Adam & Hawa (Eve)

(peace be upon them)

By: Mekaeel Maknoon

Islam teaches people to treat ones mother and father with honour and kindness in their capacity as parents. To this end, remembering one’s parents and imploring Allah’s peace and mercy upon them are acts of honour and great respect. Such a deference is more than due to humanity’s common ancestor. However, with so much emphasis in the educational institutions on trying to prove that humankind evolved from apes, people’s knowledge and awareness of the Almighty Originator, and His great and gracious act in creating Adam and Hawa, for whom there is little regard these days, has steadily dwindled. The question to be put is not so much, "What are the names of the first man and woman"? but, "Do we really have a common ancestor?" and "How much do I know about humanity’s common ancestors, Adam and Hawa?".

The religious and scientific answer to the first question is simply yes! On 11th January 1988, the Newsweek Magazine carried an article which stated that studies by molecular biologists of an international assortment of genes had put them on the trail of the mitochondrial Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA).

The studies were carried out on both black and caucasian women "with ancestors from Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia". Despite the fact that the women "were from widely different racial and geographical backgrounds", the geneticists "found that all had identical stretches of the mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited only from mothers and therefore not a mixture of parental genes". This has led them from a Qur’anic and Biblical perspective back to the idea of a common ancestor: "to a single women from whom we are all descended". The report went on to say, "most evidence so far indicates that Eve"..."was more likely a dark-haired, black skinned woman (who) lived in sub-Saharan Africa." It is believed that our common ancestor - African Eve - must has lived "between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago", and this is consistent with the findings related to Adam. This finding adds weight to the Biblical and Qur’anic statements about the existence of a Hawa (Eve), the mother of all humanity, who was not a product of an accident or chance in nature, but was created and fashioned by the Creator. Also, it is yet another piece of evidence for the authenticity of the Holy Qur’an, stating long before this discovery:

"The Revelation of this Book is from Allah, the Exalted in Power, Full of Wisdom... He created you (all) from a single Person:... created, (out of it) of like nature his mate... and from them twain scattered (like seeds) countless men and women" (S. 39:1,6: S: 4:1).

This passage was also telling the men of science that to progress their understanding about humanity’s common ancestor they must seek to establish Hawa’s origin and indeed humanity’s from a single individual, named Adam.

It is therefore not surprising to learn from an article in The Times on 23rd November 1995 that following a scientific study of the Y-chromosomes in a mixed- race group, Dr. Michael Hammer, a geneticist from the University of Arizona, was able to establish that all men do have a common ancestor "of African origin", who lived less than 200,000 years ago. the article went on to say "this opposed a theory that mankind evolved in different regions of the Old World from an earlier ancestor, Homo Erectus (apes)". What is now missing is for scientists to find the evidence which links Hawa to Adam, perhaps they will find the answer among the DNA of the bones, in particular, the lower ribs.

As regards the second question,

science has very little to offer human beings who again, must resort to the Divine revelations to acquire deeper knowledge of their common ancestor. Even the fact that Hawa (Eve) was dark-skinned was already known to scholars of Islam. E.W. Lane, in his Arabic-English Lexicon, (Book 1, Part 2, p.661), says that the name Hawa (the Arabic equivalent of Eve) signifies "a brown colour, redness inclining to blackness or a colour intermixed with the blackish red dust like the rust of iron".

In short, she was black or, if you prefer, a dark-skinned women.

The creation of Eve: a sign and a phenomenon

The story of Adam is of universal significance not only because of what is related about him but also for what we can learn about his "mate". The name in the Torah to Adam's mate is Eve, there is no explanation how she acquired this name, whether from the Creator or Adam, it simply appeared at the beginning of Genesis, Chapter 4. According to Islamic Tradition, that same person is known by the Arabic name Hawa, and not Eve although again, this name does not appear anywhere in the Holy Qur'an. As regards the creation of Hawa, the information in the Torah can be summarised as follows: The LORD God said, "it is not good that man should be alone; I will make him an help meet" ....the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam... and He took one of his ribs... and made He a women... and brought her unto the man... and... Adam said,... "she shall be called woman" (Gen. 2:18,21-3)

The Holy Qur'an confirms that Hawa was indeed created out of Adam but is silent on the specific process used in her creation. It states: "O mankind! Reverence your Guardian-Lord Who created you from a single person, created, of like nature, his zaowja (wife/mate), and from them twain scattered (like seeds) countless men and women" (S. 4-:1).

