How was Adam forgiven?
The answer is: He was forgiven by being granted the right to err. This means that his freedom was not confiscated permanently, with a guardian appointed over him until the end of eternity, as was done with Iblis. Instead, he was permitted to reclaim it and begin exercising what he could bear of it. In this, he operates between error and correctness.
Every time he manages his freedom well, he is granted more of it. If he mismanages it, he bears the consequences of his mismanagement through a retributive punishment corresponding to the sin. This punishment aims to sharpen the powers of his self, enabling it to become more capable than before of bearing the responsibility of freedom at the level where it previously showed weakness.
Moreover, this punishment reflects divine grace as befits Him. He rewards a good deed with ten times its like, and He may multiply it to the extent that it becomes beyond measure. He does not punish a bad deed except with its equivalent, and He may pardon it, or even transform it into a good deed, and then multiply it thereafter to unlimited multiples.
He, Blessed and Exalted is He, says: "And those who do not invoke with Allah another deity or kill the self which Allah has forbidden, except by right, and do not commit unlawful sexual intercourse. And whoever should do that will meet a penalty. Multiplied for him is the punishment on the Day of Resurrection, and he will abide therein humiliated, except for those who repent, believe, and do righteous work. For them, Allah will replace their evil deeds with good. And ever is Allah Forgiving and Merciful." (25:68-70)
And Adam was inspired with words, which he received and recited, and they became a means for his repentance and subsequent forgiveness: "And Adam received from his Lord words, and He accepted his repentance. Indeed, it is He who is the Accepting of Repentance, the Merciful." (2:37) Those words were: "Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves, and if You do not forgive us and have mercy upon us, we will surely be among the losers." (7:23)
This is the forgiveness granted to Adam after he became a rational human being. Adam spent an immeasurable span of time before reaching this higher rank. Allah, Exalted is He, said regarding this: "Has there [not] come upon man a period of time when he was not a thing [even] mentioned? Indeed, We created man from a sperm-drop mixture that We may try him, and We made him hearing and seeing. Indeed, We guided him to the way, be he grateful or be he ungrateful." (76:1-3) This means that there was a distant era in which Adam was not obligated nor held accountable, as he had not yet attained the level of the mind.
We have previously discussed this and mentioned that Allah has directed the course of life, from its emergence between water and clay until it reached the level of the mind, in a manner that was semi direct. Its governing law at that time was the law of retribution in reality. Its proof from the Book of Allah, as previously confirmed, is found in the two noble verses: "So whoever does an atom’s weight of good will see it, and whoever does an atom’s weight of evil will see it." (99:7-8) This is a law that always works to develop goodness and erase evil, guiding life toward the compassionate care of Allah.
This progression through the stages of closeness is the forgiveness granted to Adam, from the point of being a mixed sperm-drop until he became a responsible human being. So what was Adam before this? And how was he forgiven? Listen: "And We certainly created man from an extract of clay. Then We placed him as a sperm-drop in a firm lodging." (23:12-13)
Before Adam became a sperm-drop mixed with clay - a mixed sperm-drop - he was a particle of water vapor, which is the origin of life, as Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, informs us: "Have those who disbelieved not considered that the heavens and the earth were a joined entity, and We separated them and made from water every living thing? Then will they not believe?" (21:30) This particle is the origin of the extract of clay.
Indeed, he was forgiven during this stage through this direct determinism, by willful compulsion, which drove life toward Allah and propelled it toward His proximity. Thus, it ascended the stages and reached the heights. The law governing this divine will is also the law of retribution in reality.
This forgiveness granted to Adam in its various levels is itself determinism. People are determined from the stage of elements to the stage of life, from the stage of primitive life to the stage of advanced, refined, and complex life, and from this to the stage of collective freedom with the entry of the mind into the scene. Then, from the stage of collective freedom to the stage of absolute individual freedom. This determinism continues indefinitely, as it is a journey toward Allah in His absoluteness.
