Cain And Abel In The Quran: The Reference To The Fire

The names of Adam's sons who offer sacrifices to God are not mentioned in the Quran itself, but Genesis 4, which would be included in the authoritative texts of Islam since the Torah is affirmed (Surah 5:46) as a whole in addition to some of its commands and stories, provides context that is by extension true on the Islamic worldview.  Both siblings, named Cain and Abel, offer sacrifices, but only the sacrifice of one is accepted, the Bible specifying this as Abel's offering of animal fat (Genesis 4:4).  Cain's sacrifice of fruit from the soil is rejected (Genesis 4:3), perhaps because it did not involve the shedding of blood.  Surah 5:27-31 summarizes parts of this narrative and adds something blatantly absent from the Biblical account.

In both books, one brother murders the other out of anger and likely jealousy.  Genesis says that Cain brought Abel to a field and killed him there.  None of Abel's words leading up to this are mentioned in the text.  In the Quran, Abel warns Cain of the Fire, a name for hell used throughout the Quran.  He tells his murderous brother that he will not kill him in self-defense and that his aggressor will become an inhabitant of the Fire as is the "'evildoers' reward" (5:29).  The corresponding Biblical passage, in contrast, does not mention hellfire at all.  In fact, the entire Old Testament says very little about any kind of afterlife other than that there will be a future resurrection of all people, only the righteous of which will receive eternal life (Daniel 12:2).  The contrast here of eternal life with anything else means the wicked cannot permanently exist in conscious agony.

While there are occasionally other relevant verses in the Old Testament such as Malachi 4:1-3, the New Testament is where the Bible most directly addresses hell, and what it says about the matter is very much unlike the traditionalist stance.  The Fire of the Quran is drastically different from the actual hell of the Bible and is closer to what many Christians assume, based upon popular culture and common statements, the Christian hell is like.  The Fire is not a flame that will reduce sinners to ashes, as 2 Peter 2:6 says will happen to the unrighteous just as it befell Sodom and Gomorrah in this life.  It is not a fire that brings about the second death Revelation 20:15 speaks of.  It is not a means of God killing the soul (Matthew 10:28, John 3:16).

No, the Fire of the Quran is a place where sinners will remain without any chance for escape by annihilation or repentance (Surah 2:81-82).  Islam presents the hope of avoiding hell simply by never committing particularly egregious sins: "But if you avoid the great sins you have been forbidden, We shall wipe out your minor misdeeds and let you in through the entrance of honour" (Surah 4:31).  Still, for those who do not avoid this, there is torment in the Fire (see 4:30 immediately before this).  The Islamic hell is quite different from the Christian hell.  Again, the former is much like what many Christians imagine when they describe eternal suffering in hellfire.  Abel does not touch upon the duration of the pain of the Fire in Surah 5, but other verses do!

Genesis never mentions hell in the story of Cain and Abel or otherwise, only Sheol, the state of all the dead that later passages clarify involves no consciousness at all (Ecclesiastes 9:5-10, Job 3:11-19, and so on).  This is what befalls all people until their resurrection.  As for the final judgment and reward or punishment of the dead, the Bible, from start to finish, clearly teaches that no one lives forever, in torment or not, apart from harmony or reconciliation with God (John 10:29, 1 Timothy 6:16).  Eternal life is granted only to those who align with God by having never sinned or by genuine repentance (Romans 2:7).  This is not how the Quran presents things.  If Islam was true, though eternal conscious torment for any finite sin is unjust by default, everyone lives forever and many would wish they did not.