Were there many Adams, and did they all receive the same prohibition not to approach the tree?

No. The idea of many Adams does not refer to earlier humanities that all received the same instruction from God. It refers to the beginnings of ever new stages of life, which finally led to the Adam to whom God gave His guidance.

Some understand the idea of a great many Adams to mean that countless humanities existed before us, each with its own prophet and its own religion. But if so, they would have left traces. A civilisation with religion, law and community does not vanish from history without a trace. Nor is it said anywhere that these Adams founded religions.

A different understanding is far more fitting. It describes the development of life. Life has passed through many stages. Each time a new species or a new form of life emerged, there was a beginning, a first representative or a few. In the language of the Holy Qur’an, the founder of such a new stage can be called Adam.

Looking back from any of these stages, the newcomer would have seemed the most advanced of all, as if an Adam had been born. Yet all these beginnings were only approaches to the real goal. The first verse above shows this order: God brought human beings into being, gave them shape, and only then is Adam mentioned.

Only this Adam was able to understand God’s guidance. God granted him knowledge, as the second verse says. The story of the tree and the prohibition belongs to him, the beginning of human beings who can receive revelation. The earlier stages received no such instruction, because they were not yet ready for it.