Stephen Jay Gould, the Harvard paleontologist and essayist, say, ".. it makes us realise that all human beings, despite differences in external appearances, are really members of a single entity that's had a very recent origin in one place. There is a kind of biological brotherhood that's much more profound than we ever realised".

This is the very point that Allah has related in the Holy Qur'an, which evidently Mr Gould was not aware of, or perhaps, like many others, did not want to accept until it was endorsed by science. Do they not see though, how far modern science lags behind the teachings of the Holy Qur'an?

It is evident from the above stated Qur'anic verse and Torah that Hawa's creation is a phenomenon - she is the only women that was created from a man, but clearly not by the natural process that women would give birth. Her creation is significant, a sign and the second part of the three - part phenomenon of human creation. First was the creation of Adam, a human being who was made out of nothing, using only water and earth; second, the creation of a women (Hawa) as explained above, and third, the creation of a man - Jesus (pbuh) - out of a women without the participation of a man. All three creations are on the same footing in being unique, evident reasons for faith in Allah, and were all made possible by only the commanding word "Be" from the Almighty, attesting His power and knowledge of the secrets of the heaven and the earth, and of what is revealed and concealed (S. 3:59; 76:1-3).

In terms of religion and as a phenomenon of human creation, it is easy to understand the rank held by Hawa's creation. An unmarried women who conceives is open to all kinds of questions about the circumstances under which she became pregnant. In contrast, there is little that can be said where a women is formed out of the sole male human being in existence - that creation is undoubtedly a great feat at which humans should marvel.

In contrast to the Torah, the Holy Qur'an does not say that Hawa was created from Adam's rib, but says that she was made "of like nature" to him, and this fact is confirmed by reality and what is known about the human body. The biblical statement "God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam... and He took one of his ribs... and made He a women" (Gen. 2:18, 21-3), can be interpreted literally or as an allegory, the result however, in my view, is the same whichever interpretation is applied. This biblical notion, though no authenticated by the holy Qur'an, is supported by the following hadith. In the absence of any Qur'anic foundation one might argue that their authenticity is thus subject to a measure of doubt. Nevertheless, these historical sources state: Abu Hurairah (ra) relates that the Prophet Muhammad (saw) said: Treat women kindly. Woman has been created from a rib and the most crooked part of the rib is the uppermost. f you try to straighten it, you will break it and if you leave it, alone, it will remain crooked. So treat women kindly. (Bukhari and Muslim)

Another version is: A woman is like a rib; if you try and straighten it, you will break it and i you wish to draw benefit from it, you can do so despite its crookedness.

Another version is: Woman has been created from a rib and you cannot straighten her. If you wish to draw benefit from her, do so despite its crookedness. If you try to straighten her, you will break her and breaking her means divorcing her.

In Islam, women are not viewed biologically warped nor generally speaking of a criminal mentality (crooked), they are human beings of a similar nature (S. 4:1) to men and were also created "in the best of moulds" (S. 95:4). As already stated it may well be that an actual rib was take from Adam and then clothed with flesh in the formation of Hawa. This idea is Lamely acceptable in light of the following verse from the Holy Qur'an: Men we did create from quintessence (of clay), then We placed him as (a drop of) sperm in a place of rest, firmly fixed; then We made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood; the of the clot We made a (foetus) lump; then We made out of that lump bones and clothed with flesh; then We developed out if it another creature. So Blessed be Allah, the best to create. (S. 23:12-14)

This very detailed passage on human evolution is over one thousand four hundred years old, predating modern science. This passage identifies he power of the Creator in first creating Adam "from quintessance (of clay)" and then setting up the human reproductive process "in a place of rest, firmly fixed". Looking at this process one can see three primary stages;

a) from the sperm to the formation of bone.

b) clothing the bones with flesh. and

c) perfecting the process to create "another creature".

