20.121 – Adam disobeyed his Lord and erred
This third version introduces a strong verb into its description of Adam’s action. Satan tells Adam about “the tree of immortality” (v. 120), and “they both ate from it” (v. 121). The stark judgment on the action here is that “Adam disobeyed (‘ aṣā ) his Lord and erred.”
This is significantly different from the characterization of Adam’s culpability in the two other versions of the Adam story at 2.30–39 and 7.10–27. The first of these simply says that Satan caused Adam and his spouse to “slip,” with no responsibility on Adam’s part (2.36). In the second version the role of Satan also seems to be dominant, but Adam and his spouse acknowledge “We have wronged ourselves” and ask for forgiveness (7.23). Only in the third version does the Quran put the responsibility where it belongs: “Adam disobeyed his Lord.” The verb ‘ aṣā has the sense of revolt, rebellion, and breaking relationship.
The discrepancy among the three versions produces a kind of ambivalence about human sinfulness and its seriousness before God. In the first version, Allah forgives or “relents toward” Adam with no acknowledgment of sin from Adam (2.37; cf. 20.122). In the second version, Allah holds Adam to account but says that half of Adam’s sin was failing to heed God’s warning about Satan (7.22; cf. 20.117). All three versions seem distracted by the tale of Iblīs’s refusal to bow. The biblical account, by contrast, portrays a detailed encounter between God and each guilty human, as well as serious, individualized punishments proportionate to their sin (Genesis 2:15–3:19).
The Quran’s Adam stories include a promise of guidance to come (2.38; 20.123), but notably absent is the Bible’s promise of a deeper treatment of the evil in Eden: the offspring of the woman will crush the head of the tempter, the serpent (Genesis 3:15). See also the analysis of verses on human nature at 79.40.