The third fact which we can deduce from this story is that despite the uniqueness of man, or because of it, he is weak in certain aspects of his constitution. His weakness makes it possible for him to be led by his desire to evil and to bottomless depths. His two main weaknesses are his love of survival and his possessive desire.
He is at his weakest when he leaves God’s guidance and submits to his desire or to his sworn enemy who has taken it upon himself to try to seduce him and never let him go.
But God has shown His grace to man by not leaving him alone to carve his path on the basis of the dictates of his nature and reason without any further help. God has sent him messengers to remind and warn him, as we will see in a following verse.
This represents man’s salvation indeed. He is saved from his caprice and desire by turning to God, and he is saved from his enemy who flies away whenever man remembers his Lord and seeks His mercy and reward.
All these elements strengthen man’s resolve and help him elevate himself above his desires and weaknesses. He received his first training in this area whilst still in heaven. He was told then that a particular tree was forbidden him. That training aimed to strengthen his will and to highlight its opposition to temptation and weakness. If he failed in his first experience, that experience should stand him in good stead in the future.
By the grace of God, the door of repentance and return remains open to man at every moment. Should he remember after a slip or a lapse of memory, and should he repent after having fallen into sin, then he finds the door open. God will accept his repentance and forgive him his slips. When he maintains the right path thereafter, God substitutes good deeds for bad ones and multiplies his reward as many times as He pleases. God has not made man’s original sin a curse that chases him and his offspring, for there is simply no permanent, everlasting or inherited sin. No one bears the burden of another.
This basic element in the Islamic concept relieves mankind of the burden and the myth of original, inherited sin which forms the basis of Church concepts in Christianity. It also provides the basis for a great mass of rituals and superstitions. It depicts Adam as a sinner whose sin becomes a curse threatening mankind all the time. The only way to save man, according to this concept, is for God to take the form of the son of man, the Christ who, bearing the burden of atonement for this inherited sin, is allegedly crucified. Thus, forgiveness is granted only to those who are in communion with Jesus Christ who sacrificed himself to atone for Adam’s sin inherited by his offspring.
The Islamic concept is much simpler and much easier. Adam forgot his instructions and slipped into sin, but he then repented and prayed for forgiveness.
God accepted his repentance and forgave him. That puts an end to that first sin.
What remains of it is the experience which helps mankind in its ongoing fight against sin and temptation. How simple, how clear and how easy.
The fourth and final conclusion to be derived from this story is that man’s battle with Satan is real, serious and unabating. As it is related, the story tells us of the great persistence of this avowed enemy to chase man in all situations and to try to delude him at every moment and attack him from every corner: “[Iblīs] said: ‘Since You let me fall in error, I shall indeed lurk in ambush for them all along Your straight path, and I shall most certainly fall upon them from the front and from the rear, and from their right and from their left; and You will find most of them ungrateful.’” (Verses 16-17) The evil one has chosen to be given a very long life in which to continue his wicked scheming. He opted for this wickedness in preference to turning to God in sincere repentance, praying to Him to forgive him his sin committed openly in public after he heard His command in person. He made it clear that he would lie in ambush for human beings trying to turn them away from God’s path, and attack them from every corner in order to divert them from God’s guidance.
Satan can only play on man’s weaknesses and tempt him with fulfilling his desires. Man cannot protect himself against Satan except through consolidating his strength with faith and remembrance of God and by raising himself above desires and making these desires subject to the guidance he has received from God.
The battle with Satan is the major encounter, because it is a fight against desire through the following of divine guidance, and a fight against caprice through enhancing will-power, and a fight against evil and corruption to which Satan leads those who befriend him. It is a fight conducted through following the divine law which sets life on earth on the right path. This fight takes place within man’s conscience and in his daily life, with the two linked together because Satan continues to stir the fight on both its fronts.
Tyrants who try to subjugate people to their rules, laws, standards and values and exclude those derived from divine faith are evil human beings who listen to the whispering of the evil ones among the jinn. The fight against those tyrants is the same as the fight against Satan himself.
This means that the major battle which rages on is that fought against Satan himself and those who befriend him. As a Muslim engages in the fight against his caprice and profane desires, against Satan’s friends who tyrannize on earth, their servants and soldiers, and against the evil, corruption and immorality they spread in the land, he realizes that it is all a single, ferocious battle fought in earnest, because his enemy, Satan, is intent to fight him to the bitter end. Thus the fight goes on and jihād, or the struggle for God’s cause, continues until the Day of Judgement, taking numerous forms and shapes.
Finally, the story and the comments that follow it refer to an intrinsic aspect of human nature, which makes man too shy to willingly appear naked: “But Satan whispered to them both, so that he might show them their nakedness, of which they had previously been unaware.” (Verse 20) “Thus he cunningly deluded them. And when they both had tasted the fruit of the tree, their nakedness became apparent to them, and they began to cover themselves with leaves from the Garden.” (Verse 22) “Children of Adam, We have sent down to you clothing to cover your nakedness, and garments pleasing to the eye; but the robe of God-consciousness is the finest of all. In this there is a sign from God, so that they may reflect. Children of Adam, do not allow Satan to seduce you in the same way as he caused your (first) parents to be turned out of the Garden. He stripped them of their garment in order to make them aware of their nakedness.” (Verses 26-27)
These verses emphasize the importance of this question showing that it touches on something deeply rooted in human nature. Clothing is not merely an adornment to man, but it also covers his physical nakedness, in the same way as fearing God covers his mental nakedness.
Sound, uncorrupted human nature abhors revealing its physical and mental nakedness. Those who try to persuade people to cast off their clothes and the garment of God-consciousness and fearing Him, in order to make them appear naked, unashamed, aim only to deprive man of some of his basic natural qualities.
This attempt is supported by many who speak up or write or utilize the media in order to paint this nakedness as normal, using every means for this evil end. Their goal is to deprive man of some aspects of his humanity which distinguishes him from other creatures. They all want to put man at the mercy of his enemy, Satan, who has always wanted to undress him and expose his nakedness. Such people are only putting into practice some evil Zionist schemes, aiming to destroy humanity, and spread promiscuity so that all mankind submits without resistance to the kingdom of Zion, after they have lost their distinctive human characteristics.
Nakedness is a quality of animal nature. Man does not prefer nakedness except when he sinks down to a level below that which befits man. Those who find nakedness beautiful suffer from a distortion of human taste. Some primitive peoples in the heartland of Africa are always nude, but when Islam penetrates into these areas, the first aspect of civilization it imparts to them is that they start to wear clothes. In modern, `progressive’ jāhiliyyah people sink into the depths from which Islam rescues those who are backward and puts them on the road to civilization in the Islamic sense, which promotes the distinctive characteristics of man.
Psychological and mental nakedness, which sheds the sense of shame and fear of God, is strongly advocated by many people in the media, but it is simply a step back into jāhiliyyah. It is a far cry from the superior level of advancement and civilization, although its advocates try to depict it as so.
The story of the creation of man as told in the Qur’ān emphasizes these values and standards and explains them fully. We praise God for having guided us and saved us from following the whispers of Satan and rescued us from the quagmire of ignorance and jāhiliyyah.