The Message of the Quran

When Adam had explained to the angels the nature of the human race, they realized that, besides wicked and corrupt people, there would also be great, righteous, pious souls among their number. Man’s greatest crime, next to denial of his Lord, is to spread corruption and cause bloodshed on earth. No individual or nation has God’s permission to act in a manner that disrupts the order of nature established by God. Man should not take the life of man. All actions of this nature disqualify man from receiving God’s mercy. Everything in nature functions according to a norm set for it by God. To follow this norm is to “make peace” and to deviate from it is to spread corruption. “And when We said to the angels: ‘Prostrate yourselves before Adam.’ They all prostrated themselves except Satan, who, in his pride, refused, and became an unbeliever. To Adam We said: ‘Dwell with your wife in Paradise and eat of its fruits to your heart’s content wherever you will. But never approach this tree or you shall become transgressors.’ But Satan made them forget this injunction and caused them to be driven out of the state of felicity in which they had been. ‘Go hence,’ We said, ‘and may your offspring be enemies to each other. The earth will be for a while your dwellingplace and sustenance.’ Then Adam received commandments from his Lord, and his Lord relented towards him. He is the Forgiving One, the Merciful. Go down hence, all,’ We said. ‘When Our guidance comes unto you those that accept it shall have nothing to fear or to regret; but those that deny and reject Our revelations shall be the heirs of Hell, and there they shall abide forever.’” (Quran, 2:34-39) God stood Adam up among the angels, as well as Satan, and tested them by commanding them to prostrate themselves before Adam. In this way he gave the first man on earth a practical demonstration of the two paths that would be open to his progeny. Either they would follow the example of the angels and bow to God’s commandments, even if this meant bowing before an inferior creature; or else they would be proud like Satan, and refuse to bow before others. This is the test that man faces in his entire life. Here on earth man is constantly faced with two alternative courses of action. He can either follow the angelic course and carry out God’s commandments by bowing before truth and justice in all that he does; or he can act as Satan did and, letting himself be controlled by arrogance and contempt, refuse to concede the right of others.