هابيل
Hābīl
Prophet
The son of Adam who was killed by his brother, in the Quran’s story of the first murder.
What it means
The Quran tells the story without naming the brothers (5:27–31). One brother’s offering is accepted and the other’s is not. Threatened with murder, the righteous one says: “If you stretch out your hand to kill me, I shall not stretch out mine to kill you; I fear God, Lord of the worlds” (5:28).
What the sources say
The Quran draws a lesson from it in the next verses: whoever kills a person, except for murder or corruption in the land, is as if he had killed all mankind, and whoever saves a life is as if he had saved all mankind (5:32). It addresses this to the Children of Israel and states it as a principle for everyone.