Adam (ʾĀdam)

According to the Quranic narrative and the summarized tafsir traditions cited in the sources, God created Adam from earth or clay (ṭīn) and breathed His spirit into him, making him the first human and first prophet. God placed Adam in a paradisical Garden and commanded the angels to prostrate to him as a sign tied to God's will; one created being, Iblīs, refused and became adversarial (Quran 2:30–31; Quran 7:21 as cited). God taught Adam "the Names" (Quran 2:31) and tested him and his wife (Ḥawwāʾ) with a prohibition regarding a certain tree; after they ate, they were sent down to Earth to "live and die," but the sources emphasize that God forgave Adam after his transgression. Later exegetical tradition (e.g., Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ as cited) adds motifs such as Adam and Ḥawwāʾ being separated at their fall and later reuniting at Mount Arafat.

The provided sources supply no detailed anthropological or visual description. Islamic scripture as summarized emphasizes Adam's mode of creation—made from earth/clay and animated by God's breath—rather than offering a concrete physical portrait.

Scriptural and exegetical material in the sources attributes to Adam the reception of knowledge from God (notably that God "taught Adam the Names," Quran 2:31) and his role as a paradigmatic moral agent: he functions as progenitor, the figure before whom angels were commanded to prostrate (the episode that occasions Iblīs's refusal), and as one capable of error, repentance, and receiving divine forgiveness. Mystical and philosophical commentators referenced in the sources (e.g., Ibn ʿArabī, Suhrawardī, Tafsir al-Baydawi, as summarized) employ Adam as an archetypal or "Primordial Man" in metaphysical anthropology and at times ascribe to a perfected heavenly Adam capacities such as heightened comprehension of divine names; these are interpretive theological claims cited in later commentary rather than explicit Quranic statements.