MAN AND ISLAM/Dr. Ali Shariati

MAN AND ISLAM/Dr. Ali Shariati

This is another article by Shariati. This speech is translated by Dr. hamed Algar and pulished in the book 'On Sociology of Islam'. Again this is rather long article with a very relavant message.

This is another article by Shariati.

This speech is translated by Dr. hamed Algar and pulished in

the book 'On Sociology of Islam'. Again this is rather long

article with a very relavant message.

MAN AND ISLAM

(A translation of Insan va Islam, a lecture given by Dr. Ali Shariati at

the Petroleum College of Abadan).

The question of man is the most important of all questions. The

civilization of today is based upon humanism, the nobility of man and the

worship of man. It is believed that the religions of the past crushed the

personality of man and compelled him to sacrifice himself to the gods. 

They forced him to regard his own will as totally powerless when

confronted by the will of God. They compelled him always to be seeking

something from God by way of prayer, supplication and entreaty. The

philosophy of humanism is, then, a philosophy that, since the Renaissance,

has opposed religious philosophies -philosophies founded on belief in the

unseen and supranatural realm- and its aim has allegedly been to restore

nobility to man. The roots of humanism lie in Athens, but as a universal

philosophy, it has become the basis of the modern civilization of the

West. In reality, it arose as a reaction to scholastic philosophy and

medieval Christianity.

My purpose tonight is to examine -within the limits of my capability

and the present occasion- the question of man from the viewpoint of our

religion, Islam, and to seek an answer to the question: what kind of a

phenomenon does Islam see in man? Does it see in man a powerless creature

whose ultimate aim and ideal is to stand helpless before God? Does Islam

deny man all notion of nobility? Or, on the contrary, does belief in

Islam itself impart a form of nobility to man, and acknowledgement of his

virtues? This is the topic I wish to discuss.

In order to understand the place of "humanism" in different

religions, and the concept of man that each of them holds, it is best to

study the philosophy of man that each has set forth. However, I do not

have the opportunity now to examine all the religions of East and West

from this point of view. I will speak only of the philosophy of creation

that exists in Islam and those pre-Islamic religions of which Islam is the

continuation -the religions of Moses, Jesus and Abraham.

How is the creation of man explained in Islam or the Abrahamic

scriptures, of which Islam is the culmination and perfection? Can we

deduce the status and nature of man from the manner in which the creation

of man is described in the Qur'an, the Word of God, or in the words of the

Prophet of Islam? From examining the story of Adam -the symbol of man- in

the Qur'an, we can understand what kind of a creature man is in the view

of God and therefore in the view of our religion. By way of introduction,

let me point out that the language of religion, and particularly the

language of the semitic religions, in whose prophets we believe, is a

symbolical language. By this we mean a language that expresses meaning

through images and symbols -the most excellent and exalted of all the

languages that men have ever evolved. Its value is more profound and

eternal than that of expository language, i.e., the clear and explicit

language that expresses meaning directly. A simple and straight forward

language, one deprived of all symbol and image, may be easier for purposes

of instruction, but it has no permanence. For, as the celebrated Egyptian

philosopher Abdar-Rahman Badawi has pointed out, a religion or philosophy

that expounds all of its ideas and teachings in simple, one dimensional

and straightforward language will not be able to survive. Those addressed

by religion or philosophy represent different human types and classes-both

the common folk and the educated. The audience of a religion is,

moreover, not a single generation or age, but different and successive

generations which follow upon each other throughout history. They

inevitably differ with each other with respect to way of thought, level of

thought, and angle of vision. The language that a religion chooses in

order to convey its concepts must, then, be a versatile and multi-faceted

language, each aspect and facet of which addresses itself to a particular

generation and class of men. If the language be monofaceted, it will be

comprehensible only to a single class, and totally without value for all

other classes; accessible to one generation, but beyond the reach of the

next. It will be impossible to extract any new meaning from it. It is

for this reason that all literary works written in symbolic language are

immortal. For example, the poems of Hafez are immortal, and whenever we

read them we deduce a new meaning from them, in proportion to the depth of

our though and taste and outlook. But the history of Bayhaqi is something

different, as is, too, the Gulestan of Sa'di. When we read the Gulestan,

its meaning is quite apparent to us, and we enjoy verbal beauty and

structure. But many of the ideas it contains are outmoded, precisely

because it is clear what Sa'di had to say and what he had to say is false!

