STORY OF CAIN (QABIL) AND ABEL (HABIL)

STORY OF CAIN (QABIL) AND ABEL (HABIL)

The Holy Quran says: And relate to them the story of the two sons of Adam with truth when they both offered an offering, but it was accepted from one of them and was not accepted from the other. He said: I will most certainly slay you. (The other) said: Almighty God only accepts from those who guard (against evil). If you will stretch forth your hand towards me to slay me, I am not one to stretch forth my hand towards you to slay you surely I fear Almighty God, the Lord of the worlds: Surely I wish that you should bear the sin committed against me and your own sin, and so you would be of the inmates of the fire, and this is the recompense of the unjust. Then his mind facilitated to him the slaying of his brother so he slew him; then he became one of the losers. Then Almighty God sent a crow/raven digging up the earth so that he might show him how he should cover the dead body of his brother. He said: Woe me! Do I lack the strength that I should be like this crow and cover the dead body of my brother? So he became of those who regret. (5:27-31)

Slowly, Prophet Adam and Eve got used to their new home and God blessed them with children which made them very happy, following the marriage of Prophet Adam with Eve, which was performed through Almighty God’s command. Eve gave birth to two sets of twins. Cain and his sister Iqlima were born first and then Abel and his sister Loza some years later. Hence the total population on earth consisted of six (6) people.

Prophet Adam and Eve loved their children very much and watched proudly as they grew up strong and healthy. Daughters learnt with their mother organization of the household work and sons learnt from their father to bring food and sustenance for the family. Cain become interested in agriculture and his younger brother Abel liked sheep farming.

When their sons grew to be young men, Adam chose Abel, the younger son to be his successor after his death, because of his piety and virtues. But from that time on he found that Cain got quite jealous of his brother, because he was the elder son and thought that his rights were trampled upon. Adam thought of a way to show that God had appointed Abel to this position and to cool down Cain somehow. So he called his sons and addressed them as follows:

“You shall both go and bring a sacrifice or offering or present (Nazar) for Almighty God and leave it on top of a certain hill. The one whose sacrifice will be accepted by Almighty God shall have a higher merit and superiority over the other. Now go and do your best.” The sign of Almighty God’s acceptance at that time was that a fire would show up and take their sacrifice in. Thus both Cain and Abel went to bring a sacrifice for Almighty God. As Cain was a farmer, his sacrifice was nothing but a mass of low quality wheat, but being a shepherd, Abel brought one of his best and fattest rams as his sacrifice. The fire finally appeared and took Abel’s sacrifice in but didn’t even approach that of Cain. This caused Cain to get terribly furious this time. So he turned to Abel and said, “I will kill you.” Abel answered, But it wasn’t my fault. It was up to Almighty God and He accepts sacrifice from the pious. Now even if you start beating me I shall never even touch you for I fear the Almighty God of the whole universe. I want to prevent myself from committing any sins. So you will have to bear the sin of killing me as well as that of your rejection all alone. Thus you shall be sent to Hell and reside there which is of course a due punishment for oppressors.

But Cain didn’t listen to him and was looking forward to a proper opportunity to kill Abel. Finally he found the chance when Adam was not around and killed Abel by bumping a piece of rock on his head. When he found Abel dead, he felt somehow lost for he had no idea how to cover up and hide his brother’s lifeless corpse.

The Almighty in order to honor the sacred and pure body and to make a moral from these two brothers for the future generations and to guide this foolish and proud young man. Since he was not worthy of receiving direct instructions from God, charged two crows with the mission of teaching him, and he had to learn from these crows.

Therefore, the two crows sat in front of Cain and started to fight terribly to death. When one killed the other crow, it dug a hole with its feet, put the carcass in the hole and covered it with soil. Cain suddenly shouted: “Shame on me. I’m even less competent than this crow. Look how it is hiding the corpse. I shall do the same thing now.” Following that, he buried the dead body of his brother and this was the first unjust murder on the earth.

When Abel did not return home, Prophet Adam was very worried and he asked Cain if he knew where his brother was. Cain replied rudely, “Did you leave him in my care?” This reply made Adam suspect that his son was dead and he was full of grief at the loss.

Prophet Adam was shocked when he came to know about this cold-blooded murder. He went and lamented for quite sometime (according to some reports forty days); Prophet Adam and Eve missed Abel very much because he had been a good son. They prayed to God to give them another son like him. At last their prayers were answered and they had a son Prophet Sheth, whom he nominated as his successor. As per one report two women from Paradise were brought down to become wives of the brothers to continue their progeny further. Adam (father of human race) lived almost thousand years and died.