Creation Story Essay — Beda Eastman

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February 2024

Through comparative analysis, this essay argues that the Creation Story in the Qur’an is more affirming of women than its Biblical counterpart.

The Western world has a long-held view of Islam as being oppressive towards women; of denying them autonomy and giving them inferior status to men. Muslim women can find freedom and salvation through abandoning Islam and instead embracing western culture and values. Even from a secular perspective, Islam is presented as an oppressive regime, with Muslim women in need of liberation. This depiction of Islam has justified missions, colonisation, and ongoing political and social attacks on Muslim countries and communities. But is it really true that Islam is a misogynistic religion? The Qur’an, Islam’s central scripture, can be argued to be more affirming of women than the Bible is. Amina Wadud’s Quran and Woman (1999, pp.15-28) declares that men and women are created without any difference in value, analysing the language of the Qur’an to find that we are given equal essence and spirit. This essay will compare the two religious texts, focusing on the creation story of Adam and Eve, to dispute the historically held claim that Christianity uplifts women more than Islam does. The creation story is particularly important, because as a narrative held within both religions, it lays out the foundations of the role of humanity. The Bible and the Qur’an use the creation story to teach human beings about our purpose in life and why we were put in this world – though both come to different conclusions. As it is such a significant imparting of ontological knowledge, the depiction of men and women in this story becomes entirely influential to the way each religion understands the sexes.

The narrative structure of the creation story between the two scriptures is vastly different. The Bible takes a historical viewpoint, explaining its events in detail, chronologically, in the Book of Genesis. On the other hand, the Qur’an’s depiction of it is brief, conveying key messages rather than details, and the story is repeated in a number of chapters. Ayaz Afsar’s (2015, pp.187-191) comparative analysis of the creation stories highlights that in the Bible, Adam’s story is following on directly from God’s creation of the universe, but in the Qur’an this story is not part of the “cosmic creation narrative”; rather it is given significance independent of a historical report. This difference in the position of the story in the scriptures reflects its overall purpose in each. The Bible’s account establishes historical understanding of the nature of humans as ‘fallen,’ it provides the reason for our original sin. Its place within the narrative of the six days of the creation of Heaven and Earth, confirms original sin as something fundamental to the fabric of existence. In the Qur’an, the purpose of this story is not historical – it may have taken place “long after the creation of the universe” (Afsar 2015, p.187) – instead it focuses on the action of sinning, as committed by Adam and Eve, and subsequently the action of repentance, and the reception of God’s mercy. There is no concept of original sin in Islam. Adam’s story in the Qur'an actually has other focuses of higher significance: Satan’s rebellion as he refuses to bow before Adam is an immensely prominent aspect of Islam, as it explains how humanity will be tested on Earth. Unlike the Bible, the ‘fall’ from Paradise is not a main focus in the Qur’an’s creation story.

Both stories convey the same overarching account: God created Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, who lived together in Paradise until Satan tempted them to go against God’s command. This resulted in their descent from Heaven to live on Earth, and thus began humanity as we know it. In surah al-Baqarah, God tells the angels that He is going to “place a successive human authority on earth,” – implying that sending humans to Earth was part of His plan before any sin occurred – and when the angels question Him as to why, He says "I know what you do not know” (Qur’an 2:30). He then teaches Adam the names of everything, and commands the angels to “prostrate before Adam”; but Satan did not do so. He acted “arrogantly,” becoming one of the disbelievers (Qur’an 2:34). Following that is the part most parallel to the Bible:
We cautioned, “O Adam! Live with your wife in Paradise and eat as freely as you please, but do not approach this tree, or else you will be wrongdoers.” But Satan deceived them—leading to their fall from the ˹ blissful˺ state they were in, and We said, “Descend from the heavens ˹ to the earth˺ as enemies to each other. You will find in the earth a residence and provision for your appointed stay.” Then Adam was inspired with words ˹of prayer˺ by his Lord, so He accepted his repentance. Surely He is the Accepter of Repentance, Most Merciful. We said, “Descend all of you! Then when guidance comes to you from Me, whoever follows it, there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve.” (Qur’an 2:35-38)
The message of this story is about the human relationship with God. As humans, we will sin, for our enemy Satan tempts us; but if we repent we will be forgiven. Even though we sin, if we follow God’s guidance, we need not fear. Adam is the main focus in the Qur’anic account and Eve is only referred to as his wife, not by name. When the sin is committed, it is both of them who are reprimanded. Linguistically, the Arabic “dual form” is used, conveying shared responsibility (Wadud 1999, pp.24-25). There is no discrepancy in how the genders are addressed, aside from Eve not being named; the intended message is applicable to men and women. In other surahs that retell the creation story, additional details are given, but the focus is generally on Satan’s arrogance and his expulsion, rather than Adam and Eve’s (Qur’an 7:11-25, 17:61-65). An exception is the first verse of surah an-Nisa:
O humanity! Be mindful of your Lord Who created you from a single soul, and from it He created its mate, and through both He spread countless men and women. (Qur’an 4:1)
Wadud (1999, pp.17-19) dissects the word “from” in this verse; while some tafsirs interpret that woman came ‘from’ man, making her “derivative” while he is “complete,” another function of the Arabic word is to mean “of the same nature as.” By this understanding, our mate is “from the same ... kind as we are”; we are pairs from the same “single origin” (Wadud 1999, p.19). And, as Wadud highlights, the inequitable interpretations of creation tended to use the Biblical story as evidence; there is no clear Qur’anic basis for them. The above verse does not make any specific gendered claim; overall, the Qur’an’s creation story does not place focus on gender.

