Adam

Adam is regarded as the first Manifestation of God in the Bahá’í Faith.

In a footnote to the document Bahá’u’lláh prepared by the Bahá’í International Community it is stated that the term Adam is used in the Bahá’í writings to symbolically refer to the concept of the emergence of the human race as well as being used to refer to the first Manifestation of God.^[1]

Station[edit]

The Báb described Adam as the First Manifestation of God,^[2] and described Him as establishing a religion stating that if His religion had not existed the Bábí Faith would not have existed.^[3] Similar to the account in the Bible Bahá’u’lláh refers to Adam being created by God:

The entire creation hath been called into being through the Will of God, magnified be His glory, and peerless Adam hath been fashioned through the agency of His all-compelling Word, a Word which is the source, the wellspring, the repository, and the dawning-place of the intellect.^[4]

Regarding Adam's creation ‘Abdu’l-Bahá states that the matter of His physical life was dust as opposed to Abraham whose matter was "pure seed".^[5]

Shoghi Effendi described Adam as beginning a six thousand year Prophetic cycle which was consummated by Bahá’u’lláh,^[6] and instituting a cycle of progressive Revelations which were concluded by the Prophet Muhammad.^[7] Six thousand years before the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh would, if taken literally, place the time of Adam's religion at approximately 4000 BC.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá explained the station of Adam as a Manifestation in a Tablet:

The divine Manifestations since the day of Adam have striven to unite humanity so that all may be accounted as one soul. The function and purpose of a shepherd is to gather and not disperse his flock. The prophets of God have been divine shepherds of humanity. They have established a bond of love and unity among mankind, made scattered peoples one nation and wandering tribes a mighty kingdom. They have laid the foundation of the oneness of God and summoned all to universal peace. All these holy, divine Manifestations are one. They have served one God, promulgated the same truth, founded the same institutions and reflected the same light. Their appearances have been successive and correlated; each one has announced and extolled the one who was to follow and all laid the foundation of reality. They summoned and invited the people to love and made the human world a mirror of the Word of God. Therefore the divine religions they established have one foundation; their teachings, proofs and evidences are one; in name and form they differ but in reality they agree and are the same.^[8]

While Adam is regarded as the first Manifestation in the Bahá’í Faith ‘Abdu’l-Bahá described Abraham as the founder of monotheism.^[9]

Symbolism[edit]

Adam is mentioned in the Book of Genesis in the Bible where He is described as the first human, husband of Eve, and father of Cain, Abel, Seth and others.^[10] He and Eve are described as eating fruit from a forbidden tree at the direction of a serpent and being cast out of the Garden of Eden by God.^[11]

Adam is also mentioned in the Qur'an where He is described as being created by God,^[12] and elected by God to have authority over the world,^[13] with God entering into a Covenant with Him.^[14] He is also described as eating forbidden fruit from a tree of immortality against the direction of God due to the influence of Satan.^[15]^[16]

Regarding the concept of Adam as the first human being to be created ‘Abdu’l-Bahá explained that this referred to the spiritual creation of a heavenly existence stating that science had proven that the creation of the universe was far more than 6000 years ago meaning the Biblical story could not be taken literally:

As for the story of Adam, the Father of Mankind, which is recorded in the Sacred Scriptures, this requireth explanation and interpretation. By “genesis” is intended a spiritual creation and heavenly existence; for otherwise the most cursory reflection would be sufficient to convince even a child that this boundless universe, the world of being—this infinite cosmos, this prodigious system, this mighty and primordial workshop—is far more than six thousand years old, as hath in fact been realized in this illumined age by scientists and men of learning, on the basis of decisive proofs and evidences founded on both reason and discovery.^[17]

‘Abdu’l-Bahá interpreted the story of Adam and Eve in Some Answered Questions explaining that His story in Genesis is symbolic with Adam in the story being the heavenly spirit of Adam, Eve representing His human soul, the forbidden tree representing the human world, and the serpent representing attachment to the human world. The story represents Adam coming out of the spiritual realm and becoming attached to the human world with His descendants also being bonded to the world which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá notes symbolizes sin.^[18]

Regarding whether Adam sinned Himself ‘Abdu’l-Bahá explains:

Adam is the spirit of Adam and Eve His self; the tree is the material world and the serpent is attachment to it. This attachment, which is sin, has been transmitted to the descendants of Adam. Through the breaths of holiness, Christ rescued souls from this attachment and delivered them from this sin.
This sin in Adam, moreover, is relative to His station: Although this worldly attachment produced substantial results, yet in relation to attachment to the spiritual realm it is nonetheless regarded as a sin, and the truth of the saying, “The good deeds of the righteous are the sins of the near ones” is established. Again, it is like the power of the body, which is imperfect in relation to the power of the spirit—indeed, it is sheer weakness in comparison. ^[18]

‘Abdu’l-Bahá stated that additional interpretations of the Genesis were possible and in another Tablet He explained another symbolic meaning of the story was emphasizing the importance of unity stating:

Remember how Adam and the others once dwelt together in Eden. No sooner, however, did a quarrel break out between Adam and Satan than they were, one and all, banished from the Garden, and this was meant as a warning to the human race, a means of telling humankind that dissension—even with the Devil—is the way to bitter loss. This is why, in our illumined age, God teacheth that conflicts and disputes are not allowable, not even with Satan himself^[19]

Genealogy[edit]

‘Abdu’l-Bahá has stated that Adam is the ancestor of Abraham and the other Patriarchs in the Bible.^[20] He also stated that in the time of Adam it was lawful for siblings to marry and that Abel, Cain, and Seth married their sisters with sibling marriage only becoming forbidden in the religion of Abraham.^[21]

References[edit]

[1] ttps://reference.bahai.org/en/t/bic/SB/sb-8.html.utf8?query=Adam&action=highlight#fn4

[2] ttps://reference.bahai.org/en/t/tb/SWB/swb-116.html.utf8

[3] ttps://reference.bahai.org/en/t/tb/SWB/swb-82.html.utf8

[4] ttps://reference.bahai.org/en/t/b/TU/tu-4.html.utf8?query=Adam&action=highlight#gr2.48

[SAQone-5] Some Answered Questions, PDF p 38

[6] ttps://reference.bahai.org/en/t/se/MBW/mbw-24.html.utf8

[7] ttps://reference.bahai.org/en/t/se/CF/cf-6.html.utf8

[8] ttps://reference.bahai.org/en/t/c/FWU/fwu-3.html.utf8?query=Adam&action=highlight#gr2

[9] Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Baha, pdf p 23

[10] ttps://www.bible.com/bible/59/GEN.4.ESV

[11] ttps://www.bible.com/bible/59/GEN.3.ESV

[12] ttps://quran.com/30:20?store=false&translations=203

[13] ttps://quran.com/3:33?store=false&translations=17

[14] ttps://reference.bahai.org/en/t/b/TU/tu-4.html.utf8?query=Adam&action=highlight#fn16

[15] ttps://quran.com/20:120?store=false&translations=49,85

[16] ttps://quran.com/20:121?store=false&translations=167

[17] ttps://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/abdul-baha/additional-tablets-extracts-talks/322934960/1#485490616

[saq-18] 18.0 ^18.1 https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/abdul-baha/some-answered-questions/7#737831771

[19] ttps://reference.bahai.org/en/t/ab/SAB/sab-221.html.utf8

[20] ttps://reference.bahai.org/en/t/ab/PUP/pup-132.html.utf8?query=Adam&action=highlight#gr3

[21] ttps://reference.bahai.org/en/t/c/BWF/bwf-17.html.utf8

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