The “Natural Law of Morality” Has Come From Religion
By
Naseer Ahmed, New Age Islam
9 March
2023
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The Favour Of Allah On Adam And His Progeny Was
Undeniable. There Is Absolutely No Doubt About The Exceptionalism Of Adam And
His Progeny In Their Unique Intellectual And Cognitive Capabilities That Enable
Them To Understand At The Micro Level The Nature And Attributes Of Everything,
As Well As The Design, The Order, And The Rationality Built Into The Natural
World At The Macro Level.
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The simple
moral rules that all subscribe to irrespective of their religion or no religion
such as do not lie, cheat, steal, kill, be fair and just and keep your
promises, have come to be known as the natural law because these appear to be
self-evident and even instinctive. We have however seen in the article “Al-Insan or
The Man” that man is born
without any of these virtues but only with the instinct for self-preservation
which makes him naturally greedy, niggardly, impatient, ungrateful,
contentious, acquisitive, envious, jealous, fearful, and suspicious. Man needs
to learn every virtue and control his negative tendencies. So, what’s going on
here?
Evolutionary
Forces Ensured the Adoption of Religion and Its Moral Rules Right at the
Beginning
Human
beings came into existence about 2.5 million years ago. They were not different
from other animals in their intellectual capacity and had neither the capacity
nor the need for religion. Then about 0.07 million years ago, Adam was created
with intellectual capacity and cognitive abilities not bestowed on any other
creation. By putting 2.43 million years between the creation of the first
humans and Adam, Allah made apparent the tremendous favour that He had bestowed
on Adam and his progeny vis-a-vis every other creation including the humans
that preceded Adam.
These other
humans co-existed with Adam and his progeny for about sixty thousand years when
the last of them were driven to extinction from a perpetual war for survival
with the progeny of Adam. The fact that the other human beings had a head start
of 2.43 million years made them a formidable enemy in terms of their very large
numerical superiority. To protect themselves from such a formidable enemy
required Adam and his progeny to work together in close cooperation trusting
each other and sacrificing for the greater good of their kind. It is here that
Allah’s religion or the moral principles revealed by Allah proved their worth
without which they would have become extinct.
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Also Read: Atheists Lack Logical Reasoning When Demanding
Scientific Proof of the Existence of God Almighty
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The favour
of Allah on Adam and his progeny was undeniable. There is absolutely no doubt
about the exceptionalism of Adam and his progeny in their unique intellectual
and cognitive capabilities that enable them to understand at the micro level
the nature and attributes of everything, as well as the design, the order, and
the rationality built into the natural world at the macro level. It was a
combination of gratitude and sheer need for survival that ensured easy
acceptance and following Allah’s guidance.
For the
first sixty thousand years of the existence of Adam’s progeny, there was the
example of the other humans to remind them of the favours of Allah, feel
grateful and follow His religion. Shared
values from religion helped build trust and cooperation among one another which
was essential to fight and win the war for survival. The practice of the moral
rules from religion for sixty thousand years and the evidence of their efficacy
in ensuring their survival against heavy odds ensured that the rules got firmly
imprinted in their psyche. It is unsurprising that the moral rules that ensured
their survival as a species came to appear self-evident and even instinctive
after such a long period of unquestioned acceptance and practice. These have remained acceptable to this day
without anyone questioning the rules even though not many people practice them
if they can get away with it. It has come to be known as the natural law and is
expectedly common to all the progeny of Adam irrespective of their religion or
no religion.
(15:85) We created not the heavens, the
earth, and all between them, but for just ends. And the Hour is surely coming
(when this will be manifest). So overlook (any human faults) with gracious
forgiveness.
If we look
at the evolutionary nature of Allah’s creation, we discover the purpose and how
it has led towards the “just ends” of imprinting the moral rules in the human
psyche. Without such conditions being created, Religion had no chance of taking
hold and without Religion, we wouldn’t have survived, and if we had managed to
survive, we would not have taken a single step on the path of civilisation and
remained savage barbarians.
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Also Read: The Contribution of Atheists to Moral Philosophy and
the Practice of Morality
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The
confirmation that mankind was united as one nation by the religion of Allah for
a very long time is to be found in the following verse:
(10:19) Mankind
was but one nation but differed (later).
How long
was this period?
Tafsir
10.19 Jalal - Al-Jalalayn
Mankind was
but one community, following one religion that is submission [to the One God],
from the time of Adam to the time of Noah; then they differed.
Tafsir
Maarif ul Quran Maulana Mufti Mohammad Shafi
"The
statement: (And people were but one community) in verse 10:19 means that the
progeny of Sayyidna Ädam was essentially a single community in the earlier
stages of man's presence in the world. Then came up differences that divided
human beings into different nations and groups of people.
How long
did this period of a single community of believers last? Original sources of
Islamic Tradition tell us that this situation prevailed up to the time of
Sayyidna Nuh (Noah).
Then, it is
also obvious that there is a long period of time between Sayyidna Ädam and Sayyidna
Nuh, may peace be on them both."
We learn
from other verses, that people break up into different sects through envy of
each other. This happens when there is peace and no external threat that
requires the people to remain united.
There are
other verses that indicate that this condition of mankind remaining one nation
lasted for a long time until it became necessary to send Noah.
(3:33) Allah
did choose Adam and Noah, the family of Abraham, and the family of ´Imran above
all people,-(34) Offspring, one of the other: And Allah heareth and
knoweth all things.
After Adam,
the name of Noah is mentioned. If there were other messengers in between, their
role was minor in maintaining the religion which is why they don’t find a
mention. We know that Noah had a major task to perform and then Abraham. Jesus
is from the family of Imran.
Once the
common enemy was driven to extinction, there was no longer a strong motivation
for remaining united and the people broke up into sects from envy of each
other. We see the same happen to this day. The base instincts of man then begin
to dominate his behaviour. To this day, although no one disagrees with the
“natural law” almost everybody lies, and corruption is rampant. The supreme
achievement of religion has been to get the “natural law” universally accepted
which still guides our behaviour and has been codified into the laws of every
nation.
These rules
are learnt as easily and as informally as a child learns her mother tongue and
is accomplished before she is three years old. The process of learning her
mother tongue and the moral rules is simultaneous and in the same manner - that
is through human interaction and informally. What is learned before 3 years is
unfiltered and after 3 years of age every new input is filtered through what is
already learnt. Since nobody questions the “natural law” it remains the
undisputed standard.
Piaget, who
is a world authority on child development, said "between the ages of 5-9
years old, children develop moral realism; that is, they believe that morality
is conducted by authority figures and breaking rules will lead to
punishment." This helps reinforce what they have already learnt and now
they learn that breaking the rules has real consequences. Without enforcing the
rules with rewards and punishments, a child discovers that it is rewarding to
yield to temptations and break the rules and no unpleasant consequences. It is
therefore important to enforce the rules. Without loving care to ensure willing
compliance, a child learns to break the rules and the tricks to escape
detection. A judicious mix of love and strictness is needed.
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Also
Read: On The Issue of Morality: A Final Rejoinder
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The fact
remains that man is born without virtue and has to learn every virtue and can
easily be taught to hate, despise and kill as virtues. This happens with criminal
tribes whose religion is to rob and kill. We saw this happen in Germany to good
people and we see it happen all around us. Religion itself is easily hijacked
for evil ends by unscrupulous leaders. Keeping ourselves and our religion free
from evil influences and from evil men is therefore a constant struggle.
Acknowledgement: Unknown sb has greatly contributed
through his comments in the thread The Enigmatic Verses of
the Quran. This article is
an offshoot of those discussions.
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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/natural-law-morality-religion/d/129277
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