Islamic mythology is the body of myths associated with Islam and the Quran. Islam is a religion that is more concerned with social order and law than with religious rituals or myths. The primary focus of Islam is the practical and rational practice and application of the Islamic law. Despite this focus, Islamic myths do still exist. The Oxford Companion to World Mythology identifies a number of traditional narratives as "Islamic myths". These include a creation myth and a vision of afterlife, which Islam shares with the other Abrahamic religions, as well as the distinctively Islamic story of the Kaaba.
The traditional biography of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, who plays a central role in Islamic teachings, is generally recognized as being largely historical in nature, and Islam depends less on mythology than Judaism and Christianity. However, the canonical narrative includes two key supernatural events: the divine revelation of the Quran and the Isra and Mi'raj — the night journey to Jerusalem followed by the ascension to the Seventh Heaven. In addition, Islamic scriptures contain a number of legendary narratives about biblical characters, which diverge from Jewish and Christian traditions in some details.
Types of Islamic mythology
The two types of myth and legends that make up Islamic mythology are cosmogony and eschatology. Cosmogony is a part of cosmogonic and cosmological myths, which are myths that deal in matters of the creation and origins of the universe, and more specially, the world. A cosmology is a culture's specific story of creation, and how in that culture the universe is structured (the placement of the Earth, the stars, and the afterlife). These stores of creation explain in that specific culture the origin of people, the first "home", and the early place of people in the world.
Eschatology is a type of mythology that deals with the day of judgement, the end of the world, heaven, and hell. Translated Eschatology means the "discourse about the last things". Eschatology deals with the question and ultimate quest for what is the "ultimate purpose" of humans in this life.
The discussion of religion in terms of mythology is a controversial topic. The word "myth" is commonly used with connotations of falsehood, reflecting a legacy of the derogatory early Christian usage of the Greek word mythos in the sense of "fable, fiction, lie" to refer to classical mythology.Eliade, Myth and Reality, 1968, p. 162. However, the word is also used with other meanings in academic discourse. It may refer to "a story that serves to define the fundamental worldview of a culture" or to stories which a given culture regards as true (as opposed to fables, which it recognizes as fictitious).Eliade, Myth and Reality, p. 1, 8-10; The Sacred and the Profane, p. 95
Creation myths Creation myths are based on the Quran, the central scripture of Islam, and expanded upon in hadiths, Arabic and Persian writings, histories (Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ), Muslim poetry, philosophical essays, and mystical writings.Campo, J. E. (2009). Encyclopedia of Islam. USA: Facts On File. p. 171 While through syncretism, Islamic creation myths assimilated to African and Asian beliefs, Islam reshaped the indigenous cultural accounts on the origin of the world to fit the central Quranic teaching that, ultimately, everything in existence was created by a monotheistic God (Allah). As consequence, all beings, especially humans, were expected to serve God alone.
The Quran is heavily based by Middle Eastern descriptions of the origin of the world (cosmogony) and creation of mankind (anthropogony). However, the Quran never portrays any of these in a continuous story, but rather alludes to them in order to illustrate a message. It is only in the 7th century, Muslims began to reconcile Quranic passages with Biblical material. Since the Quran refers to Biblical accounts only partly, Biblical stories were either unknown at the times of the revelation of the Quran or did not matter to the early Muslim community to convey the Quranic message.
The creation of the world While in Islam there is no single story of creation, it is made clear that God is the one who created the world. Four different verses in the Quran mentions that the heavens and earth (As-Samāwāt Wa Al-Ard) were created by God in six days,Dashti, 23 Years, 1994: p.162-3 with three verse mentioning creation and numbers of days—how many days it took to create only the earth (two days); provide mountains, nutrients, etc. (four days); God's giving of orders to heaven and earth; and creating the seven heavens (two days). The arithmetic of adding the numbers of days can be confusing, as critics (Ali Dashti) point out that two plus four plus two "increases creation from six to eight days",Dashti, 23 Years, 1994: p.163 but Quranic translator Abdullah Yusuf Ali argues that commentators understand the four days in verse Q.41:9 to include the two days in verse Q.41:10.
In Sūrah al-Anbiyāʼ, verse , the heavens and the earth were joined ("of one piece") as one "unit of creation", after which they were "cloven asunder". God then created the landscape of the earth, placed the sky above it as a roof, and created the day and night cycles by appointing an orbit for both the sun and moon. The Quran states that the process of creation took sitta ayam (ستة أيام) or six periods. Critics note that modern cosmology does not fit well with creation of the universe in six (or eight) days and that it would be difficult to determine days before the sun and earth had been created, but many preachers argue the word youm (plural ayam) can be translated as "era" or "period", and sometimes is in translations of the Quran.Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran: Footnote- The word day is not always used in the Quran to mean a 24-hour period. According to , a heavenly Day is 1000 years of our time. The Day of Judgment will be 50 000 years of our time (see ). Hence, the six Days of creation refer to six eons of time, known only by Allah.
