Lecture 10

Man in the al Quran and the Sunnah


Islamic Vision of Man

The concept of man is very important in Islamic worldview. It is important to know who we are, where have we come from and where we are going to in order for us to have a meaningful and a satisfactory life on earth.

These three important questions has been occupying the minds of man since the dawn of history, and has been answered in various ways either in a terms of religious worldview, philosophical worldview or scientific worldview.

All these worldviews agree that man is different from any other kind of animal. Man has been distinguished to have these three important characteristics: knowledge and creativity, virtue and morality, free choice and discretion.

From the western scientific worldview, however, although man possesses all these characteristics, another characteristic that is more important than these is the animal nature of man. Man, ultimately, is just like any other animal, and the origin of man is also from an animal.

This theory is called the theory of evolution and one of the important founder of this theory is Charles Darwin (d. 1882), with his work such as Origin of Species and The Descent of Man.

The Islamic worldview, on the other hand, accepts that man has this animal nature, which is called النفس الحيوانية (the animal soul). This part of man is what man shares with other animals, but he has another part that is more important than this, which is called النفس الناطقة (the rational soul). It is this latter part of man that differentiate man from animal, and which carries those distinguished characteristics: knowledge, virtue and freewill.

Some of the important characteristics of man in the Islamic worldview:

We are born clean, with our natural disposition (فطرة), with the best disposition (95:4), and God himself breath His Spirit into our body (15: 29).
“Allah then perfected the creation of man and breathed into him of His Spirit. It is Allah who created your hearing, your sight and your discerning heart. Little do you feel grateful” (32:4).

“When thy Lord drew forth from the Children of Adam—from their loins—their descendents, and made them testify concerning themselves, (saying): “Am I not your Lord (who cherishes and sustains you)?”—They said: “Yea! We do testify!” (This), lest ye should say on the Day of Judgement: “Of this we were never mindful,” (7:171-172).

Our Prophet SAW said, “There is no child but is born upon nature (فطرة ). Then his parents make him a Jew or a Christian or a Magian,” (Mishkat al-Masabih, 3:131).
All human beings share this fitrah, since all of us come from the same origin, and has been created by the one and only Creator, Allah SWT, as in “O mankind, fear your Lord Who created you all of a single soul,” (4:1).

Each human being share these qualities of fitrah:

1. The capacity to acknowledge the existence of God.
2. To differentiate between good and bad.
3. To have all the important characteristics that distinguished him from all other animals: knowledge, virtue, freewill, love, empathy, and aesthetic qualities.
4. Biological instincts such as appetitive and sexual desires, and emotional instincts such as anger and ferocity.

“By the soul, and the proportion and order given to it. And its enlightenment as to its wrong and its right,” (91:9-10).

Fitrah is a quality of our soul, which Muslim scholars called it by various terms: ruh, qalb, nafs and aql.
“When I have fashioned him (in due proportion) and breathed into him of My spirit,” (15:29).

Our Prophet SAW said, “Beware, in the body there is a piece of flesh; if it is sound, the whole body is sound, and if it is corrupt, the whole body is corrupt, and behold, it is the heart,” (al-Bukhari).
“He granteth wisdom to whom He pleaseth; and he to whom wisdom is granted receiveth indeed a benefit overflowing; but none will grasp the Message but men of understanding.” (2:269)

The term nafs is used in three different categories of the soul:

1. Al-nafs al-ammarah bi ‘l-su’: “Nor do I absolve my own self (of blame): the (human) soul is certainly prone to evil, unless my Lord do bestow His Mercy: but surely my Lord is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful,” (12:53).
2. Al-nafs al-lawwamah: “I do call to witness the Resurrection Day. And I do call to witness the self-reproaching spirit,” (75:1-2).
3. Al-nafs al-mutma’inah: “(To the righteous soul will be said:) “O (thou) soul, in (complete) rest and satisfaction! Come back thou to thy Lord,—well pleased (thyself), and well-pleasing unto Him!” (89:27-8)

Some scholars divided the nafs into two parts: النفس الناطقة (the rational soul), which is derived from the word نطق (nataqa), to talk, to speak, to articulate, and النفس الحيوانية (the animal soul).
“Truly he succeeds that purifies it. And he fails that corrupts it,” (91:9-10).

