for your sin.” He thus commanded patience in the face of calamities and seeking forgiveness for faults. The descendants of Adam have fallen into confusion over this issue—the conflict between the divine command and decree. We have discussed this at length elsewhere.

The point here is that the two Sahīh collections record the hadith narrated by Abū Hurayrah from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—who said:

“Adam and Moses disputed. Moses said, ‘O Adam, you are the father of mankind, whom Allah created with His own Hand, into whom He breathed of His spirit, and before whom He made His angels prostrate. Why, then, did you cause us and yourself to leave Paradise?’

“Adam replied, ‘You are Moses, to whom Allah spoke directly and for whom He wrote the Torah. How long before I was created do you find these words written in it: “Adam disobeyed his Lord and went astray”?’

“He replied, ‘Forty years.’”

The Prophet said, “Thus Adam prevailed over Moses in argument.”

This is also narrated through ‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb with a good chain of transmission. Many people have assumed that Adam invoked the prior divine decree to absolve himself of blame for the sin. Because of this assumption, they then divided into three groups:

One group rejected this hadith, including Abū ‘Alī al-Jubbā’ī and others, because it is self-evident that this contradicts what the messengers brought. There is no doubt that this cannot be the intended meaning of the hadith. The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—indeed, all the prophets and their followers, must be held above making the divine decree an excuse for anyone who disobeys Allah and His Messenger.