What was the first thing that was ever created? If this question intrigues you, then here are the excerpts from the book “They Ask You About the Spirit”:
The first creation that God the Exalted and Almighty created is the human: {The Abundantly Merciful ✶ Taught the Quran ✶ Created man} Quran Chapter “The Abundantly Merciful” 55:1-3.
Then He created the creation from the first human. This first human is the manifestation of divinity within the creation. It is the first intellect, the first created spirit, and the spirit of God: {Thus We have revealed a spirit of Our command unto you. You did not know what is the Book or [what is] faith, but We have made it a light by which We guide whom We will of Our servants. And indeed, you guide to a straight path} Quran Chapter “The Consultation” 42:52.
Al-Ahwal said: “I asked Abu Abdullah pbuh about the spirit that is in Adam
pbuh, when God says: {And when I proportioned him and breathed into him of my Spirit} [Quran Chapter “The Rocky Tract” 15:29 and “Saad” 38:72] . The Imam said: ‘This spirit is created, and the spirit within Jesus is created’” ( Al-Kulayni, Al-Kafi [The Sufficient Book] vol 1, 133, Chapter of the Spirit, 1944).
Some of our companions narrated from Ahmed Ibn Muhammad Ibn Isa, who narrated from Al-Hajal, who narrated from Thalaba that Himran said: “I asked Abu Abdullah pbuh about the saying of God the Exalted and Mighty {of My Spirit} [15:29, 38:72] . He said: ‘It is a spirit of God that is created. God created it within Adam and Jesus'” ( Al-Kulayni 1944. Al-Kafi [The Sufficient Book] vol 1, 133, Chapter of the Spirit).
The Greatest Spirit & Prostration of Angels
Thus the spirit of God, or the spirit that the angels had prostrated to when it was breathed into Adam’s raised wet clay and manifested in his loins, is the greatest spirit—Muhammad— may God’s prayers and peace be upon him and his progeny {So, when I have fashioned him and breathed into him of My Spirit, then fall down to him, prostrating”} Quran Chapter “The Rocky Tract” 15:29 and “Saad” 38:72.
Thus, the prostration in the verse {So fall down to him in prostration} is to
the greatest spirit, or Muhammad, pbuhap. He is the first Qibla (direction) for knowing God the Exalted and Almighty. The prostration of the angels to Adam pbuh never happened until after some of the first spirit, Muhammad, pbuhap, was breathed into Adam.
The spirit that the people ask about [in the verse] would face them and they would face it in this world through the body of Muhammad pbuhap, yet they did not know. {And they ask you about the spirit. Say, “The spirit is of the affair of my Lord. And I have not been given of knowledge except a little”} Quran Chapter “The Night Journey” 17:85.
Jabir, son of Yazid narrated, “Abu Jafar pbuh said to me: ‘O Jabir, the first
ones that God created were Muhammad pbuhap and his progeny. They are the guides and the guided ones. T hey used to be apparitions of light before God.’ I then asked: ‘What are these apparitions?’ He said, ‘They are the shadows of the light—luminous bodies without spirits.2 He was supported with one spirit, which is the Holy Spirit. By it, he and his progeny used to worship God , and thus He created them humble, knowledgeable, benevolent, and pure—worshiping God through prayer, fasting, prostrating, glorifying, tahleel (reciting that there is no God but the one true God), performing their prayers, observing Hajj, and fasting'”
( Al-Kulayni 1944. Al-Kafi [The Sufficient Book] vol 1, 442).
Click here to read more about the origin of creation and the reality of human soul in the book “They Ask You About the Spirit”.