The reproductive process could not logically apply in every respect to Adam because, as a man, it is he who would have emitted the sperm and, judging by what is accepted to be the general nature of man's biological structure, he did not have a womb and there was no woman - no womb (a place of rest) - to receive it. The purpose of the the first stage of the reproductive process is he forming of the bones "in a place of rest", so if there is no womb but bones are already in existence and available, that first stage is unnecessary and, therefore, can be ignored (it is biologically inappropriate). However, the second and third stages could apply to the formation of Hawa. The ribs formed part of Adam's bone structure so by taking a rib the All-Powerful Creator could then, "clothed [it] with flesh; then... developed out of it another creature". There is further biblical evidence in support of the proposition that Allah has the power and does indeed create from mere bones in the following verse: The hand of the Lord was upon me (Prophet Ezekiel), and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of a valley which was full of bones,... lo, they were very dry. And He said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. Again, He said unto me, Prophesy unto these bones... So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And I beheld, lo, the sinew and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them... So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army. (Ezek. 37:1-10)

One can quite clearly see in the above passages the final two stages in the reproduction process, the clothing of the bones at which stage they were still without life and then finally, their completion with the spirit being breathed into them so that they became living creatures, standing "upon their feet". This notion and possibly this story is confirmed in the following Qur'anic passage: (Take) the similitude of one who passed by a Hamlet, all in ruins to its roots. He said: "Oh! How shall Allah bring it (ever) to life, after (this) its death?" But Allah caused him to die for a hundred years, the raised him up (again). He said "How long didst thou tarry (thus)?" He said: "(Perhaps) a day or part of a day".

He said: "Nay, thou hast tarried thus ahundred years: But... look at thy donkey: and that we make of thee a sign unto the people, look further at the bones, how We bring them together and clothe them with flesh.. he said: "I know that Allah hath power over all thing" (S. 2:259)

The above passages from the Old Testament and the Holy Qur'an "(shows) clearly... that Allah hath power over all things" and could, on the basis of these demonstrations of His power, most probably have created Hawa out of the rib (bone) of Adam.

Whether the rib is real or allegorical, the fact remains that in the final analysis, "another creature", generally termed "woman", whose creation process differed from Adam and was unique, was formed of the same essence as he for a specific Divine purpose. Thus, Hawa's biology also composed water and clay that was moulded, "in the best of moulds" (S. 95:4), into a shape "of like nature" to Adam. Consequently, if viewed as an allegory, this notion of a "rib-created woman" should be interpreted positively using Divine purpose behind Hawa's creation as the basis. The Torah says "God said, 'it is not good that man should be alone; I will make for him an help meet'", and the Holy Qur'an speaks of humanity's "Guardian-Lord... (creating) from a single person, ...of like nature, his zaowja (wife/mate)". It is clear from both statements that the Creators intention was to create a person who would be a zaowja (wife) "of like nature", not surprisingly Adam, according to the Torah, named his "help meet" "woman", because he saw in her a person who was similar in her biological essence, spiritual make-up (with her own "breath of life" - soul - from the creator) and how she functioned psychologically - having much the same ability as he to acquire knowledge, reason, articulate and exercise free will to discriminate morally. On that basis an explanation could be that the rib is symbolic of the husband's duty to his wife and of the wife's relationship to her husband and the dominant aspect of her character. The notion that Hawa was in reality created from a rib taken from Adam's side also imply acceptance of the level of duty that is put upon husbands: namely to provide, maintain and protect their wives as part of their own selves (S. 4:34).

For Hawa and all women their position in marriage is also clarified by the fact hat the rib was taken from Adam's ide. The natural position of women, as wives, is to be at their husbands' side, to fit in with them while associating with them, and just as a man's rib, as part of his body, is subjected to and obedient to the man's will, so too must all "righteous women [be] devoutly (to their husbands), and guard in (the husband's) absence what Allah would have them guard" (S. 4:34).

