Adam, Iblīs, and the Lie of Hopelessness
A Fajr Club Talk
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A Fajr Club Talk
May 13
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Sūrah al-Baqarah has many merits as al-Haythumī, the great scholar of ḥadīth, reports from his Mujmaʿ al-Zawāʿid, according to Ibn Masʿūd,
لِكُلِّ شيءٍ سنامٌ وسنامُ القرآنِ سورةُ البقرةِ
“For everything there is a pinnacle and the hump pinnacle of the Qur’ān is Sūrah al-Baqarah.”
Here I want to mention the account of Adam and Iblīs. Allāh commanded the angels to prostrate to Adam (Isjudū li-Ādam) to which they complied except for Iblīs, who refused (abā). The Qur’ān then proceeds to declare him a disbeliever (kāfir)—someone who rejects or refuses to openly acknowledge the truths which are clearly presented to their heart (Qur’ān 2: 34):
وَإِذْ قُلْنَا لِلْمَلَـٰٓئِكَةِ ٱسْجُدُوا۟ لِـَٔادَمَ فَسَجَدُوٓا۟ إِلَّآ إِبْلِيسَ أَبَىٰ وَٱسْتَكْبَرَ وَكَانَ مِنَ ٱلْكَـٰفِرِينَ
“And when We said to the angels, ‘prostrate before Adam,’ so they all did—but not Iblîs, who refused and acted arrogantly, and became amongst the unfaithful.”
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What follows after this verse is a brief reference to Adam and his wife’s life in the garden ultimately culminating in their disobedience, namely listening to Shayṭān, which leads to their expulsion. But what’s of keen importance here is what happens after the mistake. The Qur’ān states that Allāh gave Adam certain words. Adam used them to seek forgiveness, and that forgiveness was accepted.
فَتَلَقَّىٰٓ ءَادَمُ مِن رَّبِّهِۦ كَلِمَـٰتٍۢ فَتَابَ عَلَيْهِ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ هُوَ ٱلتَّوَّابُ ٱلرَّحِيمُ
“But then Adam received words of repentance from his Lord and so [Allāh] accepted his repentance. Surely He is the Accepter of Repentance, Most Merciful.” – Sūrah al-Baqarah v. 37
and as for the contents of those words, al-Imām al-Shawkānī relates in his tafsīr the following:
وأخْرَجَ الثَّعْلَبِيُّ عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ في قَوْلِهِ: ﴿فَتَلَقّى آدَمُ مِن رَبِّهِ كَلِماتٍ﴾ قالَ: قَوْلُهُ: ﴿رَبَّنا ظَلَمْنا أنْفُسَنا وإنْ لَمْ تَغْفِرْ لَنا وتَرْحَمْنا لَنَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الخاسِرِينَ﴾ [الأعراف: ٢٣]
al-Thaʿlabī narrated from Ibn ʿAbbās regarding the verse “Then Adam received words from his Lord”: he said, it refers to His saying: “Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves, and if You do not forgive us and have mercy on us, we will surely be among the losers”, from Sūrah al-Aʿrāf: 23
What’s interesting to note is that at least in terms of the Qur’ānic narrative, this is the majority of what we learn about Adam, may Allāh bless him. His life after the expulsion and repentance are not commented on by the Qur’ān. We do learn a few other facts about Adam but these are discussed in the ḥadīth literature. So the takeaways are thus:
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Adam has a Lord Who has a plan for his life and thus issues him edicts and commands and provides him guidance;
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Adam has a loving and caring Lord Who, even when Adam disobeys, provides him with the means and the instructions of how to rectify himself. Allāh never abandons him even when he was disobedient;
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Adam’s mistake serves an even greater good in that it allowed us to learn that if we turn back to Allāh, repent, and rectify ourselves that we will “have nothing to fear nor anything to grieve over” (see Qur’ān 2: 38);
So in essence, the story of Adam, may Allāh bless him, is not a story about failure: it’s about redemption. Redemption by turning back to Allāh, taking accountability of one’s faults and errors, pleading for mercy (“if You do not forgive us and have mercy on us, we will surely be among the losers”), and rectifying our affairs.
The story of Adam, may Allāh bless him, is also a story about reassurance, meaning that one should be reassured that though we may distance ourselves from Allāh by our sins and disobedience, we can be reassured that Allāh is always there and willing to accept sincere tawbah (repentance). We will be tested and we will be tempted but we are not the creation of a Lord Who abandons.
