unbecoming aperture into another vessel considered unspeakable (in polite conversation) wherein it undergoes so many unsightly transformations only to emerge as a messy piece of meat. It is only God’s power that enables life to enter this fistful of meat lest it passes out in this incomplete and insignificant state. It is by His Divine Power that God bestows life to this mass of cells, creates in it a mind with intellect and senses and equips it with the tools and forces essential for worldly life’
It is in this rather unbecoming manner that man comes into this world. The initial state of this being is that of a totally helpless and dependent infant without any ability even to carry out essential tasks. God Almighty arranges for his upbringing in a way that he grows, becomes strong and acquires mastery over the affairs of life. Then, slowly but surely, comes about a decline in the powers as youth turns into old age, so much so that a time comes when the same feebleness that characterized the early years returns. The energies dissipate and the forces degenerate, mental sharpness begins to fail and the once formidable knowledge starts diminishing. Finally the light goes away from the ‘flickering candle of life’. Thus man departs for the grave, bereft of all material possessions, relatives and friends.
At no point during his rather brief existence is man fully capable of ensuring the continuation of his lease on life. There is a Power, higher than man, which keeps him alive – and which can force him to depart from the world at a time of Its own choosing. Indeed, throughout the period that man is alive, his life is bound by the strict laws of nature and requirements of (at appropriate levels) air, water, food, light, and temperature. The earthly produce, natural resources, and environmental conditions on which he is dependent do not submit to his absolute control; neither does he bring them into existence nor do they take orders from him.
And when the forces of nature begin to act against man, how powerless does he seem? A blast of wind can decimate his settlements, a tidal wave of water washes away all his significance, and a few tremors of the earth unite him with the dust. Irrespective of the tools with which he arms himself, notwithstanding the techniques that he devises from his knowledge (which also is not of his own creation), whatever be the inventions that his intellect (which again is not of his own acquisition) enables him to come up with, all seem insignificant in the face of nature’s adverse forces. How imprudent – even ludicrous – is it of man to act arrogantly (on the basis of his trivial abilities and inventions) becoming haughty and heartless as he spreads mischief throughout God’s kingdom, raises the banner of rebellion against the Almighty, and sets himself up as a false deity over God’s people?
So much then for battering man’s false pride, which is just a small aspect of the Qur’ān’s challenge. In turn, the Qur’ān also addresses mankind with a message that it should not consider itself as lowly as it occasionally does.
Indeed, We honoured the progeny of Adam, and bore them across land and sea and provided them with good things for their sustenance, and exalted them above many of Our creatures.
[Banī Isrā’īl 17: 70]
Have you not seen how Allah has subjected to you all that is in the earth.
[al-Ḥajj 22: 65]
He created the cattle. They are a source of clothing and food and also a variety of other benefits for you. And you find beauty in them as you drive them to pasture in the morning and as you drive them back home in the evening; and they carry your loads to many a place which you would be unable to reach without much hardship. Surely your Lord is Intensely Loving, Most Merciful. And He created horses and mules and asses for you to ride, and also for your adornment. And He creates many things (for you) that you do not even know about. It rests with Allah alone to show you the Right Way, even when there are many crooked ways. Had He so willed, He would have (perforce) guided you all aright. He it is Who sends down water for you from the sky out of which you drink and out of which grow the plants on which you pasture your cattle, and by virtue of which He causes crops and olives and date-palms and grapes and all kinds of fruit to grow for you. Surely in this there is a great Sign for those who reflect. He has subjected for you the night and the day and the sun and the moon and the stars have also been made subservient by His command. Surely there are Signs in this for those who use their reason. And there are also Signs for those who take heed in the numerous things of various colours that He has created for you on earth. And He it is Who has subjected the sea that you may eat fresh fish from it and bring forth ornaments from it that you can wear. And you see ships ploughing their course through it so that you may go forth seeking His Bounty and be grateful to Him. And He has placed firm mountains on the earth lest it should move away from you, and has made rivers and tracks that you may find your way, and He has set other landmarks in the earth. And by the stars too do people find their way. … For, were you to count the favours of Allah, you will not be able to count them.
[al-Naḥl 16: 5-18]
These verses narrate to us humans the fact that all natural resources on and within the earth, as well as many in the atmosphere, have been subjugated for our benefit and placed at our service – the rivers and seas, the trees and animals, the stars and the moon, the day and night, light and darkness – all have been made of service to man. Human beings enjoy superiority over all of these. They have been bestowed with the greatest honour and dignity and made masters over these.
Why, then, does man bow before such [powerless objects], considering them capable of answering their wants and desires? Why is man afraid of their (supposed) powers, and why does he spread his hands before these material objects, make supplications, and sing songs of praise for their greatness? In this way, by becoming a slave of slaves, man only debases himself and engineers his own fall from grace.
From the foregoing, it is clear that human beings are neither as supreme as they occasionally consider themselves nor so lowly and insignificant as they often make themselves out to be. We, thus, come to the question: ‘What is the true status of human beings in this temporal world?’ Islam’s response to this query is as follows:
Just think when your Lord said to the angels: ‘Lo! I am about to place a Vicegerent on earth,’ they said: ‘Will You place on it one who will spread mischief and shed blood while we celebrate Your glory and extol Your holiness?’ He said: ‘Surely I know what you do not know.’ Then Allah taught Adam the names of all things and presented them to the angels and said: ‘If you are right (that the appointment of a Vicegerent will cause mischief) then tell Me the names of these things.’ They said. ‘Glory to You! We have no knowledge except what You taught us. You, only You, are All-Knowing, All-Wise.’ Then Allah said to Adam: ‘Tell them the names of these things.’ And when he had told them the names of all things, Allah said: ‘Did I not say to you that I know everything about the heavens and the earth which are beyond your range of knowledge and I know all that you disclose and also all that you hide?’ And when We ordered the angels: ‘Prostrate yourselves before Adam,’ all of them fell prostrate, except Iblīs. He refused, and gloried in his arrogance and became one of the defiers. And We said: ‘O Adam, live in the Garden, you and your wife, and eat abundantly of whatever you wish but do not approach this tree or else you will be counted among the wrong-doers.’ But Satan caused both of them to deflect from obeying Our command by tempting them to the tree and brought them out of the state they were in
[al-Baqarah 2: 30-36]
Recall when your Lord said to the angels: ‘I will indeed bring into being a human being out of dry ringing clay wrought from black mud. When I have completed shaping him and have breathed into him of My Spirit, then fall you down before him in prostration.’ So, the angels – all of them – fell down in prostration, except Iblīs; he refused to join those who prostrated. The Lord inquired: ‘Iblīs! What is the matter with you that you did not join those who prostrated?’ He said: ‘It does not behove of me to prostrate myself before a human being whom You have created out of dry