The creation & struggles of Insaan.

Allah has created man as one of His finest creations and gave him free
will to make decisions about his life. At the same time He informed
him of the rules to be a noble creature and sent down messengers from
time to time as a reminder of the Creator and purpose of life.

Quran explains the story of this creation and first ever human Prophet
Adam and his wife Hawwa (AS).As this story represents the beginning of
mankind as well as the battle between good and evil so it has been
mentioned in 7 different surah of Quran including Surah
Baqra,Al-A’raaf, Taha, Saad, Bani-Israel, Hijr and Al-Kahf. The
importance of its repetition in the Quran emphasizes upon the lessons
it presents for humanity, most valuable of which is obedience towards
the commands of Allah. Neglecting His orders would result in losing
the blessings He has bestowed upon us and will make us from followers
of evil. Allah gave Adam & Hawwa (AS)what every human being dreams of and
told them that they will never be hungry and unclothed nor will they
feel thirsty or hot from the sun(Taha 20:118-119). This shows that all
their needs were taken care of in heaven and they had no worries or
pressures to struggle for survival in return of only one order to obey and
that was to abstain from what they were forbidden to go close to- the forbidden tree.

The result of this disobedience cost them heavily and they were removed
from heaven and sent down to earth. This shows that in today’s world
we have to remember and be among the followers of the guidance sent to
us by Allah through His messengers and avoid disobeying His
commands.Allah has made this earth and all it bears halal for us and
forbade only few things as a trial, just as He gave Adam (AS)
everything in heaven and ordered to stay away from one tree.He has
given us free will to choose right over wrong but being tempted by the
Satan’s fake promises we forget the blessings and fall into errors.
These sins and mistakes displease Allah and remove us from the shadow
of His mercy not only in this world but will be a cause of His wrath
in the Hereafter too.

Secondly this story also enlightens one of the attributes of Allah
which is His divine mercy for all those who repent after sinning.
After Adam & Hawwa (AS) disobeyed Allah and ate the fruit from the
forbidden tree, he immediately realized his mistake and begged Allah
for forgiveness. He was so guilty and shy that he didn’t have words to
show his regret. Allah knew that it was Satan who misguided them and
they were sincerely repenting so He taught Adam words for seeking
forgiveness as they wronged themselves and if Allah didn’t forgive
them, they would be among the loser. This prayer mentioned in Quran
in surah Al-A’raaf (7:23) shows Allah’s mercy towards His creation
that if someone repents with a true heart, Allah forgives his sins.

The Prophet (ﷺ) narrated from Anas that all sons of Adam commit sins,
but the best of those are the ones who repent. Ibn-e-Asaker also
reported that Adam wept for decades repenting for his sin and loss of
paradise. Our Lord not only forgave him but also provided everything
he needed for his survival on the earth till they will be called back
to their Lord on the Day of Judgment.

On the contrast when Satan disobeyed Allah and knew that he will be
punished for it, he didn’t feel ashamed of his act and instead asked Allah
for time to misguide the mankind till the last hour. It was from
Allah’s mercy that he bargained and asked for respite before being put
into hellfire as mentioned in Surah A’raaf (7:14-15) and Allah
granted it to him even though if He willed He would have immediately
sent him to his destiny which is hellfire. This shows that man is not
infallible and might fall into a sin intentionally or unintentionally
but if he realizes his mistake and reverts back to his Creator, he
will never be deprived of His Divine mercy.

We also learn that arrogance and considering oneself above others is
not one of the traits that Allah likes. When Allah asked angels to
prostrate to Adam, Iblis refused, claiming that he was better than him
being made of fire while Adam was made of clay as mentioned in Surah
Al-A’raaf (7:11).Even though he knew that Allah is the creator of
fire and clay both and only He knows the reality of both the elements
but his haughtiness grew to an extent that instead of being ashamed of
his disobedience he got into argument with Allah. Iblis was one of the most pious and learned from the creations of Allah and companions like Ibne Abbas and others said that his name was Azazeel and though he was a jinn, he was ranked along the four most honorable Angles. His arrogance and overconfidence about his knowledge and worth lead him to disobedience towards the Lord which is mentioned in Quran as he was proud and one of the disbelievers and will be put into hellfire along with his followers (Saad 38:71-85). We should understand from this scenario that we have a limited information of this universe as much
as Allah wants us to have just like He taught Adam names of everything
(Al-Baqara 2:31) which was a form of acquired knowledge given to man.
We can’t encompass His knowledge and don’t know the wisdom behind
things so being proud of our update of science and other fields of
education and questioning the orders of our Creator, thinking that we
know everything will only make us among disliked ones just like Iblis.
He encouraged us to learn about things but still remember that
creation can never surpass the Creator no matter how much progress
they make.
It clearly shows that Iblis has been jealous of mankind from the very
start. Prophet (ﷺ) said that when Allah made Adam he left him for some
time while Iblis roamed around him curiously and when he found him
empty from inside he realized that this creature would have no
self-control .This weakness that he had sensed in the man gave him an
opportunity to misguide Adam & Hawwa (AS). He argued with the Lord and showed his envy by promising that those who have been honored above
him (Adam),will be seized and misled by him and his offspring and will
lead them astray from the straight path (Bani Israel 17:62). Ibn Jarir
reported that when angels prostrated Adam, Satan concluded that this
type of act is done to represent a high level of prestige and
immediately felt envious. When Allah cursed him, his hatred increased
since he felt that Adam was the cause behind all his misfortune. This
sheds light on two important things, firstly the devil can never be
sincere to us and he takes man step by step and slowly urges him to
follow the path of misguidance and get indulged in this worldly life
making him forget about the real purpose of creation and the
hereafter. Also we learn that sometimes we overlook our own mistakes and blame others for our failures just like Iblis couldn’t see his
disobedience and decided on proving himself right and taking revenge
from mankind. Such retaliation invoked Allah’s eternal curse upon him.

Adam’s story clearly was a practical depiction of the enmity of Satan
towards mankind and just like he made him commit sin and get expelled
from heaven, he will continue to misguide us till the day of
resurrection which he promised. May Allah guide us to the path of
righteousness and save us from the tricks of Iblis and from being his
fellow dwellers of hell fire Ameen.