The creation of humanity
Adam and the angels
The creation of mankind is discussed along with the creation of angels and jinn. When God created the angels as inhabitants of the heavens and jinn and humans as inhabitants of the earth. The first who lived on earth were the jinn. However, they fought each other until God sent an army of angels headed by Iblis, against them. Adam, representative for mankind as a whole, was created as their successor.Mahmoud Ayoub The Qur'an and Its Interpreters, Volume 1 SUNY Press, 1984 p. 73Brannon Wheeler Prophets in the Quran: An Introduction to the Quran and Muslim Exegesis A&C Black 2002 Page 16 In the Bible, God announces to create mankind in the plural: "let us make man" (Hebrew: "na’aseh adam"), but it is not clear to whom the speech is addressed. While Jewish midrashim conjectured this might be the angels, the Quran is explicit about it: "When your Lord said to the angels: "‘Lo, I am going to place a vice-regent in the earth.‘ They said: ‘Wilt Thou place in it one who will work corruption and shed blood? We sing hymns in Thy praise and ascribe holiness to Thee.‘ He replied: ‘I know what ye know not.‘ "Various theologicans and story writers, including Muqatil ibn Sulayman, Al-Tabari, and Ibn Kathir, narrate the creation account of mankind in the context of these verses. Muqatil ibn Sulayman explains, in his exegesis of the Quran, that after the angels defeated the jinn, they settled on earth. It is these angels whom God addressed when he announces to create Adam (mankind) as a deputy of the earth. Tabari also relates a tradition according to which only the angels who were sent to earth are addressed. Maqdisi and Al-Kisa'i, on the other hand, considers all angels to be addressed. The command to bow before Adam is seen as a test by God for the angels. The angels, either only from the angels of the earth or from all angels, oppose the creation of Adam for a variety of reasons. One major reason is due to the sins Adam's successor will commit, which is explicitly mentioned in the Quran. Another reason is, according to Hasan al-Basri and Abu Qatada al-Ansari, that angels consider themselves superior to Adam in terms of knowledge. Overall, the angelic opposition derives from a faulty analogy between Adam and the jinn. The angels do not know that from among mankind, there will be saints and prophets, despite the sinners among them. Eventually, the angels bow down, but Iblis. Angels who remained in opposition become devils.
The reluctance of bowing down before Adam is also occasionally linked to Harut and Marut. Others assert that they fell much later and independent of Iblis. This pair of angels is said to have made critical remarks about mankind and their sinful behavior, while claiming moral superiority. Whereupon God challenged them to descend to earth and avoid committing three major sins. However, secuded by a woman, they succumb to all these sins and are not allowed to ascend back to heaven. Like devils, they tempt people into sin by teaching forbidden magic. While the angels have no sex-characteristics at all, devils procreate bisexually.Dieste, Josep Lluís Mateo. Health and ritual in Morocco: Conceptions of the body and healing practices. Vol. 109. Brill, 2012. p. 30
Adam in the Garden Adam is according to Islam, both the first human and the first prophet. The Quran says that he and his wife dwelled in Garden of Eden. Adam and his wife both eat from the forbidden Tree of Eternity. According to the Quran, as punishment God declares the earth as a dwelling place for humans. Only due to free will, humans are able to produce good. Thus, although Adam's disobedience created evil, only this made it possible to create good.P. Koslowski The Origin and the Overcoming of Evil and Suffering in the World Religions Springer Science & Business Media 2013 pp. 34-35 The disobediences of Adam and his wife were already forgiven by God during their life.Amina Wadud Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective Oxford University Press 1999 p.25
Islamic traditions are more extensive, adding further details into the Quranic creation narrative. According to a common narrative, God ordered the Archangels to collect a handful of soil from earth. But every time an archangel approached earth, the earth sought refuge in God, that it might not be distorted. All the archangels returned empty-handed, except Azrael, who succeeded because he sought refuge in God before, for that he will not return unsuccessful.Scott B. Noegel, Brannon M. Wheeler The A to Z of Prophets in Islam and Judaism Scarecrow Press 2010 page 13 Another common traditions, portrayed the body of Adam lying on the ground for forty years, whereupon Iblis became curious of the new creation. After investigating the lifeless body, he promised that, if he will gain authority over it, he will destroy it.Alexander Kulik, Catherine Mary MacRobert, Svetlina Nikolova, Moshe Taube, Cynthia M. Vakareliyska The Bible in Slavic Tradition BRILL 2016 p. 351 In another tradition, it is not Azrael, but Iblis, included among the archangels, who succeeded in collecting soil from the earth, thus he later declined to prostrate himself before whose formation he just assisted.Leigh N. B. Chipman. "Mythic Aspects of the Process of Adam's Creation in Judaism and Islam." Studia Islamica, no. 93, 2001, pp. 5–25. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1596106.