Original sin ended with Adam. ‘Adam received words from his Lord, and He relented towards him’ (Quran 2:37). The God of Mercy and Justice cannot punish children for their father’s sin; He even opens the way to our own individual ‘turning’ at every moment of our lives. There is no ‘door of repentance,’ only an open door-frame. Going through it comes naturally to us.
Augustine proposes the ugliest doctrine in the history of religion: an unbaptised infant is damned in the eternal ‘pain of sense’. But for Muslims, we are not genetically-defective cripples, destined to be beaten for a crime we did not commit.
Infinite sin (and is this not rather hard on Adam, the ‘hungry child’?) requires, for Augustine, an infinite sacrifice. God Himself must suffer. Hence Augustine’s church must deify the Messiah, even though the Messiah taught that the father forgave the prodigal son simply when he repented. In the Parables, a vicarious sacrifice is nowhere in sight.
Excerpts from Commentary on the Eleventh Contentions by Abdal Hakim Murad (Tim Winter) pp 1-2
Categories: Abdal-Hakim Murad, Christianity, God, Islam, Quran, Recommended Reading
Blogging Theology 
Salam, what’s this book about akhi?
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A comment on Amazon puts it well:
‘Murad’s Commentary on the Eleventh Contentions is a rare and profound book. It consists of 100 pithy aphorisms – termed “contentions” – on a diverse array of topics ranging through ethics, cosmology, metaphysics, theology, law and history. Each contention is a terse distillation of Murad’s often exquisitely crafted ruminations on a given matter followed by his own compressed elucidation (the commentary). Though sometimes abstruse and esoteric, the book weaves itself into a dense, multi-faceted tapestry of insights into a range of contemporary issues that concern the religious mind.’
http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/1872038166/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending
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Its a good book. Read it. You know when you encounter a very interesting brainy Muslim person? Its like having a conversation with one, except in a book. Lol
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yes I know the feeling!
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Actually, there is good evidence that the curse of Allah in expelling Adam and Eve from paradise included their offspring – as several Islamic commentators testify – Ibn Kathir, Jalalayn, and Yusuf Ali. It seems that Islam also has evidence for some kind of original sin and corruption that is spread into Adam and Eve’s offspring. So original sin did not stop with Adam, and you forgot verse 36 and 38 that is the context around verse 37. Even if Allah forgave them in verse 37, the verses around them show that the Qur’an actually teaches some kind of inherited sin that goes to their offspring and affects all of human kind.
فازلهما الشيطان عنها فاخرجهما مما كانا فيه وقلنا اهبطوا بعضكم لبعض عدو ولكم في الارض مستقر ومتاع الى حين
SAHIH INTERNATIONAL
But Satan caused them to slip out of it and removed them from that [condition] in which they had been. And We said, “Go down, [all of you], as enemies to one another, and you will have upon the earth a place of settlement and provision for a time.”
Surah 2:36
قلنا اهبطوا منها جميعا فاما ياتينكم مني هدى فمن تبع هداي فلا خوف عليهم ولا هم يحزنون
SAHIH INTERNATIONAL
We said, “Go down from it, all of you. And when guidance comes to you from Me, whoever follows My guidance – there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve.
Surah 2:38
“all of you” is جمیعا – a clear understanding of more than 2. We have this in Farsi also which means “all” and it comes from root verb of Jam’e جمع , which means “to collect”, “to sum up”, “to add”, “to gather up” (more than one thing). It is also used of a Mosque/ Masjid – “Jami” – the place of gathering together” and the word for Friday, جمعه – comes that root – the day to gather and go to worship at the Masjid. Masjid means the “place of bowing down” and Jami means the place of gathering.
It it interesting to me the the word اهبطوا (go down, descend) – in Farsi we get the word for “the fall” of mankind from this root – هبوط
that they would go down to the earth and become enemies to each other.
اهبطوا بعضكم لبعض عدو
Literally “some of you to some of you become enemies of one another”. (verse 36) بعضی ، بعض – we have this word in Farsi, meaning “some”. Seems to include more than just Adam and Eve!
Here is the commentary of Ibn Kathir regarding Qur’an, Surah 2:38-39:
“Allah informs of His warning to Adam, his wife and Satan, their offspring, when he ordered them to descend from Paradise. He says he will send messengers with Scriptures, signs and proofs… ”
(Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Part 1, Surah Al-Fatiah Surah Al-Baqarah, ayat 1 to 141, Abridged by Sheikh Nasib Ar-Rafa‘i [Al-Firdous Ltd., London: Second Edition 1998], pp. 109-110; bold emphasis mine)
Also, the late Abdullah Yusuf Ali (one of the most, if not the most, standard English versions of the Qur’an) in his commentary in the footnotes of Surah 2:36, footnote 53, page 17.
“… Note the transition in Arabic from the singular number in ii. 33, to the dual in ii. 35, and the plural here [2:36], which I have indicated in English by ‘All ye people.’ Evidently Adam is the type of all mankind, and the sexes go together in all spiritual matters. Moreover, the expulsion applied to Adam, Eve, and Satan, and the Arabic plural is appropriate for any number greater than two.” (Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Holy Qur’an: English Translation of the meanings and Commentary, The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd, Saudi Arabia, 1413 Hegira, footnote 53, page 17). bolding my emphasis
Ibn Kathir wrote in commenting on Surah 2:34:
“This Ayah mentions the great honor that Allah granted Adam, and Allah reminded Adam’s offspring of this fact. Allah commanded the angels to prostrate before Adam, as this Ayah and many Hadiths testify, such as the Hadith about the intercession that we discussed. There is a Hadith about the supplication of Musa, “O my Lord! Show me Adam who caused us and himself to be thrown out of Paradise.” When Musa met Adam, he said to him, “Are you Adam whom Allah created with His Own Hands, blew life into and commanded the angels to prostrate before?” (Tafsir Ibn Kathir (Abridged) (Surat Al-Fatihah to Verse 252 of Surat Al-Baqarah), abridged by a group of scholars under the supervision of Shaykh Safiur-Rahman Al-Mubarakpuri [Darussalam Publishers & Distributors, Riyadh, Houston, New York, Lahore; First Edition: January 2000], Parts 1 and 2, Volume 1, p. 193; bold emphasis mine)
Jalalayan’s commentary:
“Then Satan, Iblīs, caused them to slip, he caused them to be removed (fa-azallahumā: a variant reading has fa-azālahumā: he caused them to be away from it) therefrom, that is, from the Garden, when he said to them, ‘Shall I point you to the tree of eternity’ [cf. Q. 20:120], and swore to them by God that he was only giving good advice to them, and so they ate of it; and brought them out of what they were in, of bliss; and We said, ‘Go down, to earth, both of you and all those comprised by your seed; some of you, of your progeny, an enemy to the other, through your wronging one another; and in the earth a dwelling, a place of settlement, shall be yours, and enjoyment, of whatever of its vegetation you may enjoy, for a while’, [until] the time your terms [of life] are concluded.”
(Tafsir al-Jalalayn, Q. 2:36; bold emphasis mine)
These Islamic commentaries and Hadith seem to understand the Islamic sources as including the offspring of Adam and Eve and spreading to all humankind.
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