2. MAN

 

The nature and function of man, as seen from the Islamic point of view, are given by the following verses:-

"Allah made all things good which He created, and He began the creation of man from clay. Then He made his seed from a draught of despised fluid; then He fashioned him and breathed into Him of His own Spirit; and appointed for you hearing and sight and hearts. Small thanks give ye." 32: 7-9

"And when thy Lord said unto the angels: Lo, I am about to place a Vicegerent in the earth, they said: wilt Thou place therein one who will do harm therein and will shed blood, while we, we hymn Thy praises and sanctify Thee? He said: Surely I know that which ye know not.

"And He taught Adam all the Names, then showed them to the angels, saying: Inform Me of the names of these if you are truthful.

"They said: Be glorified! We have no knowledge saving that which Thou hast taught us. Lo, Thou, only Thou, art the Knower, the Wise.

"He said: O, Adam, inform them of their names, and when he had informed them of their names, He said: Did I not tell you that I know the secret of the heavens and the earth? And I know that which ye disclose and that which ye hide.

"And when We said to the angels: Prostrate yourselves before Adam, they fell prostrate, all save Iblis. He demurred through pride, and so became an infidel.

"And We said: O, Adam, dwell thou and thy wife in the Garden, and eat ye freely of the fruit thereof where ye will, but come not nigh this tree lest ye become wrongdoers.

"But Satan caused them to deflect there from and expelled them from their happy state in which they were, and We said: Fall down, one of you a foe unto the other. There shall be for you on earth a habitation and provision for a time.

"Then Adam received from his Lord words, and he relented towards him. Lo, he is the Relenting, the Merciful.

"We said: Go down, all of you, from hence, but verily there comes unto you from Me a guidance; and whoso follows My guidance, there shall no fear come upon them neither shall they grieve. But they who disbelieve, and deny Our revelations, such are the rightful owners of the Fire. They will abide therein." " 2:30-39

Here is a story which describes the nature, condition, life and possibilities of man. To take it literally in the ordinary factual sense is to miss the point. It describes meaning and values. When this is understood it can be taken literally. It should be regarded in the same way in the field of values as a scientific formula is regarded in the field of facts. Man has fallen from a state of higher functioning to a lower one. However, from time to time the possibility exists of contacting the higher more objective state of consciousness.

The status of man is described by the title " Vicegerent". It has three implications:-

1. His existence has an effect on the environment in which he exists and on all things in that environment. That man has transformed the land structurally, the constitution of the sea and atmosphere, the energy distribution on earth, and even the minerals, plants and animals is well known. But apart from his actions he also has direct effects through the kind of excretions he produces and the radiations and energies he absorbs, transforms and emits. The study of this is only becoming possible now that something is known about chemistry, electromagnetic forces and quantum mechanics. Man has arisen because of his function in the scheme of things and not the other way round.

2. He is given the divine powers of creativity, initiative, the sense of responsibility, the intelligence, the capacity for knowledge, consciousness, conscience and will. By means of these he can change his environment for better or worse. He can also benefit or destroy himself and his society. The existence of these qualities and powers is a fact about human beings. That is how he is constructed.

3. This gives him certain responsibilities towards the world in which, by which and in contact with which he has arisen. He is dependant on his environment and his welfare depends on its welfare, and, therefore, on how he fulfils his responsibilities towards the world. That is, he is to govern the earth on behalf of the Creator, Not only does he have an unconscious natural function but he must fulfil this function consciously and deliberately.

The term "Vicegerent" refers to the Divine Spirit in him.

"Then He fashioned him (man), and breathed into him of His own Spirit: and appointed for you hearing and sight and hearts. Small thanks give ye." 32:9 and 15:29

"We verily created man and We know what his soul whispers unto him, and We are nearer unto him than his jugular vein." 50:16 and 56:85

A normal human being, because he has the Spirit of Allah within him should have the following characteristics:-

1. An awareness of Allah, the ultimate unity behind all things, a feeling of identity with this and with what is Universal and all-comprehensive and consistent with it.

2. Since the same spirit is in all, he should have some consciousness of his identity with all other human beings, creatures and life itself. All things are equally creatures of Allah though they have different functions in the scheme of things.

3. They should have a sense of self-respect and feeling of love and responsibility with respect to all creatures, his environment and himself.

A degenerate man may be defined in whom these qualities have atrophied.  

The verses Quran 32:7-9 quoted above tells us that man has three aspects:- a physical and a spiritual nature, and that he also has a mind. There is no doubt that there is distinction between the physical body and the way we experience things in consciousness, between what we see outwardly and what we see when we look inward. The word "I" is used mainly to refer to this inner experience of ourselves. The word 'mind', however, refers to the instrument by means of which we process both inner and outer experiences and form a link between them.

These three aspects of man correspond to matter, energy and information in science. Whereas the body refers to the physical structure, the mind refers to the functioning; the pattern of behaviour and the spirit refers to the faculties of consciousness, conscience and will. The Spirit is an emanation from God (17:85) that pervades the Universe and carries the Word of God which is an order creating force called Truth. The Universe and all things in it are created from Truth within the Spirit. The Spirit (Ruh) can, therefore, be regarded symbolically as the Mind of God within which the Universe and all its contents are thoughts or bundles of Information. The human soul (nafs) derives from the Spirit but is organised and specific to the person. It is the Self, what we really are. It is capable of growing or atrophying (91:7-10) depending on what we do and whether the spirit enters or leaves it. The individual soul derives from the Collective Soul (4:1) and on death returns to it. That is, on death the soul is recycled as is the matter of which a person is made. Human beings are, therefore, not only physically and genetically a single family but also spiritually one. Each person is contributing something good or evil to the development or degeneration of the Collective Soul, and therefore to his own construction or destruction. Each person has a function in the scheme of the world and gets an input from the environment, transforms it and produces an output. A person can be judged objectively as to the balance between what he contributes and consumes, the value of his/her output over what he receives.

The Collective Soul might have a structure of its own such that some parts are associated with others and there may be communication between descending and ascending souls, those incarnating and those returning to the Collective.

A person can be said to be “spiritually dead” or “spiritually asleep” when the spirit is withdrawn or dormant (39:42). People, therefore, require spiritual resurrection and awakening (34:46). Spiritual growth is achieved through obedience to the Word of God brought by the Messengers of God (6:123, 8:24). This is called Religion which brings us into interaction with the rest of the community and the world created by Allah. Through this we also contact our souls, through which we can contact the Spirit and through the Spirit one contacts Allah. 

Allah> Messenger> Religion > Community > World > Soul > Spirit > Allah.

Religion is mainly concerned with this inner self. Man is regarded as a soul. That is, something which has experiences, feelings and thoughts. The Quran is not, therefore, speaking about man in the scientific sense which deals with his physiology or with psycho-mechanics. Religion deals with the significance of things. The scientific is by no means the only way of seeing realities. The Soul is that which makes the difference between a living, conscious person and a dead body. Sleep is regarded as akin to death, and something from which we can learn about life and death. We die, as it were, every night to be resurrected the next morning. However, the resurrection after death does not apply to the body. It is more like the transformation which the caterpillar undergoes when it becomes a butterfly, or a bird which arises from the egg leaving behind the shell.

"Allah receives men's souls at the time of their death, and that soul which dies not, in its sleep. He keeps the soul for which He has ordained death and dismisses the rest till an appointed term. Lo, herein are verily portents for people who take thought." 39:42

"Verily We created man from a product of wet earth; then placed him as a drop in a safe lodging. Then fashioned We the drop a clot, then fashioned We the clot a little lump, then fashioned We the little lump bones, then clothed the bones with flesh, and then produced it as another creation. So blessed be Allah, the best of Creators. Then after that you surely die. Then lo! on the day of resurrection you are raised again. And we have created above you seven paths, and We are never unmindful of creation." 23:12-17

"He shall transform you into what you know not." 56:61

Thus, we see that man undergoes several stages of evolution. First in the womb from which he is expelled into another world, dying in one to be born in another. Here he also undergoes stages of development, and then he dies to be reborn in still another world. There are seven levels before him. In other words he has great potentialities for further development. 

Man has a purpose:-

"Deemed ye that We had created you for naught, and that you would not be returned to Us?" 23:115

"I created the Jinn and Humankind only that they may serve Me." 51:56

"And they are ordered naught else than to serve Allah, keeping religion pure for Him, as men by nature upright, and to establish worship and pay the poor their due. That is true religion." 98:5

"Be careful of your duty to your Lord Who created you from a single soul and from it created its mate and from them twain hath spread abroad a multitude of men and women." 4:1

One of the purpose is to grow and develop:-

"He, indeed, is Successful who causes it (the soul) to grow, and he, indeed, is a failure who stunts it." 91:9-10

"Ye shall travel from plane to plane." 84:19 

In so far as he does not fulfil his purpose he can be replaced by some new organism which will.

"If He will He can destroy you, O mankind, and create another race in your stead." 4:133

"If He will, He can be rid of you, and bring instead of you some new creation." 35:16

"We destroyed the generations before you when they did wrong; and their Messengers (from Allah) came unto them with clear proofs but they would not believe. Thus do We reward the guilty folk. Then We appointed you vicegerents in the earth after them that We might see how you behave." 10:14-15 

Man is not, therefore, as indispensable or important as he thinks. He is only a minute part of creation, both in space and time, not the centre, goal and purpose of it.

"Assuredly the creation of the heavens and the earth is greater than the creation of mankind, but most of mankind know not. And the blind man and the seer are not equal, neither are those who believe and do good works equal with the evil doer. Little do you reflect" 40:57-58

" Was there not a long period of time when mankind was a thing unremembered? We created man from a drop of thickened fluid to test him; so We make him hearing, knowing. Lo! We have shown him the way, whether he be grateful or disbelieving." 76:1-3

The Universe and even this planet has existed for a long time and man has arisen only recently. Humanity, however, can be regarded as a single organism which like the individual grows from a single cell into an increasingly complex multi-cellular organism.

"Your creation and your raising are only as a single soul." 31:28

"Mankind were one community, and Allah sent unto them Prophets as bearers of good tidings and as Warners..." 2:213 Also 10:20

"He created you from one being, then from that being He made its mate..." 39:6

 

Humanity may, perhaps, be looked upon as the brain of the Biosphere and having a single mind which differentiates into many. The biosphere is also an organism, but an organ of the planet earth. The individual mind is formed by this collective mind, and conversely affects the nature of the collective mind. Thus we may judge each mind according to whether it has harmful or beneficial effects upon it, whether it facilitates its growth and development or its degeneration and malfunction. The Quran often talks to a community, even to mankind collectively, rather than to individuals.

