The First Heavenly Laws
Allah, all praise and glory is to Him,
has clarified to Adam the merits and privileges he will have in this place
wherein he shall dwell, saying (what means):
“Indeed, it is
[promised] for you not to be hungry therein or be unclothed. And indeed, you
will not be thirsty therein or be hot from the sun.” (Tâ-Hâ, 20: 118-119)
Meaning in this paradise or garden you
shall have enough food and you shall never be naked, and you shall never be
thirsty nor feel tired; all is permissible to you except one tree which you
should not approach nor taste its fruits. And that is the Law of Allah on the
earth: He permits to us too many things and forbids only little. Allah, all
praise and glory is to Him, warned Adam and Eve against their enemy Satan,
saying (what means):
“So We said, ‘O
Adam, indeed this is an enemy to you and to your wife. Then let him not remove
you from paradise so you would suffer.’” (Tâ-Hâ, 20: 117)
Truly, that was a sufficient warning to
be alert and watchful to Satan’s enmity and close one’s ears to his evil
insinuations and never to believe his lies.
Allah, be ever gloried His Majesty and
Might, gave Adam all the elements of life, from food that satisfied the needs
of his body without any excrement. Allah, The Most Exalted, nourishes the fetus
within its mother’s womb as much as is needed for it to grow without discharge
of any excretion. Because food is supplied in proportion to growth, likewise in
the paradise the food of Adam was in proportion to need.
We must repeat here that the paradise
Adam lived in was not the Paradise of Eternity because eternal life in Paradise
would only follow worldly life. It is the reward for faithful following of the
Law of Allah in this world, thus it cannot precede worldly life but is
subsequent to it. So, the paradise Adam lived in is a place that embraces all
means and requisites of survival. We must notice that Allah, all praise and
glory is to Him, warned Adam and Eve saying: “But do not approach this tree” and did
not only say, “Do not to eat from this tree”…why? Because
Allah wants to protect Adam and his offspring from temptation. Had He only said
“Do not eat” it would have signified that it was permissible for Adam and Eve
to go near the tree and sit beside it and contemplate its fruits, and then they
would have been surely seduced by the tasty appearance of the fruits and their
color and agreeable odor and consequently eat from it.
But Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He,
wanted to protect Adam from his own self and from the temptation he might be
subjected to and the soul might fail to resist. This protection that Allah
wanted to grant to Adam, and to his offspring after him, is the only true
protection against sinning. Because the moment you approach a thing forbidden
by Allah your soul inclines to it, and perhaps proximity to it might drive you
to commit that which is forbidden. We also observe that Allah, all praise and
glory is to Him, commands us not to approach the most grievous sins, saying
(what means):
“That [has been
commanded], and whoever honors the sacred ordinances of Allah – it is best for
him in the sight of his Lord. And permitted to you are the grazing livestock,
except what is recited to you. So avoid the uncleanliness of idols and avoid
false statement.” (Al-Hajj, 22: 30)
The Truth [Al-Haqq: one of the
Beautiful Names of Allah], Blessed and Exalted is He, did not just say: Do not
worship the idols, because this would mean that it is lawful to go to the
places where idols are worshipped and sit there. For going and sitting at such
places might tempt us – Allah forbid – to worship idols. Moreover, read the Saying of Allah, which
means:
“O you who have
believed, indeed, intoxicants, gambling, [sacrificing on] stone alters [to
other than Allah], and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of
Satan, so avoid it that you may be successful.” (Al-Mâ’idah, 5: 90)
A strict warning, which means not to
ever get near them. The strange thing is that sometimes you find some people
who try to argue that Allah, all praise and glory is to Him, did not forbid
intoxicants (all kinds of alcoholic drinks)!! And they demand to bring them an
Ayah from the Noble Qur’an in which Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, says: Intoxicants
are forbidden to you!!!!
To such skeptics we say: the command of
shunning and avoiding is stronger than forbidding. Had Allah, The Most Exalted
and Ever-Majestic, said: Intoxicants are forbidden to you, the forbidden thing
would only have been drinking intoxicants, and in such case people would have
produced alcoholic drinks, traded in them, prepared the places where they are
served and drunk, waited on their drinkers and sat with them. As long as we do
not drink intoxicants and as long as the prohibition was limited to drinking we
would have committed all this. But the command of avoidance and shunning has essentially
forbidden to come near the places of drinking all kinds of alcoholic drinks or
to produce them or trade in them or sit with those who drink intoxicants.
Therefore, the command of avoidance and shunning is certainly stronger than the
prohibition. That is why Allah, all praise and glory is to Him, ordered Adam
and Eve not to come near the forbidden tree, otherwise they would certainly
wrong themselves.
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