“And indeed We made a covenant with Adam before...

“And indeed We made a covenant with Adam before, but he forgot, and We found on his part no firm will-power ( ‘azm ).” His guilt was that he did not demonstrate will-power, not that he violated Allah’s rules because the commands were advisory and not obligatory.

As a result of his behavior, he was to lose the privilege granted to him, “Verily, you have a promise from Us that you will never be hungry therein, nor naked, and you will not suffer from thirst therein, nor suffer from the sun’s heat.” [^3] As for Prophet Musa, the Noble Qur’an says about him saying the following, “And they have a charge of crime against me, and I fear that they will kill me.” [^4] This charge came about when he pushed a man and inadvertently killed him.

At that time, Prophet Musa was defending one of his tribesmen, and when he pushed the man from the people of Pharaoh it happened that the man was so weak that he fell to the ground and died. Prophet Musa did not intend to kill him, and thus he fled the scene because he did not want to fall captive to Pharaoh and his army, which was searching for him.

When Prophet Musa speaks of them having a “charge of crime” against him, he is reiterating the accusations of the Pharaoh’s people, not necessarily believing that those accusations are true. The case of Prophet Yunus (Jonah) is similar. The Qur’an says, “And remember, when he went off in anger, and he imagined that We would not confine him. But he cried through the darkness, saying, ‘There is no Lord except You. Glory be to You!

Surely, I have been one of those who did injustice to their own souls.’” [^5] In this case, Prophet Yunus meant that he had been wrong to himself, but wrongdoing one’s self is neither a sin nor a mistake. His “wrongdoing to himself” was being impatient with his followers and fleeing from them when they persisted in rejecting his call to worship Allah. They ridiculed him and thus he left them to face their grave destiny.

Most of the verses of the Noble Qur’an which might imply that the committed a sin have deeper hermeneutic interpretations. Not all of the verses of the Qur’an are meant to be taken literally; in-fact deeper meaning lies behind many of them. “It is He who has sent down to you the Book. In it are verses which are entirely clear. They are the foundations of the book. And (there are) others that are not entirely clear (i.e.