Abū ʿArūbah narrated from Qatādah, from al-Ḥasan, from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, who said:
The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Allah created Adam a tall man with abundant hair, resembling a lofty palm tree. When he tasted the tree, his garment slipped from him and the first thing to appear were his private parts. On seeing them he began to run swiftly through the Garden. A tree caught him by the hair and he wrestled with it. Then the All-Merciful called out, ‘O Adam! Are you fleeing from Me?’ When he heard the words of the All-Merciful he replied, ‘No, my Lord, but I am ashamed.’”(1)

Al-Thawrī reported—through Ibn Abī Laylā, al-Minḥāl ibn ʿAmr, and Saʿīd ibn Jubayr—from Ibn ʿAbbās concerning the verse, “And they began to fasten together over themselves leaves of the Garden” (al-Aʿrāf 22), that he said: “They were fig leaves.”(2) The chain to him is sound, though the statement seems to have been taken from the People of the Book. The plain wording of the verse is broader than that; yet even if it is accepted, it causes no harm. Allah, exalted is He, knows best.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir also transmitted—by way of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, al-Ḥasan ibn Dhakwān, and al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī—from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, who said:
The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Your father Adam was like a lofty palm tree—sixty cubits tall—thick-haired and with his private parts concealed. When he committed the sin in the Garden his nakedness became apparent, so he left the Garden. He encountered a tree that seized him by the forelock. His Lord called, ‘Are you fleeing from Me, O Adam?’ He answered, ‘Rather, it is out of shame before You—by Allah, my Lord, for what I have done.’”(3)

Ibn ʿAsākir then related it through the chain of Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūbah, from Qatādah, from al-Ḥasan, from ʿUtayy ibn Ḍamrah, from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) with similar wording—and this is the sounder version, for al-Ḥasan did not meet Ubayy.

He further cited it through the route of Khaythamah ibn Sulaymān al-Iṭrābulusī, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb Abū Qirṣāfah al-ʿAsqalānī, from Ādam ibn Abī Iyās, from Shaybān, from Qatādah, from Anas, raised (marfūʿ) with comparable wording.(4)

“And their Lord called out to them, ‘Did I not forbid you from that tree and say to you, “Satan is indeed a manifest enemy to you”?’ They said, ‘Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves. If You do not forgive us and have mercy on us, we will surely be among the losers.’” (al-Aʿrāf 22–23)

This is an admission of guilt and a return to repentance, marked by humility, submission, and a present-moment sense of neediness toward Him, exalted is He. Whenever this secret takes root in any of their descendants, his ultimate end is good in both this world and the next.

“He said, ‘Descend—some of you enemies to others; and upon the earth you will have a dwelling place and provision for a time.’” (al-Aʿrāf 24)

This address is to Adam, Eve, and Iblīs; some say the serpent was included with them. They were commanded to leave the Garden while remaining in a state of mutual enmity and conflict.

One may cite, in support of mentioning the serpent along with them, the authenticated ḥadīth in which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered the killing of serpents,