Adam and the Human Race

Qur'an 4:1 · Al-Nisāʾ

بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱتَّقُوا۟ رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَكُم مِّن نَّفْسٍ وَٰحِدَةٍ وَخَلَقَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا وَبَثَّ مِنْهُمَا رِجَالًا كَثِيرًا وَنِسَآءً ۚ وَٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ ٱلَّذِى تَسَآءَلُونَ بِهِۦ وَٱلْأَرْحَامَ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَيْكُمْ رَقِيبًا

(4:1) O mankind! Be wary of your Lord who created you from a single soul, and created its mate from it, and from the two of them scattered numerous men and women. Be wary of Allah, in whose Name you adjure one another and [of severing ties with] blood relations. Indeed Allah is watchful over you.

The question

Are Adam and his wife the parents of the whole present human race — and if so, how did their children have children of their own?

Views answered: an exegete who takes “a single being” to mean any human couple, exegetes who say Eve was made from part of Adam, reports that Adam's sons married houris or jinn

Al-Mizan's argument

Al-Mizan shows from the context that “a single being” and “its mate” are Adam and his wife, and rejects the view that they mean any human couple. “Its mate of the same (kind)” means that Eve was of the same species; the verse does not support the view that she was made from one of Adam's ribs — a story not impossible in itself, but not proved by the Qur'an. Since the verse says “and spread from these two many men and women” and mentions no one else, the present human race comes from Adam and his wife alone. It follows that the first generation after them married brother to sister — they were the only men and women — which was lawful because what is permitted is for God to decide. In the narrations al-Mizan accepts the account that Hābīl and Qābīl each married the other's sister, as agreeing with the Qur'an, and sets aside the reports that they married houris or jinn. (The longer discussions on this verse are in the Al-Mizan App.)

Reading guide

Each part opens the commentary at that point.

1. “A single being” and “its mate” are Adam and his wife
2. An exegete's view that they mean any human couple, rejected
3. “Its mate of the same (kind)”
4. Was Eve made from a part of Adam?
5. The present human race comes from Adam and his wife alone
6. The first generation married brother to sister
7. Narrations: “a million Adams”
8. Narrations: how Eve was created
9. Narrations: the marriages of Hābīl and Qābīl
10. The reports of marriage to houris and jinn set aside

Read the whole commentary on 4:1 →