Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society
2. DUTIES TO SELF
Human Personality and its Functions:
According to the Holy Qur’an, humanity emerged in Creation primarily in the transcendental dimension of existence:
“We (God) said: ‘O Adam! Dwell you and your wife in the Garden; and eat of the bountiful things therein as you wish; but approach not this tree, or else you run into harm and transgression.” (2:35).
At that stage of existence itself, they possessed not only the spiritual but also the rational and the aesthetical dimensions of personality.
The spiritual dimension was there because of the very fact of the transcendental nature of their existence. The existence of the rational dimension has been affirmed thus:
“And He (i.e., God) taught Adam the nature of all things.” (2: 31).
The existence of the aesthetical dimension is established in the very concept of the “Garden” where Adam and Eve lived in innocent enjoyment. Subsequently they fell victim to the Devil’s Deception. After that they appeared in the physical world, which is spatio-temporal, as physical and moral beings:
“Then Satan caused them both (i.e., Adam and Eve) to deflect therefrom and got them expelled from that in which they had been. We (God) said: ‘Get you down all (i.e., let entire humanity commence its descent from the then transcendental stage towards the spatio-temporal, or, the physical, stage of existence), with the spirit of clash between yourselves (that being the condition of all struggle, including the moral). On earth (where you will stay with physical qualities required for a physical environment) will be your dwelling place and provision for a time (i.e., for the duration of each individual’s earthly sojourn)’.” (2:36).
Hence, the human personality and its functions are to be understood in the following terms:
1. The real human personality is spiritual in nature.
Besides 2:35, this fact is also corroborated by the following verse, which speaks, not only of the existence of all human beings— from the first to the last—at the dawn of Creation, but also of the possession of Consciousness—self-consciousness as well as consciousness of the Personality of God—and hence of personality, which is based and built up on conscious, appreciative and non-mechanical response to other personality or personalities:
“And recall that time (at the dawn of Creation and in the ‘world of spirits’) when your Lord took from the children of Adam their posterity from their back, and made them testify as to themselves, saying: ‘am I not your Lord?’ They said: ‘Yes we testify’. (Thus was the Covenant of Monotheism inscribed on every human Soul). That was lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection: verily of this we have been unaware.” (7:172).
Thus, because this event relates to the transcendental world and conditions of transcendental existence, the transcendental, or spiritual nature of the original, i.e., the real, human personality is thereby established.
This fact is further affirmed by the following verses:
“And they ask you regarding the (human) Soul. Say: the Soul proceeds from my Lord’s Amr, or, Command, created by Him, like other things); and of knowledge you have been vouchsafed but little. (Therefore, in spite of its intangibility, or non-physical character, do not doubt its reality).” (17:85).
“Surely there came over Man a period of Time when he was not a thing that could he spoken of (i.e., a thing tangible).” (76:1).
2. The earthly existence of every human being commences when the human Soul, whose original abode is the transcendental world, projects itself into spatio-temporal dimensions and takes on the physical form, even as the personalities of Adam and Eve were projected into the material world (2:36).
The assumption, under the Command of God, of tangibility, i.e., physical form and function, after passing through different stages of evolution, has been directly referred to thus:
“O Man! What has made you careless concerning your Lord, the Bountiful?—Him Who created you, then fashioned you in due proportion, then wrought you in symmetry; (then) into whatever form (or, figure) He willed, He constituted you.” (82:6-8).
3. Then, the human Soul, while retaining its transcendental dimension, viz., function and activity, and centered in devotion to its Source of Existence and Capabilities, namely, God, of Whom it is the vicegerent (2:30), functions in four other dimensions also : namely, physical, rational, moral and aesthetical.
4. Thus: the spiritual, the physical, the rational, the moral and the aesthetical constitute the five dimensions of human personality, and activity relating to all these five should be pursued in a balanced and integrated manner, in order that the human personality may evolve and function in a healthy form on the basis of healthy activity (al-‘amal al-saleh)
“O you who believe! Enter into Submission wholly (i.e., adopt the Way of Life consisting of total submission to the Will of God with the totality of your life).” (2:208).
“For those who believe and practice al-salihat (i.e., engage in healthy activity according to God’s Law and with comprehensiveness and integration) is a reward that will never fail.” (41:8).
“… and healthy (or, righteous) activity does He exalt (thereby raising the practiser of healthy activity, or, righteousness, to higher and higher levels of his personality).” (35:10).
5. Moral activity being thus a part of an empire of Activity, which forms an organic Whole, it cannot be taken up with genuine & rational enthusiasm, and cannot be pursued consequentially— namely, cannot lead to the proper enrichment of the human personality,—unless it is grounded in the very foundation of human personality, which is spiritual in nature and transcendental in its reach and scope, and also unless all the other aspects of human activity are properly coordinated with it.
Such being the Qur’anic view, it is necessary that the Qur’anic Moral Code should be viewed not only in the essentially moral perspective but also in the background of those spiritual, physical, intellectual and aesthetical duties that have a direct or indirect bearing on the moral life of a human being—moral life as it is conceived in the strict sense.
Categories of Duties to Self.
The above discussion leads us to the following five categories of Duties to Self:
A. Duties as Spiritual Being:
1. Duties with reference to God: • Duties of Commission;
• Duties of Omission.
2. Duties with reference to the Holy Prophet, (in whom God’s Blessings and Peace abide!)
• Duties of Commission;
• Duties of Omission.
3. Duties with reference to the Angels:
• Duties of Commission;
• Duties of Omission.
B. Duties as Physical Being:
• Duties of Commission;
• Duties of Omission.
C. Duties as Rational Being:
• Duties of Commission;
• Duties of Omission.
D. Duties as Aesthetical Being:
• Duties of Commission;
• Duties of Omission.
E. Duties as Moral Being:
• Duties of Commission;
• Duties of Omission.
to be continued . . . . .
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