But the style of Hafez is multifaceted and symbolical; depending on his

taste and manner thought, everyone can interpret its symbols in a certain

sense, thus deducing new meanings from the text.

It is for this reason that religions must employ a symbolic

language; they are addressed to different human types and different

generations of men. There are numerous concepts in religion that were not

clearly understood at the time of appearance. If religion had NOT, on the

one hand, expressed its ideas in common, familiar language, it would have

been incomprehensible to the people of that age; but if it HAD expressed

its ideas in common language, religion would had no meaning in later

times. It was therefore necessary that religion should speak in images

and symbols that would become comprehensible with the development of human

thought and science. Symbolism represents the highest of styles in

European literature -symbolism, which is the art of speaking in symbols

and images and concealing profound ideas in images that apparently mean

something else but have an significance that man can discover in

accordance with his own degree of profundity.

It was necessary, then, that the story of the creation of Adam, of

man, be told in symbolic fashion, so that today, after fourteen centuries

of progress in the human and natural sciences, it should still be readable

and comprehensible. 

How was man created, in the view of Islam?

First God addresses the angels, saying, "I wish to create a

viceregent for Myself upon earth." See how great is the value of man

according to Islam! Even the post-Renaissance humanism Europe has never

been able to conceive of such exalted sanctity for man. God, Who in the

view of Islam and all believers, is the greatest and most exalted of all

entities, the creator of Adam and the master of the cosmos, addresses the

angels and presents man to them as His viceregent. The whole mission of

man according to Islam becomes evident from this divine address. The same

mission that God has in the cosmos, man must perform on earth as God's

viceregent. The first excellence that man possesses is, then, being God's

representative on earth.

The angels cry out saying, "You wish to create one who will engage

in bloodshed, crime, hatred and vengeance-" (Since before Adam, there had

been other men who, like the man of today, busied themselves in bloodshed,

crime, corruption and sin, and the angels wished to remind God that if He

were to create man again and grant him a second opportunity on earth, man

would again engage in bloodshed and sin. But God replies, "I know

something that you do not know," and then sets about the task of creating

man.

It is at this point that the symbolic aspect of the narrative

begins. See what profound truths concerning man are hidden beneath these

symbols! God desires to create a viceregent for myself out of earth, the

face of the globe. One might expect It the most sacred and valuable of

materials would have been selected, but God chose, on the contrary, the

lowest of substances. The Qur'an mentions on three occasions the

substance from which man was fashioned. First it uses the expression

"like potter's clay" (55:14); that is, dry, sedimentary clay. Then the

Qur'an says, "I created man from putrid clay" ( 15:26), foul and evil-

smelling earth; and finally it uses the term tin, also meaning clay (6:2,

23:12). So God set to work, and willed to create a viceregent for

Himself; this precious viceregent He created out of dry clay, and then He

inhaled some of his own spirit into the clay, and man was created.

In human language, the lowest symbol of wretchedness and baseness is

mud. No creature exists in nature lowlier than mud. Again in human

language, the most exalted and sacred of beings is God, and the most

exalted, sacred and noble part of every being is its spirit. Man, the

representative of God, was created from mud, from sedimentary clay, from

the Iowliest substance in the world, and then God inhaled into him not his

blood or His body -so to speak- but His spirit, the most exalted entity

for which human languages possess a name. God is the most exalted of

beings, and His spirit is the most exalted entity conceivable, the most

exalted concept that could ever arise in the human mind.

Thus man is a compound of mud and divine spirit, a bi-dimensional

being, a creature with a dual nature, as opposed to all other beings which

are one-dimensional. One dimension inclines to mud and lowliness, to

stagnation and immobility. When a river overflows, it leaves behind a

certain muddy sediment that lacks all motion and life, and the nature of

man, in one of its dimensions, aspires to precisely this state of

sedimentary tranquility. But the other dimension, that of the spirit, as

it is called in the Qur'an, aspires to ascend and to mount up to the

highest summit conceivable -to God and the spirit of God.

