This post is meant to supplement the following article I wrote: Adam and Eve: The First of the Polytheists and Associators?.
The Quran insinuates that Adam and Eve committed shirk, which is the sin of ascribing partners with the Muslim deity:
It is He Who has created you from a single person (Adam), and (then) He has created from him his wife (Hawwa (Eve)), in order that he might enjoy the pleasure of living with her. When he had sexual relation with her, she became pregnant and she carried it about lightly. Then when it became heavy, they both invoked Allah, their Lord (saying): “If You give us a Salih (good in every aspect) child, we shall indeed be among the grateful.” But when He gave them a Salih (good in every aspect) child, they ascribed partners to Him (Allah) in that which He has given to them. High be Allah, Exalted above all that they ascribe as partners to Him. (Tafsir At-Tabaree, Vol.9, Page 148) Do they attribute as partners to Allah those who created nothing but they themselves are created. S. 7:189-192 Hilali-Khan
Since shirk is the unforgiveable sin,
Who has made the earth a resting place for you, and the sky as a canopy, and sent down water (rain) from the sky and brought forth therewith fruits as a provision for you. Then do not set up rivals unto Allah (in worship) while you know (that He Alone has the right to be worshipped). S. 2:22 Hilali-Khan
Verily, Allah forgives not that partners should be set up with him in worship, but He forgives except that (anything else) to whom He pleases, and whoever sets up partners with Allah in worship, he has indeed invented a tremendous sin. S. 4:48 Hilali-Khan
This means the Islamic scripture has basically condemned Adam and Eve to hell!
According to the traditions, Adam and Eve’s crime consisted of their having named a son after Satan, who had appeared to them as a man in order to deceive them into taking his advice in the case of delivering children who would live:
Narrated Samurah bin Jundab: that the Prophet said: When Hawwa became pregnant, Iblis came to her – and her children would not live (after birth) – so he said: ‘Name him ‘Abdul-Harith.’ So she named him ‘Abdul-Harith and he lived. So that is among the inspirations of Ash-Shaitan and his commands.
Grade: Daif (Darussalam) (Al-Tirmidhi Hadith, Number 3077 https://www.alim.org/hadith/tirmidi/47/3077/; see also https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:3077; emphasis mine)
And:
It is He Who created you from a single self and made from him his spouse so that he might find repose in her.
The MAJORITY of commentators said that what is mean by ‘a single self’ is Adam, ‘His spouse’ is Hawwa’. ‘So that he might find repose in her’ means be familiar with her at peace. All of this was in the Garden…
Then when it became heavy they called on Allah, their Lord, ‘If You grant us a healthy child, we will be among the thankful!’
‘When it became heavy’ means it became a burden, as used for the fruit of the date palms. It is said that it began to be heavy as the verbs asbaha and amsa are used. ‘They called on Allah, their Lord’: the pronoun ‘they’ refers to Adam and Hawwa’. According to this view it is related in accounts of this ayah that when Hawwa’ became pregnant the first time, she did not know what it was. This is strengthened by the reading marat. She was alarmed by that and Iblis found a way to her.
Al-Kalbi said, ‘When she became heavy the first time, Iblis came to Hawwa in the form of a man. He asked, ‘What is that in your belly?’ She answered, ‘I do not know!’ He said, ‘I fear it is an animal.’ She told Adam about that and they continued to worry about it. Then Iblis returned to her and said that he had a position with Allah: ‘If I pray to Allah and you bear a human will you name him after me?’ ‘Yes,’ she replied. He said, ‘I will pray to Allah.’ He came to her when she had given birth and said, ‘Give him my name.’ She asked, ‘What is your name?’ ‘Al-Harith,’ he answered. If he had named himself to her, she would have recognized him, and so she called him ‘Abd al-Harith.
Something similar to this is mentioned in a weak hadith in at-Tirmidhi and elsewhere, and there is a great deal in the Israelite sources which are not firm and should not be relied on by someone who has a heart. Even though Adam and Hawwa had been deluded previously, a believer is not bitten from the same hole twice, ALTHOUGH IT IS RECORDED AND WRITTEN. The Messenger of Allah said, ‘He deceived them twice: in the Garden AND ON THE EARTH.’
when He granted them a healthy, upright child, they associated what He had given them with Him
The meaning of ‘salih’ (healthy) is ‘a balanced child’. Scholars disagree about the interpretation of the shirk here ascribed to Adam and Hawwa’. Commentators said, ‘The shirk was in the naming and attribute, not in worship and lordship.’ The people of meanings said, ‘They did not believe that al-Harith was their Lord by their naming their son ‘Abd al-Harith, but they believed that al-Harith was the reason for the deliverance of their child and so they named him after him, as a man names himself the slave of his guest by way of humility to him, not meaning that the guest is his actual lord. It is as Hatim said:
I am the slave of the guest as long as he stays with me,
although my disposition contains none of the nature of a slave.’ (Aisha Bewley, Tafsir al-Qurtubi [Diwan Press, 2023], Volume 7. Sūrat al-An’ām – Cattle & Sūrat al-A’rāf, pp. 402-403; emphasis mine)
Despite Muhammad stating that Satan deceived Adam and Eve twice, once in the garden and once upon the earth, the Muslims still tried to find a way of weakening or rejecting these traditions. These authorities clearly saw how much of a problem such narrations posed to their erroneous assumption that prophets are guarded by Allah from committing such heinous sins.
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