Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society
THE PHILOSOPHY OF UNITY
(8) Unity of Truth:
God has stated the basic Truth in His Revealed Guidance, and has invited His vicegerents, the human beings, to experience the Truth through their observation. Truth does not have different facets; it is one-sided. But its observation through the finitude of human senses and reason gives only partial views which relate to infinitesimally small portions of the whole and are, in the very nature of the case, discrete. However, even the minute and partial views, if interpreted in the scientific spirit, i.e., objectively and without the distortion of the image through the intrusion of subjectivity, are bound to corroborate the Revealed Truth. In other words, true Religion and true Scientific Approach to Truth stand in the relation of unity.
(9) Unity of Religion:
The Holy Qur’an teaches that, God being One and humanity being one, Divine Guidance in terms of Religion has not been confined to any particular chosen race. Rather, entire humanity has been blessed with it during the course of human history (13:7; etc). Nor could it be different for different communities. This gives the principle of unity in respect of Divine Revelation. Also, this teaching provides the venue of appeal to the religions of the world for casting off the shells of later accretions, perversions and distortions brought into existence by human ignorance, ingenuity, or vested interests, and returning to the original Message in the light of reason and with the assistance of the Qur’anic Revelation,—finally bringing about the unification of religions in the Divine Truth and paving the way to the unity of mankind.
(10) Unity of ‘Love’ and ‘Law’:
‘Love’ functions as the ‘soul’ and ‘Law’ functions as the ‘body’ of the human code of Conduct; and, in the Qur’anic view, genuine flowering of the human personality is possible only when ‘Love’ and ‘Law’ function in organic unity in the life of a person.
(11) Unity of Mankind:
Coming to human beings: God, the One, has created them all; and He originated the existence of the human species on the earth through one original pair of man and woman. This gives us the Qur’anic principle of the Unity of Mankind, in which all prejudices of race, colour, caste and sex are obliterated and the only principle of distinction in respect of status is achievement in terms of spiritual and moral character and knowledge. As regards respect for human dignity, it is, in the Qur’anic view, the birthright of every human being.
(12) Principle of Unity in respect of the Sexes:
Although man and woman are different in respect of some of their functions, and consequently in some of their organs, they have emerged, according to the Holy Qur’an, from a single primeval Self. In their basic human nature and status, therefore, they are united in the bond of humanity:—they are one and the same, and even in their functions they stand out as complimentaries and not as the negation of one another. Consequently both possess, equal human dignity.
(13) Unity of Human Personality :
With reference to the human personality, the Holy Qur’an emphasises its organic wholeness. The human being is a unitary being, with the soul, the mind and the body and their different dimensions of existence and behaviour, forming an integrated organic Whole—a Unity. This Qur’anic view gives rise to the Qur’anic ideal of the integration, wherein all the dimensions of human personality: the physical, the moral, the rational, the aesthetical and the spiritual, have to be developed comprehensively and harmoniously in order to achieve the Divine Purpose with regard to human destiny.
It may be emphasised here that, similar to what we have noticed in the case of the cosmos, the human being also emerges, in the Qur’anic view, as a being who is ‘space-less’ and ‘time-less’ in his origin and constitution. Namely, he originated in a dimension of existence which transcends ‘space’ and ‘time’, or, in other words, in the transcendental dimension—a dimension akin to the fifth dimension of the five-dimensional continuum in which we find an electron during its jump from one orbit to the other. And his essential constitution is in terms of what is called ‘soul’ in popular language. As for the birth and the death of the human being on the earth, the Qur’anic view may be stated in scientific terms thus. In respect of birth : The soul projects itself, under the Will of God, in the ‘dimension of time’, bringing about the existence of the mind, which is temporal. Then, beyond that, it projects itself into the ‘dimension of space’, bringing about the existence of the body, which is spatiotemporal. At the time of death, the soul resumes its purely transcendental state of existence,—of course, carrying within itself the effects of its earthly career.
(14) Unity in respect of ‘Freedom’ and ‘Determinism’:
According to the Holy Qur’an, man is neither the abject slave of inexhorable Fate, as the ancient oriental philosophy would have it, nor completely self-determined—the sole maker of his destiny, as the atheistic existentialism of the modern West teaches. Affirmation of inexhorable Fate bars the way to all moral struggle,—in fact, to all struggle for improvement, because every sentiment and every idea and every desire of every human being is conceived to be predestined. On the other hand, the view that man is completely free plunges him in the terror and the agony of being infinitely lonely—and that with all the human weaknesses—in what is regarded as an alien and hostile world. Both of these views end in the philosophy, of Pessimism, which is pure poison in relation to human happiness and progress.
The Holy Qur’an steers clear of both the above-mentioned standpoints and gives us a view whereby it harmonises the concepts of Freedom and Determinism. It teaches that when God created man, He endowed him with personality as well as freedom—a freedom which, though not absolute, is, nevertheless, adequate to human nature. Then it teaches that God has not abandoned man to himself. Man has been made the vicegerent to function in harmony with God, Who is the real Architect of man’s destiny. As such, God is man’s constant ‘companion’, and God and man both participate in the making of man’s destiny. This ‘Mutual Participation’ forms the medium wherein Freedom and Determinism stand out in unity.[1]
to be continued . . . . .
Quranic Foundation & Structure Of Muslim Society In The End Times
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