Man is composed, then, of two contradictory elements, mud and the

spirit of God; and his splendor and importance derive precisely from the

fact that he is a two-dimensional creature. The distance between his two

dimensions is the distance between clay and the spirit of God. Every man

is endowed with these two dimensions, and it is his will that enables him

to decide either to descend toward the pole of sedimentary mud that exists

in his being, or to ascend toward the pole of exaltation, of God and the

spirit of God. This constant striving and struggle takes place in man's

inner being, until finally he chooses one of the poles as the determinant

for his destiny.

After thus creating man, God taught him the names. (As will be

apparent to you, I am paraphrasing the verses of the Qur'an as I proceed.)

What does this teaching of the names mean? It is not yet certain.

Everyone has expressed a certain opinion, and every commentator has

suggested his own in interpretation. Everyone has interpreted it according

to his own outlook and way of thought. But whatever be the correct

explanation, there can be no doubt that the verse centers on the notion of

teaching and instruction. When the creation of man was completed, God

thought his viceregent the names so that man became a possessor of the

names. Then the angels cried out in protest, "We were created of

smokeless fire and man was created of clay; why do you prefer him to us?"

And God replies, "I know something you do not know; fall down at the feet

of this two-dimensional creature of mine." All the angels of God, great

and small, are commanded to fall down in prostration before this creature.

This is true humanism. See how great is the dignity and stature of

man; so great, indeed, that all the angels, despite their inherent

superiority to man and the fact that they are created of light while he is

created of mud and clay, are commanded to fall down before him. God tests

them because of their protest, and asks the angels concerning the names;

they do not know the names, but Adam does know them. The angels are

defeated in this test, and the excellence of Adam -which lies in his

knowledge of the names- becomes apparent. This prostration of the angels

before Adam serves to clarify the Islamic concept of man. Man knows

certain things that the angels do not know, and this knowledge endows man

with superiority to the angels despite the superiority of the angels to

man with respect to race and origin. In other words, the nobility and

dignity of man derive knowledge and not from lineage.

Another point to be considered is the creation of woman from rib of

man, at least according to the translations usually made from the Arabic.

But the translation "rib" is incorrect, and the word so translated has the

real meaning, in both Arabic and Hebrew, of "nature, disposition or

constitution." Eve -that is, woman- Was created, then, out of the same

nature or disposition as man. Since the word has been mistranslated as

"rib," the legend arose that woman was created from the left rib of Adam,

and therefore all women are lacking one rib!

A great man like Nietzsche said that man and woman were created as

totally separate creatures, and only came to resemble each other because

of their constant association through history. The ancestries of man and

woman he held to be different. Almost all scholars and philosophers have

conceded that man and woman are of the same stock, yet they have tried to

belittle the nature of woman and present the nature of man as superior.

But the Qur'an says, "We have created Eve from the same nature or

disposition as Adam; man and woman proceed from the same substance."

Another remarkable matter concerning the creation of man that God

summons all of his creation, all the phenomena of nature such as inanimate

objects, plants, animals, and tells them, "I have a trust that I wish to

offer to all of you heavens, mountains, oceans and beasts." They all

refused to accept it, and instead, man accepts it. It is thus clear that

man has another virtue and excellence, deriving from his courageous

acceptance of the Trust that God offered to all beings and they rejected.

Man is not only the viceregent of God in this world and on this earth, but

also -as the Qur'an makes clear- the keeper of His Trust. Now what is the

meaning of the Trust? Everyone says something different. Maulana Jalal

ad-Din Rumi says that the Trust means man's will, his free will, and this

is also my opinion.

It is by means of his will that man attains superiority over all

other creatures in the world. He is the only being able to act counter to

his own instinctual nature, something no a plant can do. For example, you

will never encounter an animal voluntarily engaging in a two-day fast, or

a plant committing suicide out of grief. Plants and animals can neither

render great services nor commit treachery. It is not possible for them

to act in a way different from that in which they have been created. It

is only man who can rebel against the way in which created, who can defy

even his spiritual or bodily need: against the dictates of goodness and

virtue. He can act either in accordance with his intelligence or in

opposition to it. He is free to be good or to be evil, to resemble mud or

to resemble God. Will is, then, the greatest property of man, and the

affinity between God and man is apparent from this fact.

