The Holy Qura’n has in its text many ayats that could be read for understanding the Quranic idea of man. What type of man does the Quran want to construct and build through its teaching and orientation? What is it that Allah wants from man through the teachings of the Quran? The answer to these questions can be apparently sought from the life of Mohammad (PBUH) and some of his companions like Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali (RA) who were the prototypes of the Quranic idea of man. However, the ayats of the Quran also in themselves give us an idea about the Quranic ideal of man. Some of the ayats in this context could be taken up for discussion in this column today.
To begin with, let us, first of all, try to understand the Quranic statement: “Verily, we have created man in the best form” and “Then we return him to the worst of the worst”. Does the best form mentioned in this ayat mean the best of the best capabilities that man has? May be. Does the best form mentioned in this ayat mean the best physical structure? Does the best form in this ayat mean man’s potential for ethical, moral and spiritual evolution? May be that is the point that Allah wants to make in this ayat. May be the best form mentioned in this ayat means man’s immense potential for exploration, knowledge production, and self-realisation/discovery. However, we cannot understand the meaning of the ayat, “Verily, we created man in the best form” until and unless we compare it with its complimentary ayat: “Then we returned him to the lowest of the low”. Here we are forced to think a little bit differently and ask these questions to ourselves: When does man fall to the lowest of the low? What does this lowest point mean? Does it refer to the spiritual life of man or it has something to do with the material life of man? Does the best form mean the innocence of Adam and the lowest refer to his fall when he was expelled from paradise? All these questions could be deliberated upon in isolation as well as in a bound context here and there in the Quran.
What, however, comes to one’s mind after raising all these questions about the “best form” of man and his returning to the lowest of the low is that 1) man is innately good; and, if he retains and nourishes this goodness in all the walks of his life, he actually retains the best form in which God has created him; however, if he violates the honour with which God has created him, he definitely falls to the lowest of the low conditions in his life; 2) the best form may simply refer to the best conduct and the lowest of the low to the conduct that God does not desire from man; 3) the best form may be the immense creative potential that man is blessed with by nature and the lowest of the low may refer to the destructive and devastating potential that man develops as a result of the dominance of his desires and lusts for power and property in this material world; 4) the best form may refer to man’s potential for attempting symmetry, balance and justice in all the matters of life (as an act of serving the commands of God) and the lowest of the low may refer to such tendencies in man which draw him away from God and does not allow him to enjoy the company of God with consciousness of Him; 5) it may, moreover, refer to man’s journey for seeking completion and perfection before entering the sea of eternity in the hereafter and the lowest of the low may refer to man’s consciousness turning dead with regard to undertaking such an onerous journey, hence not being able to recognise the purpose of life and not being able to remember and worship and praise God as He is supposed to do.
Our reflection and pondering on these two ayats of the Quran leads to the conclusion that the Quran basically wants a man who is always in a state of self-discovery and the discovery of truth regarding God, which, in other words, means that a believer uses all the means and potentialities at his disposal in the service and recognition of the Truth of all the Truths and the Reality of all the Realities, something which is quite manifest in Kalima e Tawhid, “La ilaha illalah mohammad ur rasullah”. If, however, a man is not in such a journey and is not drawn towards the remembrance and recognition of the Truth, he is absolutely in the category of what the Quran has called the “lowest of the low.” Such a binary division that the Quran makes in these two ayats is not based on caste, creed, region, colour or any other identity; it is, rather, simply on the basis of how there are two categories of man, in one of which man makes use of his rational and spiritual faculties for understanding the Truth of all the Truths and the Reality of all the Realities, and the second in which he does not make the use of his faculties for this purpose; in fact, regarding this class of people, the Holy Quran uses this description: “They are like the animals, rather worse than animals”; at another place, the Quran says: “They are deaf, dumb and blind so they are not able to return”; at yet another place, Allah says, “Eyes do not turn blind but those hearts do turn blind which are in chests”; and there are many such ayats that explain and exemplify this subject differently in different contexts in the Quran. Such ayats in the Quran clearly indicate the objectives of the Quran vis-à-vis the man that it wants to construct through its teachings and various trials on the path of education. Needless to mention, there are hundreds of such ayats in the Quran.
In this regard, there is also a very beautiful insight available in the Quran which, if studied and pondered upon, would make our discourse on the subject quite easy. This insight comes from those ayats that talk about Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) as the messenger of Allah, for example: “You have been blessed with the best moral conduct”; “There is for you the best model of life in the messenger of Allah”; “Didn’t we open your heart and raise high your mention among the people…” and a host of other ayats which talk about Mohammad (PBUH) as the messenger of Allah and as the best of the best role models. How we can forget the ayat that talks about Mohammad as the mercy for whole mankind (and other creations also)? What, therefore, such ayats in the Quran point to is that the Quranic idea of man is a project based on continuous journey, education, thorough preparation, self-discipline, patience and an attitude which is always directed towards God. Man is supposed to assimilate and absorb in himself such qualities which God finds beautiful and so likes them for the virtues of Ihsan (doing the things in the most beautiful manner).