Man is not complete. His perfection refers to his potentialities or to the state he was in before his Fall. He has to construct or reconstruct himself through his activities and experiences in the world. The purpose of life is learning and development. This carries hazards. It can be done well under guidance of sound principles, or arbitrarily and wrongly, thereby producing instability.

"Is he who founded his building upon duty to Allah and His good pleasure better; or he who founded his building on the brink of a crumbling, overhanging precipice so that it topples with him into the fire of hell? Allah guides not wrongdoing folk. The building which they built will never cease to be a misgiving in their hearts unless their hearts be torn to pieces" 9:109-110  

Man is to be tried and tested.

"And surely We shall try you with something of fear and hunger, and loss of wealth and crops; but give glad tidings to the steadfast who say, when misfortune strikes them: Lo! We are Allah's and lo! unto Him are we returning." 2:155-156

"Deemed you that you would enter Paradise while yet Allah knows not those who really strive, nor knows not those who are steadfast?" 3:142

"Your Lord forbade you from this Tree only lest you should become angels or become of the immortals." 7:20

"We appointed immortality for no mortal before you. What! if you (Muhammad) die, can they be immortal? Every soul must taste of death, and We try you with evil and with good, for ordeal. And unto Us you will be returned." 21:35

"And We have appointed some of you a test for others: Will you be steadfast?" 25:20

"If Allah willed He could have punished them without you, but thus it is ordained that He may try some of you by means of others." 47:4

" We have sent unto nations before you, and We visited them with tribulation and adversity, in order that they might learn humility." 6:42

 

The word 'world' applies to a sphere of experience. It can apply to our local environment, this planet, the local solar system, the galaxy or the entire Universe. It is not certain whether all his features apply to man on this planet only or whether there are creatures having the same status as human beings on other planets throughout the Universe. It may be that mankind from this earth will expand through the Universe. In either case the function and responsibility remains the same.

"O company of jinn and men, if you have power to penetrate all regions of the heavens and the earth, then penetrate them. You will never penetrate them save with Our sanction." 55:33 

Though man was created perfect, he has failed to fulfil his responsibilities and degenerated, except for the few. These few may refer to the Prophets and saints or even to a whole section of humanity.

"Surely We created man in the best of forms, then We reduced him to the lowest of the low, except those who believe and do good works, and theirs is a reward unfailing." 95:4

"Lo! We offered the Trust unto the heavens and the earth and the hills, but they shrank from bearing it and were afraid of it. And man assumed it. Lo! he has proved a tyrant and a fool." 33:72

The degeneration has been caused by substituting his objective responsibilities with subjective factors, namely his attachments, greed, fantasy and illusions.

"Lo! the human soul enjoins unto evil, save that whereon my Lord has mercy." 12:53

"And who goes farther astray than he who follows his lust without guidance from Allah." 28:50

"Nay, but verily man is rebellious that he thinks himself independent." 96:6-7

"Nay, but those who do wrong follow their own lusts without knowledge." 30:29

"Have you seen him who chooses for his god his own lust? Would you then be guardian over him? Or did you think that they hear or understand? They are but as cattle - nay, but they are further astray!" 25:43-44

"He thinks that his wealth will make him immortal." 104:3

"A similitude of those who disbelieve in their Lord: Their works are as ashes which the wind blows hard upon a stormy day. They have no control over anything that they have earned. That is the extreme failure." 14:18

" ....because they chose the life of the world rather than the Hereafter, and because Allah guides not the disbelievers. Such are they whose hearts and ears and eyes Allah has sealed. And such are the heedless." 16:107-108

"Know that the life of this world is only play, and idle talk, and pageantry, and boasting among you, and rivalry in respect of wealth and children; as the likeness of vegetation after rain, whereof the growth is pleasing to the husbandman, but afterwards it dries up and you see it turning yellow, then it becomes straw. And in the Hereafter there is grievous punishment, and also forgiveness from Allah and His good pleasure, whereas the life of the world is but a matter of illusion." 57:20

"Have they not travelled in the land, and have they hearts wherewith to feel and ears wherewith to hear? For indeed, it is not the eyes that grow blind, but it is the hearts, which are within their bosoms, that grow blind." 22:46

"Man is self-destroyed - how ungrateful." 80:17

"O , but man is a telling witness against himself, although he tender his excuses." 76: 14-15

"Lo! Man was created anxious, fretful when evil befalls him. And when good befalls him, grudging." 70:19-20

"..your thoughts which you did think about your Lord, have ruined you; and you find yourselves this day among the lost." 41:23

The causes of wrong behaviour is egotism or pride and the rationalisations based on it. Its consequences are suffering. Correct behaviour on the other hand produces self-fulfilment.

"Verily, We created man of clay of black mud altered, and the Jinn did We create aforetime of essential fire. And remember when thy Lord said unto the angels: Lo! I am creating a mortal out of potter's clay of black mud altered, So when I have made him and have breathed into him of My Spirit, do ye fall down, prostrating yourselves unto him. So the angels fell prostrate, all of them together save Iblis. He refused to be among the prostrate. He (Allah 0said: O Iblis! What ails thee that thou art not among the prostrate? He (Iblis) said: Why should I prostrate myself unto a mortal whom Thou hast created out of potter's clay of black mud altered? He (Allah) said: Then go thou forth from hence, for verily thou art outcast. And lo! the curse shall be upon you till the Day of Judgement. He (Iblis) said: My Lord! Reprieve me till the day when they are raised. He (Allah) said: Then thou art reprieved till an appointed time. He (Iblis) said: My Lord! Because Thou hast sent me astray, I verily shall adorn the path of error for them in the earth, and shall mislead them everyone, save such of them as are Thy perfectly devoted servants. He (Allah) said: This is a right course incumbent upon Me: Lo! as for My servants, thou hast no power over any of them except such of the obstinate as follow thee. And lo! for all such, hell will be a promised place. It hath seven gates, and each gate hath an appointed portion. Lo! those who ward of evil are among gardens and water springs. (And it is said unto them): Enter them in peace, secure. And We remove whatever rancour may be in their hearts. As brethren face to face, they rest on couches raised. Toil comes not unto them there, nor will they be expelled from thence." 15: 26- 48

Note the present tense when speaking of Paradise (the Garden) and Hell, as also in the following:-

"Lo! Hell is all around the disbelievers." 9:49

"But ah! thou soul at peace! Return unto thy Lord, content, and He content with you! Enter thou among my servants! Enter thou My Garden." 89:27-30 

Paradise and Hell may be regarded as states of being. The same external situation may be experienced as suffering or joy, self-fulfilment or self-contradiction. However, it can also refer to places in so far as people create their own environments, migrate to ones suitable to their nature, and interpret them according to their nature. If, to exist, a state of individuality is required, then the state of disintegration and self-contradiction is neither life nor death.

"Lo! whoso comes guilty unto his Lord, verily for him is hell. There he will neither die nor live. But whoso comes unto Him a believer, having done good works, for such are high stations, Gardens of Eden underneath which rivers flow, wherein they will abide forever. That is the reward of him who grows." 20:76 

To enable man to fulfil his function he was also provided with other suitable conditions:-

I. The ability to form concepts through certain categories of thought (the Attributes of Allah) -

"And He taught Adam all the names" 2:31

 

II. Memory and the ability to learn -

It is now a widely known fact that everything a person does and all his experiences are recorded in the unconscious mind. These have their consequences according to the laws of the mind. He cannot, therefore, escape from himself. A record probably exists also in the matrix of Space-time since all actions have external consequences. Everything around him affects him, consciously or unconsciously, and he can make use of all his experiences. Learning and development depends on memory.

"We have caused all that you did to be recorded." 46:29

"We verily created a man and We know what his soul whispers to him, and We are nearer to him than his jugular vein.... He utters no word but there is with him an observer ready." 50:16-18

"And He hath made of service unto you whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth; it is all from Him. Lo! herein verily are signs for people who reflect." 46:13

 

III. Variation & Limited Freedom -

"And if thy Lord willed, all who are in the earth would have believed together. Would you (Muhammad) compel men until they are believers? It is not for any soul to believe save by permission of Allah. He has set uncleanness upon those who have no sense." 10:100-101

"O ye who believe! Ye have charge of your own souls. He who errs cannot injure you if you are rightly guided." 5: 105

"And whosoever strives, strives only for himself, for lo! Allah is altogether independent of His creatures." 29:6 

Five remarks need to be made in this connection.

1. The Quran and the Hadith also support determinism, and even preordination and predestination which follow from it. This appears to present us with a contradiction. It worried some of the Prophet's followers. The explanation, however, is no more puzzling than the fact that the nature of light is both corpuscular and wave like, though these conditions appear to be mutually exclusive. Man like everything else in the Universe is subject to the Law of Causation. Man is not free though he has choice. There are several alternative but there are causes which will determine the choice. These may be external ones or internal ones. Suppose we have an empty box. We put a marble into it. This marble has freedom of motion. It can take a great number paths. But the path it takes will depend on the kind of causal forces acting upon it. If the marble were placed in a smaller box its freedom of motion would be reduced proportionally. Inherent, environmental, circumstantial, cultural, educational and other factors affect him. However, these causes produce affects which are within him, and given the power of awareness and thinking, that is, the power to manipulate the data of experience, he can alter his behaviour. The desire to strive is itself a cause, as is the exhortation to be responsible for ones actions.

2. The Prophet taught that it is impossible to change a person's nature. It is particularly impossible for a person to change his own nature. Yet religions exist precisely to change human beings. How is this contradiction to be understood? The answer is that nothing is possible for human beings which does not exist as an inherent potentiality in them. These can be actualised, distorted or suppressed. What is impossible for man is, of course possible for Allah. There are five factors which can alter a person.

(a) It is obvious that a person can be altered by some accident or disease which affects his brain.

(b) He can be altered by social circumstances and experiences.

(c) He can be altered by the religious and other teaching.

(d) He can be altered by a new consciousness, the unveiling, as it were, of a dormant higher faculty, by inspiration.

(e) He can be altered by sustained efforts. Each action makes a similar action easier and its opposite more difficult. The exercise of a faculty causes that faculty to grow under certain conditions e.g if it is not used to the point of exhaustion and irreversible damage.  

But no changes can take place which his inherent nature does not allow.

Since none of them depend on the individual himself they are attributed to Allah.

