Get You Down, All of You

Allah (swt) says: wa qulnā ihbiṭū baʿḍukum li-baʿḍin ʿaduww. Allah (swt) says: get you down, all. Allah (swt) told Ādam and Ḥawwāʾ to get out of Jannah.

In Arabic there is singular, which is for one; and then there is another form, for two; and then there is plural, for three and more. In English we have only singular and plural. Singular is for one; plural is for how many? Two or more. In English, if you are talking about two people, you say they. You don't say he: they, two of them. But in Arabic, plural is not two; plural is three or more. There is another form that is used for the two.

Ādam and Ḥawwāʾ are two. Allah (swt) referred to them in the plural form: ihbiṭū, all of you — all of you descend down from Jannah — in a plural form. But they were only two. Al-Farrāʾ says — one of the mufassirūn — he says: because this command is to Ādam, and his wife, and all of us with them. All of us were in Jannah; that's where we were. But because of Iblīs, and Shayṭān, and that mistake, we all came down to dunyā.

So we do not really belong to dunyā. This is not where we belong. We are here for a temporary time; we belong to al-ākhirah. Wa lakum fī al-arḍi mustaqarrun wa matāʿun ilā ḥīn: on earth will be a dwelling place for you, and an enjoyment, for a time. You're going to stay there for a while.