To be a wife and a mother is no easy task and so Hawa and all women had to be especially equipped. Women have been given a greater intensity of emotions thus enabling them to be constant as a helper: always giving, caring to a fault - with her husband and children she sometimes shows them undeserved kindness, daring to pass through the doors of pain again and again - suffering great discomfort during pregnancy and the pangs at child birth - to present as a gift to husbands their ultimate treasures of pleasure in the guise of sexual intercourse and children. Without the presence of this emotional quality in women it would be more difficult for men "to draw (the above or any other) benefit from them", while making women more intuitive, having this capacity for greater intensity of emotions also carries with it a corresponding greater intensity of desires. Therefore, of far reaching importance to women (indeed it is relevant to all humankind) is the Qur'anic injunction to "stand out firmly for justice, as witness to Allah.. follow not the lusts (of your heart), lest ye swerve, and... ye distort (justice or decline to do justice)" (S. 4:135). Since the presence of a greater intensity of emotions and desires is necessary for the proper discharge of the women's duty as wives and mothers, this ability has been Divinely fixed as part of their natural make-up, thus making them "crooked" - more vulnerable and therefore prone to distort or not do justice. To straighten women involves trying to force them to go against their Divine given nature, "breaking" their nature by removing from it that which is the source of "benefit" to men and which makes women good wives and mothers - ceasing to be such can only mean divorce will follow as a direct consequence. Men who require this are evil and unjust and are themselves trying to avoid their Islamic duty to "forgive and overlook and cover up their (women's) faults)" (S. 64:14) and not "treat them with harshness... on the contrary, live with them on the footing of kindness and equity" (S. 4:19). Nevertheless, these Qur'anic injunctions are not to be abuse by women who se their emotional nature as an excuse for wrong-doings. Like men, women are also capable of being disciplined, knowledgeable and just, so it is perfectly just and proper that husbands, while keeping in mind their wives' emotional make-up, should encourage them to strive for their own level of excellence.

I therefore have no difficulty in accepting that the idea of a "rib-created women" has both a physical and spiritual signification. Physical because Hawa could most probably have been created from a bone taken from Adam, and spiritual because despite her emotional make-up, like him, she and every other women are also capable of being disciplined and submissive to Allah (SWT).

Eve's Fault

he three religions agree on one basic fact: Both women and men are created by God, The Creator of the whole universe. However, disagreement starts soon after the creation of the first man, Adam, and the first woman, Eve. The Judaeo-Christian conception of the creation of Adam and Eve is narrated in detail in Genesis 2:4-3:24. God prohibited both of them from eating the fruits of the forbidden tree. The serpent seduced Eve to eat from it and Eve, in turn, seduced Adam to eat with her. When God rebuked Adam for what he did, he put all the blame on Eve, &quotThe woman you put here with me --she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it."; Consequently, God said to Eve: "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you." To Adam He said: "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree .... Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life..."

The Islamic conception of the first creation is found in several places in the Quran, for example:

"O Adam dwell with your wife in the Garden and enjoy as you wish but approach not this tree or you run into harm and transgression. Then Satan whispered to them in order to reveal to them their shame that was hidden from them and he said: 'Your Lord only forbade you this tree lest you become angels or such beings as live forever.' And he swore to them both that he was their sincere adviser. So by deceit he brought them to their fall: when they tasted the tree their shame became manifest to them and they began to sew together the leaves of the Garden over their bodies. And their Lord called unto them: 'Did I not forbid you that tree and tell you that Satan was your avowed enemy?' They said: 'Our Lord we have wronged our own souls and if You forgive us not and bestow not upon us Your Mercy, we shall certainly be lost' " (Quran 7:19:23).

A careful look into the two accounts of the story of the Creation reveals some essential differences. The Quran, contrary to the Bible, places equal blame on both Adam and Eve for their mistake. Nowhere in the Quran can one find even the slightest hint that Eve tempted Adam to eat from the tree or even that she had eaten before him. Eve in the Quran is no temptress, no seducer, and no deceiver. Moreover, Eve is not to be blamed for the pains of childbearing. God, according to the Quran, punishes no one for another's faults. Both Adam and Eve committed a sin and then asked God for forgiveness and He forgave them both.
The image of Eve as temptress in the Bible has resulted in an extremely negative impact on women throughout the Judaeo-Christian tradition. All women were believed to have inherited from their mother, the Biblical Eve, both her guilt and her guile. Consequently, they were all untrustworthy, morally inferior, and wicked. Menstruation, pregnancy, and childbearing were considered the just punishment for the eternal guilt of the cursed female sex. In order to appreciate how negative the impact of the Biblical Eve was on all her female descendants we have to look at the writings of some of the most important Jews and Christians of all time. Let us start with the Old Testament and look at excerpts from what is called the Wisdom Literature in which we find: "I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a trap and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare....while I was still searching but not finding, I found one upright man among a thousand but not one upright woman among them all";(Ecclesiastes 7:26-28).