"There is no strength save in Allah." 18:40

"There is no refuge from Allah save towards Him." 9:118

"Lo, none despairs of the Spirit of Allah save disbelieving folk." 12:87

 

3. The Prophet taught that people will enter hell or heaven according to their faith no matter what they did. This is also the position in Christianity. It is also taught that the last state of a person before his death will determine his condition after death. And yet these religions insist that people will reap their rewards according to their actions. This apparent contradiction is solved by the following considerations ;-

(a) Religions are concerned with the inner nature of the person, rather than outer behaviour, which itself depends partly on the inner nature.

(b) The action itself and its consequences does not depend on the individual alone but on the world in which he operates

(c) The action is judged by its intentions and efforts. The outer actions of a person do not necessarily correspond to the amount of inner effort made. A so called good man may have made no efforts, done what he did through inner compulsion, accident, ignorance or mistake, or from ulterior motives. The so called evil man may have struggled with his anger or greed. Progress is achieved by a gradual approach towards a goal though one may not necessarily reach it.

(d) The intention is judged by the faith. The word 'faith' refers to the context in which the intention exists. Wrong faith will produce wrong intentions.

(e) Actions not only create changes in the environment but also in the person who does them. Since the environment also causes changes in a person, then the changes he brings about in the environment will also cause changes in him. Conversely the changes he brings about within himself will, through his behaviour cause changes in the environment. The effects may be beneficial or harmful.

(f) Actions of one kind can be undone by actions of an opposite kind.

"Lo! good deeds annul ill deeds." 11:114

(g) At any particular time a person's state will depend on the combination or result of the harmful or beneficial effects of all past actions.

It follows that we cannot judge a man by a particular action. The last state before death is the cumulative result of past actions throughout life.

 

4. Since human behaviour is determined by causes then there can be neither good or evil. He has to do what he must. Yet the religions insist that both exist. The existence of evil persons or evil deeds must also be attributable to Allah. But Allah is the source of good and requires us to do good. The answer to this apparent contradiction is three fold:-

(a) the notions of good and evil are, themselves, causes which affect behaviour. They give direction by attracting towards a goal and repelling from its opposite.

(b) In so far as things exist, the universe must have been constructed to facilitate their arising and maintenance or they have a function in the arising and maintenance of other things. This is defined as Good in the transcendental sense. Evil which disrupts this order cannot exist. But since good and evil cannot be understood except in contrast with each other, then Evil in the transcendental sense refers to the denial of this order. Man judges things good or evil subjectively according to his own personal prejudices, his likes and dislikes, or pain and pleasure. Punishment and pain arise as consequences of actions, just as pleasure and reward do, but are seen as evil though their function is to deter and discourage that which is harmful or to encourage efforts towards what is beneficial. This is obviously good in the objective sense.

(c) Things are judged good or evil with respect to an organism, according to whether they harm or benefit that organism. When one species eats another this could be regarded as good for one and evil for the other. However, things are inter-dependant and interact and arise within a greater whole towards which they have a function and purpose. That which fulfils the purpose survives and that which does not is destroyed. The final purpose is, therefore, fulfilled whatever a particular entity or person does. It matters not to the Universe, it matters only to the individual himself.

"Whosoever does right it is for his own soul, and whosoever does wrong, it is against it." 45:15

"And whosoever strives, strives only for himself, for lo! Allah is altogether Independent of His creatures." 29:6

"The good deed and the evil deed are not alike. Repel the evil deed with one that is better, then lo! he between whom and thee there was enmity will become as though he was a bosom friend."51:34

"Lo! Allah wrongs not mankind in aught; but mankind wrong themselves." 10:45

It should be pointed out that free will implies arbitrary action since neither cause nor reason determines it. Those who believe in free will must necessarily be in a state of confusion and uncertainty not knowing which alternatives to choose. On the other hand he who has no such beliefs knows exactly what he must do. There is, therefore, a great difference between the Muslim attitude to life and that of the believers in free will.

5. The actions of human beings can be divided into several levels. They act from mechanisms which are inherent in their different genetic structures, from instincts, from acquired conditioned reflexes, from various psychological complexes or fixations, from habits which they may have cultivated themselves, from knowledge and rational thought processes, from intelligence and the consistency of total experiences or from higher forms of consciousness of the total situation. The higher forms of behaviour require freedom from the domination of lower mechanisms. Freedom is relative.. There is obviously no absolute freedom for anything but the All. At the highest level behaviour is governed by Surrender to Allah, to the ultimate Reality, the Absolute Unity rather than to things which are limited and relative. People are blameworthy in so far as they possess the capacity for higher forms of behaviour, but do not make the necessary efforts to use them.

IV. Guidance:-

The existence of alternative courses of action which limited freedom implies leads to bewilderment, confusion, arbitrariness and contradictions. Hence the need for guidance. There are three kinds of guidance for man, namely:-

(a) that which comes through the Messengers and Prophets, the Scriptures. This is equivalent to the guidance of experts in other fields.

(b) That which comes from observation and study of nature, the creations of Allah. Human beings have been given the appropriate faculties, but these should be protected from damage and corruption.

(c) that which comes from within. Conscience, inspiration, insight, revelation.

 

They correspond to Ilm-ul-Yaqin (102:5) - The Knowledge of Certainty, Ain-ul-Yaqin (102:7) - The Eye (or Sight) of Certainty. Haqq-ul-Yaqin (69:51) - The Truth of Certainty

"He casts the Spirit of His command upon whom He will of His servants, that He may warn of the Day of Meeting." 40:15

"Our Lord! Make us submissive unto Thee and of our seed a nation submissive unto Thee, and show us our ways of worship, and relent towards us. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Relenting, the Merciful. Our Lord! Raise up in their midst a messenger from among them who shall recite unto them Thy revelations, and shall instruct them in the Scripture and in Wisdom and shall make them grow." 2: 128-129

"Is he who was dead and We have raised him unto life, and set for him a light wherein he walks among men, as him whose similitude is in utter darkness whence he cannot emerge? Thus is their conduct made fair seeming for the disbelievers." 6:123

"O ye who believe: Obey Allah and the messenger when He calls you to that which quickens you, and know that Allah comes in between the man and his own heart, and that He it is to Whom you will be gathered." 8:24

"This is a Scripture which We have revealed unto thee (Muhammad) that thereby thou mayest bring forth mankind from darkness unto light, by permission of their Lord, unto the path of the Mighty, the Owner of all Praise." 14:1

"And We never sent a messenger save with the language of his folk, that he might make the message clear for them. Then Allah sends whom He will astray, and guides whom He will. He is the Mighty, Wise." 14:4

"Proofs have come to you from your Lord, so whoso sees, it is for his good, and whoso is blind is blind to his own hurt. And I am not a keeper over you. Thus do We display Our revelations that they may say (unto thee, Muhammad): Thou hast studied. And that We may make it clear for people who have knowledge. Follow that which is inspired in thee from thy Lord; there is no God save Him; and turn away from the idolaters. Hath Allah willed they would not have been idolatrous. We have not set thee as a keeper over them, nor art thou responsible for them. Revile not those unto whom they pray besides Allah lest they wrongfully revile Allah through ignorance. Thus unto every nation have We made their deeds see fair. Then unto their Lord is their return, and He will tell them what they used to do." 6:105-1

"We shall show them Our signs on the horizons and within themselves until it be manifest to them that it is the Truth." 41:53

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The Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said:-

"Every man is born a Muslim, but it is his elders who make him into something else."

The word 'Muslim' should be understood here as "one who is by nature upright - the nature in which Allah created him." (Quran 30:30). A distinction is, therefore, made between the essence of man, that which is inherent in him on the one hand, and the personality, that which he acquires by conditioning from the environment and culture into which he is born. Having been born into the world he acquires a worldly crust or clothing, as it were. A third factor which goes to complete the man is his power to make efforts, his volition.

"You have charge of your own souls." 5:105

Behaviour should, therefore, be regarded as being based on these three factors rather than only the two admitted in Western Psychology - heredition and environment.

Volition is determined partly by the inherent and partly by the acquired factor. It must nevertheless be thought of as a third independent force in man since it is able to create modifications in either or both the other two factors. It has three functions-

(a) the capacity to create psychological changes already mentioned.

(b) the capacity to produce social changes, i.e. changes in inter-personal relationships.

(c) the ability to create changes in the physical environment.  

And all these are inter-dependant and interactive so that each can bring about changes in the other.

The personality is like the skin which faces the external environment. Experience forms it by modifying inherent tendencies. The development of the essence depends to some extent on the development of the personality, but only in so far as the lessons are absorbed and voluntary efforts at self-modification are made. Unfortunately, man becomes lazy and ceases to make conscious efforts. He begins to form habits. Experience conditions him. He forms addictions or obsessions, allergies and phobias in thought, feeling and action. He begins to react like an automaton. Man is trapped in a vicious circle. In so far as past experiences form habits, every new experience is interpreted by means of these, and learning stops. He becomes a machine. The events in the environment produce a mechanical reaction in him. Even though it may appear that he is doing something to bring about changes in the social, physical or even psychological spheres, the reality is that the world is merely changing itself using him as an instrument. This being the case, it should not be surprising that, his boasts and hopes notwithstanding, he cannot, in fact, change anything. He cannot solve his problems. The efforts of the politicians and Statesmen are futile in the sense that they are usually reactions and will not achieve what they hope for. They are not futile, however, in the sense that they cannot but help do what they do, and the forces in the environment require them to do it. They condition their thoughts and motives so that they want to do it.

It should be obvious that the opinions and motives we have, and the actions we do, have no value whatever in this context. They do not refer to any truth, goodness, beauty or usefulness. The point, however, which Islam in common with all other religions, tries to make is that this is not inevitable. Man does have higher capabilities. It is a common experience that when we first learn something such as swimming, cycling, mathematics and even walking, and so on, we have to make conscious efforts. But having learnt this it becomes quite automatic. We do it unconsciously. There is an advantage to this. Our consciousness is released to attend to other things and the automatism is very efficient in dealing with the particular situations for which they were formed. However, what if the situation changes, and we need to abandon previous programmes and routines, because they are inappropriate, and we need to form new ones for new situations? What if, because of the lack of exercise, our faculty for making conscious efforts has atrophied? What if there are higher levels of reality which become inaccessible to us because we are not and cannot become conscious of them? This is the situation man faces. The world itself changes owing to the accumulation of the products of man's activities. But at the same time this very accumulation acts as a strong conditioning force, inhibiting his powers of adaptability. It is only intense suffering which begins to destroy this conditioning, and he has to look around for alternative solutions to his problems. Unfortunately, the insecurity so created makes him seek and cling to any straw he can find and invent. A great number of cults and crazes and 'Isms' begin to proliferate.

