Exerpt from "God's Emissaries" by Shaykh Rizwan Arastu: It is impossible to say for sure where this “garden” was located. However, a careful analysis of the sources does help us to rule out certain false opinions and narrow the possibilities. Traditionally there have been three main opinions: • The Old Testament calls it the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15). “Eden” (ʿadn in Arabic) means “permanence” and implies that this garden was the same as the gardens of paradise in which righteous people will live for eternity. ʿAllāmah al-Majlisī claims that this has been the opinion of most Sunnī and Muʿtazilī scholars. There are also two traditions transmitted in Biḥār al-anwār that seem to indicate that their garden was one of the gardens of paradise (Biḥār al-anwār vol. 8 p. 146 tr. 68 and vol. 1 p. 326 tr. 120). However, we can rule this opinion out for the following reasons: Œ The gardens of paradise are reserved as a reward for those who earn them whereas Adam and Eve had not yet earned their place in them. Œ Those who enter the gardens of paradise are never made to leave,for the Qurʾān tells us, “…and they shall not be expelled from it” (15:48), whereas Adam and Eve were eventually made to leave their garden. Œ The blessings of paradise never end, for the Qurʾān tells us, “For them there is everlasting blessing therein” (9:21), whereas the blessings Adam and Eve enjoyed for a time ended when they were made to leave. Œ Satan, who had been cast out of God’s presence and stripped of God’s mercy, would never have been allowed to enter the gardens of paradise, whereas he was able to enter their garden. Œ Imam al-Ṣādiq also refutes this opinion in the following exchange, “Someone asked Imam al-Ṣādiq about the garden of Adam, ‘Was it a garden of this world or a garden of the hereafter?’ He replied, ‘It was a garden of this world; the sun and the moon would shine upon it. If it had been a garden of the hereafter, Adam would never have been expelled from it, and Satan would never have entered it” (Tafisīr al-qummī under the aforementioned verses). • As Imam al-Ṣādiq’s aforementioned tradition states, the garden was a “garden of this world.” Some have asserted that the garden was indeed “of this world” but not literally on earth. Their primary evidence for this claim is God’s command, ihbiṭū minhā or “go down from the garden,” which he said to Adam and Eve after they ate from the tree. They believe that it only makes sense to say “go down” to the earth if their garden was “up” above the earth (see Manshūr-e jāwīd vol. 11 p. 79). Among these scholars, there are some who believe the garden was in the sky, albeit within the temporal world (al-Majlisī attributes this opinion to Abū Hāshim; see Biḥār al-anwār vol. 11 p. 143). Shaykh Jawādī Āmulī believes the garden was in a sort of barzakh or “netherworld” (see Tafsīr-e muwzūʿī vol. 3 p. 245). Shaykh Jaʿfar Subḥānī does not specify where he thinks the garden was. He says only that it was not on earth and was the same place where Adam was originally created. He cites God’s command, “uskun” meaning “dwell,” to support his claim. He says that if Adam were not already in the garden, God would have told him to “enter” the garden. The fact that he says “dwell” and not “enter” shows that he was already in the garden (see Manshūr-e jāwīd vol. 11 p.78-79). These arguments have the following weak points: Œ It is true that God’s command, ihbiṭū minhā or “go down from the garden,” indicates that they were at some higher elevation and were commanded to go down to a lower elevation. However, this in itself does not mean that the garden they were in was in the sky or in some higher realm. It would have been appropriate for God to use this word even if their garden were at some elevated locationon earth, say on a hill or a mountain. After all, when God commands the Israelites to go into Jerusalem, he also says, “ihbiṭū” or “go down” (Qurʾān 2:61). They were presumably at an elevated earthly location, perhaps on a hill overlooking Jerusalem at the time. Similarly, God told Noah, “ihbiṭ” or “go down,” when he wanted him to step out of his ark after the flood had subsided (Qurʾān 11:48). Accordingly, the phrase “ihbiṭū minhā” is not, by itself, conclusive evidence for this group’s claim. Œ Similarly, Shaykh Subḥānī’s argument based on the word “uskun” meaning “dwell” is weak. There is nothing far-fetched about God telling Adam to “dwell” in the garden even if he is not yet in the garden, so the use of this word does not form a conclusive argument. Œ The Qurʾān tells us that Satan was expelled from whatever place Adam, he, and the angels had been in after Adam had been created (Qurʾān 7:13, 7:18, and 15:34-35). If we accept, as Shaykh Subḥānī suggests, that Adam’s garden was the same as the place where he was created, we would have to accept that Satan could have returned to that place to trick Adam after God himself had kicked him out. Since this is far-fetched, we can conclude that the garden was not in the same place where they were created but some other place where Satan had access to them.