The first man
When Allah created the first man ever to appear on the face of the earth,
He decided to name him Adam. Thinking of the loneliness that Adam would suffer,
He created a woman to keep him company and called her Hawwa. Both human beings were given
permission to live freely in paradise with nothing to care about. But at the
same time, Allah told them to do whatever they pleased but not to go near a
specific tree, and never even dream of seeking pleasure from the fruit of that
tree. They loved each other and lived happily until one day Shaitan came along
and whispered a tempting lot of things about the tree, making them fall under
his sinful spell. So they went to the tree and ate from it, turning themselves
into wrongdoers. As soon as they finished, they realized that they had done
something extremely wrong by defying Allah's orders, and regretted their act.
They asked Allah right then to forgive them. Allah did, but they had to leave
the meadows of paradise forever, and live in the world newly created for them,
the earth. Allah then told them that with time, there would be sinful
activities happening in His land, and so He would keep sending prophets from
time to time to show the right path to people. Those who followed what He sent,
and who led a life full of virtues and morality would get to live in paradise
like Adam once did. This would be after the Day of Judgment. And the ones who
disbelieved His word and rejected what would be sent through the prophets,
would be thrown into the fire of Hell.
The sons of Adam عَلَیهِالسَّلام
The first two people on earth from whom we all have descended, Adam عَلَیهِالسَّلام and Hawwa, gave birth to two beautiful boys, Habeel and Qabeel.
Habeel decided to take up the profession of a shepherd and Qabeel grew up to
become a farmer. One day the two brothers decided to make a sacrifice to Allah,
to win His approval. As Habeel was a shepherd, he offered the best sheep of his
flock, while Qabeel offered only the left-overs of his crop. They determined,
whichever one of the two sacrifices would get struck by lightning from the
mysterious sky, would be the sacrifice that was accepted by the Almighty Allah.
Habeel's sheep got accepted. This made Qabeel hate his brother and he was
overcome with jealousy from that moment onwards. He insulted Habeel, although he
explained to his brother that his sacrifice was not accepted by Allah because
of the simple reason of not fearing Allah as much as he should. Qabeel, feeling
discredited for his efforts, got angrier and decided to kill his brother.
Habeel was ready to give his life in the path of Allah and being a righteous
man, he did not fight back. Habeel feared Allah like no one could have feared
Him. Frustrated, Qabeel killed his brother, committing the first murder on the
face of earth. He regretted the act as soon as it was done but now there was no
going back. Sitting under a tree, he saw a raven digging the ground and burying
the body of another raven. Qabeel too, copying the raven dug a hole in the
ground and buried his brother. Allah said, till the Day of Judgment each murder
in the world would be considered the murder of all mankind. And whoever saved
one man's life, would be looked upon as if he had saved all mankind.