In order to regenerate man, get him out of his prison, and start the learning process anew he needs to replace the set of assumptions, motives and activities to which he is habituated. This is what religion does. After some time, however, these, too, become familiar, habitual and meaningless. Hence the need for a new formulation of religion from time to time.

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Islamic psychology recognises not only a Witness but also a Driver (50:21-22). The Witness obviously refers to the now well known fact that everything we do and experience is recorded in the sub-conscious mind and can under suitable conditions, such as hypnosis, be brought out. But more than this our experiences, or rather our interpretations and reactions to them modify our psyche. The implication of the Driver is that human behaviour is not merely mechanical and reactive, but that there are urges and desires within us which determine actions and thoughts.

Man has been given the capacity for perception, feeling and action. Since he is inter-dependant with his environment, he must not only know, but also act. The result of the action is perceived, and the cause of the perception is actively sought. In order to perceive he must be in a state of passivity, or surrender. But in order to act he must be active. But the action must be objective in the sense that it accords with the nature of the materials and produces the desired effects. Feelings, however, relate to needs and motives. and he must also be aware of these. This also requires perception. What human beings do and what they perceive and how they develop depends upon their motives. There is, therefore, an element of surrender in respect to all three faculties. The intensity and direction of attention is important, and this also depends on their motivation.

There are, however, many levels of motivation, some of these are unconscious or automatic. We have, for instance,

(a) Reflex actions as when we receive a pin prick or touch something hot. The process which connects the sensation with the action is not usually referred to as a motive, but we include it here because it is merely a less complex example of inner processing in general.

(b) There are other more complex physiological processes known as instincts or urges - The self-preservative, the socio-sexual, the self-extensive.

(c) There are also habits and conditional reflexes because of the modifying effects of experiences. These, too, tend to be automatic.

(d) Other forms of behaviour result from volitional processes, where thought has exerted a modifying effect. The higher motives can modify the effect of the lower ones. It is possible, for instance, to hold a very hot object, despite the reflex, quite deliberately. The truly human exists only at this level. However, volition has several levels. Thinking could be about purposes, methods or experiences. It could be driven by habits, fantasies, reason or consciousness which itself has several levels.

 

There are many ways of describing the behaviour of man, not all by considering his motives. There are also many ways of describing his behaviour through his motives. Each method brings out different features of what is a most complex subject. In this chapter a method is used which brings out features which have importance from the religious point of view. It is a descriptive method, not to be confused with absolute truth, and it does not invalidate other ways of looking at human beings.

We may analyse man into structure, motivation and actions. These are inter-dependant.

Actions depend on interaction with the environment, the experiences, feelings and thoughts which arise in connection with it. These may be divided into the interactions a person has with himself, with the rest of society and with the material environment.

According to structure, Human beings may be described as having three levels, namely, the physical, the mental and the spiritual. There is inter-dependence between these. By the physical level we mean that which is connected with the physiological structure and processes of the individual. This has several levels. We can speak about the system of organs, or of the structure and relationship of the endocrine and nervous systems, or about the structure and bio-chemistry of the cells, or the structure and effects of his genes. We can look at the human being as a mechanical device, an electronic system or as an electromagnetic field and so on. Man is born with a particular structure which differs from those of other people in details.

By mental we mean the functioning or programming of the individual. Though this also depends on the structure it does so only partly. Human being have experiences in connection with the environment and these lodge in the memory, They can also think and feel and act. They process the memories. The self-same structure will behave differently according to what memories it has and how they are processed. Indeed, the mind can suppress, exaggerate or pervert normal physiological processes. Suicide, for instance, contradicts the self-preservative instinct. A number of acquired tastes and habits allow a person to harm himself. This has often been compared to a computer program, the software as opposed to the hardware which is the physical body.

By Spiritual we mean that which is connected with the centre of integration, the "I", with consciousness, conscience and will. This, too, depends on the structure and the memories, but not entirely. The human structure is like a hierarchy or pyramid such that integration at the apex is made possible. But we must not confuse it with the mind. The mind can function perfectly well without any awareness or control by the individual, and normally does so. If the computer analogy is to be continued then this aspect of man should be represented by the computer user and programmer.

The world of Nature may be divided similarly into three stages according to which of these has a greater significance in their functioning:-1, The Material as studied by Physics and Chemistry. 2. The Living or Biological, plants, animals etc. 3. The Human or Psychological.

The human brain, studies show, can be divided into three distinct layers - that which has the typically human functions, a lower level inherited from animals where we can also distinguish various levels, and a still lower level where information processing involves purely chemical and physical events concerned with things such as temperature control and sugar levels. It is perfectly possible for man to function at the lower levels with minimal involvement of the higher levels, and he usually does. There is, therefore, a difference between conscious living, ordinary or sub-conscious living as in animals, and the unconsciousness of sleep. The higher layer works by filtration, enhancing, inhibiting, diverting and further processing. The evolution of man requires that the higher layer should function to a greater extent and be further developed while the independent functioning of the lower levels is channelled and controlled.

Animals and plants are seen as another form of material system, and human beings are seen as just another form of animal by Biologists . This is an assumption based on Occam's Razor - the principle that notions should not be invented unless necessary in order to retain consistency. Clearly if some other science rather than physics had been the first of the sciences, then the need for consistency would have led to the adoption of some other notion. In fact, there is a great difference between dead matter and living things, and the difference between man and animals is as great as that between living things and material things, though human beings have an animal structure just as living things are made of mineral structures. Something is added at each level. Animals possess a mind which controls their behaviour from within them. Since the existence of a new life always depends on the previous existence of life, the arising of living things from non-living ones is a mystery even to science despite all speculations. This transformation must have required special conditions in the past which exist no longer. Otherwise the spontaneous generation of life would still be occurring. In fact, however, it is well known that all existing life forms are genetically similar and must have arisen by variation from a single source. But perhaps such special conditions do still occur and life does arise from dead matter even today. The point is that a transformation has occurred from an inert system to one which is self-regulatory. The same considerations apply to human beings. Biologically they are not very different from certain apes, but they have created a world of ideas, cultures, and transformed the world by deliberate action, which apes are unable to do. The difference between man and animal is created by consciousness which creates an inner world of imagination. The external world is internalised where it can be manipulated and the products of this activity can be externalised to create and modify. This ability is referred to as the Divine Spark in man. The cultural products accumulate and are constantly modified by analysis, association and synthesis and affect the development of the following generations.

The main principle which determines the behaviour of material objects is Inertia or resistance to change. Elasticity may be regarded as a primitive form of adaptability or intelligence. These properties of matter are similar to, and give rise to the Self-preservative impulse in living things. Underlying all phenomena there is a Law of Conservation. When ever there is a transformation something is always preserved. Thus a striving for Immortality is built into existence. The main principle which distinguishes living things is the need for reproduction. The whole of animal behaviour can be explained in terms of the urges of the genes, which determine the structure and behaviour of organisms, to preserve and reproduce themselves. Human cultures, however, also contain a third dimension as seen in the Arts, Sciences, Philosophies and Religion. Here interests are impersonal and universal rather than particular in nature. There is Self-extensive or evolutional urge.

According to motivations, therefore, Human beings may be said to have a Life Urge or Drive. This differentiates into several specialities according to the different structures or faculties existing in man. The motives which animate man fall into three basic sets. Their nature changes according to the level through which they operate.

1.The Self-preservative

2.The sexual or reproductive

3.The self-expansive 

1. The self-preservative urge includes the need for food, shelter and security. It also includes territorialism, the need to protect the sources which supply these needs. It is the most basic, primitive and selfish source of motives. Self-preservation may be regarded as being an 'instinct' also in minerals, an extension of the inertia or the need to preserve equilibrium.

2. The reproductive urge distinguishes living organisms. This includes seeking for a mate, building a home, producing and rearing children. This urge may be regarded as an extension of the self-preservative urge since it is a method of overcoming personal death. Biologically speaking it is the genes which are trying to preserve themselves through the organism. The organism is merely an instrument through which this is done. Living things, plants and animals have organs whose function is not purely self-preservation, but aids in attracting mates and reproduction. For the individual it goes beyond pure selfishness since it includes the mate and the children. By further extension it also includes the relatives of the mate and children. Since inter-marriages create a complete network, it also produces the Social urge. It is essentially an urge for the preservation of the race, the species and life itself. However, it goes even further, containing elements of the third source of motives. Reproduction is not merely the replacement of a single life. It also leads to growth and expansion in several ways. It leads to the expansion of the population, and it allows the transfer of accumulated experiences to the next generation. It increases variety by the mixing of genes and increases the chances of the occurrence of valuable new mutations. Since the child is mentally more flexible it allows the adaptation of the new generation to changing circumstances.

Competition for a mate has caused the development of different characteristics in males and females because of their different functions (One fertilises the egg and the other carries the developing child). These characteristics are the ones which ensure procreation and the bringing up children and are, therefore attractive to the opposite sex. In the females it is health, large breasts, broad hips and softness, gentleness, and faithfulness, The male characteristics attractive to women are vigour and strength and the ability to provide the resources and security which the rearing of children requires. This includes characteristics such as intelligence, courage, protectiveness, a sense of responsibility, skills and knowledge. The parents usually want improved abilities, achievements and circumstances for their children. We have an evolutionary pressure. As human beings have a complex mind, personal and cultural factors are added or modify these requirements. However, it is necessary to realise that they may be obscured by three factors - (a) unawareness and misinterpretation, (b) malfunctions in the process of development. (c) distortion through various psychological mechanisms and social conditioning.

The sexual urge manifests itself in society in three ways which also correspond to the three urges:-

(a) An economic aspect. Houses are built to provide homes. Cities, roads and other physical structures arise. The Industrial production and organisation is mainly formed to supply the family and home. The competition between males for worldly success in wealth, power or prestige is meant to attract females and providing security for bringing up children.

(b) The Communal aspect. A Society is a network of families joined by inter-marriages. All kinds of social, civic, political organisations arise.

(c) The Cultural aspect. The world of Ideas, art and science. Their function is to educate the new generation.

