[IslamCity] Re: Was Eve made from the rib of Adam?

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 08:06:05 -0700

Salam,
 
This legend of the rib is coming from old Christian myths.
 
Allah is all Capable, if He can create a man, He can also create a woman.
In fact, there was a parallel myth that men have one rib less than the women. I went and looked at skeletons and talked to my doctor friends. All of them confrimed that there is no such thing.
 
Both men a nd women have the same number of ribs.
 
Another similar myth is that Hawwa (Eve) seduced Adam to eat of the forbidden tree.
 
That myth is also totally dismantled by the Qur'anic verses. The Qur'an says that Iblees was successful in misleading BOTH of them.
 
Thank you.
 
Sincerely,
 
Syed-Mohsin Naquvi
 

sahannan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Dear members of the list,
 
Assalamu Alaikum.On the subject , you can also read Rasail wa Masail(Question and Answers) by Sayyid Maududi, vol--3, answer to a question, how Hawa was created? He also holds the view that there is no Quranic or Qati( unequivocal) Hadith evidence that she was created from the rib of Adam.
 
Shah Abdul Hannan
 
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2005 7:15 PM
Subject: [wp] Was Eve made from the rib of Adam?

Q:
I am an East Indian Trinidadian from the Caribbean and I have a question that has been tugging at me for the longest while. Was Eve made from the rib of Adam? Some Muslims say yes and some say no. I believe it is not true, because it does not sound like Islam at all. I just want to be sure. Is it true or not? I don't think it is true because why does a woman need to be part of a male to be as equal? Or has this somehow entered Islam all of a sudden from western influence?
Date

2002/10/18  

Name of Consultant Salem Al-Hasi


Answer:
As you mentioned in your question, the issue of creating Eve contains some points that are disputable among scholars. So, let's explore the whole issue.

First of all, Allah in the Qur'an explained how He created Adam (PBUH). He states in different verses that he had created Adam from clay.

Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: "I am about to create man from clay:

Surah 38 Verse 71

The similitude of Jesus before God is as that of Adam; He created him from dust, then said to him: "Be". And he was.

Surah 3 Verse 59

The Qur'an also clearly states Allah also created Hawa (Eve) by His Hands from the same nature of Adam.

O mankind! reverence your Guardian-Lord, who created you from a single person, created, of like nature, His mate, and from them twain scattered (like seeds) countless men and women....

Surah 4 Verse 1

Hence, the Qur'an does not state that Eve was created from Adam's rib. Yet, there is an authentic Hadith of the Prophet (PBUH) which uses the metaphor of the shape of a rib to describe women.

The authentic Hadiths says:

The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said: "Treat women kindly. Woman has been created from a rib and the most bent part of the rib is the uppermost. If you try to turn it straight, you will break it. And if you leave it alone, it will remain bent as it is. So treat women kindly." (Bukhari and Muslim)

Another version adds"..if you wish to draw benefit from it, you can do so despite its shape."

Some scholars perceived the Hadiths in their literal meaning and accepted the idea that Eve was created from Adam's rib. Yet many scholars, on the other hand, totally rejected this interpretation. They based their argument on the fact that in Arabic, the words "created from" do not necessarily refer to the substance of creation; they can also refer to the nature of something. These scholars sustain their argument with an example from the Qur'an in which Allah says "That man has been created from hastiness". Of course, this does not mean that man's substance is hastiness; it only refers to man's nature and behavior.

The Hadith then means that if a man wants to be happy with his wife he should not attempt to re-shape her character, but accepts her the way she is and try to be happy by understanding her habits and her personality. It can be taken as a very soft and kind Hadith recommending tenderness and implying how a wife and husband should compliment each other. Sadly it was interpreted according to the cultural traditions and bias against women in some tribal societies and that such misinterpretation gained wide circulation to foster the unislamic ideas of womens' inferiority.

This also affected the way women were perceived in the society; as their image was directly linked to the shape and "crookedness" of the rib!!

There are numerous verses that state the equality of women in the public space, and the life of the prophet teaches us about the relation between a man and a woman in the private sphere. Any text should be put within the context of the paradigm and understood accordingly.

We might for example, note that the poetic symbolism of ribs being the nearest bone to the heart and that the ribs of the chest protect the organs of the chest. It is a matter of how we read the text and contextualize it and search the merciful meanings in revelation, not grab the text to use it for our own purposes.

Allah knows the best
Wa Salam

Salem Al-Hasi

source:www.islamonline.net

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