Prophet Adam AS was created by God, he then created Lady Hawa and they had children. So How did the children have families?
Some people like to guess and try to invent stories in order to explain gaps in their knowledge. This can lead to all sorts of problems and is intellectually dishonest. Some people just guess at Islam’s position and then criticise it, known as a straw man. So what does Islamic sources say about this matter?
My father narrated to us, from Muhammad Bin Yahya Al Ataar, from Al Husayn Bin Al Hasan Ibn Aban, from Muhammad Bin Urwa, from Al Nowfaly, from Ali Bin Dawood Al Yaqouby, from Al Hassan Bin Maqatal, from the one who heard Zarara saying:
‘Abu Abdullah (a.s) was asked about the beginning of the offspring from Adam (a.s), how was it, and about the beginning of the offspring from the offspring of Adam (a.s), for there are people among us who are saying that Allah Mighty and Majestic Revealed unto Adam (a.s) to get his daughters to be married to his sons, and that, this people (today), all of them, their origin is from the brothers and the sister?’
So Abu Abdullah (a.s) said: ‘Allah is Higher than that, Higher, Greater! The one who said this is saying that Allah Majestic and Mighty Created the elite of His creatures, and the ones Beloved to Him, and His Prophets, and His Rasools, and the believing men, and the believing women, and the Muslim men, and the Muslim women unlawfully, and did not have the ability to Create them lawfully, and He has Taken the Covenant upon the Lawful, and the Purified, and the good.
And Allah has (even) Informed some of the animals that it should keep away from its sister. So when it descends upon it and when it find out that it is its sister, grabs it by its teeth until it cuts it, so it falls down dead. And it also dislikes (copulating) with its mother and it acts in the same way. So how can the human being (do this) forgetting his preference and his knowledge? But, a generation from these people which you are seeing have turned away from the knowledge of the Household of their Prophets and took from where they had not been Ordered to take it from, thus they became what you have been seeing, from the straying and the ignorance with the knowledge. How it was with the things in the past, from the beginning of the Creation of Allah what He Created, and (this is) what it will be happening, forever’….’
‘…Then he (a.s) established in narrating to us, how the offspring of Adam (a.s) began, and how the offspring began from his offspring. So he (a.s) said: ‘There were born unto Adam (a.s), seventy pregnancies (of Hawwa (a.s)), in each pregnancy was a slave and a maid (boy and a girl) up to the killing of Habeel. So when Qabeel killed Habeel, Adam (a.s) was aggrieved upon Habbeel with such grief that he cut off from the women. So he remained not copulating with Hawwa (a.s) for five hundred years. Then his grief which was with him subsided, so he copulated with Hawwa (a.s), and Allah Granted to him, one thing, and there was no second along with it (single birth, not twins).
And the name of Shees (a.s) was Hibtallah (a.s), and he was the first one who was bequeathed to, from the human beings, in the earth. Then there was born unto him Yafas (a.s), not having a second with him. So when they became aware (adults), Allah Mighty and Majestic Intended that their offspring to reach what you are seeing, and since the Pen had flowed from Prohibiting what Allah Mighty and Majestic had Prohibited, from the sisters upon the brothers, after some time, on the Day of Thursday, Caused a Hourie to descend from the Paradise, her name being Nazalat.
So, Allah Mighty and Majestic Commanded Adam (a.s) that he should get her married to Shees (a.s). So he got her to be married to him. Then, after some time, a Hourie descended from the Paradise, her name being Manzalat. So Allah the High Commanded Adam (a.s) that he should get her to be married to Yafas, so he got her to be married to him. A boy was born unto Shees (a.s), and a girl was born unto Yafas. So Allah Mighty and Majestic Commanded Adam (a.s), when they attained awareness (adults), to get the daughter of Yafas to be married to the son of Shees (a.s). So he did it. Thus the elites from the Prophets, and the Rasools (a.s) were born from their offspring. And God Forbid, that that happened upon what they are saying, from the brothers and the sisters’.
Source : Ilal al-Shara’ī of Shaykh al-Saduq, and we have a shorter version of this hadith in Man La Yahdaruhu al-Faqih by Shaykh al-Saduq.
Grading: Sahih as per Allama al-Majlisi in Rawdat al-Muttaqun
There are many more reports of a similar nature, for examine in the famous book, Stories of the Prophets (Hayat al Al Qaloob). Suffice to say the matter is clear. A scholar was asked the same question, by the name of Sayed M. Baqer Al-Qazwini his reply was as follow:
The majority of them (scholars), believe that Allah sent a heavenly female (probably a Hoor Al-Een) down to Earth who married Habeel. On ther other hand, He created a female Jinn and she married Qabeel. Some people might object that if this were the case, then we humans are a mix of “Jinns and Hoor Al-Een.” I see that, if this view is correct and established, there is no problem with that. So what if we are a mix of humans, Jinns and Hoor Al-Een. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with it. (No wonder my so many men are motivated to do any righteous act in return for Hoor Al-Een in Heaven. The Qur’an contains many references to Hoor Al-Een. They might run in our blood!) Once Habeel married the heavenly female and Qabeel married the female Jinn, their children, who were cousins of each other, married each other and that is how we got here.
Some sources and narrations that confirm this view:
1) Mustadrak Al-Wasael by Al-Noori, vol. 14, pg. 362.
2) Behar Al-Anwar by Al-Majlisi, vol. 11, pg. 227-28.
3) Qasas Al-anbia by Al-Jaza’eri, pg. 65-66.
Summary
The Islamic position is that Adam and Hawa were not the only human beings created, God made others and sent them for humanity to start a community.