From Dirt to Sounding Clay

In the beginning it was dirt — turāb, dirt: soil that was taken from the earth, and that is turāb. And then this dirt was mixed with the basis of every living being, and that is water.

Wa jaʿalnā min al-māʾi kulla shayʾin ḥayy: We created from water every living being. When it was mixed with water, it became mud, ṭīn. And then this mud was left for a while. And when you leave mud for a while, and the moisture in it reduces, it becomes sticky. It becomes sticky. In the beginning it is loose mud, because it has a lot of water; then, when the water level decreases and the moisture decreases, it becomes sticky, and it holds to your hands — sticky. And that is ṭīn lāzib, sticky clay.

And then that sticky clay was left for a longer while. The smell of it changed, and the colour of it became darker — and that is ḥamaʾin masnūn, which is black, smooth and smelly clay, because it was left there for a while. That material was taken, and Allah (swt) moulded out of it the form of Ādam, the body of Ādam.

That body was left to dry, and it turned into ṣalṣālin ka-l-fakhkhār, clay like pottery. When you knock on dry clay, pottery, what happens? It makes a ringing sound. And that is ṣalṣāl, min ṣalṣalah: it makes a ringing sound, like a bell. So the body, the form of Ādam — the empty form of Ādam that did not have the soul yet — was just a material. It was left to dry, and then when you would knock on it, it would make this ringing sound.

It is said — this is not a hadith, but it is said — that Iblīs saw this body lying on the ground. He didn't know what it was. So Iblīs walked up to the body of Ādam, and he knocked it; and it made a ringing sound, and it was hollow. When he knocked it, he knew that it was hollow from the inside, empty. He said: hādhā khalqun lā yatamālak. When he found out that it's hollow, he said: this is a creation that is weak; it's hollow from the inside.

And then he said: laʾin sulliṭtu ʿalayka la-ughwiyannak, wa laʾin sulliṭta ʿalayya la-aʿṣiyannak. If I am given influence over you, I will guide you astray; and if you are given influence over me, I will disobey you. He is our enemy from day one. Ādam is not even alive yet; it's just a body that is lying there. And he said: if you are given influence over me, I'm going to disobey you. Let's do the same thing, and disobey him.