Al-Insan or The Man
By
Naseer Ahmed, New Age Islam
3 March
2023
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We Are Biologically Equipped With The Emotions
Of Happiness, Sadness, Pleasure, Pain, Shame, Disgust, Ecstasy, Anger, Anxiety
And Fear Which Form Our "Nafs" And This Is Our Moral Equipment
Along With The Capacity To Learn Right From Wrong.
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The verses
that describe Al-Insan say he is, greedy, niggardly, impatient,
ungrateful, contentious, acquisitive, envious, jealous, fearful, and
suspicious. These can otherwise be understood as instincts for
self-preservation. Our instinct is to seek pleasure and avoid pain. There is no
verse that describes Al-Insan's virtues which means, we are not born
with any virtue.
In the case
of animals, their virtuous part or their pro-social behaviour is also an
instinct that they are born with. We are born without it.
There is
absolutely no doubt about human exceptionalism in terms of our intellectual and
cognitive abilities. Now imagine being born without the virtues animals are
born with and with vastly superior intellectual and cognitive abilities, and
with all the negative traits necessary for self-preservation that we are born
with, how potentially dangerous Insan is to everyone else including his own
kind.
The characteristics we are born with are all
negative. However, we are also biologically equipped with the emotions of
happiness, sadness, pleasure, pain, shame, disgust, ecstasy, anger, anxiety and
fear which form our "Nafs" and this is our moral equipment
along with the capacity to learn right from wrong. So, when we act according to
what we have learnt is right, we feel good, otherwise, we feel bad, guilty,
disgusted with ourselves, anxious and fearful of the consequences here in this
world or in the Hereafter. Allah has
taught us right from wrong through His revelations. Human behaviour is largely
programmable and can be programmed to distinguish right from wrong.
(96:1) Proclaim! (or read!) in the name of
thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created-
(2) Created
man, out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood:
(3) Proclaim!
And thy Lord is Most Bountiful,-
(4) He Who
taught (the use of) the pen,-
(5) Taught
man that which he knew not.
(6) Day,
but man doth transgress all bounds,
(7) In
that he looketh upon himself as self-sufficient.
(8) Verily,
to thy Lord is the return (of all).
Allah’s
religion or the moral way of living is what Allah has taught man that he knew
not nor could he have ever known without Allah’s revelations. This is the
inimitable part of every scripture. Insan has to learn every virtue and control
his negative self.
By the
moral choices we make, we can rise to be among the noblest or sink to be among
the lowest meaning lower than the beasts. We have the capacity for both the
highest good and also the greatest evil. The virtues are therefore not what we
are born with. Virtue is learned behaviour and without acquiring the virtues,
we are worse than animals.
(103:1) By
(the Token of) Time (through the ages),
(2) Verily
Man is in loss,
(3) Except
such as have Faith, and do righteous deeds, and (join together) in the mutual
teaching of Truth, and of Patience and Constancy.
Why Couldn’t
Man Have Learned To Be Moral On His Own?
Given the
instincts described above, every moral and ethical principle is
counterintuitive and we would never discover, much less adopt any moral
principle on our own. It is man alone who has a need for Allah’s guidance
without which, our exceptional intellectual capacity would have made us worse
than beasts in aggressive behaviour and our species would have self-destructed.
Just look at the irreligious and the religious hypocrites and you can see that
their base instinct prevails and the only thing that keeps them within limits
is the fear of the law of the land and economic and or social loss due to loss
of reputation. They are otherwise amoral and shameless.
How To Raise Morally Upright Children?
Chomsky’s
most powerful single idea is that there is a universal capacity for language
but it is expressed in different ways in different cultures. Every baby can
learn all the world’s languages but what neurologists call synaptic pruning in
the early years reduces that child’s capacity to the languages around her. A
songbird which does not hear other songbirds singing at the crucial stage of
its development can never sing. That account of language can work for morality
too – indeed the two are closely related, depending as they both do on human
interaction.
