The story of Adam and Eve is told in the Qur'an. Although it is similar in many ways to what is found in the surviving remnants of the previous scriptures, some important principles differ.
God announced to the angels that He was placing a new specie on earth. God created Adamp, fashioning him from clay. He breathed the soul into Adamp, taught him the names of all things, and created from the same soul his wife, Eve. God allowed them to dwell in Paradise with free will. God said to the angels, "Bow down to Adam" (They did so in a form of respect, not worship). Satan was present among the angels, though he was not one of them. He was of the jinn, a race of beings possessing free will that God created before Adamp from a smokeless flame of fire. When God ordered the angels and those in their company to bow down to Adamp, they all did so except Satan, who refused out of pride and arrogance, claiming to be better than Adamp because he was created from fire, whereas Adamp was created from clay. Indeed, Satan was the first racist.
Satan fell from God's grace. God, The Reckoner, condemned him for his disobedience, but Satan, the accursed, asked God to give him respite until the Day of Judgment (resurrection), so he could make Adamp and his descendants unworthy. Satan said, "Verily I will mislead them and surely I will arouse in them vain desires." God granted him this respite as a trial for humanity. God knows what Satan knows not. It is important to note that there is no way Satan could ever "war" with God, because just like everything else, he is God's creation. Satan exists only by God's will; he is completely under God's power. If God did not want Satan or his helpers to exist, they would not be able to remain in existence for even a moment.
Islam does not give Satan any share of God's divinity. It does not attribute to him any godlike or divine qualities. Islam rejects the notion that Satan went to war with God and took a third of the hosts of Heaven with him. Satan is an avowed enemy of humanity, but he is merely a creature, absolutely dependent upon God for his very existence.
Though prideful, accursed, and fallen from the grace of God, Satan serves a purpose. God wanted humans to have free choice between right and wrong. He granted human beings an innate ability to recognize The Creator and turn to Him. The human being is considered to be originally good by nature, born pure in the state of Islam (submission). Satan and his hosts order evil and oppose good, seeking to misguide humanity, his avowed enemy, into evil and idolatry, away from monotheism, righteousness, and the path of God. God, The All Wise, invites Muslims to enjoin good and forbid evil. Because we exercise free will, by resisting the temptation of Satan, humans can attain a great level of honor.
After Adam had learned the names of all things, along with their properties and uses, Allah presented them to the angels and said: "Tell Me the names of these if you are truthful." (Ch 2:31 Quran) the angels admitted their inability: "Glory be to You, we have knowledge except what You have taught us. Verily it is You the All Knower, the All Wise." (Ch 2:32)
Allah Almighty then turned to Adam: "O Adam! Inform them of their names, " and when he had informed them of their names, He said: "Did I not tell you that I know the unseen in the heavens and the earth, and I know what you reveal and what you have been hiding?" (Ch 2:33).
Allah wanted the angels to know that He knew of their astonishment when He had told them about the creation of Adam and that He also knew of their confusion which they had not revealed, as well as what Iblis had concealed of his disobedience and ingratitude.
The angels realized that Adam was the creature who knew what they did not know and that his capacity to learn was his noblest quality. His knowledge included knowledge of the Creator which we call faith or Islam, as well as the knowledge he would need to inhabit and master the earth. All kinds of worldly knowledge which are included in this.