 

3. The self-expansive urge. Human beings differ from animals in that they create a culture which also affects their development. A human being grows physically and psychologically from a fertilised egg to adulthood through several stages. The single fertilised egg multiplies to form a complex multi-cellular organism. This is essentially a reproductive process. Such expansion and increasing organisation is inherent in life. Since living things multiply while space and resources are limited competition inevitably ensues. And this provides advantages to those in whom an impulse to improve their knowledge and faculties is strongest. Though physical growth stops, psychological growth continues. Experiences continue to accumulate and modify behaviour. The individual has a thirst for knowledge and experience. He needs to make sense of. and relate to the world. He needs to master himself and the environment. Human beings can show completely selfless interest in universal and objective matters. Scientific, philosophic, aesthetic and religious activity, for instance, is neither selfish nor social in nature, though it could be. These cannot be explained in terms of the self-preservative or sexual urge. This continued development is mentioned in Quran 23:8-17. Since the Universe itself, and all things in it develop, we must suppose that this urge is integral to it, and that the human urge is part of it.

These urges relate the individual to the environment by stimulating awareness and action as well as creating in him a demand from the environment. They also create an opposition between the individual and the environment, between needs and supply. This has several effects:-

(a) The opposition constitutes a problem. The solution requires a third reconciling factor. Life consists of the solving of problems.

(b) It is the tension between opposites which creates energy.

(c) An opposition constitutes a stimulus which produces alertness and awareness. The purpose of this is to activate the individual.

(d) Frustration or opposition to the desire creates aggression, the purpose of which is to remove the source of the frustration or opposition.

(e) It divides experience into two opposites, that which is considered good or evil according to how it affects the desires. It creates a goal and an anti-goal, an Ideal and an anti-ideal.

(f) The problem may be external (environmental), interactive (e.g between a desire and a supply) or internal (psychological).

(g) The solution may be constructive, re-organisational or destructive.

(h) The solution may be real, illusory or perverse.

(i) Each of these urges may work at different levels of intensity. Their function may be atrophied or perverted. Owing to the inter-connectedness of the structure, the energy contained in one may flow through the others.

The self-preservative urge tends to be self-centred. If the sexual force is channelled through this it also becomes selfish. This manifests itself as pleasure seeking and self-indulgence. When the self-expansive urge channels through the self-preservative then it manifests itself as a selfish seeking for power, prestige and wealth. The pursuit of wealth beyond need, i.e greed, may be due to attachments produced by the sexual urge or it may be due to an excessive fear of loss and deprivation. Such fear is created by extremes of competition and poverty in societies where the social instinct is inadequately developed.

The sexual urge has the characteristics of intensity, creativity and forming attachments e.g to the spouse and children. When the self-preservative urge channels through the sexual urge then the individual is able to make many self-sacrifices for the sake of the family or society. When the self-expansive urge channels through it he tries hard for social development. Adherence to various social causes and ideologies are based on this. But it also causes fanaticism.

When the self-preservative urge channels through the self-expansive then we get people who are willing to make great sacrifices for spiritual purposes with which they have identified themselves. When the sexual urge is channelled through it then they are also celibate and willing to give up society or even willing to sacrifice the society for spiritual purposes.

It is probably true to say that in days when the business of making a living was very difficult there would have been no spiritual movements at all were it not for such people. And if there were no spiritual values then there would have been no philosophy, science or art, since these were developed almost exclusively in monasteries and among religious bodies. There would then have been no development of technology. Life could not then have become more prosperous and it would have remained stagnant. There would have been no social evolution. And if making a living had remained difficult then the human mind and energy could not have been released for the higher interests and pursuits. Mankind would have been trapped in a vicious circle. A setting aside of a psychological Capital, as it were, was, therefore, necessary in some places and times to ensure development. Certain psychological distortions, however, are associated with this kind of channelling.

Since the main features of sexuality, for instance, are creativity, intensity and attachment, it will tend to produce fanaticism, fantasy, extremism, nervousness, irritability, intolerance, self-repression, cruelty and so on when diverted into other channels. The self-extensive urge may lead to excessive abstraction, irrelevance, fantasy, imagination and vagueness. The self-preservative, so channelled, produces false needs, fears and reactions such as those caused by habits, addictions, obsessions and phobias. Islam does not require this kind of channelling. It encourages the proper functioning of each of these urges in its own place. It requires a balanced development.

Sex and death are connected. Sex is not, however, merely a means of overcoming death, but it leads to the expansion of the population, and the desire in the parents to have children which are an improvement on themselves. Even animals seek mates which can provide superior genetic material. But human beings can also provide education. Sexuality channels the self-extensive and self-preservative urges. This expansion leads to competition if space and resources are limited. Sexuality not only unites, but also divides. This is because the degree of unity depends on the laws of Similarity, Association and Organisation - The more people or organisms are inherently or genetically identical, or the more they associate, specially under threatening circumstances, or the more they belong to a higher unit of which they become inter-dependant parts, the closer do they feel and cooperate. Therefore, the greater the differences, separation or disintegration the greater the alienation. These laws operate on the intellect as well as on the feelings and action. Evolution can be obtained if a superior group kills off an inferior group and replaces it by expansion. We, therefore, find that human wars not only consist of mass killing but also mass rape. The victors destroy the vanquished males but use their women to propagate themselves. This is, of course, a purely biological impulse. The war between groups need not be a military one but a purely social or cultural one. At the spiritual level it takes the form of education, propagating ideas, behaviour patterns and awareness. But this is only possible if people have the capacity to understand. At the physical level the construction of one thing requires the destruction of others.

The three urges also tend to occur in different combinations of intensity in different people, societies and at different ages. The person or whole societies, undergo a period of childhood, adulthood and seniority which normally correspond to the dominance of these urges in turn. The child is mainly self-interested, the adult has a family and social interests, and the age of seniority ought to lead to more spiritual and universal interests. This development is usually arrested at various stages because of social, cultural and environmental obstructions. Some individuals and whole societies do not get beyond self-centred and materialistic pursuits. The competition they engender ensures the threat to personal security and this keeps them at that level. Creating a Socialist type political system will not cure this, but will become oppressive to such people. The development of other societies may stop at the social level. Some may even sacrifice the self-preservative to the social. Neither a system which caters only for personal gain nor one devoted to spiritual pursuits will suit them. The problem with these political and social systems is that they tend to propagate the very conditions they are based on. They create obstructions to further development. The external, cultural and environmental pressures have become much more powerful than the inner or inherent forces in forming the human psyche.

At the lowest level these urges are purely physical in nature. At the mental level they may be described as the need for social security, affection and significance. At the Spiritual level we have Hope, Love and Faith. They are inter-dependant. They do not refer to particular acts but to the overall performance, attitude towards, and connection with, reality. Not only is there a correspondence between this triad (hope, love and faith) and the three basic urges (self-preservation, reproduction and self-extension) but also between them and the spiritual triad (will, conscience and consciousness).

The absence of these impulses, because it disables the ability to relate to reality, manifests itself as despair, apathy and confusion respectively. Their opposites or perversion are fear and anxiety, hate and greed, prejudice, delusion and superstition respectively. These three reinforce each other. Prejudice produces hate. Hate is directed towards that which is feared. Fear of loss is produced by greed. Greed may be produced by fear of deprivation because of the greed of others. Greed may be regarded as misplaced love or the result of misplaced hope or faith.

Though not normally recognised as such, the presence of these characteristics should define a psychological disease. Indeed, disease is so defined in the Quran. In secular Psychiatry, disease is defined according to departure from the normal. But in a community of the blind the person who can see is abnormal. Different communities also tend to set up different standards which confuses the issue even further. A better method of assessing things would be to define an Ideal so that we may recognise things according to their departure from it. And this is what Religions provide.

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All societies control people by setting up structures in order to manipulate motives. There are three methods of doing this - to work on fear, greed or belief. Greed here includes all attachments or addictions such as gluttony, lust, pride, vanity, laziness. Compulsion and coercion work on fear. Incentives and bribes depend on greed. Propaganda and the manipulation of information control beliefs. Different Societies place different amounts of emphasis on each of these. Capitalism works by cultivating greed and offering incentives. If the incentive of the profit motive is removed, as under communism, then this has to be replaced with compulsion. But compulsion creates antagonism and is a negative force, better at suppressing what is undesirable than stimulating initiative and creativity. This is why communism has failed where Capitalism has succeeded. Neither of these, however, instil a sense of responsibility. This requires a system of beliefs. Propaganda is, therefore, used widely to produce mental conditioning. This does not regard the truth as sacrosanct but may use it selectively, as well as lies, prejudices, distortions and false contexts and emphasis to achieve some other aim. It does not occur to the propagandist, even if he does not himself believe it, that anything which conflicts with the truth must eventually lead to disaster. It is not possible to negate reality. Whereas Truth is one there are many ways of distorting the truth and this leads to confusion and conflicts between the supporters of the various distortions.

Though it is perfectly true that the various religions have become propaganda systems in the hands of interested parties, it must be emphatically denied that this is their original purpose. Religion does not have a secular motive. The word Religion is derived from a word meaning "to bind back" i.e to the source of existence. It is, therefore, concerned with the purification and cultivation of true hope, love and faith. In this endeavour the doctrines and practices are a means and should not be allowed to become the ends and, as such, obstructions. Surrender means surrender to Allah, not to doctrines, institutions or practices.

The self-preservative is the most urgent and the self-expansive is normally the least urgent drive. But abnormalities can occur during development. Unless the one is satisfied to a degree, the next cannot function. The self-expansive is most valuable while the self-preservative is least valuable. This is because we need to preserve ourselves first before we can reproduce. And we must reproduce first before there can be evolution. And yet there can be no purpose in merely preserving oneself or the species. The species must have some purpose.

Man, being created of earth and spirit, has a dual nature. He has ascended, as it were from below, and descended from above, in so far as levels of power and capability are concerned. There is no real contradiction between the religious and the scientific view since they refer to different things. It is like saying that organic life on this planet has arisen from the earth below, but also that it is the result of vivification by the descent of the radiations of the sun above.

The process of evolution takes place automatically and unconsciously at first. But having produced consciousness, it must now also take place consciously. Education and guidance are, therefore, necessary. This is done partly through experience, where pleasure and pain modify human behaviour. They not only teach us what may be beneficial or harmful, but also constitute a test as to how we deal with fortune and adversity. But experience is not enough. The self-same experience may be interpreted differently by different people. Guidance is also needed.

