absence of a noble target in life. By worshiping
5

Ibn Kathir, Imam Abi al-Fidaa Ismail. Stories of the Prophets = Qissasul anbiya. Trans. Muhammad Mustapha, Azhar Unversity. From: www.islambasics.com

anything other than Allah, man becomes enslaved to Satan, who is himself a creature and becomes harnessed to his own baser qualities6. Man becomes, then, among the worst of creation unto Allah (as mentioned in Sahih al Bukhari).

8. Conclusion The first of the Prophets was Adam (Peace be upon him), the father of humanity. After his death, Adam left his descendants united and monotheist worshipping Allah the Almighty alone without any associate. The battle between good and evil begins with the incitation of Satan to Adam and Eve to disobey Allah by eating from the forbidden tree. This battle is continuous, but those who follow Allahs guidance should fear nothing while those who disobey Allah and follow Satan will be damned along with him. The enmity between Satan and Adam was extended to Satan and Adams sons. After Adams death, the sons were worshiping Alah alone. Satan did not like this situation and he worked hard to mislead Adams sons. He came up with a long-term and four-step plan to deviate them from worshiping Allah alone to associating others with Him. The steps include (1) make them drawing good peoples pictures, (2) drive them from making pictures to making statues, (3) then from statues to idols, and (4) Allahs anger. The four steps implemented, Satan succeeded in misleading Adams sons to worship other things than Allah. They, then, encountered the anger of Allah who should be worship alone without any associate. Therefore, people needed again a good counsel, another Prophet to turn them back to Allah.

Ibn Kathir, Imam Abi al-Fidaa Ismail. Stories of the Prophets = Qissasul anbiya. Trans. Muhammad Mustapha, Azhar Unversity. P.22. From: www.islambasics.com

REFERENCES 1- Ibn Kathir, Imam Abi al-Fidaa Ismail. Stories of the Prophets = Qissasul anbiya. Trans. Muhammad Mustapha, Azhar Unversity. From: www.islambasics.com 2- Ibn Kathir, Imam Abi al-Fidaa Ismail. Stories of the Prophets = Qissasul anbiya. 2001. Trans. Sayed, G, Tamir, Abu A.,& Muhammad, A. M. Al-Mansoura: Dar AlManarah. 3- Sayyed, Abul Hassan Ali Nadwi. 1990. The Stories of the Prophets. UK ISLAMIC ACADEMY.

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