keeper.” Then Allah, Exalted is He, said, “Indeed, your brother’s blood is calling out to Me from the earth. Why, then, did you kill your brother?” He said, “Then where is his blood, if I killed him?” Thereupon Allah prohibited the earth, from that day onward, from ever drinking blood again.

Muqatil ibn Sulayman narrated from al-Dahhak, from Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him: When Cain killed Abel while Adam, peace be upon him, was in Mecca, the trees grew thorns, foods changed, fruits turned sour, water became bitter, and the earth became dusty. Adam, peace be upon him, said, “Something has happened on the earth.” He came to India and found that Cain had killed Abel. He then began to recite—being the first to compose poetry:

The lands and all who dwell upon them have changed,
and the face of the earth is dusty and ugly.

Everything of color and taste has changed,
and the cheerful brightness of the handsome face has diminished.

Another version reads: “the handsome one.”

It is also narrated from Maymun ibn Mihran, from Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: Whoever claims that Adam, peace be upon him, recited poetry has lied. Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, and all the prophets, peace be upon them, are alike in their prohibition from poetry. Rather, when Cain killed Abel, Adam composed an elegy for him in Syriac. When Adam had composed his elegy, he said to Seth, “My son, you are my executor; preserve these words so that they may be passed down and people may be moved by them.” It continued to be transmitted until it reached Yarub ibn Qahtan, who spoke both Arabic and Syriac. He was the first to write in Arabic, and he composed poetry. He examined the elegy and rearranged it, putting what came first last and what came last first, thus giving it poetic meter. He added verses to it, including:

Why should I not pour forth tears,
when Abel is enclosed within the grave?

I find the length of life a grief upon me;
shall I ever find relief from my life?

When Adam, peace be upon him, had reached one hundred and thirty years of age—five years after Abel’s killing—Eve gave birth to Seth. His name means “the gift of Allah,” that is, he was a replacement for Abel. Allah, Exalted is He, taught him the hours of the night and day, and taught him how the creatures worship in each of those hours. He sent down to him fifty scrolls, and he became Adam’s executor and designated heir.

As for Cain, he was told, “Go forth banished, fugitive, fearful, and terrified; trust no one whom you see.” So he took his sister Iqlima by the hand and fled with her to Aden in the land of Yemen. Iblis came to him and said, “The fire consumed Abel’s offering only because he worshipped fire. So set up a fire yourself, for you and your descendants.” He therefore built a house for fire and was the first to worship fire. No one passed by him without throwing something at him.

Then one of his blind sons came, accompanied by a son of his own. His son said, “This is your father, Cain.” The blind man threw at his father and killed him. The blind man’s son said, “You have killed your father!” So he raised his hand and slapped his son, who died. The blind man said, “Woe to me! I killed my father with my throw, and I killed my son with my slap.”