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
