God’s conceiving of man as vicegerent thereby allowing in him with a certain degreeof initiative and autonomy to operate in the world inherently carried within itpossibility of mischief and conflict (potentially a bloody one) in the abode ofits living. That was the apprehension that the Angels expressed when Allahdeclared to them that He was creating a vicegerent on the earth. It must havebeen this inherent nature in man that prompted Adam’s son Cain to kill his ownbrother Abel. In His response to the Angles Allah didn’t dispute theirapprehension. Instead He tacitlyacknowledged their contention about the quarrelsome nature of man by notaddressing the issue directly. While doing so He had demonstrated human potentialto name things i.e. to understand their nature (2:30-33). Abdullah Yusuf Ali inthe explanation of the relevant verse in Qur’an, says that according tocommentators naming means grasping “the inner nature and qualities of things,and things here would include feelings. The particular qualities or feelingswhich were outside the nature of angels were put by Allah into the nature ofman”. Man was thus able feel and understand and “thus plan and initiate”, asthese were required of him in his role as viceregent.
In its broadest sense it implies grasping the nature notonly of mundane and manifest but also abstract and subtle aspects of therealities. According to Dr. Iqbal (Reconstruction…) the faculty of namingthings would mean “forming concepts of them and forming concepts of them is capturingthem”. Capturing and forming concepts would indicate the reasoning faculty ofhuman mind. Qur’an contains so many verses calling man to ‘observe’ the signsin the universe (& within one’s own self), apply ‘reason’, ‘reflect’,’ponder’, ‘understand’ and draw lessons from these. Thus, Islam does notrestrict legitimate pursuit of knowledge only to the revealed texts. Theessence of the belief in the unity of God is that everything in the Universe isfrom God, “Allah” and that there is nothing outside his command, scope andjurisdiction. If revelation is from Him, everything else in the Universe isalso His creation and therefore reflects ‘His wisdom’. That is what is clearly indicated in Qur’anicreferences, calling Man to observe and ponder the signs of Allah within him andaround him. In the words of Iqbal;
The Quran sees signs of the Ultimate Reality in the ‘sun’,the ‘moon’, the ‘lengthening out of shadows’, ‘the alternation of day and night’, ‘variety of human colour andtongues’, ‘the alternation of the days of success and reverse among peoples’, –in fact in the whole of nature as revealed to the sense-perception of man. Andthe Muslim’s duty is to reflect on these signs and not to pass by them ‘as ifhe is deaf and blind’, for he ‘who does not see these signs in this life willremain blind to the realities of the life to come’. (Reconstruction…)
Together, all this allows human society to gain, gather andgrasp information, learn through experiencing, develop perception, secureunderstanding and critical thought, about the issues and evolve accordingly.This intrinsic human faculty for the development of knowledge enables mankindto decipher and design its own mechanisms to regulate human conduct morally,culturally and institutionally. Islam values human wisdom gained throughcenturies of experience with the mundane world. That is why the prophetMuhammad (SAW) in the face of various challenging situations soughtconsultations with his companions and many a time acted on their suggestions basedon worldly wisdom. Studying the relevant Qur’anic passage indicating humancapacity to name things and decipher their nature (2 : 30-33) in tandem with the earliest revealed verses (96:4-5) declaring it was God who’taught man the use of pen and taught him that he knew not’ vindicates thisunderstanding of the holy book. Importance of pen for Almighty is testified bythe fact that Qur’an contains a chapter under the title ‘Pen’ that begins witha verse in which Allah swears in its name and of ‘what is written with it’ bymen (68:1). God stresses the significance of the pen because it is the skill ofwriting that has allowed man to benefit from the experiences, knowledge andwisdom that he gained from the beginning of the recorded history and transmit ittowards posterity in a systemic and organised fashion. Man’s capacity to knowand understand was a condition for his creative role along with a degree ofautonomy and freedom that he enjoys. This is how human society was/is destinedto gradually evolve from its impulsive crooked existence to a more informed,culturally refined, ethically righteous and institutionally regulated conduct.
Thus, the human evolution from base primordial existence toa continuing rational-civilizational advancement has happened through a longzigzag process of self-learning and a process of self-correction in the contextof an evolving environment. This is how it is human initiative that triggerschange in his situation. “Verily God will not change the condition of man, tillthey change what is in themselves” (13:12). In this process, man (irrespectiveof his faith) also draws from his own intuitive sense of distinguishing betweenthe right (piety) and wrong (evil) instinctively present within his soul(reflected in his subconscious) through a divine design (91:7-8). Beyond thisGod announces that his design in the creation of the life and death was ‘as totest which of you better in his deeds’ (67:2) Further, He also occasionallysent his messengers to mankind to guide man in taming his selfish-egoist natureand demonstrate the example of the right conduct. This is how God declares themission of the Prophet (SAW) as a favour. “…We have sent among you aMessenger of your own, rehearsing to you Our Signs, and sanctifying you, andinstructing you in Scripture and Wisdom, and in new knowledge.” (2:151)Therefore, as we have seen there is a direct relationship between faith (Iman)and righteous conduct in human relationships and promotion of ‘truth, patienceand constancy.’ It is this that elevates man from the abyss of misfortune.”Verily Man is in loss, except such as have Faith, and do righteous deeds, and(join together) in the mutual teaching of Truth, and of Patience andConstancy.” (103:3).
Therefore, despite the mischievous nature of man (as Malaikaindicated), the violence has nowhere been indicated as a desirable element ofthe human conduct that God enjoins man to adopt as an ideal. Instead violenceper se is an act of condemnation as indicated by the example of Cain killinghis brother. Allah indicates His dislikefor disorder (2:20) and enjoins the faithful, so many times in the Qur’an, toseek divine blessing and help (in response to provocations) through patienceand perseverance. It is because patience gives capacity to regulate impulse toreact in rage, transgression and even remain restrained to provocations whichis a manifestation of that impulse. In other words, it means that whileimpulsive reaction or revulsion and revenge is inherent in the base nature ofman, through patience he or she controls this impulsive passion and actsthrough reason and informed understanding guided by ethical imperatives andconcerns for long term objectives even in situations of conflict. Betterunderstanding and higher moral positioning are at the core of patience andperseverance that Allah so much and so many times indicates in Quran as one ofthe highest virtues. This reality is best demonstrated in the conduct of theholy prophet vis-a-vis immensely serious challenges. On large number ofoccasions and in situations of extreme provocation he stood firm in hisrestrain while many of his companions including the prominent ones would havetended to react in kind.
The most authentic example of the best conduct for Muslimsis that of the Prophet (SAW). In Allah’s own image the cardinal feature of theProphet is the “Mercy for all the creations.” (21:107). In the words of one ofthe prominent Muslim scholars in contemporary times, “Islam (even in its name)is a call to peace.” Its greetings are a blessing for peace & security. TheHoly Qur’an at numerous occasions emphasises the compassion, grace, mercy andforgiveness in superlative terms, as virtues of the God compared to other ofhis attributes. So, in a way without precluding the possibility of conflict andviolence in human situations, Islam does not make it a necessary humancondition or an ideal for human conduct. God values human life and declares itas ‘sacred’ (17:33) and to be safeguarded. He has decreed that ‘killing of aninnocent person is equal to the killing of the whole humanity’ (5:32).