The story of Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis begins by detailing how each were created. First, is Adam: “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7). God places Adam in the Garden of Eden, and like in the Qur’an, instructs Adam that he is free to eat as he pleases, except for “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” – otherwise he will “die” (Gen. 2:17). Then, rather than immediately discussing the sin as the Qur’an does, the Bible introduces Eve.
The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” ... So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” (Gen. 3:18-23)
While the Qur’an does not depict the creation of Eve, the Bible actively specifies that man and woman were created via different methods and of different substances. Adam, father of mankind, comes directly from dust; but Eve, mother of womankind, is made from a part of the man. This distinction implies a dependency that women have upon men, for they are not self-contained or fully autonomous, but derived from men, and “inherently secondary in creation” (Ruether 2014, p.85). Though something could be said about Eve’s absence in the Qur’anic account, the Bible is largely more disaffirming of women through the subservient ontology it grants them. Some Muslim commentaries have also believed Eve to be made from Adam’s rib, but this was taken from Christian theology as there is no evidence for it in the Qur’an (Wadud 1999; Woodlock 2024). For many Christians, and those Muslims who have adopted this belief, it has been reason to enact interpretations that view women as inferior to men.

Original sin plays an important role in the Biblical account of Eve and the creation story. The actions of Adam and Eve cause all humanity to fall from grace; everyone is born with sin as a consequence. In the Bible, Satan speaks directly to Eve to tempt her (Gen. 3:1-4), contrary to the Qur’anic telling. Satan takes the form of a “serpent” and deceives Eve into eating from the forbidden tree, and she gives some of the fruit to Adam. When God arrives and questions them, Adam claims, “the woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” (Gen. 3:12) Eve attests to this, admitting that she was deceived. As established earlier in the essay, original sin is fundamental to human nature on Earth; and so, because Eve is the sole one at fault, and is the reason humanity is spiritually unclean, this reflects deeply on the Christian view of women. Again, the Bible’s creation story is setting up a discrepancy between the sexes. Rosemary Ruether (2014, pp.85-87) describes this as considering women “second in nature and first in sin,” for Eve was second to be given life, but first to cause our spiritual death. The Bible gives women a place of “primacy in sin”; allowing women to be seen as less pure, less intelligent, and more blameworthy than men. The way womankind is tarnished by both Eve’s sin and her secondary place in creation, is made clear in another Biblical text, the Book of Timothy:
A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. 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. (Tim. 2:11-14)
While the Qur’an has legalistic verses (2:282, 4:34) which have been interpreted by some as viewing women as lesser, none of them relate to the creation story. The Bible’s negative depiction of women stands out because of its place within creation; cementing misogyny in the very formation of the universe. Going back to the Book of Genesis, we can also analyse the punishments God prescribes for the sin that was committed. God “puts emnity” between Satan and women; He makes labour pains “very severe” and states that the husband will “rule over” the woman. These “deserved punishments for Eve’s sin” (Ruether 2014, p.87) – physical pain and subordination to men – are placed upon all women for all time. This collective, gender-based punishment is unjust and a denial of women’s individuality and capability for inherent good.

So what can be concluded about the Western view of Islam as misogynistic? Ultimately, the answer is shown by the key difference between the ways the Bible and the Qur’an treat women in their creation stories. While the Qur’an remains ambiguous, the Bible actively institutes gender disparity, positioning women as lesser. Eve’s sin is an ontological affliction upon all women; and by nature woman is merely an extension of man. The claim made by a long history of Christian missionaries and political figures that they hold women in higher regard than Islam does, cannot hold up after analysis of the core texts of the religions. Though Muslim societies have often not maintained equality, and many tafsirs promote patriarchal perspectives, the central text itself, the Holy Qur’an, does not differ between the value of the sexes and how we were created. As Wadud (1999, p.20) says, “the Qur’anic version of the creation of humankind is not expressed in gender terms.” In Islam, women are not at fault simply by being women – in fact, Adam and Eve were granted forgiveness by God, as equals.

Reference List

Afsar, Ayaz. 2015. “Speech Acts in the Story of Adam and Eve in the Bible and the Qur’an.” Islamic Studies 54 (3/4): 185-202.

International Bible Society. 1984. The Holy Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Bible Publishers.

Khattab, Mustafa. 2016. The Clear Quran: A Thematic English Translation of the Message of the Final Revelation. Lombard, Il: Book Of Signs Foundation.

Ruether, Rosemary Radford. 2014. “Sexism and Misogyny in the Christian Tradition: Liberating Alternatives.” Buddhist-Christian Studies 34 (1): 83–94. https://doi.org/10.1353/bcs.2014.0020.

Wadud, Amina. 1999. Qur’an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman’s Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press.

Woodlock, Rachel. 2024. “The Qur’an and Interpretation.” ISLM20003: The Qur’an: An Introduction. Lecture presented at the University of Melbourne, Parkville, February 19, 2024.

“As long as my soul stays in my body,
I am a slave of the Qur’an and the dust on the path of Muhammad, the Chosen One.
If someone interprets my words in any other way,
That person I deplore, and I deplore his words.”

- Jalal ud-Din Rumi