DR. MUMTAZ ALI wonders whether it is ethical on the part of man to go against Allah, our first Teacher, when He explained everything about our origin, purpose of life and worldview and reminded us about it again and again by sending Messengers so that we can adopt the right course of thinking and action.
We human beings are proud of ourselves. We are capable to produce technology. We are in a position to conquest space and discover new worlds. We are able to transplant organs in human bodies. Heart surgery is no more a difficult job. We have conquested seas and built up buildings atop the hills. Our high rising buildings, we feel, demonstrate our ability, power and control over many things of this world. Production of weapons of mass destruction has caused us to become arrogant. We want to control week people, communities and nations. We are in comfortable zone. Our confidence in our own faculties has brought us in a totally different age. We have developed so much knowledge and sciences. Our joy seems to be justifiable. We celebrated just 16 years ago the beginning of the third millennium with firecrackers and lightings all over the world.
Quite contrary to our perception of self-sufficiency, human autonomy, and pride in our own faculties, Allah – our Lord, Creator and Sustainer Who is All-Knowledgeable, All-Wise and All-Powerful, comments in the Qur’ān that we have “only a little knowledge”[17: 85]. Moreover, Allah made it clear that the perception of self-sufficiency, human autonomy, and pride in our own faculties is nothing but self-deception. He says it is He Who created us and taught us, granted us all faculties. Nothing is our own. “Recite in the name of your Lord Who created, created man from a clot of congealed blood. Recite: and your Lord is Most Generous, Who taught by the pen, taught man what he did not know [96: 1-5].”
The truth and reality of our capability and faculties is manifestly revealed to us. It is reminded to us that surely we transgress our limits because we falsely understand that we are autonomous and self-sufficient. “Nay, surely man transgresses; for he believes himself to be self-sufficient [96-6-7]”. It is again reminded at some other place in the Qur’ān that it is Allah Who “taught Adam the names of all things [2: 31]”. It is Allah Who has created man and even “taught him articulate speech [55: 3-4]”. He shows us “the right way, even when there are many crooked ways” [16: 9}. “Say: “It is Allah alone Who guides to the truth”. Then, who is more worthy to be followed – He Who guides to the truth, or he who cannot find the right way unless others guide him to it? What is wrong with you? How ill do you judge! [10: 35]”.
We are further told that it is He Who teaches us the Right Way and has full knowledge of everything [2: 282]. Hence, we are advised to “put our trust in Allah: Allah is sufficient as Guardian [33: 3} “…Allah proclaims the truth and directs us to the Right Path [33: 4}”. We are again told in the Qur’ān that our Lord – Allah – suffices us as a Guide and a Helper [25: 31]”. We even acknowledge and accept that “Glory to You! We have no knowledge except what You taught us. You, only You, are All-Knowing, All-Wise. [2: 32]
Allah is the First Teacher of Us – Allah Taught Us about Himself and the Universe.
Allah taught us means He gave us ability to understand the true nature of things so that we can benefit from them. He also granted us revealed knowledge and guidance through revelation after our birth. Revealed knowledge given to us by Allah goes against all the so-called social contract theories of classical and modern periods and also to the Laws of Three Stages of Human Evolution claimed by a sociologist, August Comte, who assumes that we began our life in the darkness of polytheism and that in the course of time, corresponding to our progress, this darkness gradually receded and light increased till we arrived, passing by several stages, in the era of Enlightenment and science and technology.
The Qur’ānic version, however, proclaims that we began our life in full light of the knowledge of Truth. Allah revealed this Truth to the very first man Adam. Allah created one to whom He intimated the right way of life. The first human being was not born in a state of ignorance and darkness as we are told in our universities. On the contrary, he/we began his/our life in the broad daylight of revealed knowledge and divine guidance. We had, from the very beginning, revealed knowledge of reality and truth of life and the world. We were cautioned by Allah Who asked us: “Get you down from [Paradise] here, all of you, and guidance shall come to you from Me: then, whoever will follow My guidance need have no fear, nor shall they grieve [2: 38]”.
But we have forgotten it. It also goes against religious understanding that we were sent on this earth as fallen people. It is not true as Allah proclaims in the Qur’ān. Allah sent Adam on earth and honoured him by endowing him with Prophethood so that he might be able to direct his children correctly. Allah explained the role of the Prophet. “…We sent among you a Messenger of yourselves, who recites to you Our Signs, purifies your lives, instructs you in the Book and in Wisdom, and instructs you what you did not know. [2: 152]
The command of Allah to leave Paradise and go down is not a punishment. It is aimed at driving home the point that the earth is not created as a place of punishment for us. On the contrary, we are put on earth to serve as Allah’s vicegerent [representative] here. It is only to test us and thereafter to equip us for the performance of Allah’s vicegerency so that we can bring further development on earth. The above-mentioned ayaths [statements] inform us clearly that not only we were given revealed knowledge rather we were taught first by Allah-Himself and then by the Prophet so that we can perform our duties well as vicegerents.
The truth and reality is that “The pen” used in an ayah as a symbol refers to the art of writing or, more specifically, for all knowledge recorded by means of writing: and this further explains that our unique abilities to transmit, by means of written records, our thoughts, experiences and insights from individual to individual, from generation to generation, and from one cultural environment to another are all the result of the ability granted to us by Allah. Thanks to Allah for this ability. Every one of us is now able, in one way or another, in accumulation of knowledge because we are “taught by Allah”. Things which the single individual does not – and, indeed, cannot – know by himself were already taught by Allah.
