One fundamental principle of Islam that Muslims proudly talk about is the lack of the concept of “original sin”, where one bears the burden of someone else’s sins.

As the Qur’an says,

“That no bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another. That no bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another”

[Qur’an 53:38-39]

Muslim scholars like Ibn Kathir and At-Tabari explain that the burden here is the burden of sins.

Allah also says,

“O you who have believed, upon you is [responsibility for] yourselves. Those who have gone astray will not harm you when you have been guided. To Allah is your return all together; then He will inform you of what you used to do.”

[Qur’an 5:105]

Contrast this with the concept of “original sin” in Christianity, which explains that because Prophet Adam (peace be upon him) ate from the tree, all of his children carry his sin. This concept was started by Paul and became a core belief of many strands of Christianity, including Catholicism and Protestantism. Notables such as Saint Augustine and Martin Luther believed in this. Thus, according to them, newborns – who did not even do a single conscious deed – have the burden of carrying the sin of someone thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of years ago. Contrast that with Islam, where a newborn is considered pure and sinless.

Allah says in the Qur’an, in Surah Al-Ahzab:

“Allah does not place two hearts inside of any man…”

[Qur’an 33:4]

This is an Ayah whose language is easy to understand and appreciate. As you can see, God excludes women from this Ayah. Allah used the word “rajul” to specify men, even though the rest of the passage does mention women. Also, the Qur’an often uses the word “insan” to mention humans in general, but in this passage, He did not.

Lastly, here the word “jawf” is used to speak about the entire body rather than just the chest, even though Allah commonly uses phrases like with the word “chest” in the Qur’an.

So what’s going on? We know that all human beings, regardless of their stages, will have one heart in their chests. However, when talking about the body as a whole, is there a situation where a person has more than one heart in his or her body? Of course! When women get pregnant! Thus, this Ayah is using subtlety in language and the right words for both “man” and “body” to explain that even though this Ayah has a metaphorical meaning, even scientifically, there are never two hearts anywhere inside of a man. The change of either word would be minimal and not truly change the overall metaphorical meaning. However, Allah uses the right combination of words so perhaps even those picky and super technical can’t make an argument against it.