Adam and Hawaa ASW

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Adam and Hawaa ASW
Mehak
12/11/01 at 13:09:29
slm,
 One of my catholic friends asked me this and said no one has ever been able to answer this for him and I was wondering that sure,there would be an explanation in Islam about this.
 His question is that if we are the sons of daugthers of Hazrat Adam and Hawaa ASW,why are we different skin colors,features and body builds etc.
 I vaguely remember a hadith where a sahabi asked Rasulallah SAWS about his new born son being a different skin color from him and his wife and the Prophet SAWS replied by giving an example about how a camel can be a different color too.I cannot exactly remember the hadith and cant back it up either.But if anyone would help out,would greatly appreciate it.JazakaAllahau khairan and
wslm
Re: Adam and Hawaa ASW
akbalkhan
12/11/01 at 14:02:52
As Salamu Alaika,

You know I have read some translations of the name Adam, as 'brown' and 'earth tone?'  Also I have read some ahadith referring to the process of the creation of the insaan, or humankind.  The malaa'ikat, or angels were commanded to gather together all the different colors of the earth, 4 actually, and that due to those 4 colors being capable of making up all the different tones of colors imaginable, we have the different colored nations.

I guess I should know since I work with colors everyday, and the 4 colors of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black can make any color of the spectrum.  Not that there are blue people but, you get the picture.

I will try to find the source insha'allah.

Regards,

QAK
Re: Adam and Hawaa ASW
amatullah
12/11/01 at 21:12:04
Bismillah and salam,
I would think it is part of the reason that that Allah sub7ana wa ta3ala created sayeduna Adam from a handful of Earth's sand (turba). It had of each different kind, the strong, the rough, the small, the brown, red, black, round, etc. So perhaps this would eventually show in their offsrpings.
Re: Adam and Hawaa ASW
Saleema
12/11/01 at 22:54:52
[slm]

I could take out my biology notes from last year but i'm too lazy. Let's see what I remember. :)

See, each person has a color pigment in them called melanin. The more you have of it the darker you are, the less you have of it the lighter you are. People with Albino disease don't have melanin in them and that's why they are *extremely* light skinned. Even in a white family, sometimes each family member will have different shades of light skin color which is due to the different *amount* of melanin present in their bodies. Even in a black or brown family, the skin color will differ and that is because each person has a differen amount of melanin present in them. So *all* of us have the melanin present and both parents pass on different amounts of melanin to thier children. So Adam (A)'s children could be born with dark or light skin. hmm..time for me to take out my Biology notes perhaps, but i'm stil lazy. :) A black family could have a white child, but what are the chances? *You* figure it out. :) hehe. And a white family could have a black child, you figure out it's likelihood too. :)

So now about God and Adam and Eve (A). Likely, yes, especially if you believe in God.

Should I even have bothered to write? :) Who's a biology major in here???

[wlm]
Re: Adam and Hawaa ASW
Merimda
12/12/01 at 07:57:05
salam,

(There was another thread like this..I just copied and pasted my response from that one..)

This is from Ibn Kathir's Stories of the Prophets:

Abu Musa Al-Sha'ara'i narrated that the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him ) said: "Allah created Adam from a handful of dust taken from the different lands, do the children of Adam have been created according  to the composition of the land. Therefore from mankind we have white, red, black and yellow ones; we have good and evil, ease and sorrow and what comes in betwen them."

Ibn Masud and other companions of the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him ) said that Allah the Almighty sent Gabriel onto the earth to get Him clay therefrom. The earth said:"I seek refuge in Allah from your decreasing my quantity or disfiguring me." So Gabriel returned and did not take anything. And he said:"My Lord , the land sought refuge in You, and it was granted."

So Allah sent Michael for the same purpose, and the land sought refuge in Allah and it was granted. So he went back and said to Allah what Gabriel had said before.

Then Allah sent the Angel of Death, and the land sought refuge in Allah. The angel said:" I also seek refuge with Allah from returning without carrying out His command." So he took clay from the face of the earth and mixed it. He did not take it from one paricular place, but rather he took white, red, and black clay (from different places).

The Angel of Death ascended with it, and He (Allah) soaked the clay till it became sticky. Then Allah said to the Angels: "Truly, I am going to create man from clay. So when I have fashioned him and breathed into him (his) soul created by me, then you fall down prostrate to him."

Re: Adam and Hawaa ASW
Anik
12/12/01 at 14:39:26
asalaamu alaikum,


[quote]
 So *all* of us have the melanin present [/quote]

well, most of us ;)

[quote]
So Adam (A)'s children could be born with dark or light skin. [/quote]

Actually, I, perhaps unwisley if this is an Islamic fact, disagree.  I always understood that skin color is genetically controlled, and dominant in certain traits, so that you can't hide your darkness (apparently Negroid (scientific race word for "black") features are dominant and show up clearly in mized offsrping).

As well, skin color, although popularly seen as just SKIN COLOR, also deals with much more than skin pigments... it ties in hair color, hair type, eyelash length, lip structure and a world of other things...

Thus, is impossibe for a purely Caucasian couple to give birth to a Negroid or Mongoloid child...

Differnces in skin color is caused by genetic drift as well as bottleneck0like effects opver time (ie. certain light skinned people moved away and thrived)...

I don't know Islamic that viewpoint is.

When it comes to Adam AS giving birth to all colors of children, perhaps he had genes for lots of variety, and they came out in later generations, but as far as I understand scientifically, a brown perosn can't give birth to a white person, and so on.

But I might be wrong (maybe that's the reaosn I'm leaving my Biology major :)). asalaamu alaikum. abdullah,.


Re: Adam and Hawaa ASW
Hania
12/12/01 at 13:12:31

How much melanin has Michael Jackson got then?
Re: Adam and Hawaa ASW
Anik
12/12/01 at 14:42:49
asalaamu alaikum,

well,

I don't know if your seriously asking,

but having partial albinism and pale skin don't only have ot do with the amount of melanin, bu tthe concentration in certain areas...

for example, freckles, found on almost everybody (we just seem to notice them more on Caucasians), are just super-concentrated melanin areas... so when you wonder if people who have pigmentation disorders have melanin or not, they do, but it's concentration isn't evenly distributed. asalamu alaikum. abdullah,.
Re: Adam and Hawaa ASW
Saleema
12/12/01 at 20:17:13
[slm]

I will pull out my notes from Biology on this. I did pretty good on my Biology exam and there were melanin questions that I answered as well. :) I just have to refresh my memory and then I will get back with you with questions of my own, cuz now u have me confused Abdullah. lol :D learning about melanin finally stoped my headaches over the mystery of Adam and Eve (A) and now I am having them again. :)
Are you a biology major? get ready for my questions.
[wlm]
Re: Adam and Hawaa ASW
se7en
12/16/01 at 03:28:23

as salaamu alaykum,

You can check out an older discussion on this [url=http://www.jannah.org/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl/YaBB.pl?board=madrasa&action=display&num=4213]here[/url].
Re: Adam and Hawaa ASW
Anik
12/16/01 at 08:08:04

[quote]
Are you a biology major? get ready for my questions.
[/quote]

asalaamu alaikum,

Former Biology major *ahem!* ...

More psychology/economics.

But ask away, I'll try with whatever years knowledge I have Insha'Allah. asalamau alaikum. abdullah,.


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