The story of Abel and Cain offers to the present and modern man the foolery and poor thinking inherent in being jealous of the talent, wealth and good in other steads as well as the risks in being puffed up, arrogance and haughtiness because of positions, birth and knowledge.
Although Allah Has told the story to the children of Israel in Genesis. Qur’an iv :1-15, the narrative was not in full while the one the story was narrated too did not enforce it properly as the lessons there were not imbibed. For the life time benefits in the story, Allah Has retold it in the glorious Qur’an for the ummag of Muhammad salla-llahu alehi wasalam.
And in order to grasp the benefits accrued in the story, in the beginning of this same story in the Qur’an, Allah commanded the prophet (saw) to: “recite to them the truth of the story of the two sons of Adam”, so as to drive home the lessons therein and to show that the lessons there must be enforced, if at all, the present sons and daughters of Adam want to live in peace with one another.
The two sons of Adam were Habil (Abel in English) and Qabil( Cain in English) .Cain was the elder, and Abel the younger, -the righteous and innocent one. The two brothers had not come to the moral and immoral stands they occupied in the midst of humanity except for the roads taken by them in the face of the tribulation which were constructed for them.
As it was the custom in the beginning of civilization, many twins were given to the man’s progenitor, prophet Adam ( Alehi Salam). And they were in the guise of males and females so that the male of this would marry the female of that and in return ,the male of that would hook the female of this!
This arrangement as logical as it was did not go down well with Qabil ( Cain) for it was said that his female twin was a belle and beautiful with everything feminine! This had made him wanted to marry his own twin sister instead of marrying the sister of Habil ( Abel) whom was naturally gifted to him. This had made God to put the two brothers into a test by commanding them to worship Him in form of offering the best of their farm produces to Him. So that the one whose offering was the best would marry the most beautiful of the among their female twins!
Abel who had offered the best of his farm produces had been serenaded and been accepted as the rightful husband of the beautiful female twin of Cain while Cain’s offer was rejected and advised to stick to the female twin of Abel as being ordered in the beginning.
The story of the two brothers is told in six verses in the glorious Qur’an from verse 30-35 in the chapter of the Table( Suratul-Maaidah). Each brother had presented a sacrifice to God. Abel’s offer was accepted while Cain’s was rejected. Presuming on the right of the elder and the position of his birth, Cain was puffed up with arrogance and jealousy and was moved by anger,he committed the crime of murder!
Cain murdering of Abel was the first of its kind among the whole mankind, for before him, nobody had committed murder on the surface of the earth! In the process of murdering Abel, Abel did not move to defend himself, or still less to attack the aggressor, Cain. The scholars of the exegesis of the glorious Quran maintained that, he (Abel) had desisted because his soul prompted him to be righteous and to fear Allah, while his brother’s soul has equally, prompted him to commit the crime of murder!
Alas, the soul of man from the time immemorial has been an ambivalent template that is capable of doing good greatly as well as an haven, which habours every known evil! It is for this, that the glorious Qur’an has praised in one breath those that strive to make righteous their soul while in another breath, it berated those men that dirty,blacken and befoul, their own soul! It reads:”Truly he succeeds, that purifies it, (the soul) . And fails that corrupts it(soul)!
Abel did pronounce a curse on Cain, telling him that he was doomed to hell-fire for ‘my sin as well as yours’, which is the reward for who kills others unjustly!
Later a feeling of contrition came to Cain, not for the crime which he had committed, but for not having thought of hiding the shame I. e the corpse of Habil, his brother until a Raven appeared and showed him how to do so by scratching the ground! The Quran presents a graphic details if the incidence thus:
” Then Allah sent a Raven, who scratched the ground to show him how to hide the naked body of his brother.,”woe to me “said he; was I not even able to be as this Raven, and to hide the naked body of my brother? “.Then he became full of regrets”
The thought at least came home to the murderer!. It was dreadful indeed to slay any one -the more so as he was a brother, and an innocent righteous brother!. But worse still, the murderer had not even the decency to bury the corpse, and of this simple duty, he was reminded by a Raven -a black bird usually held in contempt!
Notably, hitherto the act of burying corpse was not in vogue probably, it was the earliest part of the creation. And for this, Allah who teaches man what he knows not, taught Cain how to bury his brother through a bird, which is smaller in size and still held in contempt among the species of birds and humanity.
Subhanallah, the Lord of the worlds who shies not away from showing example for the good of the mankind! Since the time of Abel and Cain, mankind has been taught how to bury their corpse properly.Infact, those that are in the habit of cremating their corpse or throwing them into the water are just aping the systems of burying that were fashioned out of the whims and caprices of man!
In the meantime time, the Qur’an establishes a link between the commandments not to take life and the Abel-Cain episode as verse 35 of the chapter of the Table, introducing the moral of the narratives as follows:” on that account it was impressed on the people (nay all the mankind) that to slay one person is tantamount to slaying the whole of mankind, and to save one life is tantamount to saving the life of all mankind”!
From the incidence of the Abel-Cain episode we learn as follows:
. That Allah, the Lord of all things, accepts only the worship, sacrifice and alms of the righteous only! Therefore, if one offers the whole life for God in worshipping without being righteous, his or her worship may be in vain and be repugnant!
. Unnecessary pride, jealousy and the aggression are detested, disliked as well as abhorred by God for they lead men astray and make him unthinking!
. Acts of suicide, terrorism and maiming are strongly condemned in Islam as shown in the story of Abel and Cain and in many other areas in the Qur’an as well as the pure traditions of the prophet (Salla llahu alehi wasalama) . In a place in the Qur’an, Allah says that ‘do not kill yourself for Allah is a beneficent God to you’ . In another reference in the it , He says:” Do not kill your children for fear of wants(poverty) we provide sustenance for you and them(the children), indeed killing them is a grievous mistake”.
In a tradition, the prophet (saw) said: “ He who commits suicide in this life with any object will be killed and killed and killed by it on the day of accountability! ”
. Killing others unjustly because of wealth, position and birth which are a major headache of the world now and which have been the reason why peace is eluding the world from Africa to Middle East, Europe and America, can be salvaged our by true repentance, mending of fences and begging those that we had wrong in the past!
. In the story of Abel and Cain too, we learnt that, Allah, can teach mankind as He deems fit through animal, birds and other lower creatures. Infact, the meaning of the Hadith :” wisdom is a lost treasure of the Muslims, whenever they find it, they pick it” is truer in this regards!
. Burying corpse in the earth (land) is taught through the story of Abel-and Cain while he who kills a soul unjustly is tantamount to killing all mankind while he who saves a life is like who has saved all the mankind