Up to the
age of 3 years, a child accepts all that it is taught without filtering. Beyond
the age of 3 years, a child begins to filter new messages through what she has
already learnt. So, instil good values and beliefs before they cross 3 years of
age. After that, they may filter out any good teachings that you try to give
them with the bad that they may have learned from their environment and
interactions with other kids who have not been brought up well.
We should
teach them empathy and the virtues of truth, fairness and justice and keeping
promises. Teach them about God and His
omniscience, and accountability in the Hereafter. Teach them the virtues of modesty and
covering themselves up decently and experience shame otherwise. This takes care
of everything and lays a strong unshakable foundation for a good moral
character that will stay with the child all her/his life.
There is no
morality outside religion and a belief in accountability in the Hereafter.
Outside of religion, there is only hypocrisy and lip service at which the
irreligious excel.
With a
strong moral foundation laid early in life, the child will filter out all evil
influences on their own from the values they have learnt early. A person who
has learnt to empathise early in life will never wilfully hurt another sentient
life form.
Insaniyat Vs Haiwaniyat (Humanness Vs
Beastliness)
If we take Insaniyat
to be what we are born with, then Insaniyat is worse than Haiwaniyat
because the beasts are born with the instinct for pro-social behaviour while we
are not. We have to learn every virtue. The Quran does not refer to the
“humanitarian values” as Insaniyat because these are not what characterises the
bare Insan. We need to learn to behave morally.
The misuse
of words such as Insaniyat to mean “humanitarian values” hide the truth that a
human is not born with humanitarian values and these need to be learnt early in
life.
So, what
about Ghalib saying:
Bas-Ki Dushvār Hai Har Kaam Kā Āsāñ Honā
Aadmī Ko Bhī Muyassar Nahīñ Insāñ Honā
Enjoy the
poetry but never mistakes words spoken beautifully as wisdom.
Addendum
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Verses
in the Quran Describing the Nature of Man (Al-Insan)
Greed, Avarice, and the Acquisitive
Nature of Man
(3:14) Fair in the eyes of men is the
love of things they covet: Women and sons; Heaped-up hoards of gold and silver;
horses branded (for blood and excellence); and (wealth of) cattle and
well-tilled land. Such are the possessions of this world´s life; but in
nearness to Allah is the best of the goals (To return to).
(53:24) Nay, shall man have (just)
anything he hankers after?
Niggardliness
(17:100) Say: "If ye had control
of the Treasures of the Mercy of my Lord, behold, ye would keep them back, for
fear of spending them: for man is (every) niggardly!"
Envy
(17:94) What kept men back from belief
when Guidance came to them, was nothing but this: they said, "Has Allah
sent a man (like us) to be (His) Messenger?"
Contentious, Rebellious, Heedless, Vain
(18:54) We have explained in detail in
this Qur´an, for the benefit of mankind, every kind of similitude: but man is,
in most things, contentious.
(19:66) Man says: "What! When I am
dead, shall I then be raised up alive?"(67) But does not man call to mind
that We created him before out of nothing?
(21:1) Closer and closer to mankind
comes their Reckoning: yet they heed not and they turn away.
(43:15) Yet they attribute to some of
His servants a share with Him (in his godhead)! truly is man a blasphemous
ingrate avowed!
(75:36) Does man think that he will be
left uncontrolled, (without purpose)?
(80:17) Woe to man! What hath made him
reject Allah;
(82:6) O man! What has seduced thee
from thy Lord Most Beneficent?-
(96:6) Nay, but man doth transgress all
bounds,(7) In that he looketh upon himself as self-sufficient.
Ungrateful
(22:66) It is He Who gave you life,
will cause you to die, and will again give you life: Truly man is a most
ungrateful creature!
(27:73) But verily thy Lord is full of
grace to mankind: Yet most of them are ungrateful.
