Stowasser Discussion Questions

Stowasser: “The Wife of the Prophet Adam”

This article provides a compendium of a variety of different Muslim interpretations of the Adam/Eve story. We include this article to suggest some of the very different ways the original Qur’anic accounts have been interpreted. As you read the article, be aware that it is talking about different versions of the story with different implications for gendered identities and roles.  First, there are the accounts of Adam and his wife in the Qur'an itself. Then, there are the interpretations of the Adam and Eve story, as depicted in traditional Muslim scholarly/religious commentaries, which diverge quite dramatically sometimes from the original Qur’anic versions and show the influence of the Biblical creation story.

                                                         Sura 20, verses 117-121, as translated by Maulvi Muhammad Ali
                                                         Image courtesy of the Online Library of Liberty

Some questions for discussion:

1. In five Qur’anic accounts of the creation of Adam and Eve, women appear in three.  Summarize the sequence of events leading to the human “fall” in these accounts.
2. In these accounts, who specifically disobeys God and what are the consequences of it?
3. If according to one account, it was Adam who specifically disobeyed his Lord, how does the exegete al-Tabari, and after him others, come to blame Adam’s wife for this incident?
4. “God then put His curse on the woman and the snake;” since the Qur’an does not mention this, where are the exegetes getting this notion from?
5. How did the Mu`tazili scholars engage these verses?
6. What do these interpretive strands convey to us about progressively developing pre-modern theological conceptions of women’s nature and status?
7. Why do you think certain Muslim exegetes actually showed a preference for certain details contained in the biblical creation account, even though the Qur’anic versions do not refer to them?  For example, why did they import into their exegesis the Genesis account of woman being created from Adam’s rib?
8. How did Muhammad ‘Abduh’s exegesis attempt to challenge widely accepted interpretations of the Adam and Eve story?  Was he successful?
9. What is the significance of the statement: “They used the story of Hawwa in new ways to reflect a variety of ideological, in some cases, also personal perspective” (p. 35).

Overall Questions to ponder:

1. How are the Qur'anic versions of the creation of humans, in the excepts we have, different from the Biblical version? How are they similar? How do the differences in these texts change Genesis's story and it's significance?
2. How much do you think the Biblical and Qur'anic stories of Adam and Eve have affected gender relations in individuals, cultures, and societies that take scripture seriously? How much do you think that the Biblical story of Adam and Eve still affects gender relations in the United States today?