What Forbidden Fruit Did Adam Eat?
After creation of Adam and Eve and their settlement in paradise, God told them they can eat whatever fruit they wish but must not get close to one tree. “To Adam We said: ‘Dwell with your wife in Paradise and both eat of it as much as you wish and wherever you will. But neither of you should come close to this tree or else you shall both become transgressors.’” (Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 35)
However, Satan deceived them and they ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, and as a result, they were banished from paradise.
The forbidden tree has also been mentioned in two other verses of the Quran: Verse 19 of Surah Al-A’raf and verse 120 of Surah Taha.
But the Quran does not say what tree it was and what fruit it had. In Hadiths and Quran interpretations, there are two main views on this:
1- Apparent interpretation: Some interpreters have considered the apparent meaning of the word tree and named different fruits such as grapes, wheat, fig, dates, etc. Some may ask wheat is not a fruit of tree. The answer is that in Quranic terms, Shajar (tree) refers to different kinds of plants. For example in the story of Hazrat Yunus (AS), the Quran says “… and We caused a pumpkin tree to grow over him.” (Surah As-Saaffat, verse 146)
Recently, in the popular culture, sometimes it is said that the forbidden fruit was apple. This view comes from the Western culture that sometimes consider apple as the symbol of temptation and the original sin. But none of Islamic Hadiths and interpretations have referred to apple as the forbidden fruit.
In some Hadiths, when asked about the tree and its fruit, the Infallible Imams (AS) have been quoted as saying that the fruits in paradise are not like those here because in paradise the faithful can wish for any fruit from any tree and it will produce the desired fruit.
2- Non-Apparent Interpretations: In the Quran, the word Shajar (tree) has once been used to mean something other than its apparent meaning: “…We showed you and the condemned tree, mentioned in the Quran, as a trial for the human being.” (Surah Isra, verse 60) Some interpreters say the forbidden tree is not a real tree either but is something else, such as envy or things like that. Some say, for example, that Adam (AS) learned about the sublime status some of his descendants will achieve and wished their status be his and the forbidden tree was this very wish.
