MAN IN THE QUR'AN
Undertaking a great Trust
By Amanulla Vadakkangara

The Qur'an denotes to the wisdom of Allah in giving continuous guidance and sending messengers to man and at the same time highlights the serious mission and responsibility he has undertaken to discharge.

In the following verses of Sura Al Ahzab Allah says: "O ye who believe! fear God, and (always) say a word directed to the Right: that He may make your conduct whole and sound and forgive you your sins: he that obeys God and His Apostle, has already attained the highest achievement. We did indeed offer the Trust to the Heavens and the Earth and the Mountains; but they refused to undertake it, being afraid thereof: but man undertook it; he was indeed unjust and foolish; (with the result) that God has to punish the hypocrites, men and women, and the unbelievers, men and women and God turns in Mercy to the Believers, man and women; for God is Oft­Forgiving, Most Merciful." (70­73).

Abdullah Yusuf Ali, the well known Qur'an commentator, writes explaining some of the terms used in the above mentioned verses, as follows: "The Trust is something given to a person, over which he has a power of disposition: he is expected to use it as directed or expected, but he has the power to use it otherwise. There is no trust if the trustee has no power, and the trust implies that the giver of the trust believes and expects that the trustee would use it according to the wish of the creator of the trust, and not otherwise.

"What is the meaning of the offer of the Trust to the Heavens, the Earth, and the Mountains? where the hypothetical sending down of the Qur'an to the Mountains is mentioned, and it is mentioned that such parables are put forth in order to aid men to reflection. We may therefore take the Mountains, the Earth, and the Heavens as symbolical.

"The mountains stand for firmness and stability: they have been created for this quality, and they are always true to that quality. An earthquake or a volcano has to do with movements within the earth's crust: it has nothing to do with the Mountains' will. In fact it has no free­will of any kind: there is no question of any Trust here. If we take the Earth as a whole, as a part of the solar system or a compendium of the terrestrial Nature we see around us, it obeys the fixed laws of God, and there is no will or Trust. If we take the Heavens either as celestial space, or as symbolical of the Angels, they absolutely obey God's Will and law: they have no will of their own.

"The Heavens, the Earth, and the Mountains, ie, other creatures of God, besides man, refused to undertake a Trust or a responsibility, and may be imagined as happy without a choice of good or evil being given through their will. In saying that they refused, we imply a will, but we limit it by the statement that they did not undertake to be given a choice between good and evil.

"They preferred to submit their will entirely to God's Will, which is All­Wise and Perfect, and which would give them far more happiness than a faculty of choice, with their imperfect knowledge. Man was too audacious and ignorant to realise this, and the result has been that man as a race has been disrupted: the evil ones have betrayed the Trust and brought Punishment on themselves, though the good have been able to rise far above other Creation, to be the muquarrabin, the nearest ones to God: What can be higher than this for any creature?

"It follows incidentally from this that the Heavens and the Earth were created before man was created, and this is in accordance with what we know of the physical world in science: man came on the scene at a comparatively late stage.

"Hamala: to undertake, bear, carry (the Trust or responsibility), to be equal to it. This is the ordinary meaning, and the majority of Commentators construe so. But some understand it to mean to carry away, run away with, to embezzle (the thing entrusted); hence to be false to the Trust, to betray the Trust," In that case the sense of verses 72­73 would be: "God offered the Trust to other creatures, but they refused, lest they should betray it, being afraid from that point of view: but man was less fair to himself: in his ignorance he accepted and betrayed the Trust, with the result that some of his race became Hypocrites and Unbelievers and were punished, though others were faithful to the Trust and received God's Mercy." The resulting conclusion is the same under both interpretations."

God intended a very high destiny for man, and placed him in his uncorrupted state even above the angels, but in his corruption he made himself even lower than the beasts. What was it that made man so high and noble? The differentiating quality which God gave man was that God breathed something of His own spirit into man. This meant that man was given a limited choice of good and evil, and that he was made capable of Forbearance, Love, and Mercy." And in himself man summed up God's great world: man is in himself a microcosm.

That man should undertake the God­like attributes (in however small a degree) of Will, Forbearance, Love, and Mercy, brought him nearer to God than was possible for any other creature of God. This was part of God's will and Plan, but little did man realise then what a tremendous task he was undertaking or question himself whether he would be equal to it. Zalum (translated "unjust) and Jahul (ignorant) are both in the Arabic intensive form; as much as to say, 'man signally failed to measure his own powers or his own knowledge! But God's Grace came to his assistance. Where man did his best, he won through by God's Grace, even though man's Best was but a poor Good.

How did man generically undertake this great Responsibility, which made him Vicegerent of God? Here comes in the mystic doctrine of a Covenant, express or implied, between God and Humanity. A Covenant (Mithaq) necessarily implies Trust, and its breach necessarily implies Punishment.

Man's generic Covenant, which flowed from his exercising the option given him, choosing will, Forbearance, Love, and Mercy, made it necessary that breach of it should carry its own punishment. Breach of it is here classed under two heads: those who betray their Trust act either as Hypocrites or as Unbelievers. Hypocrites are those who profess Faith but bring not forth the fruits of Faith. Unbelievers are those who openly defy Faith, and from whom therefore no fruits of Faith are to be expected.

Those who remain firm to their Faith and their Covenant will receive the aid of God's Grace; their faults and weaknesses will be cured; and they will be made worthy of their exalted destiny. For God is Oft­Returning and Most Merciful."

From these analysis we come to the conclusion that man has a heavy responsibility to perform and his destiny depends up on how far he is able to execute this duty.

To be continued Insha' Allah