ONE can ask a question, why so much carnage and bloodshed in this world. Why are we so susceptible to sin? Why couldn’t God make us angels? Is this the best world, whereas God could create the perfect world? Quran provides the answers in the story of mankind in the 30th verse of the second Sura Albaqarah. It said, “Behold the Lord said to the angels,” I am going to place a Vicegerent on earth (khalifa) a representative or emissary, one who acts on my behalf.” The Angels said,” Will You place the One who spreads corruption and sheds blood, while we celebrate You and sing Your glory.” These are the questions which come into the mind as why should God create a being, for supposedly some positive role on earth, while he (man) is capable of doing tremendous wrong.
This is one of the most fundamental question in the entire history of religion. Why should God create this violent and pernicious creature, when he could create angels? Why create man an utterly fallible creature, who could rebel against God’s will, do tremendous wrong and wreath havoc on earth, while He could create angels. Why put him on earth, where he is distant from the grace of God, brings out his worse criminal tendencies and then acts upon them with his own free will and does immense harm to his fellow human beings, whereas God could make angels and make them truly permissible to His will.
Quran gives the answer and God said, “Truly I know what you do not know.” In the next verse it says, “God taught Adam the name of all things and then he placed these in front of the angels and asked their names.” Here as the Surah says, ‘God taught Adam the name of all things.’ It transpires that God bestowed on Adam (Mankind) the gift of language, because he is a learning creature. The first thing that Quran emphasizes is the man’s intellect and he is taught through language. He can learn things not only from his own experience, but also from other peoples experience, of times and places that are of hundreds of years distant from each other, so that all our knowledge becomes cumulative, every generation learning from every generation before it. You learn from authors, who could have existed 2000 years ago and then we all contribute to our collective wisdom and knowledge. God than placed before the angels and asked them the name of all thing, because the angels had reservations about the humankind. They replied, ”Glory to You, we have no knowledge except what you have taught us, in truth You are all knowing and wise.“ Actually, the angels confessed they have no knowledge, no intellect and no wisdom.
In the next verse, God asks Adam to tell them the names of all things and Adam told the names without any difficulty. God said, “Didn’t I tell you that I know what is unseen in the heavens and the earth and I know what is revealed and what is concealed.” Yes, you had questions about the evil things man could do on earth, but look at the tremendous intellect he has, something you have not considered. God here is taking the greatest story in the history of mankind and moulding it in a way to give the most fundamental message. The question of the angels revealed the sinful and sinister propensities of man, but what did the question conceal? Yes, human beings can do evil, they can do wrong, they can create misery, but they can also do the opposite. They can chose to do tremendous good, show tremendous compassion, live by falsehood, but can also chose to live by the greatest truth. The angel were only seeing one side of the picture.
The next verse, “Behold we said to the angels, bow down to Adam and they bowed down, but not so Iblees. He refused and was arrogant; he was from those who reject faith.” Bowing down symbolizes the potential superiority of one over the other. Quran says all created beings serve God, but this verse seems to be indicating that these angelic beings and even the satanic beings serve the development of mankind. Both represent the choices that man has in front of him, one represents the most altruistic things; while the other will influence man in the opposite direction. Human beings will have to make moral decisions and it is in the moral choices, that they will grow spiritually. The satanic and angelic forces will be catalyst for the choices that man has to make. Our soul the nafs will have to make the ultimate choice between good and evil and that test will come again and again. This will help achieve spiritual revolution, but the choice is ultimately ours.
Notice why Iblees does not bow down. He refuses because he was arrogant. Up till now, we had learnt the root of all evil is lust, greed of money, but Quran is telling us, it’s not so always. At the heart of evil is arrogance, putting yourself above others, assigning yourself special priority and neglecting the rights of others and that pride, arrogance and envy is a source of evil? In other words, Quran is telling us that man is not only a learning creature, but also a moral creature, one who has humility and has understanding of right and wrong. As an intelligent being, he is also a rational and moral being… —To be continued.
Extracts from Professor Jeffery Lang, a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Kansas USA, who converted to Islam and author of book, ‘Struggling to Surrender.’
—The writer is author of various books based in Rawalpindi.
