The First Covenant with Adam (PBUH)

What if the story of Adam and Eve, as it has been handed down to us for centuries, concealed a far deeper spiritual reality?

The account of Adam holds a fundamental place in the Abrahamic traditions. It recounts the creation of the first man, the Garden of Eden, the forbidden tree, the temptation and the expulsion from Paradise. But behind these events lies an essential question: what was the true Covenant between God and Adam?

In the first Door of The Goal of the Wise, Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq (From Him is Peace) presents an interpretation of this account that calls several traditional understandings into question. The forbidden tree, the nature of the Garden of Eden, Adam’s disobedience and the transmission of divine guidance all take on a new meaning.

1. The Covenant: the foundation of the relationship between God and humanity

According to the teachings of the book, the history of humanity begins with a Covenant.

God does not create Adam only to abandon him to himself. He chooses him, entrusts him with a responsibility and establishes him as His representative on Earth.

This appointment implies authority, but also an obligation: to respect the will of the Creator.

The first Covenant rests on two fundamental elements: a commandment to multiply and a prohibition concerning a particular tree.

This simplicity is important. At that time, the conditions of human existence did not yet require the complex legal systems that appeared in the course of the following Covenants.

The book thus establishes a central principle: divine legislation follows the evolution of human circumstances.

2. Was the forbidden tree really a tree?

This is one of the most surprising revelations of this first Door.

In the traditional accounts, Adam and Eve disobey by eating the fruit of a forbidden tree. But The Goal of the Wise invites us to understand this tree as a symbol.

The book notably brings together two expressions:

• The Tree of Immortality, mentioned in the Quran.
• The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, found in Genesis.

It also draws on traditions attributed to the Imams of the Family of Mohammed to explain that the forbidden tree would be linked to the knowledge of Mohammed and his Family.

In this interpretation, the tree therefore does not designate an ordinary plant, but a personal and spiritual reality.

The work more precisely identifies this tree with Fatimah Al-Zahraa (From Her is Peace), and links Adam’s transgression to envy and to the desire to attain a rank that did not belong to him.

This reading profoundly changes the understanding of the original disobedience: the problem would not simply be having eaten a fruit, but having crossed a limit set by God.

3. Where was the Garden of Eden really located?

The Garden of Eden is often imagined as a celestial place, separate from our world.

Yet the book defends another interpretation.

Drawing on a tradition attributed to Imam Al-Sadiq, it presents the Garden as an earthly place, where the sun and the moon rose.

The work more precisely locates this garden in the region corresponding to present-day Iraq.

This location is part of a reading of the first biblical and Quranic accounts that associates the founding events of humanity with an earthly geography.

This is a theological claim specific to the work, and not a location demonstrated by archaeology.

4. The role of envy in the breaking of the Covenant

Why did Adam disobey?

According to The Goal of the Wise, envy is one of the decisive elements of this story.

Adam is said to have discovered the existence of beings possessing a spiritual rank higher than his own. Instead of fully accepting the wisdom of God in this hierarchy, he is said to have desired what was not destined for him.

The teaching goes beyond the account of Adam alone.

It invites every human being to question their own relationship with the divine will.

Do we accept the limits that are set for us? Are we capable of recognising the qualities of others without seeking to appropriate them for ourselves?

The story of Adam thus becomes a reflection on humility, obedience and the danger of envy.

5. The names taught to Adam: a spiritual knowledge

The Quran reports that God taught Adam the names.

What do these names represent?

The work proposes an interpretation that goes beyond mere knowledge of animals, plants and objects.

According to the teachings it attributes to Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace), this knowledge would also concern the incarnations and the spiritual identities of the angels.

Adam would thus have received a knowledge inaccessible to the other creatures present at that moment.

This interpretation establishes a link with the following Doors, devoted to reincarnation, to the transmigration of the soul and to the relationships between beings in the spiritual world.

6. Cain, Abel and the consequences of disobedience

After the expulsion from the Garden, human history enters a new phase.

The account of Cain and Abel introduces murder, rivalry and the spread of injustice.

The Goal of the Wise notably proposes a particular interpretation of Cain’s lineage, which it connects to Iblis on the basis of religious traditions cited in the chapter.

This claim belongs to the theological account presented by the work.

But the general teaching concerns above all the consequences of corruption and the evolution of divine legislation.

The book explains that the rules of the first Covenant were adapted to the circumstances of Adam’s era. With the appearance of new behaviours and new forms of injustice, other prescriptions would become necessary.

The story thus prepares the arrival of Noah and the establishment of the second Covenant.

7. Seth and the transmission of the Testament

One of the most important themes of this Door is the continuity of divine guidance.

After Adam, knowledge does not disappear.

The book reports that Seth received a spiritual inheritance from his father and had to preserve this knowledge in a context of hostility.

This transmission takes the form of a Testament, preserved and passed on through a succession of guides.

The first Door thus introduces a principle that runs through the whole of The Goal of the Wise: God designates a guide, and the transmission of divine authority does not simply depend on the choice of men.

This idea will be developed over the course of the following Covenants.

8. Repentance and the restoration of the Covenant

The story of Adam does not end with his disobedience.

After leaving the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve repent.

According to the book, God forgives them and restores the first Covenant.

This event reveals an essential dimension of the relationship between the Creator and His creatures: the possibility of return.

Even when a Covenant is broken, repentance can open the way to reconciliation.

Divine justice is therefore not presented solely as a punishment, but also as a means of correction and restoration.

Conclusion — A story that still concerns us today

The first Door of The Goal of the Wise is not limited to recounting the origins of humanity.

It lays the foundations of a spiritual vision in which the knowledge of God, the recognition of His representative and faithfulness to the Covenant hold a central place. The forbidden tree becomes a symbol of the limit that God has set. Envy reveals the dangers of the ego. Repentance shows that return remains possible. And the transmission of the Testament heralds the continuity of divine guidance across the generations.

One question then remains:

If God designated Adam as His representative from the very beginning, why would He have stopped designating guides for humanity?

It is this question that leads us naturally to the second Door: The Second Covenant with Noah.