Did creation on Earth begin before Adam?
Did Life on Earth Begin Before Adam?
The essence and first answer at a glance (60-word summary)
Before Adam (AS), species both similar and dissimilar to him lived on Earth. According to a narration from Imam al-Baqir (AS), God created thousands of worlds and thousands of Adams, and the human beings who exist today are the last of these worlds and generations of Adam.
Answer by Master Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat)
Teacher and researcher in the intellectual tradition of wisdom and the Ahl al-Bayt | Soroush Bamdadān Cultural CenterBefore Adam, there were living beings like humans and unlike them!
عن جابر بن یزید قال: سألت أبا جعفر ع عن قوله عز و جل- أ فعیينا بالخلق الأول بل هم فی لبس من خلق جدید «4» قال يا جابر تأويل ذلك أن الله عز و جل إذا أفنى هذا الخلق و هذا العالم و سكن أهل الجنه الجنه و أهل النار النار جدد الله عالما غير هذا العالم و جدد خلقا من غير فحوله و لا إناث يعبدونه و يوحدونه و خلق لهم أرضا غير هذه الأرض تحملهم و سماء غير هذه السماء تظلهم لعلك ترى أن الله إنما خلق هذا العالم الواحد و ترى أن الله لم يخلق بشرا غيركم بلى و الله لقد خلق الله ألف ألف عالم و ألف ألف آدم أنت في آخر تلك العوالم و أولئك الآدميين.
التوحيد (للصدوق)، ص: 277
Jābir ibn Yazīd relates: “I asked Abū Jaʿfar (AS) about the words of God, Mighty and Exalted: ‘Were We wearied by the first creation? Yet they are in doubt about a new creation.’ He said: ‘Jābir, the interpretation of this verse is that when God, Mighty and Exalted, brings this creation and this world to an end, and the people of Paradise dwell in Paradise and the people of Hell in Hell, God will bring into being a world unlike this world and create a new creation, with neither males nor females, to worship Him and affirm His oneness. He will create for them a land unlike this land to bear them, and a heaven unlike this heaven to shelter them. Perhaps you think that God created only this one world, and that He created no human beings other than you. No, by God! God has created a thousand thousand worlds and a thousand thousand Adams; you are among the last of those worlds and those Adams.’”
Asrār-e Tawḥīd / Translation of al-Tawḥīd by al-Ṣadūq, p. 316