For it is God Who inhales into man some of His own spirit and makes

of him the bearer of his Trust, and man is not merely the viceregent of

God upon earth but also His relative -if the expression be permitted. The

spirits of God and man both possess an excellence deriving from the

possession of will. God, the only entity and being possessing an absolute

will and capable of doing whatever it wishes, even in contradiction to the

laws of the universe, inhales some of His spirit in man. Man can act like

God, but only to a certain degree; he can act against a laws of his

physiological constitution only to the extent permitted by his similarity

to God. This is the aspect held in common by men and God, the cause of

their affinity-free will, the freedom for man to be good or evil, to obey

or rebel.

The following conclusions can be drawn with regard to the philosophy

of the creation of man in Islam: All men are not simply equal; they are

brothers. The difference between equality and brotherhood is quite clear.

Equality is a legal concept, while brotherhood proclaims the uniform

nature and disposition of all men; all men originate from a single source,

whatever their color.

Secondly, man and woman are equal. Contrary to all the philosophies

of the ancient world, man and woman were created out of the same substance

and material at the same time and by the same Creator. They share the

same lineage, and are brothers and sisters to each other, descended from

the same mother and father.

Thirdly, the superiority of man to the angels and the whole of

creation derives from knowledge, since man learned the names and the

angels fell in prostration before him; despite the superiority of their

descent to that of man, they were compelled to humble themselves before

him.

More important than all this, man's being stretches out over the

distance between mud and God, and since he possesses will, he can choose

either of the two opposing poles these represent. Again since he possesses

will, a certain responsibility comes into being. From the point of view

of Islam, man is the only being responsible not only for his own destiny

but also for the fulfillment of a divinely entrusted mission in this

world; he is the bearer of God's Trust in the world and in nature. It is

he who has learned the names -and, in my opinion, the proper meaning of

"names" is the truths of science, since the name of a thing is its symbol,

its defined, conceptual form. The teaching of the names by God means,

therefore, the bestowal of the ability to perceive and comprehend the

scientific truths inherent in the world. Through this primordial

instruction by God,man gained access to all the truths existing in the

world, and this constitutes a second great responsibility for man. Man

must fashion his destiny with his own hands. Human society is responsible

for its own fate, and the human individual is responsible for his own

fate: "Yours is what you acquire and theirs is what they acquire '

(Qur'an, 2:134). The fate of past civilizations is no more and no less

than what they brought down on themselves, and your fate will consist

exactly of what you are now fashioning with your own hands. Man thus has

a great responsibility toward God, since he possesses free will.

Here we must add this observation, that history has witnessed a

great tragedy; namely, man has not been recognized as a two-dimensional

being. In contrast with other religions that posit God and the Devil to

exist within nature in mutual combat, Islam teaches that only one force

exists in nature -the force of God. But within man, Satan wages war

against God, and man is their battlefield. The dualism of Islam, unlike

religions of the past, posits the existence of two "deities," hypostases,

in the inner being and disposition of man, not in nature. Nature knows

only of a single hypostasis; it belongs to the realm, and is subject to

the will, of a single power, that of God. In Islam, Satan is not a

contestant with God; he is a contestant against man, or rather against the

divine half of the man. And since man is a two-dimensional creature

composed of God and of clay, he has need of both elements. The religion

and ideology that he needs to believe in and to found his life upon must

fulfill both kinds of need and pay both of them due attention. The tragedy

is that history tells a different tale. History tells us that all

societies and civilizations were oriented exclusively either to the

hereafter and renunciation of this world, or to this world of dust. The

civilization of China began by being oriented to this world, by giving

primacy to pleasure and beauty and striving to enjoy the gifts of nature

to the full, as the life of the Chinese aristocracy testifies. Then came

Lao Tse, bringing a religion exclusively oriented to the hereafter, and

emphasizing in the spiritual and other-worldly dimension of man. Indeed,

he led the Chinese so far in that direction, that a people who had lived

purely for the sake of pleasure became monks, gnostic and mystics. He was

succeeded by Confucius, who oriented society toward this world and

summoned the Chinese to the pleasures of worldly life, causing them to

revert to their former preoccupations.