Man is an honorable creature: “We have honored the sons of Adam; provided them with transport on land and sea; given them for sustenance things good and pure; and conferred on them special favours, above a great part of Our creation,” (17:70).

Human beings are being honored to be created from His own Spirit (15:29), and being endowed with wisdom and knowledge of all existing things, as in “And He taught Adam the nature of all things; then He placed them before the angels, and said: “Tell me the nature of these if ye are right,” (2:31).

And the angels have to bow down to a human being, our Prophet Adam AS, “And behold, We said to the angels: “Bow down to Adam” and they bowed down. Not so Iblis: he refused and was haughty: he was of those who reject Faith,” (2:34).

We are honored to represent all Allah’s creation in this universe as His vicegerent (خليفة ): “Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: “I will create a vicegerent on earth.” They said: “Wilt Thou place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood? While we do celebrate Thy praises and glorify Thy holy (name)?” He said: “I know what ye know not”,” (2:30).

All Allah’s creatures are subjected to man, “Seest thou not that God has made subject to you (men) all that is on the earth, and the ships that sail through the sea by His command?” (22:65)

The most honorable position that a human being must attain to is to be an ‘abd or servant of Allah SWT: “I have not created the jinn and humankind but to serve Me,” (51:56).

All our actions in life should be as an act of ibadah towards Allah SWT.
Our Prophet Muhammad SAW was accorded this highest honor when he is referred to in this verse as a servant of Allah SWT, “Yet when the servant of God stands forth to invoke Him, they just make round him a dense crowd,” (72:19).

“Not one of the beings in the heavens and the earth but must come to (God) Most Gracious as a servant,” (19:93).

Only human beings have being honored to carry His trust (الأمانة ), excluding all other creatures of Allah SWT, “We did indeed offer the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains; but they refused to undertake it, being afraid thereof: but man undertook it; he was indeed unjust and foolish,” (33:72).

To uphold amanah is to perform all our duties and responsibilities as a human being in the most justly manner, which is in the most perfect manner, i.e., at the level of ihsan (احسان), which is in the manner of our Prophet Muhammad SAW.

The word امانة comes from the root verb امُن (amuna), which means to be faithful, to be trustworthy, and امن (amina), which means to be safe, to feel safe. And to be trustworthy is امين (amin).

Hence, failing to uphold this trust is zulm (ظلم ): “How many were the populations We utterly destroyed because of their iniquities, setting up in their places other peoples?” (21:11), “They said: “Ah! Woe to us! We were indeed wrongdoers!” (21:14).

“On no soul do We place a burden greater than it can bear: before Us is a record which clearly shows the truth: they will never be wronged,” (23:62).

We are also being honored to be His khalifah. Khalifah comes from the root word خلف (khalafa) which means to succeed, to come after, to substitute, to replace.

Being a khalifah of Allah SWT implies two important criteria:


We are representatives of Allah SWT on His other creatures. We are being honored to be able to utilize other creatures of Allah SWT, but at the same time we are their guardians, and have the responsibility of managing their affairs. Other creatures of Allah SWT include other human beings and the natural world.

Our relation to other creatures of Allah SWT must be in accordance with the rules and order that has been set by Him.

Allah’s Rights on us is over our rights on other human beings. Allah’s Rights on us is over our rights on the natural world.

These duties and responsibilities to other human beings and the natural world have been set by Allah SWT, which in Islam is called as muamalah.

Hence being a khalifah is an ibadah towards Allah SWT, i.e., as being His ‘abd.

Thus the role of being a khalifah is subsumed under the role of being an ‘abd.

But we are also forgetful ( نسيان ) and heedlessness (غفلة ). We forget our covenant (ميثاق ) before we come to this world, that Allah is our one and only God, (Surah al-A’raf, 7: 172).

The term insan (انسان) comes from the root انس (anisa), which means to be companionable, to be sociable, to be friendly, and also from the root نسى (nasiya), to forget, as the Prophet (SAW) says, man is composed of forgetfulness ( نسيان ) and in Surah Ta Ha (20: 115).