In the name of Allāh,
the Beneficent, the Merciful.
Peace and Blessings of Allāh on Mohammad.
DEDICATED TO
Allāh–the Glorious and the High,
Lord of the worlds
AND TO
Mohammad–who brought the world
to our feet and eternity to our arms.
*

             MAN MADE TO LIVE FOREVER
That God had made man to live forever, as Christians say, implies that man was indestructible; that no one and nothing (not even “kryptonite”) could kill or destroy him. Rather than dig for ancient bones the experts should hunt for this “tree of life.” Perhaps in the past 6,000 years someone has found and eaten from this tree and will live forever.

In Genesis 2:16-17, God instructed Adam that he can eat of “every tree” of the garden, “But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
Referring to Adam’s sin of eating from the forbidden tree, Paul –NOT God or Jesus– states: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned,” “For the wages of sin is death”–(Romans 5:12; 6:23).
   According to Christians, God had made man to live forever but that this “sin” of Adam eating from the forbidden tree is the cause of man being subjected to death, that this sin is passed on to us through our father’s sperm.

   If “the wages of sin is death” and as Christians say Jesus diedforthis“inheritedsin” then all who believe in Jesus should not suffer “death.” But Christians are dying. And will continue to die.
If God had made man to live forever but the Devil beguiling Eve into eating of the forbidden tree upset God’s plan and brought death and suffering into the world then according to Christians Satan caused God to alter His plan to have man live forever and forced God into the afterthought of making Paradise and Hell. (Hell was not initially a prison for rebellious angels¹ ).

   That Adam and Eve eating from the forbidden tree caused “death” to come into the world. The Bible says God created Adam and Eve, the first humans–(Gen. 1:26-27; 2:18-23). And their first children were Cain and Abel–(Gen. 4:1-2). After Cain killed Abel  “Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. And Cain KNEW HIS WIFE; and she conceived”–(Genesis 4:16-17).
   Since Adam and Eve were the first humans and they did not have any other children till later–(Genesis 4:25), there must have been other humans in the land of Nod who were NOT descended from Adam and Eve for Cain to have taken a wife.

   And since Christians say “death” came because Eve and Adam ate from the forbidden tree then the people of Nod, NOT descended from Adam and Eve, would have been free from “death.” In which event the people of Nod are still living and will live forever. (Perhaps researchers can invest some effort to find at least one of these Nodites who should be at least 5,000 years old and have him/her carbon-dated for antiquity. In fact, Nodites should be easy to find considering that they did not descend from Adam and Eve and thus are free from the “wage of sin” and therefore free from “death” earth should have more “immortal” Nodites than the seven billion “mortal” Adamites.

The people of Nod not being of Noah’s people and not being descended from Adam and therefore free of “inherited sin” and thus not subject to dying could NOT have perished in the flood of Noah. Moreover, there is evidence that the Flood was NOT a global occurrence –see Maurice Bucaille, The Bible, The Qur’an, And Science, p.34.
Only Noah’s people perished–Qur’an 25: 37; 29:14-15; 71:21-25. It would have been unjust for God to flood the entire world because of the sins of Noah’s people. Even in our time one area is flooded while surrounding areas are dry –New Orleans and some areas in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are prime examples of flooding).
There is much speculation that Cain’s wife must have been his sister or other female family member. But that’s all it is –speculation. The Bible is clear that it was 130 years after Cain and Abel that Adam had other children, beginning with Seth, their third child. After Cain went to Nod and fathered “Enoch” the Bible says, “And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth; For God, saith she (Eve)hath appointed me  ANOTHER seed INSTEAD of Abel, whom Cain slew” –(Genesis 4:25).
That Adam and Eve did not have any children and certainly not any daughter or extended family for Cain to take as wife is made even clearer in these verses which show that daughters were born more than 130 years after Cain and Abel: “This is the book of the generations of Adam…And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth. And the days of Adam AFTER he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat SONS AND DAUGHTERS: And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died”–(Genesis 5:1-5).
That Adam and Eve must have had other sons, and daughters, in between Cain and Abel because Adam lived 930 years is a poor argument. Abraham lived 175 years and had only eight children –fathering Ishmael with Hagar at the age of 86; Isaac with Sarah at the age of 100 (Sarah was 90); and fathering six children with Keturah after he was at least 137 years old (Sarah died at the age of 127 years and Abraham was ten years older than her)–(Genesis 25:7; 16:16; 17:17; 25:1-2; 23:1). Moses died at the age of 120 years and he had only two children, sons–(Deut. 34: 7; 1 Chron. 23:15). Noah lived 950 years and had only three children, sons–(Genesis 9:29; 5:32; 6:10; 7:13; 9:18; 10:1). And the Bible records Solomon with his thousand wives and concubines as having only  one  son and two daughters–(1 Kings 11:3; Matt. 1:7; 1 Kings 4:11, 15).
That there were pre-Adamites is supported by archaeology and paleontology. Human bones found in Ethiopia –“Kibish River Skull,” 195,000 years old– and human teeth in Israel –400,000 years old– have negated the Biblical view that man is only 5,000 years old.
Cain’s wife, according to Biblical narrative, could only have been a pre-Adamite –a Nodite. And given the Christian belief of inherited sin and vicarious atonement the pre-Adamites, having NOT descended from Adam are, as stated, immortal.

