Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society
7. ESSENTIAL GOODNESS OF MAN’S NATURE:
The Holy Qur’an says:
“Assuredly We have created Man in the best make [1] (having the goodliest nature).” (95:4).
This verse establishes the essential goodness of human nature in contradistinction to ideational culture where Man, has been conceived to have been born either with the stigma of sin or fettered to the chains of re-incarnation; and it proves human competence for pursuing good successfully and fighting evil on individual and collective levels.
The story of Adam may also be mentioned in the present context. That the angels, who are holy and pure, prostrated before him, while Iblees, the embodiment of evil, refused to do so, indicates that, in his very creation, Man has affinity with the angels and thereby with goodness, while evil is set in disharmony with him and, consequently, with his nature.
In short, Man is the goodliest specimen of God’s handiwork, born sinless and with essentially good nature.
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8. CONFLICT IN HUMAN NATURE:
However, essentially good though human nature is, Man has been created to pursue moral struggle and, therefore, while he is capable of scaling the loftiest heights of perfection adequate to his nature, he can also sink to the lowest of the low in Creation, as it has been said:
“Thereafter (i.e., in consequence of wrong use of his opportunities and misuse of his free-will by Man) We (as the Author of the Universal Scheme) abase him (to be) the lowest of the low (—he himself having destroyed his original purity and goodness),—save those who believe and practise righteousness. Theirs shall be a reward unfailing.” (95:5-6).
This double capacity—for moral success and for moral failure— is grounded in the conflict with which human nature has been endowed, as the Holy Qur’an says:
“By the Sun and his (glorious) splendour, by the Moon as she follows him, by the Day as it shows up (the Sun’s) glory, by the Night as it conceals it, by the Firmament and its (wonderful) structure, by the Earth and its (wide) expanse, by the Soul and Him Who gave it proportion and order, and inspired it with the wickedness thereof (which comes through the devil and is developed to a responsible human act by Man’s own free-will) and the piety thereof (which comes through the angels and is developed to a responsible human act by Man’s own free-will), truly he succeeds that keeps it pure and he fails that corrupts it.” (91:1-10).
The conflict between wickedness and piety in the human soul, mentioned above, is there;—and it must have been so, because the moral situation can arise only in a situation of conflict. That conflict develops in the following way:
- On the one side, there is excessive love of instinctive desires in human nature, the reality of which has been emphasised in these words:
“Fair-seeming in the eyes of human beings is the love of things they covet (under the impact of instinctive urges): women and sons, heaped up hoards of gold and silver, horses branded (for blood and excellence), and (wealth of) cattle and well-tilled land. All that is the enjoyment of the life of the world: but in nearness to God is the best of goals.” (3:14).
- On the other side, there is ingrained in the human soul the pursuit of ideals—the highest among them being the ideal of attaining nearness to God, referred to at the end of the above verse. Leading one’s life in the pursuit of noble ideals has been beautifully emphasised in the verses which immediately follow. There, it has been said:
“Say (O Muhammad!): shall I give you glad tidings of things far better than those (i.e. objects of instinctive desires recounted in 3:14)? For the righteous are Gardens in nearness to their Lord with rivers flowing beneath; therein is their eternal home; with companions pure (and holy); and the Good Pleasure of Allah. For in Allah’s sight are all His servants,—(namely) those who say: ‘Our Lord! we have indeed believed, wherefore forgive us our sins and protect us from the agony of the Fire’: those who practise Sabr (i.e., patience, perseverance and self-control), who are truthful, who worship devoutly, who spend (for their fellow-beings), and who pray for forgiveness in the early hours of the morning.” (3:15-17).
It may be observed that, according to the Holy Qur’an, the attraction for the objects of instincts is neither condemnable in itself nor irrelevant to the requirements of the “best make” in which Man has been created. The Qur’anic moral guidance aims at the balanced, appropriate and just satisfaction of both the aspects of human nature— the sentient and the rational [2]—that have been bestowed upon it by its Creator, to which the following verse bears reference through the emphasis on ideal human nature :
“So set your purpose for religion as one by nature upright—the nature (framed) of Allah, in which He has created Man. There is no altering (the laws of) Allah’s creation. That is the right religion (containing the philosophy of human conduct), but most men know not.” (30:30).
It should be noted, however, that, according to the Holy Qur’an, the human self has, as already stated, three stages of, and states in, development:
1. the nafs-al-ammarah,
2. the nafs-al-lawwamah,
3. the nafs-al-mutma’innah,
Now, what renders the pursuit of the instinctive demands questionable is the nafs-al-ammarah,[3] or the Impelling Self, which impels the moral agent to satisfy these demands unchecked, and thus to commit evil, as the Holy Qur’an says:
“… Verily the Self impels to evil, unless my Lord do bestow His Mercy, but surely my Lord is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” (12:53).
Then there is the stage, and the state, of nafs-al-lawwamah or the Reproaching Self, which reproaches when the instinctive demands are fulfilled under the impact of nafs-al-ammarah. The Holy Qur’an refers to nafs-al-lawwÉmah in the following verse:
“And I do call to witness the Reproaching Self.” (75:2).
Therefore, the healthy development of the human self lies in counteracting the evil force of the Impelling Self and conquering it. Once it is conquered, the human self outgrows the torture of self-reproach and becomes nafs-al-mutma’innah or the Beatified Self.[4] The Holy Qur’an refers to the Beatified Self and its reward thus:
“O you Beatified Soul! return unto your Lord well pleased (yourself) and well pleasing (unto Him). Enter you among My Devotees and enter you My Garden.” (89:27-30).
Reverting to the excessive attraction for the objects of instincts, it may be said that the instinctive urges have their respective goals which can be achieved through much less instinctive exertion than what is required by the disproportionately-excessive demand that afflicts an un-balanced personality. Thus, if personality is integrated through tazkiyah, and the necessary minimum fulfilment of—instead of excessive indulgence in—the instinctive urges becomes the guiding light of human conduct, the surplus energy available thereby can be utilised in the pursuit of higher values—that being necessary for all cultural development and progress.
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[1] Note that taqwem means: make, mould, symmetry, form, nature, constitution.
[2] The conflict between these two aspects of human nature may present a difficult situation only to those—like the Christians, the Buddhists and the Hindus—according to whom not the wrong manner of fulfilling the instinctive wants but the instinctive wants themselves are evil.
[3] “Ammarah” signifies : prone, impelling, headstrong, passionate.
[4] Lit, Self-at-Peace: the self in complete satisfaction and free from all pain and sorrow.
to be continued . . . . .
Quranic Foundation & Structure Of Muslim Society In The End Times
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