35 Preface وَقُلنا يا آدَمُ اسكُن أَنتَ وَزَوجُكَ الجَنَّةَ وَكُلا مِنها رَغَدًا حَيثُ شِئتُما وَلا تَقرَبا هٰذِهِ الشَّجَرَةَ فَتَكونا مِنَ الظّالِمينَAhmed AliAnd We said to Adam: “Both you and your spouse live in the Garden, eat freely to your fill wherever you like, but approach not this tree1 or you will become transgressors. The story of Adam presents the allegorical odyssey of man. He is here warned against oppositions. Shajara means opposition, mutually involved, and tree, the archetypal symbol og life. ‘Aduwwun means distant, not united, hence enemy. There is a perpetual antagonism between the sexes; and man and woman are both one another’s opposite and complement, one being ‘sweet’, the other ‘brine’, (25:37).