to human beings like himself, making them supernatural deities.
Rejecting these two extreme positions, Islam presents man in his true status. At various points, the Qur’ān presents this real human state in the following words:
So let man consider of what he was created. He was created of a gushing fluid, emanating from between the loins and the ribs.
[al-Ṭāriq 86: 5-7]
Does man not see that We created him of a sperm-drop, and lo! he is flagrantly contentious. He strikes for Us a similitude and forgot his own creation.
[Yā Sīn 36: 77-78]
He originated the creation of man from clay, then made his progeny from the extract of a mean fluid, then He duly proportioned him, and breathed into him of His spirit.
[al-Sajdah 32:7-9]
It is surely We Who created you from dust, then from a drop of sperm, then from a clot of blood, then from a little lump of flesh, some of it shapely and other shapeless. (We are rehearsing this) that We may make the reality clear to you. We cause (the drop of sperm) that We please to remain in the wombs till an appointed time. We bring you forth as infants (and nurture you) that you may come of age. Among you is he that dies (at a young age) and he who is kept back to the most abject age so that after once having known, he reaches a stage when he knows nothing.
[al-Ḥajj 22: 5]
O man! What has deceived you about your generous Lord? Who created you, shaped you, and made you well-proportioned, and set you in whatever form He pleased?
[al-Infiṭār 82: 6-8]
Allah has brought you forth from your mothers’ wombs when you knew nothing, and then gave you hearing, and sight and thinking hearts so that you may give thanks.
[al-Naḥl 16: 78]
Did you ever consider the sperm that you emit? Do you create a child out of it, or are We its Creators? It is We Who ordained death upon you and We are not to be frustrated. Had We so wished, nothing could have hindered Us from replacing you by others like yourselves, or transforming you into beings you know nothing about. You are well aware of the first creation; then, do you learn no lesson from it? Have you considered the seeds you till? Is it you or We Who make them grow? If We so wished, We could have reduced your harvest to rubble, and you would have been left wonderstruck to exclaim: “We have been penalised; nay; we have been undone!” Did you cast a good look at the water that you drink? Is it you who brought it down from the clouds or is it We Who brought it down? If We had so pleased, We could have made it bitter. So why would you not give thanks? Did you consider the fire which you kindle? Did you make its tree grow or was it We Who made it grow? We made it a reminder and a provision for the needy. Glorify, then, (O Prophet), the name of your Great Lord.
[al-Wāqiʿah 56: 58-74]
When a calamity befalls you on the sea, all those whom you invoke forsake you except Him. But when He delivers you safely to the shore you turn away from Him, for man is indeed most thankless. Do you, then, feel secure against His causing you to be swallowed up by a tract of the earth, or letting loose a deadly whirlwind charged with stones towards you, and there you will find none to protect you? Or do you feel secure that He will not cause you to revert to the sea, and let a tempest loose upon you and then drown you for your ingratitude whereupon you will find none even to inquire of Us what happened to you?
[Banī Isrā’īl 17: 67-69]
All these verses address and negate the twin issues of human pride and arrogance. Man’s attention is invited (in a mocking way) to his true state: ‘Look at yourself, created out of a totally inconsequential drop issuing forth from a rather unbecoming aperture into another vessel considered unspeakable (in polite conversation) wherein it undergoes so many unsightly transformations only to emerge as a messy piece of meat. It is only God’s power that enables life to enter this fistful of meat lest it passes out in this incomplete and insignificant state. It is by His Divine Power that God bestows life to this mass of cells, creates in it a mind with intellect and senses and equips it with the tools and forces essential for worldly life’
It is in this rather unbecoming manner that man comes into this world. The initial state of this being is that of a totally helpless and dependent infant without any ability even to carry out essential tasks. God Almighty arranges for his upbringing in a way that he grows, becomes strong and acquires mastery over the affairs of life. Then, slowly but surely, comes about a decline in the powers as youth turns into old age, so much so that a time comes when the same feebleness that characterized the early years returns. The energies dissipate and the forces degenerate, mental sharpness begins to fail and the once formidable knowledge starts diminishing. Finally the light goes away from the ‘flickering candle of life’. Thus man departs for the grave, bereft of all material possessions, relatives and friends.
At no point during his rather brief existence is man fully capable of ensuring the continuation of his lease on life. There is a Power, higher than man, which keeps him alive – and which can force him to depart from the world at a time of Its own choosing. Indeed, throughout the period that man is alive, his life is bound by the strict laws of nature and requirements of (at appropriate levels) air, water, food, light, and temperature. The earthly produce, natural resources, and environmental conditions on which he is dependent do not submit to his absolute control; neither does he bring them into existence nor do they take orders from him.
And when the forces of nature begin to act against man, how powerless does he seem? A blast of wind can decimate his settlements, a tidal wave of water washes away all his significance, and a few tremors of the earth unite him with the dust. Irrespective of the tools with which he arms himself, notwithstanding the techniques that he devises from his knowledge (which also is not of his own creation), whatever be the inventions that his intellect (which again is not of his own acquisition) enables him to come up with, all seem insignificant in the face of nature’s adverse forces. How imprudent – even ludicrous – is it of man to act arrogantly (on the basis of his trivial abilities and inventions) becoming haughty and heartless as he spreads mischief throughout God’s kingdom, raises the banner of rebellion against the Almighty, and sets himself up as a false deity over God’s people?
So much then for battering man’s false pride, which is just a small aspect of the Qur’ān’s challenge. In turn, the Qur’ān also addresses mankind with a message that it should not consider itself as lowly as it occasionally does.
Indeed, We honoured the progeny of Adam, and bore them across land and sea and provided them with good things for their sustenance, and exalted them above many of Our creatures.
[Banī Isrā’īl 17: 70]
Have you not seen how Allah has subjected to you all that is in the earth.
[al-Ḥajj 22: 65]
He created the cattle. They are a source of clothing and food and also a variety of other benefits for you. And you find beauty in them as you drive them to pasture in the morning and as you drive them back home in the evening; and they carry your loads to many a place which you would be unable to reach without much hardship. Surely your Lord is Intensely Loving, Most Merciful.