India, the land of rajas and legends, was oriented to the other

world by the teachings of Vedas and the Buddha, devoting itself to

abstemiousness, monasticism and mysticism. It is for this reason that

India is now famous for men sleeping on beds of nails, or subsisting for

forty days on a single date or almond, for remaining behind the progress

of civilization.

In Europe, ancient Rome devoted itself to murder and bloodshed, to

establishing political mastery of the world, to accumulating all the

wealth of Europe and Asia; it immersed itself in enjoyment and pleasure,

in gladiator fights and the like. Then came jesus, who directed society

to concentrate on the hereafter, so that Rome changed its orientation from

pleasure to worldliness to asceticism and contemplation of the hereafter,

the ultimate result of this being the Middle Ages. The medieval world was

one of war and bloodshed and military ascendance on the one hand; and one

of monasteries, nunneries and retreats, on the other. Europe was

delivered from this orientation only by the Renaissance, which caused the

pendulum to swing in the other direction. Today we see that European

civilization is so worldly in its orientation, and so exclusively defines

the purpose of man's life as pleasure and enjoyment, that, as Professor

Chandel has out it, the life of contemporary man consists of making the

tools of life. This is the idiocy of the contemporary philosophy of man,

the result of a purpose-free technology. The whole meaning of

civilization has been robbed of any ideal, and the world has gone so far

in the direction of worldliness that it almost seems as if another Jesus

were needed.

As is apparent from the philosophy of man in Islam, he is a two-

dimensional being and needs, therefore, a religion will which will also be

two-dimensional and exert its force in the two different and opposing

directions that exist in man's spirit and human society. Only then will

man be able to maintain equilibrium. The religion needed is Islam.

Why Islam?

In order to understand any religion, one must study its God, its

Book, its Prophet, and the best individuals whom it has nurtured and

raised.

First, the God of Islam is a two-dimensional God. He has the aspect

of Yahwa, the god of the Jews, who interests himself in human society, in

the affairs of this world, who is stern, severe in punishment, and

tyrannical, and also the aspect of the God of Jesus, who is compassionate,

merciful and forgiving. All of these divine attributes can be found in

the Qur'an.

As for the book of Islam, the Qur'an, it is a book that like the

Torah contains social, political and military provision, even the

instructions for the conduct of warfare, the taking and setting free of

prisoners, that is interested in life, in building, in prosperity, in

struggling against enemies and negative elements; but it is also a book

that concerns itself with refinement of the soul, the piety of the spirit,

and the ethical improvement of the individual.

The Prophet of Islam also possesses two contrasting aspects, aspects

which would be contradictory in other men, but in him have been joined in

a single spirit. For he was a man constantly engaged in political

struggle against his enemies and the disruptive forces in society,

concerned with building a new society and a new civilization in this

world; and also a guide leading men to a particular goal; that is, also a

man of prayer, piety and devotion.

And then three men trained by him -Ali, Abu Dharr and Salman- were

supreme examples of two-dimensional men. They were both men of politics

and battle, struggling for a better life and constantly present in circles

of discussions and learning, and also men of piety and purity, not less

than the great monks and mystics of the East. Abu Dharr was a man of

politics and piety; the reflections of Abu Dharr concerning the nature of

God can serve as a key to the understanding of the Qur'an. Look at all

the companions of the Prophet; they were all men of the sword, concerned

with improving their society, men of justice, and at the same time, great

men of thought and feeling.

The conclusion I wish to draw is this: in Islam man is not humbled

before God, for he is the partner of God, His friend, thee bearer of His

trust upon earth. He enjoys affinity with God, has been instructed by

Him, and seen all of God's angels fall prostrate before him. Two-

dimensional man, bearing the burden of such responsibility, needs a

religion that transcends exclusive orientation to this world or the next,

and permits him to maintain a state of equilibrium. It is only such a

religion that enables man to fulfill his great responsibility.

y.