ADAM, EVE AND LEAVES

As human beings we all share same fundamental human needs –for love, security, freedom, dignity and so on. And, our life journey consists of seeking a way of fulfilling these needs. While we may often be unaware, our needs and their fulfillment process enables us to encounter our Creator, with variety of His beautiful names, asma al-ḥusna…

A common temptation occurs to all of us repeatedly is to think that our needs are a liability and we are all left to our limited devices to fulfill these profound human needs. As scriptures teach us, this is the same temptation that occurred to our primordial ancestors, to Adam and Eve. They thought at first that they had a need that was “out of God’s plan.” The Quran notes that their need is eternity: they want to live forever and they believe Satan who swears to them that they will get to it if only they would eat from the forbidden fruit!

​In other words, instead of embracing such needs and utilizing those needs for a deeper connection with their Creator, Adam and Eve were tempted to think that such need is ‘somehow illegitimate before their Creator.’ They mistakenly thought that their wish to live eternally, must be fulfilled outside of their connection with God. And since there is nothing ‘outside’ of God’s mercy, such attempt only revealed their complete ‘nakedness’ to them. Their first response was to reach out for leaves to cover themselves up. Don’t we also have our “leaf-stitching” attempts in our lives to cover up our intense neediness as human beings? Adam and Eve’s breakthrough came when they realized the real source of all support and power is God, and turned to their Sustainer in honesty and surrender…