   That this “death” referred to in Genesis 2:16-17 above is NOT physical death but SPIRITUAL death is gleaned from the fact that Adam did not die “in the day”² he ate from the forbidden tree; he lived hundreds of years afterwards to the age of 930 years–(Genesis 5:5).
But Adam and Eve DID “surely die” a SPIRITUAL death –he and Eve were cut off from Divine grace– on the very day they ate from the forbidden tree as they were then cast out from the Garden of Eden:  “And unto Adam He (God) said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree…Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden”–(Genesis 3:17-23).    

   That God did not make man to live forever and that Adam and Eve suffered SPIRITUAL death and NOT “physical” death is further confirmed by God. After Adam and Eve had eaten from the forbidden tree and Eve was decreed to be ruled over by her husband and Adam to toil the ground etc;: “And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to KNOW GOOD AND EVIL: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and TAKE ALSO OF THE TREE OF LIFE, and eat, AND LIVE FOR EVER: Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden.”–Genesis 3:22-23).
The tree that Adam and Eve ate from was the “tree of the knowledge of GOOD AND EVIL” NOT the tree of eternal life. As stated in the verse, God sent away Adam and Eve BEFORE they could eat from the “tree of life” and “live for ever.” (That God was afraid Adam/man would live “forever” shows that God would not have been able to kill or have control over Adam/man. Thus, there would have been no need to fear God and do good. It also shows that if Adam was given life “forever” Adam could not have “died” from eating from the forbidden tree).
Thus, clearly and conclusively, God did NOT make man to “live forever.” “Death” did NOT come into the world because of Adam’s sin. The “wages of sin” is NOT death.
                         As there was/is no inherited sin
there is no vicarious atonement
and no ransom for sins
                   (See Jesus-inherited sin to ascension)

Reasoning also shows that God did not make man to live forever. If God had made man to live forever, today there would be seven billion people (plus those who died since the beginning of creation), and with the billions yet to come earth at some point would likely be over-populated (bearing in mind man was made to fill the earth and there is no birth control and a woman can give birth at least ten times, we would already be crammed). Which over-population would likely have bred its own crimes of “death”: ‘survival of the fittest.’(God would have had to take people to another planet, though He did not say this in the Bible).
   And factoring in animals (not counting the tyrannosaurus rex and brontosaurus and other behemoths) man would become food for some of them, and the earth would have become a dust bowl in the fight for vegetables (if we would have space for agriculture), which would lead to a pandemic of starvation and more cries for “death.”

   As noted, God forbade Adam and Eve to eat of the “tree of knowledge of good and evil;” and after they had eaten “the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew they were NAKED” –(Genesis 3:7). Thus, if God had made man to live forever, according to Christian-belief God had intended to have man ignorant and naked –no better than animals. Which would suggest that man would probably be only eating, praying and hanging around “naked” in an earth that resembled an “al fresco” bordello (as there would be no knowledge of “good and evil”) honoring the command to “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” And maybe breeding his own strain of syphilis, gonorrhea and other STD’s. (Which would give a new slant to Julia Roberts “Eat, Pray, Love”).
   But God could not have made man in His “own image” to have him dwell in ignorance and nakedness–(Genesis 1:27-28).

