Surah Tâ Hâ 20:122

فَأَكَلَا مِنْهَا فَبَدَتْ لَهُمَا سَوْآتُهُمَا وَطَفِقَا يَخْصِفَانِ عَلَيْهِمَا مِن وَرَقِ الْجَنَّةِ ۚ وَعَصَىٰ آدَمُ رَبَّهُ فَغَوَى﴿١٢١﴾ ثُمَّ اجْتَبَاهُ رَبُّهُ فَتَابَ عَلَيْهِ وَهَدَىٰ

20:121-122 A brief account of the lapse by human beings as symbolized by Adam is given here. Lapse is unintentional and not out of stubbornness and pride. Here, the dogma of original sin is traced to its very root and then refuted. It is made clear that sin forms no part of the heritage of man and that he is punished only for his own trespasses and offences. If it were not possible for a human being to get rid of sin, then the very purpose of Divine punishment is defeated. The “forbidden tree” is simply an allegory of the limits Allâh has set on our desires and actions. Human lapse, symbolized here by Adam is only an error of judgment: it is inadvertent and involuntary, not at all intentional or deliberate. The verse tells that negligence is one of the recurrent characteristics of the human race (Râzî). Since the faculty of conceptual thinking is a human beings endowment, his forgetting is an evidence of the weakness that is characteristic of the human race (4:28). This emphasizes once again the necessity of Revelation and the human beings dependence on unceasing Divine guidance, as pointed out in verse 113. Therefore, Allâh has sent His Laws through His Messengers to every nation, and that Law was not a burden. Divine Law is a blessing, since it repeatedly informs us of the bounds we have to keep in order to secure happiness and prosperity. In this chapter the detailed account of Adam is given also with the object to refuting the Paulian idea of many Christians that the Divine Law is a burden or even a curse. Christianity has a link to Mosaic dispensation. Moses was a Law-giving Prophet; if the Law was a curse then Moses should have been condemned and denounced.