Nor is it an intelligent attitude to rely on the accident of having appropriate, significant and beneficial experiences. This is why Educational systems were invented in the first place. That which may have been discovered by the accident of circumstance or the experiences and thoughts of the more intelligent and aware over the centuries is gathered, concentrated and built on, and then passed to the new generation. Unfortunately, secular education operates only in the fields of technology, science, arts and crafts and neglects the inner life, the motives and being of people, though this would seem to be of greater priority. Inherently, everyone does what he does in order to acquire self-fulfilment All other pursuits are merely means to this end. But they have, unfortunately, become ends in themselves, and this often conflicts with the real ends. This is due to the proneness of man to form habits, attachments and automatisms. What is at first learnt consciously and intelligently later becomes mechanical, habitual and self-propagating.

It should be noted, that Allah offered the Trust to all creatures but only man accepted it, and that man can be replaced. A community which abuses the trust can be replaced by other communities. The special position which man has in the Universe or which a particular nation has in the world is not guaranteed.

Man was created perfect and then reduced. We may ask why, if he was perfect, did he fall? And if he had a purpose why was he allowed to Fall? Does this not contradict the omnipotence of Allah? The Quran indicates that though Allah and the angels knew that he would create mischief in the world, he still fitted into the plan. The purpose of life was education. His perfection refers only to his possibilities, including the ability to learn and overcome temptation. Self-control produces perfection. It cannot exist without temptation. The divine spirit which made him into the Vicegerent not only bestowed a duty on him to govern the earth on Allah's behalf, but also gave him a certain freedom and choice. The same faculties can be used for good as well as evil. Being immature, he misused this power, and, therefore, requires to learn under guidance. The angels were capable only of acting according to their nature. And this is true also of animals and plants. Having a dual nature, a physical and spiritual, the interaction between them may be regarded as giving rise to the mind, as a third resultant factor.

This has several consequences:-

1. He can not only learn from experience, but process these experiences by abstraction, forming concepts, discriminating, relating, analysing, associating, synthesising, organising the data of experience, modifying and applying them. He can develop. Mental processes are capable of leading to behaviour which can extend inherent capabilities, and even to divert, channel and contradict them. Thus educational systems have become possible.

2. If man is given creativity, initiative and responsibility then he must have a degree of independence from inherent instincts. He is capable of greater adaptability to the environment, though he loses the guidance of built-in instincts. But the same creativity also allows invention and lying. A distinction must, therefore, be made between natural truth, artificial truths (e.g man-made laws and systems), techniques, descriptive devices, hypothesis, analogies, fantasies, errors, illusions, hallucinations, delusions, hypocrisy, self-deception, deception and lies.

3. The ability to form concepts and ideas creates in man another faculty, a centre of control which is independent of both his inherent nature and direct experiences. These ideas can be systematised. It becomes possible for others to manipulate and control a person by introducing and reinforcing appropriate ideas. But it has also become possible for the individual to manipulate and control himself in the same way.

4. He has created a mental world in which he lives. This has several aspects. He has a private world of fantasies, desires and hopes. He has a language which describes the world. He no longer deals with the world itself, but rather with his image and description of it. He has created a psychological world through his culture. He has constructed his environment physically in the form of houses, cities, parks, roads, factories, mines, farms, sport fields, cars, trains, aeroplanes cinemas, television and all the other products of technology. He has also changed human relations by political, commercial and cultural means.

5. He develops certain psychological needs. This includes the need for explanations, to find causes, purposes and relationships, to make sense of existence. He needs facts, meanings and values. Whereas man has become quite proficient in finding causes he has not made much progress in the search and discovery of purposes or in relating himself to the world. Indeed, some people deny that there is any purpose to discover. In this connection it should be pointed out that causation may not exist in the world either. It is only a way of describing and making sense of phenomena. The mind thinks in this way. Alternatively, cause and purpose are ultimately the same. Biologically, we explain the existence of characteristics by their survival value, that is, their purpose. But evolution is a Universal phenomena, not confined to biological systems. Hunger gives us a purpose, but it nevertheless has a cause. We come to conclusions through the exercise of reason, but this is the cause of our conclusion. The cause of the motion of an object is said to be a driving force. But we may equally well say that it is the purpose of the object to get away from the force in order to preserve itself. The point to be made here is that the human psyche requires not only causes but also purposes. Knowing only 'how' things arise and work seems an inadequate explanation for things. The existence of substances having the properties and functions of water and carbon compounds, for instance, presents us with a mystery quite apart from tracing their structure and causes.

6. The mind tends to form attachments or fixations. Greed, lust, vanity, envy, pride, sloth and gluttony, the underlying causes of all sin and psychological malfunctions, consists of such fixations. They do not exist in animals. A person may have a need which should disappear when it is satisfied. But human beings often eat more than they need because of the experience of the taste of food which has become a memory, and attention is fixed on it. A person may need some clothes to protect him from the cold or heat, but his desire has gone beyond the need. Pride is the result of an idea of self, and so on. Thus a distinction arises between needs and wants. These, in their turn, lead to anger, hate, spite, rivalry, rationalisation, fantasy, excuse making, repression, selectivity etc.

7. The capacity of the human mind for awareness and concentration of attention is limited and variable. So is the sensitivity of his sense organs and the capacity to think. This causes a distinction between the conscious, sub-conscious and conscious mind. The data of experience may move from one to the other of these areas. The world as seen, therefore, must also fall into the same categories. What we are conscious of is only a very small part of the totality. The sub-conscious refers to what we can become conscious of if we direct attention to it. The unconscious refers to all those processes which we cannot become conscious of ordinarily. However, since we ourselves are the most complex and sensitive instrument and are composed of and connected with the same materials and laws as the rest of the universe, then the possibility exists that we can become more directly aware of total reality given special techniques. We may, therefore, speak of the possibility of self-consciousness, objective consciousness and cosmic consciousness.

Indeed the Quran distinguishes between four kinds or states of the soul.

(i) Nafs-i-Ammara (Quran 12:53) The Commanding Self or Soul. It is the Ego, a construction arrived at by separating experiences into "I" and "not-I". Here the "I" is identified with what is common and relatively permanent behind all experiences, namely the persons own body, its physical interests and the social name. This causes conflicts between people and all the depravities, rationalisations and evil which corrupt the individual, the society and the world itself because of the way it is exploited. All human problems whether they are psychological, socio-political or environmental arise from this. There is some resemblance here to the ID as described by the psychologist Freud.

(ii) Nafs-i-lawwama (Quran 75:2) The Self-accusing Self. In order to be able to judge oneself it is necessary to be detached from that part of oneself which is responsible for the above state. We must be self-conscious. This reveals our inner contradictions. Conscience is uncovered. This should be regarded as a faculty, similar to instincts, which inform a person what conforms to the nature of a person. (Quran 91:7-10). Conscience should not be mistaken for what the famous psychologist Sigmund Freud calls the Superego which consists of the values inculcated into the individual by the society, particularly the parents. The Superego is regarded as the Father Figure which is projected outwards to produce the idea of God. The Islamic position is the reverse. Conscience is not a construction but built in. It has the same relationship to feeling and motivation as consciousness has to sensations, requiring unity and consistency in experiences. It is, therefore, a reflection of Allah. Self-criticism, remorse, repentance now become possible and the behaviour of the individual is transformed.

(iii) Nafs-i-mulhima (Quran 34:2) The Inspired Self. Here a certain amount of objectivity has been achieved. The individual is conscious of reality, having set aside his subjectivity which come from greed, prejudice, self-interest and rationalisations based on these. He can see things he refused to see before and does not make a selection of data according to his own narrow interests. He has become more independent. He cannot, however, reach this stage unless he has first been through the second stage. If, for instance, he has been conditioned by a set of false values his mind may have become damaged so that he cannot, in fact, perceive reality. Unfortunately, a number of people, though very sincerely religious, have been corrupted in this way, and come to confuse their own fantasies with reality.

(iv) Nafs-i-mutmainna (Quran 89:27-30) The Serene, Peaceful, Fulfilled or Perfect Self. This is the "I" which has identified itself with Reality; it has reached the state of Surrender where the whole of behaviour is objective. He has enough data to build a comprehensive picture of reality and his motives and actions are controlled by this.

When man comes into conflict with his inherent nature then he suffers and is destroyed. It is not merely the case that the urge to survive and evolve is inherent in him, but it is also the case that those who do not follow this urge will be destroyed. This leaves those who do. It is not, therefore, a question of preaching and urging people to chose this or that movement or to behave in this or that manner for some sentimental or idealistic reason. We are not dealing here in ideas but stark Reality. And to do this is Surrender.

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The behaviour of the individual, as we have seen, is determined by three factors:-

1. Inherent characteristics which have developed over millions of years of evolution. It is not possible for any one or anything to do anything which it is not in its inherent nature. Thus, a cow has certain limitations different from those of a donkey or a tree or a human being.

2. Experience, nurture, culture and training. The physical, social and domestic environment provides data which form memories at different levels. We do not merely learn facts but also relationships, activities, processes and patterns. Circumstances may exercise certain faculties and cause them to grow while suppressing or channelling others into definite directions.

3. Effort which is capable of modifying both inherent and environmental influences. Though a person is said to be formed by his past experiences, these are not immutable. The past can be changed by reinterpreting it.

 

When we speak of acquired characteristics we are speaking of the effects of the environment. The environment may be physical, social or psychological.

The physical environment refers to climate and geographical conditions. The desert is different from the mountain or fertile valley or a land rich in resources. But this environment is also acted on by man to change it. For instance he builds cities, parks, factories and so on. He creates air-conditioning. Transportation can easily take him from one kind of physical environment to another. The environment provides different foods, animals, materials, radiations, as well as experiences. It has both direct and indirect effects. This is why the cultures and characters in different places is different. All kinds of forces coming from plants, the earth, the moon, other planets, the sun and the rest of the cosmos impinge on us.

The social environment refers to the kind of people and their interactions, in which a person finds himself. Again we have to distinguish between spheres. There is the immediate family, the circle of relatives and friends, and then the city or even just one of its districts, the nation and the world. All these shed different degrees of influence.

The psychological environment refers to the cultural influences, the ideas, motives transmitted to a person through books, persons, magazines, radio, cinema and television, by education in the widest sense including direct influences, interactions, example, instructions.

Some of these influences are within the awareness of man, some are felt subconsciously and others are completely beyond his awareness. It is necessary to realise that man is not passive towards the environment. He receives, processes it and produces an output. He may not be aware of this output and the effects of this on the environment and the resultant effects on him.

"Have you seen that which you emit? Do you create it or are We the Creator?" 56:58-59

In receiving he seeks, selects and interprets.