(39:8) When some trouble toucheth man,
he crieth unto his Lord, turning to Him in repentance: but when He bestoweth a
favour upon him as from Himself, (man) doth forget what he cried and prayed for
before, and he doth set up rivals unto Allah, thus misleading others from
Allah´s Path. Say, "Enjoy thy blasphemy for a little while: verily thou
art (one) of the Companions of the Fire!"
(41:49) Man does not weary of asking
for good (things), but if ill touches him, he gives up all hope (and) is lost
in despair.
(41:51) When We bestow favours on man,
he turns away, and gets himself remote on his side (instead of coming to Us);
and when evil seizes him, (he comes) full of prolonged prayer!
(42:48) If then they run away, We have
not sent thee as a guard over them. Thy duty is but to convey (the Message).
And truly, when We give man a taste of a Mercy from Ourselves, he doth exult
thereat, but when some ill happens to him, on account of the deeds which his
hands have sent forth, truly then is man ungrateful!
(100:6) Truly man is, to his Lord, ungrateful
;( 7) And to that (fact) he bears witness (by his deeds);(8) And violent is he
in his love of wealth.
Impatient, hasty, suspicious
(21:37) Man is a creature of haste:
soon (enough) will I show you My Signs; then ye will not ask Me to hasten them!
(70:19) Truly man was created very
impatient;-
(14:9) Has not the story reached you,
(O people!), of those who (went) before you? - of the people of Noah, and ´Ad,
and Thamud? - And of those who (came) after them? None knows them but Allah. To
them came messengers with Clear (Signs); but they put their hands up to their
mouths, and said: "We do deny (the mission) on which ye have been sent,
and we are really in suspicious (disquieting) doubt as to that to which ye
invite us."
Unjust, Foolish, and Ungrateful
(33:72) 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;-
(39:49) Now, when trouble touches man,
he cries to Us: But when We bestow a favour upon him as from Ourselves, he
says, "This has been given to me because of a certain knowledge (I
have)!" Nay, but this is but a trial, but most of them understand not!
(89:15) Now, as for man, when his Lord
trieth him, giving him honour and gifts, then saith he, (puffed up), "My
Lord hath honoured me."(16) But when He trieth him, restricting his
subsistence for him, then saith he (in despair), "My Lord hath humiliated
me!"
(90:4) Verily We have created man into
toil and struggle.
Therefore, Virtue Is A Choice That The
Virtuous Make
(95:4) We have indeed created man in
the best of moulds,
(5) Then do We abase him (to be) the
lowest of the low,-
(6) Except such as believe and do
righteous deeds: For they shall have a reward unfailing.
(103:1) By (the Token of) Time (through
the ages),
(2) Verily Man is in loss,
(3) Except such as have Faith, and
do righteous deeds, and (join together) in the mutual teaching of Truth, and of
Patience and Constancy.
The Quran is Al-Furqan or the criterion of right and wrong
and “teaches man that which he knew not” (96:5). All the virtues of the
virtuous follow from their learning right from wrong and choosing what is
right. Virtue is not something man is born with and he is ignorant about what
virtue is until taught. Man could equally easily be taught that lying,
cheating, oppression and killing are virtues and indeed there are criminal
tribes whose religion teaches that.
(3:3) It is He Who sent down to thee (step by step), in
truth, the Book, confirming what went before it; and He sent down the Law (of
Moses) and the Gospel (of Jesus) before this, as a guide to mankind, and He
sent down the criterion (of judgment between right and wrong).
(2:53) And remember We gave Moses the Scripture and the
Criterion (Between right and wrong): There was a chance for you to be guided
aright.
Left to man himself, and
considering his nature described by the Quran, selfishness and self-centredness
would have become the greatest virtue.
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A frequent contributor to NewAgeIslam.com, Naseer
Ahmed is an Engineering graduate from IIT Kanpur and is an independent IT
consultant after having served in both the Public and Private sector in
responsible positions for over three decades. He has spent years studying Quran
in-depth and made seminal contributions to its interpretation.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-spiritualism/insan-man-biologically-emotion-moral-immoral/d/129233
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