How does Islam see original sin? How does a Muslim attain salvation?

We have in the Qur'an,

“O You who believe, turn to Allah in sincere repentance, so perhaps your Lord will expiate your sins for you, and enter you into paradise, under which rivers flow…”[1]

And as the Prophet (ﷺ) has said,

“One who repents from sin is like one without sin.”[2]

Adam and Eve were created with a basic belief in Allah, as all human beings were created with that same basic belief. And when they were placed in the world, the paradise, in which there was one sinful act they could do: eating from a forbidden tree. Their act of disobedience is symbolic of our disobedience throughout our lives. They were human beings, they were and we are; they committed sin, and we do. But Allah (سبحانهُ وتعالى) who knew before He created them that they were going to eat from the tree. He taught them, He taught Adam and Eve words of repentance.

“Then Adam received from his Lord [some] words,…”[3]

So when they turned to Allah in repentance, when Adam and Eve turned to Allah in repentance, Allah forgave them.  So the sin, the disobedience which they made ended there. It was not something which as the Christian tradition holds it: it is inherited generation after generation, we are born sinners. That is basic Christian belief: we are all born sinners. And the sin of Adam and Eve, when added to the sins of all those who came after them, had become so great that it was no longer possible for anyone to escape that sin, then, according to their belief system, God had a son who was himself, who came to the earth, born of a woman, growing as a child, young person to adulthood, and then he was sacrificed. Human beings slaughtered him. His life was sacrificed to God himself, in order to remove the sins of human kind. This is their belief. It is quite ludicrous when you stop and think about it. But people believe all kind of things. And this is the belief of, may be a third of the world, almost a third of the world holds this belief. It is big.

Our belief is that: no, that was not the original sin, and that sin was not handed down. Salvation is in the hands of each and every individual. It is attainable by turning to God in repentance.  We do not need a confessor, a priest to whom we confess our sins, whose sins might be far more than ours. We do not need a confessor. He does not have the means or the ability to forgive our sins. Only God forgives sins.

Repentance is something that each and every one of us has in our reach.

References:

[1] [Qur’an 66:8]

[2] [Narrated by Ibn Maajah, 4250]

[3] [Qur’an 2:37]