I was very fascinated when I learned about universe creation according to the Bible. It is very similar to muslims' Holly Book "Quraan". Of course there were many interpretations to explain Quran's context. Still there are many similrites but the order in creation is different plus there are more details. According to interpretations, God has created the earth and the heavens in six days which I will explain later. But God has first created the "Pen" and after that the "Book"! Well, I think the "Book" here has the same reference to the Bible, "Tree of Knowledge". So back to the interpretations it says God has created the Pen and the book and ordered the pen to write in great detail everything about the creation of the universe. This book is allocated in heavens it is storing universe knowledge.
Second creation was the sky and the earth. On Saturday God has created the soil, on Sunday mountains, trees on Monday, Germs on Tuesday, light on Wendsday, land and sea cratures on Thursday and on Friday the last day of cration he has created Adam. He created him from earth's mud and clay. This mud and clay was collected from different parts of earth and that is why human kind has different races and colors. Then God shaped Adam into human form, breathed into him to give him soul/life.
In Bible it says that God wanted to create a helper for Adam to help him to till the garden. While in Quran it says that God wanted Adam to be superior over the Angels and Jinn therefore, God has taught Adam all the names of his creations and asked him to name them which successfully he did. So right after this incident God ordered Angles and Jinn to bow down to Adam, Angles did but Satan who is one of the Jinn refused. He said, he is created from fire and Adam was created from clay, so he can't be superior to him. This made God angry and he cursed Satan and threatened him of Hell. Satan plead to God to keep him till the day of judgment. Satan told God that he will devote himself to mislead human kind to disobey God to join him in Hell.
As for Eve's creation, it is the same story. God has created Eve from Adam's left rib while he was asleep. The name of Eve in Quran is "Hawwa" which comes from the root word "hay" meaning living. She was named like this because she was created from a living thing "Adam". The interesting thing here that Hawwa is the same as "Eve" which came from old Hebrew word Havva, which also means "living".
Quran also has mentioned the first sin but it is different from the one in Bible. According to the interpretations of Quran context, Satan wanted to deceive Adam and Eve so he changed his form into snake and creep to the garden. He whispered into their hearts that if they eat from the forbidden tree they will live forever. He was after them till they disobeyed God and ate from the tree. They became naked and tried to cover their bodies with the tree leaves. God knew about this he was very angry because Adam and Eve disobeyed him. So to punish them, God sent both of them along with Satan to earth. In earth human should keep their fight with Satan and try not to disobey God. This fight will last till the day of judgment.
That was an interesting post, Sabha. A few corrections: not "holly" (a kind of Christmas decoration), but "holy"; similarly, not "angles" but "angels".
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I do commend you for comparing the biblical stories to the Qur'an. Incidentally, you might find interesting that the Gospel of John in the New Testament begins with the words "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God." Christians interpret "word" to be Jesus, whom they also interpret to be God. In this case, Jesus embodies God's creative power. I thought of this passage when I read your comments on the pen and the book. All this also goes to show that ancient cultures were often more literate than we suppose sometimes.