Eve · Hawwa
Eve in Islam
Eve is Hawwa in Arabic, written حَوَّاء. The two names belong to the same person, and the two traditions tell her story differently enough to be worth reading side by side.
- English
- Eve
- Arabic
- حَوَّاء
- Read as
- Hawwa
- Status
- Named in Islamic tradition, not in the Quran
- Where the English comes from
- Hebrew Chavvah, from a root meaning to live.
- What the Arabic carries
- Hawwa, from the same sense of living; the mother of humanity.
- Full name page
- Hawwa on AsrNaam
Is Eve the same as Hawwa? Yes. Eve is the English form and Hawwa the Arabic form of one name. She is not named in the Quran, which calls her the spouse of Adam; the name Hawwa comes from hadith and tradition.
Hawwa in the Quran
Hawwa is not named in the Quran. The text speaks of Adam and his spouse, zawj, throughout the account of the garden, and the name Hawwa comes from hadith and from the wider Islamic tradition rather than from the Quranic text. That is a small fact with consequences, and it is often reported wrongly.
The Quranic account also differs from Genesis in a way that matters. The blame is not placed on her. The verses have Shaytan whispering to them both, both eating, both realising, and both turning in repentance and being forgiven. There is no doctrine of a fall carried down through her.
Hawwa, Hawa and Hava are used as given names across the Arab world, East Africa and the Balkans, and the Swahili Hawa is among the most common girls' names in the region.
Using the name
The full entry for Hawwa carries the Arabic spelling, the Urdu, the pronunciation, the lucky number and the letter-by-letter Ilm ul Huroof reading, along with every romanisation the name is written in.
Questions about Eve and Hawwa
Is Eve the same name as Hawwa?
Is Hawwa mentioned in the Quran?
Does Islam blame Hawwa for the first sin?
Can a Muslim family use the name Hawwa?
Other names the two traditions share
Every one of these is one figure under two names.
Or start from the full list of Biblical names in Islam.