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.
Source
to be continued . . . . .