He can select certain parts of his environment, neglecting others, as for instance when he chooses his friends and the books he reads or movements he joins; he can change his environment as when he creates his home; and he can migrate to places and companies he likes. All these may take place under the influence of his inherent nature or because of ideas he has acquired.

Efforts may refer to actions, motives or thinking. Training is a method by which certain automatic reactions are cultivated in order to increase the efficiency of a person in certain socially useful directions. Education refers to something deeper. It is concerned with the development and refinement of the mental faculties for action, feeling and thinking. Although it makes him into an independent individual the educational system itself depends on social factors. Deliberation (Quran 30.8) refers to something still deeper. Here the individual is concerned with the deliberate self-adjustment to reality.

When it is stated that a person is governed by his inherent nature, this should not be understood in an oversimplify way. Environment and effort will modify a person by channelling, reinforcing or suppressing different qualities.

Experiences produce memories, and memories modify the person. Each experience has three aspects, namely in thought, feeling and action. This is because each experience produces a reaction. Even if there is no particular external action there is still a tension, a readiness to action with respect to the experience.

A person is not only modified by the events which happen to him but also by what a person does, feels and thinks. And thirdly, in so far as a human being is a processing device, it is not the event itself but its interpretation by the individual which matters. Since this takes place wholly within him, then it is the individual himself who can be said to be responsible to everything which happens to him and what he becomes.

Each experience leaves a trace, it links it to already existing experiences, it acts as a link for other experiences yet to come, and it bridges memories which may not have been linked before. Memories form a network and a structure, layers on which other layers of memories can be built. Unless there is a certain appropriate layer of memories acting as a foundation other kinds of memories cannot be established. Memories can be embedded with varying strengths, varying degree of discrimination (analysis) and with varying amount of integration. The strength of a memory will depend on the interest in it, the degree of attention paid to it, the number of links it produces with others, the strength of the stimulus which produced it, and the number of times the same event is repeated. Links include reinforcement by such things as confirmation or denial by others and the amount of pain or pleasure associated with them. Each new event tends to be interpreted in terms of the system of memories already established. What a person does, feels or thinks tends to make it easier to do the same next time. Habits tend to form and it becomes more difficult to do the opposite. Associations are established not only between external events but also between external events and inner states and between inner states.

A Human beings can control his experiences in a number of ways. He can combine or separate two or more factors to produce other consequences. He can migrate to places where his experiences will change. He can construct and modify his own surroundings and choose his companions. He can expand his experiences by reading or consulting the wise. He can direct his attention selectively, concentrate or expand his consciousness. He can suppress certain reactions thereby altering what he puts into society, and therefore, also the reactions of the society. He can by his actions change the reactions of the environment and hence the experiences it gives him. None of this frees him from the causal law, but it enables him to take advantage of it. In order to do any of this he is of course dependant on Ideas and Teachings and those mechanisms which allow him to accept and apply them. There is always a set of presuppositions, interests and a group of activities, a framework of behaviour within which man operates. And this limits him. Societies differ precisely because of the differences in the framework. It requires the introduction of a new set of presuppositions, interests and activities to break out of this prison. There is, however, the unfortunate tendency to reduce the new framework into what is already familiar and established by habit. This is because man is lazy by nature and the forces keeping him in his prison are much stronger, urgent and frequent. His immediate surroundings, the need to make a living and get on in society and the market place, the pressure from his own ambitions and fears have a much greater influence on him than considerations of the nature of the Universe and of man. He is trapped mentally as well as physically in a small world. But he has some contact with the deeper reality in which he is an organ of the whole. Man has, therefore, become divided into two parts, the real or objective part and the artificial or subjective part. Modern Psychologists recognise the distinction, and name it the Conscious and the Unconscious. However, a case can be made out to the effect that what these Psychologists call the conscious mind is in fact the conditioned, unconscious and automatic mind, while real consciousness is suppressed and asleep. This is why the Quran urges man to awaken.

Having lost contact there is an inevitable conflict within man (psychological conflict) between the two parts and this is the cause of all his malfunctions and suffering. It causes and is caused by a conflict between people (social conflict) and a conflict between man and his environment (Ecological conflict). This is the state called disease in the Quran:-

"As for the disbelievers, whether you warn them or not, it is all the same - they believe not. Allah has sealed their hearing and their hearts, and on their eyes there is a covering. Theirs will be an awful doom. And of mankind there are some who say 'We believe in Allah and the Last Day', when they believe not. They think to beguile Allah and those who believe, and they beguile none but themselves, but they perceive not. In their hearts is a disease, and Allah increases their disease. A painful doom is theirs because they lie. And when it is said to them 'Make not mischief in the earth' , they say 'We are peace makers only'. Are not they, indeed, mischief makers? But they perceive not. And when it is said unto them 'Believe as the people believe, they say 'Shall we believe as the foolish believe?' Are they not, indeed, the foolish? But they know not....." 2:6- 13

States which are ordinarily called diseases, mental (psychosis, neurosis and psychosomatic) , social (crimes, immorality, injustice etc) or physical (organic or infectious) can be regarded as symptoms rather than causes.

Organic diseases, for instance, refer to malfunction of organs. Organs will malfunction when they are misused. Tension and anxiety, over-activity and exhaustion caused by inner, social and outer conflicts, will tend to produce such malfunctions. This also causes a weakening of the immune system which allows infection. The overwhelming majority of the diseases in the developed countries is due to tension and anxiety.

The Social diseases have been studied widely and it is agreed that their cause lies usually in domestic conflicts and the malfunction of family relationships.

The mental illnesses tend to arise because of the disintegration of the mind which has lost its unifying principle in the unconscious. The different parts (or complexes or sub-egos) are often mutually exclusive or overlap. Sometimes one part sees the other as an external entity, thereby causing hallucinations. Or one part wants one thing but feels compelled by another to do something else. Modern Psychologists talk about repression of memories and inner censorship and the mental process of rationalisation, projection, introjection, ideas of reference, compensation, dissociation, fixation, displacement and so on. All of these distort the mental processes. The result is that life becomes more difficult and the stresses increase. This makes the disease even worse. From the Islamic point of view they are all forms of self-deception and hypocrisy or Lying. This creativity is clearly a two-edged sword like all powers, since they can be used either for good or evil. A most dangerous power requiring a great amount of responsibility.

The patient himself is not aware of all these processes in his mind. He is compelled by them or by some complex within him. This is not different from saying that he is possessed or that Satan the Deceiver and Liar has sent him astray. The main reason why a person is led astray is because of greed, lust, avarice. This refers to a desire which goes beyond a need. It refers to an attachment, a love, an obsession or addiction, a form of fixation, fascination or hypnosis. Here knowledge and the power of reason have already been given up.

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It has been pointed out that human beings, as everything else in the Universe have a purpose or function with respect to the world they live in, and ultimately with respect to Allah. Human beings are, therefore, processors. That is, they receive an input not only from their immediate environment, but also from higher sources, materials, energy and information; they reorganise this within themselves; and produce an output into their environment, thereby transforming it. They and the world, therefore, have to constantly re-adjust or adapt to Cosmic forces.

We may, therefore, describe man by a triad, (a) the Recorder, (b) the Processor and (c) the Driver. These three correspond to the Acquired, the Inherent and the Volitional factors in his make-up. They also correspond to his three needs, Facts, Meanings and Values or to Knowledge (Science), Function (Economics) and Purpose (Ethics). Or to Intellect, Feelings and Action.

 

Another way of describing human behaviour is by Memory, Organisation and Motives. These three are not independent since each is affected by the others. Thus, memories have been modified by fantasies, desires and by the way we relate and organise them into systems. Motives are not independent of past memories and the way they have been organised, perhaps through literature. The way we organise and systematise the data of experience in our minds depends on our dreams, fantasies and motives as well as on past experiences. We may have learnt certain systems e.g scientific, philosophic or religious ones which we now apply to interpret new data. These interactions suggest that there is also an over all unity which is connected with the "I" or Self.

It is for these reasons that all attempts to reduce human behaviour to computer models or any other machine, has failed. Attempts have been made by Psychologists financed by Secret Services, both in the U.S.S.R and the U.S.A, to devise methods by which governments can control human beings for military, political, economic and medical purposes, by wiping away their memories and replacing them with specially constructed ones. But thankfully this has not succeeded. The "I" is not just memories. However, motives and modes of organising have also been manipulated. Though such manipulation is clearly unethical and dangerous, the justification for it is that

(a) the ordinary processes of life manipulate human beings, in any case, but these are unconscious and accidental, not under human control.

(b) Human beings are controlled by their past histories to the detriment of progress. Traumatic events in childhood cause neurosis and psychosis. Wars, civil wars and other disorders through out the world depend on memories of past histories. Traditions and habits of thought keep people in their primitive states.

(c) States which can manipulate people will gain more power to the detriment of those which cannot. Therefore, all nations should cultivate this power in self-defence.

Islam also works at all three levels, but leaves the control in the hands of the individuals. (5:105)

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The behaviour of man is also governed by the following inter-dependent factors:-

1. The Self-image. What a person thinks he is and can do. The kind of ambitions, activities and thoughts which govern people and the kind of social conditions and civilisation created by them in different countries depends largely on the kind of self-image they have. E.g."He thinketh that his wealth will render him immortal." 104:3

These could arise by accident owing to the environment people find themselves in, or semi-accidental according to what features they select, e.g what books they read, friends they chose and so on. Or it may be deliberately created. It is religions (in the broad sense of the word) which create deliberate self-images.. Islam tries to create a self-image which is related to Allah.

2. Mental Set or Attitude. In order to do anything or even perceive anything we need to be in an appropriate state. We must apply ourselves to it, to have a certain amount of determination. It is possible for human beings to change their mental set to suit different tasks. But it also happens that a person has only a few alternative mental sets enabling him to do only just those alternative tasks. You cannot, for instance, drive a car well if your mental set is for weight lifting. A great number of divorces are the result of the fact that one or both partners did not achieve the mental set required for marriage. Islam requires the establishment of an appropriate mental set before each action.

3. Value Systems. Different people regard different things as being more important than others. There are different levels of priority. It may happen that someone will behave one way sometimes and another way at another time. Something which he thinks is more important may have cropped up.

4. Simplification. The need for security requires that things should be predictable and controllable. There is, therefore, a tendency to reduce every experience to something which is simple, familiar and regular. New experiences and ideas tend to be interpreted according to previous experiences and ideas. This creates distortion, imprisoning man in a vicious circle which stops further learning and development. Having become familiar with certain patterns the mind places experiences into these patterns and if some elements of an experience fall into these patterns then the mind has an Expectancy that certain other elements will follow. A great deal of trouble is caused by the fact that circumstances or people do not always conform to these expectancies.

