Deconstructing the First Phase of the Story of Creation Based on the Role of Binary Opposites: A Comparative Study of Scriptures of the Qur’an, Torah, the Bundahishn, and the Selections of Zadsparam

Binary opposites always play an essential role in transferring the meanings of narratives; meaning is produced and transferred through the structure and interrelations of binary opposites. Some structuralists believe that all narratives are founded on a fixed structure of binary opposites. Based on the role of binary opposites, this study compared narratives related to Creation in the texts of the Bundahishn, the Selections of Zadsparam, the Qur’an and Torah in order to establish the basic structure of the Story of Creation. To this end, first a hypothetical structure was depicted by analyzing the mythemes of the main texts and some other texts. Then, by a thorough re-reading of the selected texts, this structure was set as the verified basis and found the ability to explain the events in the text. Based on this structure, the main binary opposites of the first phase of the Story of Creation are: light/dark and male/female. Four characters, namely, light-male, light-female, dark-male, and dark-female, have been produced by combining these binaries. In the spring chapter of the Bundahishn, these four characters comprise never ending light (Hormozd), material light, never ending darkness (Ahriman), and material darkness. Day, earth, night, and sea play the same four characters in the first chapter of Torah and in the creation story of Adam they come in the names of pre-heaven Adam (spirit), Adam’s wife, Iblis, and angels. Another characteristic of the first phase of Creation is that creation in the light world is only spiritual and no material creation happens.