In another part of the Hebrew literature which is found in the Catholic Bible we read: "No wickedness comes anywhere near the wickedness of a woman.....Sin began with a woman and thanks to her we all must die"; (Ecclesiasticus 25:19,24).

Jewish Rabbis listed nine curses inflicted on women as a result of the Fall: "To the woman He gave nine curses and death: the burden of the blood of menstruation and the blood of virginity; the burden of pregnancy; the burden of childbirth; the burden of bringing up the children; her head is covered as one in mourning; she pierces her ear like a permanent slave or slave girl who serves her master; she is not to be believed as a witness; and after everything--death." ²

To the present day, orthodox Jewish men in their daily morning prayer recite "Blessed be God King of the universe that Thou has not made me a woman."; The women, on the other hand, thank God every morning for "making me according to Thy will."; ³ Another prayer found in many Jewish prayer books: "Praised be God that he has not created me a gentile. Praised be God that he has not created me a woman. Praised be God that he has not created me an ignoramus."; ⁴

The Biblical Eve has played a far bigger role in Christianity than in Judaism. Her sin has been pivotal to the whole Christian faith because the Christian conception of the reason for the mission of Jesus Christ on Earth stems from Eve's disobedience to God. She had sinned and then seduced Adam to follow her suit. Consequently, God expelled both of them from Heaven to Earth, which had been cursed because of them. They bequeathed their sin, which had not been forgiven by God, to all their descendants and, thus, all humans are born in sin. In order to purify human beings from their 'original sin', God had to sacrifice Jesus, who is considered to be the Son of God, on the cross. Therefore, Eve is responsible for her own mistake, her husband's sin, the original sin of all humanity, and the death of the Son of God. In other words, one woman acting on her own caused the fall of humanity. ⁵ What about her daughters? They are sinners like her and have to be treated as such. Listen to the severe tone of St. Paul in the New Testament: "A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I don't permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner" (I Timothy 2:11-14).

St. Tertullian was even more blunt than St. Paul, while he was talking to his 'best beloved sisters' in the faith, he said: ⁶ "Do you not know that you are each an Eve? The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age: the guilt must of necessity live too. You are the Devil's gateway: You are the unsealer of the forbidden tree: You are the first deserter of the divine law: You are she who persuaded him whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack. You destroyed so easily God's image, man. On account of your desert even the Son of God had to die."

St. Augustine was faithful to the legacy of his predecessors, he wrote to a friend: "What is the difference whether it is in a wife or a mother, it is still Eve the temptress that we must beware of in any woman......I fail to see what use woman can be to man, if one excludes the function of bearing children."

Centuries later, St. Thomas Aquinas still considered women as defective: "As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active force in the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex; while the production of woman comes from a defect in the active force or from some material indisposition, or even from some external influence."

Finally, the renowned reformer Martin Luther could not see any benefit from a woman but bringing into the world as many children as possible regardless of any side effects: "If they become tired or even die, that does not matter. Let them die in childbirth, that's why they are there"

Again and again all women are denigrated because of the image of Eve the temptress, thanks to the Genesis account. To sum up, the Judaeo-Christian conception of women has been poisoned by the belief in the sinful nature of Eve and her female offspring. If we now turn our attention to what the Quran has to say about women, we will soon realize that the Islamic conception of women is radically different from the Judaeo-Christian one. Let the Quran speak for itself:

"For Muslim men and women, for believing men and women, for devout men and women, for true men and women, for men and women who are patient, for men and women who humble themselves, for men and women who give in charity, for men and women who fast, for men and women who guard their chastity, and for men and women who engage much in Allah's praise-- For them all has Allah prepared forgiveness and great reward" (Quran 33:35).

"The believers, men and women, are protectors, one of another: they enjoin what is just, and forbid what is evil, they observe regular prayers, practise regular charity, and obey Allah and His Messenger. On them will Allah pour His Mercy: for Allah is Exalted in power, Wise" (Quran 9:71).

"And their Lord answered them: Truly I will never cause to be lost the work of any of you, Be you a male or female, you are members one of another" (Quran 3:195).

