EXPLANATION OF HIS NAMES AND SURNAMES.

The author of the ‘Lutayif-ul-ma’aruf’ has related that since the blessed form of Adam was fashioned of the Adim of the earth, i.e. of its surface, he was called Adam. Others inform us that Adam was wheat-coloured, and therefore named Adam, according to which meaning the word would be derived from Adama. Others, again, are of opinion that the name Adam may have originated from the expression Adamat, which means, ‘she united the two things when she was created between them,’ but He [i.e. Allah] knows best.

Being of a very upright character, Adam was surnamed ‘the pure one of God,’ and the ‘father of mankind,’ because he was our common ancestor. Allah—w. n. b. ex. —said, ‘It is He who created you from one breath [or individual, i.e. Adam], and He created from it its [or his, i.e. Adam’s] spouse.’ It is recorded in the book of Edris [Enoch?] that the inscrutable Creator wished in the first creation to extend the surface of His power over the earth, and created first a man from the soil, whose name is called Armanûs in the Syriac language. At that time He created from his [i.e. the man’s] breath a consort for him to be his wife, and by means of this intercourse He originated connexion and parturition, and until the hour of the resurrection, when the second creation will begin, all the affairs of this world are but a sequence of that first arrangement. Thalebi says that Adam, being questioned by the angels about Eve’s name, he replied: ‘Since Eve [Havva] is a member of my members, and was created by Him who is living [Hay] from all eternity, she was thus named.’