Furthermore, Allah’s “teaching” man simply means that Allah granted us the spiritual truths and moral standards which we independently cannot know through our reason and experiences. Hence, we are reminded to realise that “He teaches us the right way and has full knowledge of everything [2: 282]”. Again we are reminded: “And recall [O Prophet] when your Lord brought forth descendants from the loins of the sons of Adam, and made them witnesses against their own selves, asking them: ‘Am I not your Lord?’ They said: ‘Yes, we do testify.’ [7: 172]”. Commenting on this ayah, Sayyid Mawdudi, a commentator of the Qur’ān says, “This event, according to several traditions, took place at the time of the creation of Adam. Apart from the prostration of the angels before Adam and the proclamation that man would be Allah’s vicegerent on earth, all the future progeny of Adam were gathered, and were endowed with both existence and consciousness in order to bear witness to Allah’s lordship. The best interpretation of this event is found in a statement by ‘Ubayy b. Ka‘b, who has probably given the substance of what he had heard from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be to him):
God gathered all human beings, divided them in different groups, granted them human form and the faculty of speech, made them enter into a covenant, and then making them witnesses against themselves, He asked them: ‘Am I not your Lord?’ They replied: ‘Assuredly you are our Lord,’ Then God told them: ‘I call upon the sky and the earth and your own progenitor, Adam, to be witness against you lest you should say on the Day of Judgement that you were ignorant of this. Know well that no one other than Me deserves to be worshipped and no one other than Me is your Lord. So do not ascribe any partner to Me. I shall send to you My Messengers who will remind you of this covenant which you made with Me. I shall send down to you My Books.’ In reply all said: ‘We witness that You are Our Lord and our Deity. We have no lord or deity other than You.’ [Ahmad b. Hanbal, Musnad, vol. 5, p. 135] [Vol. 3, pp. 97-98]
This event did actually take place; there is no doubt about it. “For both the Qur’ān and Hadith not only recount it as an actual happening but also affirm that the covenant would be adduced as an argument against man on the Day of Judgement… In our view the event did take place. Allah caused all human beings whom He intended to create until the Last Day to come into existence. He endowed upon them life, consciousness and the faculty of speech, and brought home to them that there is no god or lord besides Him, and that Islam alone is the right way to serve Him.
“If someone considers calling all human beings together in one assembly impossible, that shows, more than anything else, the woeful paucity of his imagination. For if someone accepts that Allah has the power to create countless human beings in succession, there is no reason to suppose that He did not have the power to create them all at some given moment prior to the creation of the universe, or that He will be unable to resurrect them all at some given moment in the future. Again, it stands to reason that at a time when God wanted to designate man as His vicegerent on earth after endowing him with reason and understanding, He took from him an oath of allegiance. All this is so reasonable that the actual occurrence of the covenant should not cause any wonder. On the contrary, one should wonder if the event did not take place.” [Towards Understanding the Qur’ān, Vol. 3, 1990, p. 98]
In this connection Mawdudi further writes, “Now, it can be argued that even if the covenant did take place, no human being remembers its occurrence. No human being is aware that a long time ago, at the time of creation, he had affirmed, in response to God’s query, that God indeed was his Lord. This being the case, it can be further argued that no charge can be legitimately brought against man on the ground of a covenant with God which he no longer remembers to have made.
“In response to this it can be said that had the covenant been made fully in man’s conscious memory, it would be meaningless for God to put man to the test in this world. Hence, there can be no denying that the covenant is not preserved in man’s conscious memory. But it has doubtlessly been preserved in man’s sub-conscious mind. In this respect the primordial covenant is no different from other pieces of knowledge in man’s sub-conscious mind.
Whatever, man has so far achieved in the way of culture and civilization can be attributed to his latent potentialities. All external factors and internal motivations simply account for helping the actualisation of those potentialities.
Neither education nor training nor environmental factors can bring out anything which is not potentially found in the human mind. Likewise, external factors have no power to root out man’s latent potentialities. External factors may, at the most, cause a person to deflect from the course dictated by sound human nature. However, man’s sound nature is inclined to resist the pressure of external forces and exert itself in order to find an outlet. As we have said earlier, this is not peculiar to man’s religious propensity alone, but is equally true of all his mental potentialities.” [Vol. 3, p. 99]
Our intuitive knowledge regarding our position in the universe and our relationship with our Creator plays an important role keeping us on right direction. In this connection the following points need to be understood properly:
1. That man has always had such intuitive knowledge is evident from the fact that this knowledge has surfaced throughout history in every period and in every part of the world, and which no power has so far been able to extirpate.
2. That this intuitive knowledge conforms to objective reality is borne out by the fact that whenever this knowledge has influenced human life, it has had beneficial results.
3. That in order to manifest itself in his practical life, man’s intuitive knowledge has always required external stimuli. The stimuli have consisted of the advent of the Prophets [peace be to them], the revelation of the Heavenly Books, and the striving of those who have tried to follow them and invite others to do the same. It is for this reason that the Qur’ān has been designated as mudhakkir [the reminder]; dhikr [remembrance]; tadhkirah [admonition], and the function of the Qur’ān has been characterised as tadhkir [reminding]. What this suggests is that the Prophets, the Heavenly Books and those who invite people to the truth do not seek to provide human beings with something new, something which exits outside of them. Their task rather consists of bringing to the surface and rejuvenating what is latent, though dormant, in man himself. [vol. 3, p. 100]
If this is the case as mentioned above, then is it ethical to go against our first Teacher and Covenant? Allah as our Teacher explained everything about our origin, purpose of life and worldview and reminded us about it again and again by sending Messengers so that we can adopt the right course of thinking and action. He taught us the right and ethically approved path of good conduct, good life and good society. We ignore this path and make efforts to design by ourselves a new path about which there is no surety. We ignorantly still argue that we make efforts to find out the path of good conduct, life and society. Is it humanly possible? If it is possible, then there was no need for Allah to appoint Messengers and send revelations that are available in the Divine Book. If man can design a path of good life then prophethood and revelation would become meaningless.