EDEN. Arabic ʿAdn (عدن), which al-Baiẓāwī says means “a fixed abode.” The Hebrew עֵדֶן is generally understood by Hebrew scholars to mean “pleasure” or “delight.”
The word ʿAdn is not used in the Qurʾān for the residence of our first parents, the term used being al-jannah, “the garden”; although the Muslim Commentators are agreed in calling it the Jannatu ʿAdn, or “Garden of Eden.” The expressions, Jannatu ʿAdn, “the Garden of Eden,” and Jannātu ʿAdn, “the Gardens of Eden,” occur ten times in the Qurʾān, but in each case they are used for the fourth heaven, or stage, of celestial bliss. [[PARADISE].]
According to the Qurʾān, it seems clear that Jannatu ʿAdn is considered to be a place in heaven, and not a terrestrial paradise, and hence a difficulty arises as to the locality of that Eden from which Adam fell. Is it the same place as the fourth abode of celestial bliss? or, was it a garden situated in some part of earth? Al-Baiẓāwī says that some people have thought this Eden was situated in the country of the Philistines, or between Fāris and Kirmān. But, he adds, the Garden of Eden is the Dāru ʾs̤-S̤awāb, or “the House of Recompense,” which is a stage in the paradise of the heavens; and that when Adam and Eve were cast out of Paradise, Adam fell on the isle of Ceylon, or Sarandīb, and Eve near Jiddah in Arabia; and after a separation of 200 years, Adam was, on his repentance, conducted by the Angel Gabriel to a mountain near Makkah, where he knew his wife Eve, the mountain being thence named ʿArafah (i.e. “the place of recognition”); and that he afterwards retired with her to Ceylon, where they continued to propagate their species.
Muḥammad T̤āhir (Majmaʿu ʾl-Biḥār, p. 225), in remarking upon the fact that in the Traditions the rivers Jaihūn and Jaihān are said to be rivers in “the garden” (al-Jannah), says the terms are figurative, and mean that the faith extended to those regions and made them rivers of paradise. And in another place (idem, p. 164) the same author says the four rivers Saiḥān (Jaxartes), Jaihān (Jihon), Furāt (Euphrates), and Nil (Nile), are the rivers of Paradise, and that the rivers Saiḥān and Jaihān are not the same as Jaihūn and Jaihān, but that these four rivers already mentioned originally came from Paradise to this earth of ours.
EDUCATION. Education without religion is to the Muḥammadan mind an anomaly. In all books of Traditions there are sections specially devoted to the consideration of knowledge, but only so far as it relates to a knowledge of God, and of “God’s Book.” (See Ṣaḥīḥu ʾl-Buk͟hārī, Bābu ʾl-ʿIlm.) The people who read the “Book of God” are, according to the sayings of the Prophet, described as “assembling together in mosques, with light and comfort descending upon them, the grace of God covering them, and the angels of God encompassing them round about.” The chief aim and object of education in Islām is, therefore, to obtain a knowledge of the religion of Muḥammad, and anything beyond this is considered superfluous, and even dangerous. Amongst Muḥammadan religious leaders there have always been two classes—those who affect the ascetic and strictly religious life of mortification, such as the Ṣūfī mystics and the Faqīrs [[FAQIR]]; and those who, by a careful study of the Qurʾān, the Traditions, and the numerous works on divinity, have attained to a high reputation for scholarship, and are known in Turkey as the ʿUlamāʾ, or “learned,” and in India, as Maulawīs.
Amongst Muḥammadans generally, a knowledge of science and various branches of secular learning is considered dangerous to the faith, and it is discouraged by the religious, although some assert that Muḥammad has encouraged learning of all kinds in the Qurʾān, by the following verse, [Sūrah ii. 272]:—
“He giveth wisdom to whom He will, and He to whom wisdom is given hath had much good given him.”
Mr. Lane, in his Modern Egyptians, says: “The parents seldom devote much of their time or attention to the intellectual education of their children; generally contenting themselves with instilling into their young minds a few principles of religion, and then submitting them, if they can afford to do so, to the instruction of a school. As early as possible, the child is taught to say, ‘I testify that there is no deity but God, and I testify that Muḥammad is God’s Apostle.’ He receives also lessons of religious pride, and learns to hate the Christians, and all other sects but his own, as thoroughly as does the Muslim in advanced age.”
In connection with all mosques of importance, in all parts of Islām whether in Turkey, Egypt, Persia, or India, there are small schools, either for the education of children, or for the training of students of divinity. The child who attends these seminaries is first taught his alphabet, which he learns from a small board, on which the letters are written by the teacher. He then becomes acquainted with the numerical value of each letter. [[ABJAD].] After this he learns to write down the ninety-nine names of God, and other simple words taken from the Qurʾān. [[GOD].] When he has mastered the spelling of words, he proceeds to learn the first chapter of the Qurʾān, then the last chapter, and gradually reads through the whole Qurʾān in Arabic, which he usually does without understanding a word of it. Having finished the Qurʾān, which is considered an incumbent religious duty, the pupil is instructed in the elements of grammar, and perhaps a few simple rules of arithmetic. To this is added a knowledge of one Hindustanī, or Persian book. The ability to read a single Persian book like the Gulistān or Bostān, is considered in Central Asia to be the sign of a liberal education. The ordinary schoolmaster is generally a man of little learning, the learned Maulawī usually devoting himself to the study of divinity, and not to the education of the young.
Amongst students of divinity, who are called t̤alabatu (sing. t̤ālib) ʾl-ʿilm, or “seekers after knowledge,” the usual course of study is as follows: aṣ-ṣarf, grammatical inflection; an-naḥw, syntax; al-mant̤iq, logic; al-ḥisāb, arithmetic; al-jabr wa ʾl-muqābalah, algebra; al-maʿna wa ʾl-bayān, rhetoric and versification; al-fiqh, jurisprudence; al-ʿaqāʾid, scholastic theology; at-tafsīr, commentaries on the Qurʾān; ʿilmu ʾl-uṣūl, treatises on exegesis, and the principles and rules of interpretation of the laws of Islām; al-aḥādīs̤, the traditions and commentaries thereon. These are usually regarded as different branches of learning, and it is not often that a Maulawī, or ʿĀlim, attains to the knowledge of each section. For example, a scholar will be celebrated as being well educated in al-aḥādīs̤, but he may be weak in al-fiqh. The teacher, when instructing his pupils, seats himself on the ground with his hearers all seated round him in a ring. Instruction in mosques is usually given in the early morning, after the morning prayer, and continues some three or four hours. It is again renewed for a short time after the mid-day prayer.