5. A Framework of Reference. The data provided by experiences would be quite overwhelming, confusing and useless if it were not organised. They co-ordinate thought, feeling and action. They may or may not have a centre or Origin. No sensible relationship with the environment or a viable life style can exist without it. This organisation is provided by a framework of reference with respect to which the data is interpreted. Understanding between people also depends on the existence of a common framework. Individuals and communities differ accordingly. Some are more comprehensive and efficient than others, and differ in purpose. The frameworks used in Science, for instance have a limited intellectual use. Religions, particularly Islam, provide frameworks for total living centred around Allah.

6. Games and Pastimes. (Quran 57:20 & 6:32) Human relationships are governed to a large degree by games and pastimes. Pastimes are activities having no purpose other than to pass the time and avoid boredom. It is likely, for instance that the British Empire and perhaps also other Empires were formed because well off people went out seeking adventures to relieve the boredom at home. Sports and Games and other forms of entertainment were invented for this purpose. There is little doubt that people in the more prosperous West occupy most of their time in this purposeless fashion or in creating the means to do this. Games consist of methods and rules by which people relate to each other. There are certain conventions and ceremonials when people meet. Flouting these creates insecurity and fear. Many of these are connected with rivalry and one-upmanship, the desire to achieve a higher status. Most conversations consist of games or pastimes. There is boasting and belittling and all kinds of manoeuvres to gain some kind of ascendency. Most business practices are of this kind. The conventional sports and games are only a very small recognised part of the whole. International politics is usually a game. Such politics is to found widely in the work place and between neighbours. Islam discourages these in order to release effort and energy in more useful directions.

7. Centres of Integration. Human behaviour is normally quite self-contradictory resulting in inner conflicts, repression, malfunctions, atrophication, disintegration and instability of consciousness, distortions and depletion of energy. This causes suffering, inefficiency and disease. There is a need for inner coordination, linkage with ones true inner being and with the world. (The passage in Quran 2: 1-10 and several other places may be interpreted as referring to this.) When religions talk about journeys, self-construction or freeing of prisoners they refer to this centre.

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The human race, from the religious as well as the scientific point of view had a single origin. It originated, according to the evidence from the discovery of bones, probably somewhere in Africa. As it expanded and spread through the world it appears to have undergone several stages. The first stage is described as an age of innocence in Paradise. Expulsion from this begins the second stage. According to the Old Testament (Genesis 6:1-6) ' the sons of God' took the daughters of men for wives and bore mighty men. There were giants in those days and great wickedness. Legends about the existence of a giant race in the distant past exist all over the world. There are also, all over the world, often in remote areas, giant structures of various kinds which are certainly many thousands of years old and present a great mystery to Archaeology. There appears to have been a single civilisation in the distant past which was destroyed suddenly. More recently most of the human race was destroyed by a Flood. Myths about a flood are also found throughout the world and among peoples who had never heard of the Old Testament. The third and present stage begins with the small group of survivors. At first they lived as a single community with a common language. A fourth stage, however, begins when mankind was forced to disperse. As its numbers grew the pressure on local resources must have increased, and mankind had to spread further and further afield. This dispersal was helped by conflicts which arose mainly because of ambitions and lingual misunderstandings. This is symbolised by the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11;1-9) which also has equivalents among many unconnected peoples. They were trying to build a city and a tower to heaven (a Utopia or Ideal Civilisation), but instead of using natural concepts (stone), they used artificial ones (bricks), and they bound them together with slippery slime (dubious reason). The consequence was a confusion of tongues. People ceased to understand each other. The verses indicate that this confusion was a deliberate and necessary act of God in order to prevent man from achieving his subjective fantasies and to disperse man over the earth. This myth is not only an explanation for the variety of races, cultures and languages in the world, but also tells us why people even within the same culture do not understand each other to this day. Obviously the differences are caused by subjective factors. The objective world, on the other hand, is a unity. The Quran does not mention Babel but affirms that mankind were a single community which broke up owing to differences of opinion. (2:213 , 10:20)

 

Violence is a problems of particular interest in modern times. Basically, the situation is this:-

(1) Aggression is required to solve any problem whatever. If aggressiveness is reduced then the ability to solve problems is reduced.

(2) A problem is produced by any opposition internal, external or interactive.

(3) The ability to solve problems depends on perception, knowledge, capabilities (including the amount of control we have)

(4) If a need is frustrated anger or aggression appears, the purpose of which is to remove the source of frustration.

(5) If this cannot be done, anger accumulates and may be discharged in any other direction, specially those which have some similarity or association with the original source.

(6) Aggression is controlled by inner inhibitions, inherent, culturally derived, personally cultivated, or caused by traumas and modes of up-bringing; fear of consequences created by the Law or Economic and other social disadvantages, on what the environment allows, disallows, or channels.

(7) Its expression depends on the number of alternative ways in which desires can be fulfilled.

(7) People differ in the amount of aggressiveness which may be inherent, acquired or cultivated.

(8) Desires may become exaggerated by attachment, addiction, obsession, stimulation, value systems.

(9) Features in the environment and the threats they present may be misinterpreted,

(10) Anger may rise to a threshold beyond a person's ability to control it. Explosions may then occur leading to wholly unreasonable and exaggerated behaviour.

It is possible to remove unreasonable and destructive aggression by providing the psychological abilities and the social and environmental conditions where needs can be satisfied in a reasonable manner and aggression is not stimulated. It is possible to divert anger in harmless directions such as sports and rituals. It is also possible to process and transform the energy of aggression in a socially constructive and psychologically self-constructive manner.

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The Quran tells us:-

"Surely, We have created man in the best of moulds. Then We reduced him to the lowest of the low; Save those who believe and act right; for theirs is a reward unfailing." 95:4-6

"Then set your purpose for religion as a man upright by nature - the nature made by Allah in which He has made men; there is no altering (the laws of) Allah's creation; that is the right religion, but most people do not know - turning to Him only, and be careful of your duty to Him and keep up prayer and be not of those who ascribe partners to Him (polytheists), of those who split their religion and became schismatic, every sect rejoicing in its own tenets." 30:30-32

"And their word was only to say: Lord, forgive us our sins and wasted efforts; and make firm our footing, and help us against the faithless folk!" 3:147

"And he who strives, strives only for his own soul; for verily, Allah is altogether Independent of (His) creatures (or the worlds)." 29:6

"And that man shall have nothing but what he strives for, and that his striving shall be seen." 53:39-40

According to the Prophet Muhammad, everyone is born a Muslim but society makes them into something else. But this is reversible. That is, human beings when born are in the state in which Allah made them, but the environment changes them.

The implication is that there is a distinction between (1) what is inherent in man, (2) what is acquired from the cultural environment and (3) what a person can do by his own efforts.

Inherently, human beings have the capacity to learn and develop through interaction with the environment, both being created by Allah. But these faculties tend to be corrupted, perverted and atrophy owing to the formation of attachments, addictions, habits, automatisms and fantasies. The result is that though they have an inbuilt desire to benefit themselves. to seek and reach Paradise, human beings often harm themselves and the result is suffering, Hell.

It is evident from observation that human beings are a mixture of good and evil and something neutral that may be catalytic - enabling one or the other. That is the reason for objections to Humanitarianism. The good is attributed to the divine spark in man and the evil to Satan.

The Quran tells us:-

“This is the Knower of the unseen and the seen, the Mighty the Merciful, Who made good everything that He has created, and He began the creation of man from dust. Then He made his progeny of an extract, of a fluid held in low esteem. Then He fashioned him and breathed into him of His spirit, and made for you the faculties of hearing, and sight and heart; little is it that you give thanks." 32:6-9

 

Firstly, we have to distinguish between three levels in man:- the physical, the mental and the spiritual (or body mind and soul). Whereas the body refers to the physical structure, the mind refers to behaviour and includes the faculties for thought, motivation and action, and spirit refers to consciousness, conscience and will. It is falsely supposed that the mind is located in the brain. The mind most certainly does not depend only on the behaviour of the brain, but also on the rest of the nervous system, the endocrine system, the circulation of blood, the immune system, the muscles and the functioning of every cell in the body. Consciousness is not the same thing as mind and is much more diffuse. Thought is wrongly mistaken for consciousness. In fact thinking takes place unconsciously and stops when one tries to be conscious of it.

Associated with these levels there are three types of behaviour - (i) Instinctive behaviour patterns (IBP) induced through genetic information transmission. (ii) Social behaviour patterns (SBP) induced by social information transmission. (iii) Conscious behaviour patterns (CBP) induced by conscious information transmission.

One can think of these as principles, forces or processes that consist of units like atoms that can combine into molecules, or like genes and chromosomes, or viruses or bacteria which are like free floating genes or chromosomes. Every community is diffused by these and every individual lives surrounded in an atmosphere consisting of these factors apart from the biological and chemical atmosphere in which we also live. In fact all these are different kinds of information bundles.

One could propose the name (1) Instons or Instenes for units of IBP; (2) Psychons or Psychenes instead of Meme (a term introduced by the Richard Dawkins ("The Selfish Gene")), for units of SBP; and (3) Constons or Constenes for units of CBP. Whereas Meme refer to a unit of memory, the Psychon or Psychene refers to a psychological unit which is not just a memory but has thoughts, feelings and urges for action associated with it. It can be built from memories, but may also be the result of inventions, fantasies, desires, emotions, wishful thinking, rationalizations etc. The memory bundle is held together by some kind of force which may be an interest, desire or habit, or some kind of trauma or strong impression which a particular physical, social or cultural environment produces. Psychons can be regarded as psychological equivalents to cells, viruses, and bacteria in the organic world producing various social manifestations.

We can distinguish between three types of Psychons according to their origin and function:-

(1) Something derived from and affecting social institutions such as science, politics, commerce etc. These are ideas that we require in order to live in the world created by man. We can call these CULTONS (from the word Culture).

(2) Something that derives from and affects psychological mechanisms such a addictions, phobias, prejudices, fantasies, and rationalizations based on these. These, when they reinforce each other, erupt into epidemics of mass hysterics, persecutions, riots, witch hunts, civil disorder and less destructively, waves of fashion in clothing, manners, ideas etc that are generally frivolous and wasters of attention, effort, time and resources. We can call these SATONS (from the word Satan).

(3) Something which derives from and affects perception of the real world and depends on the level of consciousness of people. We can call these THEONS (from the word Theos).

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