The reason I wanted to share this reflection is because in today’s world the dominant message—especially for young people—is the opposite. Fire up any playlist of popular music and the recurring themes are purposelessness, confusion, and despair just to name a few. I believe these lyrics echo the sentiments of a generation whose mantra is: “I don’t know why I’m here,” or “nothing matters.” They have perceived that everything feels “empty.” This is not merely artistic angst—it’s a worldview. It’s a cosmology, a cosmology of despair. A worldview in which meaning is conditional and only accessible if certain personal or material milestones are reached. Now enter the 36 Chambers. Enter Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Abraham Harold Maslow, born 1908, emerged to be one of the most highly influential and important (not to be conflated with accurate) self-theorists of the 20th Century. He, along with other such self-theorists such as Carl Jung, Erich Fromm, Carl Rogers, and of course Sigmund Freud, posited a number of theories about the self, which, while having significant variations in their constructions and definitions, shared some essential qualities, namely a framework in which the self is made the central and defining reality of human nature, meaning, and moral authority. This theory/framework often displaces any need for God, external moral law, or transcendence/revelation. It emphasizes self-actualization, itself a highly ambiguous, presenting itself as a secularized substitute for spiritual or religious fulfillment, one which requires no commitment to any external system or authority.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs—a framework that tells us we must fulfill our needs such as the physiological, safety, and others, before we can reach self-actualization. Before we can be complete human beings with dignity. Thought quite popular, there are many downsides of this hierarchy, namely a kind of delayed gratification, or perhaps delayed dignity, until all of these needs are met. It is also an isolating framework that encourages one to focus on fulfilling one’s innate potential, especially in areas such as creativity and authenticity (think identity) as a solo mission. Such a framework leaves one ripe for the kind of isolating depression where one comes to the (false) conclusion that “nothing matters” or “I don’t know why I’m here”. The false presumption is that we can find meaning all by ourselves or that we can ascertain the meaning of why we are here all via internal dialog.
Before we can combat this sense of hopelessness it is important to diagnose the condition and my diagnosis would suggest that large numbers of people today, including Muslims, have unwittingly replaced religious sensibilities with therapeutic and psychological ones. Dr. Paul C. Vitz, a scholar who writes prolifically on psychology and religion, states,
“This goal of self-realization or self-actualization is at heart a gnostic one, in which the commandment ‘Know and express thyself’ has replaced the Judeo-Christian commandment ‘Love God and others’.” – Vitz, Paul C. Psychology as Religion: The Cult of Self-Worship. 2nd ed., William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994.
The result of this psychologizing of religion is that it has distanced the hearts of people from their Creator. If we just consider two of the major self-theorists, Maslow and Jung, we can see how they have fashioned a secular religion, one however that does not satisfy the soul. For Maslow (self-actualization), everything is about the fulfillment of one’s innate potential, especially in creativity, authenticity, and peak experiences whereas for Jung (self-realization) its about the integration of the unconscious (something of an abstract idea vs. an agreed upon thing) and conscious self; a process of individuation. For the former this produces a kind of secular spirituality, one where “sainthood” (itself a problematic terms Islāmically) is attained not being submitting to and loving God but by achieving the aforementioned potential et al. The latter plays at being Gnostic and mystical but is ultimately self-centered and self-worshiping. Whether Maslow or Jung, the result is a kind of idolatry and replacement of God.
Self-actualization is not merely a psychological endpoint; it is a spiritually loaded term that reflects modern individualism, autonomy, and moral relativism. The self-theorists (and their followers) believe it substitutes psychological growth for moral or spiritual obedience, a fundamental inversion of traditional religious anthropology and goals.
Returning to the story of Adam, may Allāh bless him, and highlighting one final takeaway for this article, and that is that Adam needed his Lord. And that without Allāh, Adam would have been lost! The self-theorists and their humanistic/secular psychology presumes not just an inherently good human nature or an innate ability for humans to know right from wrong; Islām advocates for the fiṭrah, the base nature of people, as created by Allāh, which is good (see Qur’ān 95:4 and Qur’ān 91: 8), but that humans can determine what is right and wrong and can achieve it without the assistance and guidance of Allāh. It is quite revealing that the self-theorists are contending with aspects of Christian doctrine, most notably the concept of original sin, and thus they have errantly concocted their theories based on a credal tenet that itself is flawed–there is not truth to original sin. Quite the opposite. In fact, one could advocate, based on Islāmic scripture, for an original good. But this would be as unnecessary as it would be a digression.
The Qur’ān is a book of guidance, a guidance that does not require to self-actualize or to attain a set of criteria before we can be redeemed and before we can have dignity. The Prophets, may Allāh bless them all, such as Mūsā (Moses), ʿĪsā bin Maryam (Jesus the son of Mary), and of course the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ, weren’t called in conditions of ease. They, and their followers faced adversity and we dignified even when the going got rough. But we can even look at examples in contemporary times: believers in Gaza, Sudan, or Yemen; they are not waiting for Maslow’s pyramid to align before affirming lā ilāha illa Allāh. They say it under bombs. They say it in famine. They say it in times of duress. They say it while burying their unjustly murdered children, may Allāh ease all of their suffering. This is not just resilience—it is a rejection of the premise that we must be whole before we can believe. That we must achieve before we can be redeemed.
“O’ Allāh, we have wronged ourselves, and if You do not forgive us and have mercy on us, we will surely be among the losers”
You can watch/listen to the whole talk here:
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