The Divine Will of the Perfect God
So Adam sought forgiveness for His sin, and God
accepted it from Him. Another crucial point which must be mentioned is that
God created humans with a free will, and He knew that humanity would sin. For
this reason, no human is expected to be perfect, but rather, God knows that
they will sin. What is expected from humans is that they repent from their sin.
The Prophet, may God praise him, said:
“All children of Adam repetitively make
mistakes, but the best of those who make mistakes are those who repent.” (Ibn
Maajah)
The Prophet also said:
“By Him in Whose Hand is My soul (i.e.
God), if you did not commit sins, God would do away with you and come with a
race which committed sins. They would seek forgiveness from God and He would
forgive them. (Saheeh
Muslim #4936)
So here we see that it was in the Great and Wise
plan of God that Adam sin and that God forgive him for that sin, and to say
that Adam went against the Universal Will of God by sinning is a blasphemy against
the All Encompassing Knowledge, Power, and Will of God. Christianity goes so
far as to say that God even repented from the creation of humans! May God be
free from all defects people attribute to Him. In Genesis 6:6, it says to
quote:
“And it repented the Lord that he had made
man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart”
To agree to this would mean that Adam did
something which was out of the Will, Power, and Knowledge of God, and that God
regretted His creation of humans. God is All-Perfect and so are His deeds, and
there is no defect or shortcoming in them; He does nothing except with total
and complete perfection and wisdom. Islam in no way agrees to this belief and,
as we mentioned, all of what occurred in the story of Adam was within the
perfect plan of God. The Prophet said:
“Indeed God put everything into its proper
measure fifty thousand years before the creation of the heavens and the
earths.” (Al-Tirmidhi)
God mentions in the Quran what took place
between the angels when He announced the creation of humans, and from this we
see that it was known to God and part of His Great and Divine Plan that humans
would sin. God says:
“And (remember) when your Lord said to the angels:
‘Verily, I am going to place (mankind) generations after generations on earth.’
They said: ‘Will You place therein those who will make mischief therein and
shed blood, - while we glorify You with praises and thanks and sanctify You.’
He (God) said: ‘Indeed I know that which you do not know.’” (Quran 2:30)
It is also clear from these verses that God did
not create humans as immortal, and that death was prescribed for them from the
beginning of their creation. As for the consequences of the sin of Adam, which
was his extradition from the Garden, this was felt by those to come after him
and this is only natural. If one was to become drunk and have a car accident,
and some of the passengers die, the sin of driver effects the passengers in
their death, but that does not mean that the passengers are to be held to
account for the sin of the driver.
The Innocent
Another question which must be dealt with is the
fate of those who came before the claim that God became incarnate and
sacrificed himself for the sins of humanity, as well as the fate of those who
were not baptized, as baptism is the rite which all Christians must perform in
order to be cleansed of Original Sin. In Christian belief, all humans previous
to the incarnation of God, including the Prophets and infants usually regarded
as sinless, are not free from the Original Sin of Adam, and therefore cannot
enter the Kingdom of Heaven, As Augustine said: “Do not believe, nor say, nor
teach, that infants who die before baptism can obtain the remission of original
sin.”
Only until recently, non-baptized infants were not buried in consecrated ground
because they were believed to have died in original sin.
Also, we know that the verse in the Apostles’
Creed, “… and (Jesus) descended into Hell”,
is said to mean that Jesus descended to Hell to free the righteous souls who
were there due to the sin of Adam. This leads us to believe that all those
before the coming of Jesus are in Hell, even if they were from the righteous. Paul
mentioned this himself in Galatians:
“… a man is not justified by the works of
the law ... for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” (Galatians
2:16)
Here it is clear that adherence to the
commandments of God is not enough for salvation, even for those before Jesus.
This also holds true to all those who have not received the message of
Christianity. We must ask; why did not the Prophets before Jesus call to this
notion of original sin? Did they lie when they said that it was enough to
Worship One God and obey His commandments to achieve Paradise? Why did not God
come and free humanity from sin at the time of Adam so that the righteous and
others would not be in Hell due to his sin? Why are infants, humanity before
Jesus, and others who have not heard about Christianity, held accountable for a
sin they never committed, nor have knowledge about how to remit themselves from
it? The truth of the matter is that the notion of “Original Sin”, as many
others, was one introduced by Paul and later expounded on by Christian scholars
and councils.
“The Old Testament says nothing about the
transmission of hereditary sin to the entire human race… the main scriptural
affirmation of the doctrine is found in the writings of St. Paul…”
This concept though, was expounded by Augustine
of Hippo, one of the most prominent Christian scholars in History. The basis
of this concept is that “the deliberate sin of the first man (Adam) is the
cause of original sin.” The Second
Council of Orange (529 C.E.) declared, “One man has transmitted to the whole
human race not only the death of the body, which is the punishment of sin, but
even sin itself, which is the death of the soul.”
The concept of original sin is one which has no
basis in previous scriptures regarded as divine by Christianity. None of the
Prophets before Jesus were known to have preached this concept, nor were any
other beliefs or rituals based upon them. Rather, salvation from Hell was
achieved through the belief in One God and obedience to His commandments which
was preached by all prophets, including the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, may God
praise them.
Summary
In Islam, the key to salvation is the belief in and
worship of the One True, Unique and Perfect God and obedience to His
commandments, the same message brought by all Prophets. Islam preaches that a
person must work righteousness and avoid sin to attain Paradise, and that if
one sins, that they seek repentance for it from their heart. Through this and
the Mercy and Grace of God, they will enter Paradise. Islam does not deem that
all those before the advent of Muhammad are doomed to Hell, but rather that
each nation was sent a prophet by the same One God, and it was upon them to
follow His commandments. Those who have not heard of the message are not held
liable to follow Islam, and God will deal with them with His Perfect Justice on
the Day of Judgment. Infants and children of both Muslims and disbelievers
alike are in enjoyment in Paradise upon death. Due to the infinite Justice of
God:
“No one laden with burdens can bear another’s burden.
And We never punish (people) until We have sent (to them) a Messenger (to give
warning).” (Quran 17:15)
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