MAN

Man can deal with any problem in either of two ways: the pious and morally proper way, or the way in which such values are abandoned. The correct answer to the call of God is for one to use one’s intellect to ascertain the right course of action and then follow it, difficult as it may seem. One then automatically avoids the easy, though misguided way. Sometimes one is faced with the choice between callous and unjust action on the one hand and righteous, fair treatment on the other. If one answers God’s call as it should be answered, one will not flinch from the righteous path and will refrain from oppression and cruelty. Man is free to consider what he has, within him and outside, to be the result of chance; alternatively he may look at it all as the fruits of his efforts; or he can acknowledge reality and consider it all as having come from God. A person who adopts this latter course will answer the call of God implicit in every blessing by exclaiming, “Lord, You are the bestower and You have given us everything!” When one has offered one’s mind and heart to God in this way, then God will provide one with guidance, which means a righteous life in this world and eternal Paradise in the next. Man and His Mind Man has been created by God with two opposing yet complementary qualities: the spiritual and the physical. On the one hand is his mind, in respect of which he finds himself limitless. He can think anything he wishes; there are simply no boundaries to his thinking. Yet, in his physical existence, man is extremely limited. He is bound by innumerable kinds of constraints. The greatest limiting factor which man faces is death. Death nullifies all greatness in man. This is man’s severest test. In all his apparent greatness, he must acknowledge how humble his condition is. Passing from a limitless to a limited environment he must acknowledge the confines within which he lives. He must accept restrictions in an atmosphere of freedom. Man is constantly under trial in this world. To pass all tests, he must learn his practical limitations vis à vis his intellectual limitlessness. By so doing, he can save himself from all misapprehensions, and can exercise his free will in the sphere of reality. So far as animals are concerned, their thinking capacity barely goes beyond the immediate needs of survival. They are, in this sense, like Man offers his Lord a gift of realization, piety and thankfulness. In return, God provides him with eternal guidance and prosperity.