First Murder in the Earth: Qaabeel (Cain) and Haabeel (Abel)—Two Sons of Hazrat Adam and Moral Danger of Spiritual Envy
First
Murder in the Earth: Qaabeel (Cain) and Haabeel (Abel)—Two Sons of Hazrat Adam
and Moral Danger of Spiritual Envy
By Ghulam
Ghaus Siddiqi, New Age Islam
5
August 2021
Jealousy and Murder: Two Major Crimes in the story of Cain and Abel
Main
points
1. The
Quran mentions this story to warn of the moral danger of spiritual envy and
gravity of the sin of murder
2. The
story encourages the early Muslims to deal leniently and forgivingly with those
who had plotted to kill the Prophet and some of his companions
3. Jealousy
made Qaabeel the first murderer in the history of human beings
4. Jealousy
takes people away from the path of God Almighty and makes them blind to
differentiate between belief and disbelief or right and wrong
5. Murder
is prohibited in all the Shariahs including the past and the present, the
Torah, the Gospel and the Quran, but the human beings have long ignored the
divine prohibition
..................
Qaabeel
(Cain) killed Haabeel (Abel). The words of the Quran ‘Ibnay Adam’ in verse
(5:27) indicate that Qaabeel and Haabeel were the real biological sons of Hazrat
Adam. This was the first murder on earth. The Quran mentions this incident to
warn mankind of the moral danger of spiritual envy and gravity of the sin of
murder.
“And
recount [O Prophet] to them the true tale of the two sons of Adam [Ibnay Adam];
when they each offered a sacrifice – hence the sacrifice of one was accepted
and not accepted from the other. One said, “I swear I will kill you”. He [the
other] said, “Allah accepts only from the pious.” “Indeed, if you do extend
your hand against me to kill me, I will not extend my hand against you to kill
you; I fear Allah, the Lord of the Creation.” “I only desire that you alone
should bear my sin and your own sin – hence you become of the people of hell;
and that is the proper punishment of the unjust.” So his soul [nafs] incited
him to kill his brother – he, therefore, killed him and was therefore ruined.
So Allah sent a crow scratching the ground, to show him how to hide his
brother’s corpse; he said, “Woe to me! I was not even capable enough to be like
this crow, so I would hide my brother’s corpse”; and he turned remorseful. For
this reason; We decreed for the Descendants of Israel that whoever kills a
human being except in lieu of killing or causing turmoil in the earth, so it
shall be as if he had killed all mankind; and whoever saves the life of one
person, is as if he had saved the life of all mankind; and undoubtedly Our
Noble Messengers came to them with clear proofs – then after this indeed many
of them are oppressors in the earth.” (5:27-32)
In
these verses, Allah Almighty asks His Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to
recount the story of two sons of Hazrat Adam to the Jews and/or the Mushrikin
of Arab who, according to the interpretation of verse 5:11, had plotted to kill
the Prophet and some of his companions: “O you who have believed, remember the
favour of Allah upon you when a people determined to extend their hands [in
aggression] against you, but He withheld their hands from you; and fear Allah.
And upon Allah let the believers rely.” (5:11). Some reports indicate that this
verse was revealed when the Prophet and some of his companions went to the Banu
Nadir, a Jewish clan of Madinah, seeking assistance in paying the wergild
(diyah) for two Aamiri Muslims whom his men had killed. The leader of the clan
namely Hayy b. Akhtab invited them in and feigned hospitality while secretly
planning to kill the unarmed Prophet, following hostility towards his message
out of their spiritual envy. However, the angel Jibril (Gabriel) came to inform
the Prophet of the danger, and he left before they would carry out their plot.
Imam
Tabari states that the reason for telling this account of Hazrat Adam’s two
sons was to encourage the Muslims to deal leniently and forgivingly with those
Jews who had been plotting to kill the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and
some of his companions, and hence to follow the example of Haabeel, who did not
raise his hand against his brother Qaabeel despite his brother’s threat to kill
him. He cites a hadith, “Verily Allah gives you the example of the two sons of
Adam; so take the path of the better of the two, and leave the path of the
worse” (Tafsir-e-Tabari)
In
verses 5:27-32, Allah Almighty commands his Prophet [peace be upon him] to
describe the evil consequence of envy, transgression, and injustice in the
story of Haabeel and Qaabeel. The Quran briefly mentions the story; however,
the scholars of history recount the story in some detail. They report that
Allah allowed Hazrat Adam to marry his daughters to his sons because of the
necessity of such action at that time. They say that Hazrat Adam used to father
twins, a boy, and a girl each time. Since there was the need to increase the
human population, there was no alternative except that the offspring from every
pair marry the opposite gender of another pair. The only restriction was that
an individual of a twin could not marry the other twin from the same birth.
They had to marry a partner from another birth.
According
to Islamic and rabbinic tradition, Hazrat Adam wanted to marry Haabeel to
Luluwa (also Aclima), the twin sister of Qaabeel, and Qaabeel to Layudha, the
twin sister of Haabeel. Qaabeel protested because Haabeel’s twin sister was
aesthetically less attractive than his twin sister. So he wanted his twin sister
for himself stating that he was more entitled to his twin sister and refused to
accept Hazrat Adam’s proposal. It was resolved that the matter be determined by
either of them presenting a sacrifice to Allah. In those days, the sacrifice
that was consumed by a fire from the heavens was considered to be accepted, and
the one who had offered it would marry the more beautiful of the sisters.
Eventually, Haabeel’s sacrifice was accepted. Qaabeel was now infuriated to the
extent that he threatened to murder Haabeel, saying, “I will surely murder
you”. Haabeel replied, “Allah accepts only from the pious.” In this way, he
neither praised himself nor did he tell his brother that he was insincere in
his sacrifice. To prolong the conversation, Haabeel added, “Indeed, if you do
extend your hand against me to kill me, I will not extend my hand against you
to kill you; I fear Allah, the Lord of the Creation.”
The
commentators of the Quran mention that Haabeel was stronger than Qaabeel but
chose not to defend himself (though it was permissible, according to some
traditions) because he felt it was better to die as an oppressed person than to
kill another. Eventually, Qaabeel killed Haabeel and this was the first murder
among human beings.
The
account of Haabeel and Qaabeel is apparently focused on the moral danger of
spiritual envy and the gravity of the sin of murder. This is the jealousy that
takes people away from the path of God Almighty and makes them blind to
differentiate between belief and disbelief, right and wrong. This was the
jealousy that made Qaabeel the first murderer in the history of human beings
and led to his moral and spiritual destruction in the world. After Qaabeel
murdered his brother Haabeel, Allah Almighty decreed as part of the Shariah of
the Children of Israel that “whoever kills another for a reason other than [the
murder of] of a soul or anarchy on the earth, then it is as if he had killed
the entire mankind”. Murder is prohibited in all the Shariahs including the
past and the present, the Torah, the Gospel, and the Quran. The gravity of the
sin of murder can be sensed from the aforementioned verse that killing one man
is equal to killing the entire humanity. However, human beings have long
ignored the divine command and our planet is now filled with unjust happenings
and stories of murder, let alone talking about the growing jealousy among human
beings. Time to think, meditate and reform!
URL:
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic
Website, African
Muslim News, Arab
World News, South
Asia News, Indian
Muslim News, World
Muslim News, Women
in Islam, Islamic
Feminism, Arab
Women, Women
In Arab, Islamophobia
in America, Muslim
Women in West, Islam
Women and Feminism