"Whoever works evil will not be requited but by the like thereof, and whoever works a righteous deed -whether man or woman- and is a believer- such will enter the Garden of bliss" (Quran 40:40).

"Whoever works righteousness, man or woman, and has faith, verily to him/her we will give a new life that is good and pure, and we will bestow on such their reward according to the best of their actions" (Quran 16:97).

It is clear that the Quranic view of women is no different than that of men. They, both, are God's creatures whose sublime goal on earth is to worship their Lord, do righteous deeds, and avoid evil and they, both, will be assessed accordingly. The Quran never mentions that the woman is the devil's gateway or that she is a deceiver by nature. The Quran, also, never mentions that man is God's image; all men and all women are his creatures, that is all. According to the Quran, a woman's role on earth is not limited only to childbirth. She is required to do as many good deeds as any other man is required to do. The Quran never says that no upright women have ever existed. To the contrary, the Quran has instructed all the believers, women as well as men, to follow the example of those ideal women such as the Virgin Mary and the Pharoah's wife:

"And Allah sets forth, As an example to those who believe, the wife of Pharaoh: Behold she said: 'O my lord build for me, in nearness to you, a mansion in the Garden, and save me from Pharaoh and his doings and save me from those who do wrong.' And Mary the daughter of Imran who guarded her chastity and We breathed into her body of Our spirit; and she testified to the truth of the words of her Lord and of His revelations and was one of the devout" (Quran 66:11-13).

Adam: The original Sin

One of the 3 fundamental issues that Islam and Christianity disagree about is the original sin of Adam. The Quran describes the event of the creation of Adam, his sin and its outcome in various places in the Quran.
 

Adam Sins.

"O Adam dwell with your wife in the Garden and enjoy as you wish but approach not this tree or you run into harm and transgression. Then Satan whispered to them in order to reveal to them their shame that was hidden from them and he said:

'Your Lord only forbade you this tree lest you become angels or such beings as live forever.'

And he swore to them both that he was their sincere adviser. So by deceit he brought them to their fall: when they tasted the tree their shame became manifest to them and they began to sew together the leaves of the Garden over their bodies. And their Lord called unto them:

'Did I not forbid you that tree and tell you that Satan was your avowed enemy?' " (Quran 7:19-22).
 

Adam and Eve Repent and God Accepts.

"They said:
'Our Lord we have wronged ourselves souls. If You forgive us not and bestow not upon us Your Mercy, we shall certainly be of the losers' " (Quran 7:23) 

And God accepts their plea:

".. Thus did Adam disobey his Lord, so he went Astray. Then his Lord chose him, and turned to him with forgiveness, and gave him guidance." (Quran 20:121-122)
 

The Outcome.

"(God) said:

'Get down (from the Garden), one of you an enemy to the other [i.e. Adam, Eve, and Satan]. On earth will be a dwelling-place for you and an enjoyment -- for a short time'. He (God) said:

'Therein you shall live, and therein you shall die, and from it you shall be brought out [i.e. resurrected].' "
(Quran 7:24-25).

Adam and Eve were ordered to leave the Garden which they where in and descend to earth where they and their children will live and die, and where Satan will also be.
 

The Sin in the Bible.

"The woman you put here with me she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it." Consequently, God said to Eve:

" I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you."

To Adam He said:

"Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree .... Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life..."

In Islam (as depicted by the Quranic verses above) Adam doesn't blame Eve for their fault. Both share the responsibility and both receive blame, equally. Furthermore, God doesn't curse Eve for her mistake by "increasing her pains in childbearing".  This concept was a contributing factor for the unequal treatment of women in early Christianity (for more info follow this link ).  Most importantly, God does not curse Adam for committing a sin and that sin in not inherited by the whole world.
 

Every Person is Responsible for Their Action.

The Quran states:

"That no burdened person (with sins) shall bear the burden (sins) of another. And that man can have nothing but what he does (of good and bad). And that his deeds will be seen, Then he will be recompensed with a full and the best recompense [fair] " (Quran 53:38-41)

The Quranic message is: whatever it is that you do, you are alone will be held responsible for, not your brother, not your father, not your children. This is only fair, and God is Fair. Adam sinned, we agree. But why do his children have to bear something they took no part in? Why is a sacrifice needed to please a Most Merciful God?  A Muslim will answer there is no need for any of that.