There is in the Quran a highly enlightening and inspiring ayat which if reflected upon says everything about the project that Allah offers and hands over to man through the teachings of the Quran. The ayat reads: “And there is within you what you do not know”. What does this mean? What secrets do lie within the constitution of the human self? What secrets are there in the inner core of man’s organisation? Not only this, the Quran then invites and draws the attention of man towards those infinite number of secrets that lie hidden in every small and big form life around man; therefore, there is in the Quran either the journey from known to unknown or it is from the world within man to the world without man. The Quran throws the hint and so the man blessed with a heart to see receives the epiphany. The world of phenomenon as well as the world within have been deliberated upon suggestively at about five-hundred places in the Quran. It definitely points to the fact that the man that the Quran intends to create is a thinking man having God-centric consciousness and directed towards laying bare the secrets of God’s beauty and creative powers in every creation and act of creation. An example in this context could be this ayat from the Quran: “Don’t they see the camel and observe how it has been created? And the sky, how it has been raised? And the earth, how it has been spread? And the mountains, how they have been fixed in the ground? So, you remind them as you are supposed to remind only; you are not supposed to force the things upon them.” Our attention is drawn towards the world outside ourselves in the form of animals other than us, all of which are signs of God’s mercy, creativity, magnanimity, compassion and beauty. That our attention is sought towards what lies within and without us is once again indication of a grand project of journey, education and elevation that God has embedded in the thematic structure of the Quran. It is, in other words, a project that liberates us from all the false constructs of the human mind and initiates us on the path of salvation which is not possible without submitting our wishes, desires, aspirations and all our aims before the will of God.
The theme of tawba (returning back after having sinned) is a recurrent theme in the text of the Quran. The moment a human being sins, in any form, he falls from the grace that God has blessed man with; however, since God is merciful, there is a recurrent call for return in the Quran. No journey and process of education could be complete without being circular. The circular journey has the scope for learning through experience and it allows man a chance to differentiate light from darkness. The call for education in the Quran is a journey “from darkness to light”; therefore, the believer (called Mu’min in the Quran) has to use all the resources for undertaking this journey so that he can reach the Light of all the Lights, that is, God. Needless to mention, such a journey cannot be undertaken without fulfilling the criteria that the Quran discusses in terms of patience, steadfastness, perseverance, purification of soul and eyes, etc. The journey from darkness to light is supposed to be directed towards 1) self-discovery and 2) the discovery of the Light of all Lights in front of whom Moses fell unconscious. The call for return/repentance is, therefore, an important thing for man as it not only saves him from the wrath of Allah but also allows him to continue on the path of journey and education which Allah desires a man to be in throughout the Quran.
Having said this, one may once again go back to the prayer for straight path that a believer makes in Surah al Fateh (O God! Show us the straight path). The prayer for the straight path in the opening chapter is suggestive of undertaking a journey for the goal of seeking guidance which emanates from God Himself. It is in this context that the Quran talks about itself in these words: “This is the Book about which there is no scope of doubt and which is an ultimate source of guidance for those who are God-conscious”; therefore, this ayat from the second chapter of the Quran establishes God-directed guidance and guidance directed towards God as the objectives of the Quranic construction of man. That is why man is asked to pray for guidance towards the straight path and that guidance is recorded in the Quran in the form of its ayats (the signs and milestones of this journey).
Given the fact that all human beings are Adams (aadmi) made of fire, water, air and clay and other such elements, the project of the Quran is to raise this material combination to the status of Insan and God’s vicegerent on the earth who is quite different and distinctive from other animals living on this planet. Mirza Ghalib, the pinnacle of intellect in Urdu poetry, comments thus about man and Insan: “Bas ki dushwar hay har kaam ka aasan hona/ aadmi ko mayyasar nahi insane hona”. The Quran puts man on the path of a journey where the ultimate goal is to return to the status of Insan/ashraf al makhluqat which man forgets as a result of his engagement with the material world. In a nutshell, the Quran is light at every step of this journey, provided we know how to read it for guidance. Had it not been so, Allah wouldn’t have said in the Quran: “Wa la qadyassarnahulizzikri, fa hal min muddakir” which means “Verily, we have made it easy for remembrance (understanding); so, is there anybody who wants to remember/understand?”

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Ameen Fayaz