Muslim Creation Story
The Muslim creation story is found in the Qur'an, and further explained in various teachings given by the
Muslim Prophet Muhammad, which were collected and are known as Ahadith. The creation narrative of
Islam is split among many verses in the Qur’an and among ahadith. According to the Qur'an, the
heavens and the earth were joined together as one unit of creation, after which they were "cloved
asunder". After parting of both, they simultaneously came into their present shape after going through a
phase when they were smoke-like. The Qur'an states that creation took 6 long spans of time, rather than
6 literal days. Parallels to the Big Bang have been drawn by Muslim scholars.
The Qur'an states that God created the world and the heavens, made all the creatures that walk, swim,
crawl, and fly on the face of the earth from water. He made the angels, and the sun, moon and the stars
to dwell in the universe. He poured down the rain in torrents, and broke up the soil to bring forth the
corn, the grapes and other vegetation; the olive and the palm, the fruit trees and the grass.
God moulded clay, earth, sand and water into a model of a man. He breathed life and power into it, and
it immediately sprang to life. And this first man was called Adam. God took Adam to live in Paradise. In
Paradise, God created Eve, the first woman, from out of Adam's side. God taught Adam the names of all
the creatures, and then commanded all the angels to bow down before Adam. But Iblis, one amongst
the Jinns (a special being in the Qur'an - who had a special elevated status comparable to that of
Angels), refused to do this, and thus began to disobey God's will.
God placed the couple in a beautiful garden in Paradise, telling them that they could eat whatever they
wanted except the fruit of on forbidden tree. But the Evil One tempted them to disobey God, and eat the
fruit. When God knew that Adam and Eve had disobeyed him, he cast them out of Paradise and sent
them to earth.
