Traditions: Qur’an, al-Baqarah; Qur’an, al-Aʿrāf Motif: The first humans acknowledge wrongdoing after temptation Connection verdict: Related Qur’anic garden scenes with distinct speech Article status: Expanded Date: 2026-10-29
Summary
Qur’an 2:35–39 and 7:19–25 both narrate the humans’ lapse and descent from the garden.
Read the two scenes
Both sūras tell of a prohibited tree, a deceptive adversary, and the movement out of the garden. In al-Aʿrāf the humans voice a direct confession and request for mercy. Al-Baqarah says Adam received words from God and was forgiven, but does not print those words there. Readers often use one scene to fill the other, yet the textual difference is itself revealing: one passage gives a spoken plea, while the other emphasizes divine initiative and response. This is a comparison of Qur’anic presentation, not an attempt to reconstruct a single lost dialogue.
What connects—and what does not
Al-Aʿrāf supplies their plea, “We have wronged ourselves”; al-Baqarah says Adam received words from his Lord and that God turned toward him.
The passages describe the same named figures but should not be made into a verbatim quotation of the unreported words in al-Baqarah.
Why read them side by side?
Two accounts of repentance can differ over whether the reader hears the humans’ words or hears that words were given to them.
Sources and reading notes
- Qur’an 2:35–39 — Compare the Arabic and translations within the full sūra.
- Qur’an 7:19–25 — Compare the Arabic and translations within the full sūra.
Research limit
A named parallel can establish literary reuse or related tradition; a general resemblance alone cannot prove borrowing. Linked editions and translations vary. Where a source is identified as secondary orientation, the comparison does not claim direct close reading of that tradition’s primary text.