Islam

Alternate title: Al-Islām

Written by Fazlur Rahman

Last Updated4-2-2014

A controversial campaign poster featuring minarets that resemble missiles standing on top of a Swiss flag flanked by a woman in a burka is displayed in Corseaux, Switz., in November 2009; the poster was part of an effort by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party to generate support for a referendum to ban the construction of minarets in Switzerland.
[Credit: Fabrice Coffrini—AFP/Getty Images]"/>

Types of myth and legend

Cosmogony and eschatology

The world was created out of nothing by God’s word kun (“Be”). After the creation of the angelic beings from light, Adam was formed from clay and destined to be God’s vicegerent, khalīfah. All the angels obeyed God’s order to prostrate themselves before Adam, except Iblīs (Satan), who refused and was cursed; due to Iblīs’s instigation Adam ate the forbidden fruit (or grain) and was driven out of paradise. Questions of original sin or of Eve’s role do not arise in the Muslim version of creation. Satan’s disobedience has been explained by the mystics as actually an expression of his obedience to the divine will that does not allow worship of any but the Lord and that conflicted with the order that Satan prostrate himself before Adam.

Before the creation, God addressed the posterity of Adam: “Am I not your Lord” (alastu birabbikum), and they answered “Yes” (Qurʾān 7:172). This pre-eternal covenant is the favourite topic of mystical poetry, especially in the Persian-speaking areas for expressing pre-eternal love between God and man, or the unchangeable fate that was accepted that very day, the Yesterday as contrasted to ... (200 of 29,257 words)