The Origin of Perfumes

1. A number of our people have narrated from Sahl ibn Ziyad from Ali ibn Hassan from Musa ibn Bakr who has said the following: “Abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), has said, ‘When Adam (a.s.), came down from the garden (paradises) at al-Safa’ and Eve on al-Marwah, she wore a hairstyle from the garden (paradise) with the perfume of the garden (paradise). When she turned on earth she said, ‘I have no hope in this hairstyling while I am being angered at.’ She opened her braid. The perfume from her hairstyling that she had done in the garden (paradises) spread and the wind blew it away. The majority of it fell in India, thus perfume is in India.”’ A number of our people have narrated from Ahmad ibn abu ‘ Abd Allah from Ali ibn Hassan a similar Hadith. In another Hadith it is said that ‘. . . ‘her braid’ . . . ‘ Allah sent on what was there (in her braid) of perfumes a wind which blew to the east and west, thus the origin of perfume is thereof.

Translation: Muhammad Sarwar·Thaqalayn link·The Arabic above is the original.

2. A number of our people have narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from Ja‘far ibn Yahya from Ali al-Qasir from a man who has said the following: “I once asked abu ‘Abd Allah, Alayhi al-Salam, about the origin of perfumes and from where it has come. He (the Imam) asked, ‘What do people say about it?’ I replied, ‘They think that when Adam, Alayhi al-Salam, came down from the garden (paradises) he had a crown on his head.’ He (the Imam) said, ‘By Allah his preoccupation and trouble was beyond his condition to have a crown.’ He (the Imam) then said, ‘Eve wore a hairstyle in the garden (paradises) with perfumes before falling in the mistake and when she came down on earth she opened her braid and Allah, most High, sent a wind on what was in her braid. It blew the perfume to the east and west, thus, the origin of perfume is thereof.’”

Translation: Muhammad Sarwar·Thaqalayn link·The Arabic above is the original.

3. Ali ibn Muhammad from Salih ibn abu Hammad from al-Husayn ibn Yazid from al-Hassan ibn Ali ibn abu Hamzah from Ibrahim who has said the following: “Abu ‘Abd Allah, Alayhi al-Salam, has said that when Allah sent Adam, Alayhi al-Salam, down, he began to hold the leaves of the garden (paradises) to himself, and his clothes which were of the dresses of the garden (paradises) that he wore flew away from him. He picked up a leaf to cover his private parts. When he came down the perfume of that leaf trapped in India; the wind from the south blew and its perfume reached to the west. It carried the perfume of the leaf in the air. When the wind became stagnant in India, it adhered to its trees and their plants. The first animal that grazed on such a plant was a deer of musk and from that is musk in the bellybutton of the deer; the fragrance of the plant moved in her body and blood until it gathered in the bellybutton of the deer.’”

Translation: Muhammad Sarwar·Thaqalayn link·The Arabic above is the original.