   Allāh God did not make man to live forever. Allāh created life and death as a trial for us: “Blessed is He in Whose hand is the Kingdom, and He is Possessor of power over all things, Who created death and life that He might try you—which of you is best in deeds. And He is the Mighty, the Forgiving”–(Qur’an 67:2).
Even if God had made man to live forever yet this would not have made Jesus God or son of God or trinity or vicarious atoner or that mankind inherited sin from Adam.
*

                                                    NOTES
1. Hell was not a prison originally made for rebellious angels as Paul claims–[Cf. 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6]. Angels are not disobedient beings: angels carry out the commands of Allāh God–[Qur’an 66:6]. Allāh God, revealed in Qur’an 2:102 about two angels Harut and Marut. To which Muhammad Ali comments:

“According to Sale, the Persian Magi “mention two rebellious angels of the same names, now hung up by the feet with their heads downwards, in the territory of Babel”. A similar story is met with in the Jewish traditions in Midrash. Stories about sinning angels were also believed in by the Christians; see Second Epistle of Peter, ii. 4, and Epistle of Jude, v. 6. Upon these stories seem to be based the lengthy fables of some commentators, but the more learned reject them. Not only does the Qur’ån not contain a word of these stories, but it plainly discredits them by denying that sorcery was revealed to certain angels at Babel, or that angels taught sorcery to men, giving them at the same time the warning, as was the common belief: We are only a trial, so disbelieve not. This statement was added to the story to save the character of the angels as penitents. The Arabic lexicons give the two words Harut and Marut under the roots hart and mart, and explain harata as meaning he rent a thing and  marata as meaning he broke a thing.
The statement made in the Qur’ån amounts to this. The Jews, instead of following the word of God, followed certain evil crafts which they falsely attributed to Solomon and to two angels at Babel. Solomon is declared free of any such sinfulness attributed to him, and the story of the two angels is declared to be a fabrication. But the Jews are blamed for learning from these two sources, i.e., by their fabrications against Solomon and the story of the two angels, things by which they made a distinction between a man and his wife. The personal pronoun  huma  (meaning  two) refers to these two fabrications. The clue to what this was is contained in the words they cannot hurt with it anyone except with Allah’s permission, showing that by this craft they intended to inflict some injury on the Prophet. Similar words are met with in chapter 58 where, after denouncing the secret counsels of the enemies of Islåm, it is said in v. 10: “Secret counsels are only (the work) of the devil that he may cause to grieve those who believe, and he can hurt them naught except with Allåh’s permission”. It is evident that the 58th chapter was revealed at Madinah, where secret counsels of the nature of masonic societies were carried on against the Prophet by the Jews, and these secret counsels are stated to be the work of the devil, the expression being closely parallel to what is stated in the verse under discussion, where the Jews are spoken of as following the devil while ascribing their evil doctrines to prophets and angels. In 58:10 we also see that the object of these secret counsels was to cause hurt to the Prophet and to the Muslims, and the same is stated to be the object of the evil machinations of the Jews in the verse under discussion. These considerations point clearly to the fact that the secret counsels of the Jews mentioned in chapter 58 are referred to here. It is further clear that the words by which they make a distinction between a man and his wiferefer to secret gatherings of the nature of masonic societies, for it is in freemasonry and in no other religious society of the world that women are totally excluded. Instead of mentioning freemasonry itself, therefore, its distinctive characteristic is mentioned. And however untrustworthy may be the old histories of freemasonry, there is no doubt that the institution is an ancient one, “having subsisted from time immemorial” (En. Br.). The statement made in the “Book of Constitutions” that Cyrus constituted Jerubbabel grand master in Judah (En. Br.) may not be without a substratum of truth.” (Muhammad Ali’s translation of the Qur’an is online: www. muslim.org).

2. Psalm 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8 assert that a Divine day equals 1,000 years; but this is not a clear Divine expression.