‘Insan’ seeks knowledge to live his life with a purpose and peace. To live a fulfilling life filled with purpose and meaning, ‘insan’ must strive to achieve psychological wholeness and integration. This requires ‘insan’ thorough understanding of himself incorporating both conscious and unconscious elements of the psyche. This requires knowing our life’s purpose, and aligning our outer life with our inner truth.
Knowledge may be; a, revealed knowledge (thru divine books and Religious Scholars) and b, acquired knowledge (thru scientific work and Scientists). Philosophy helps in putting both these knowledge in proper words.
We as a Muslim have faith that like other creations knowledge is also created by Allah. We also believe both religious and research scholars are the ‘insans’ chosen by the Creator. These scholars spend their life in acquiring and explaining the knowledge.
Common ‘insan’ is neither research nor religious scholar but do have a desire to acquire knowledge. ‘Insan’ is faced with two important questions; who is the Creator?, and what are we, the ‘insan’?.
The Prophet Muhammad pbuh suggested the process of getting answer to the above two basic questions saying: “He who knows himself knows his Lord”.
So to know who is the creator we need to know the ‘insan’.
‘Insan’ is visible with his physical/material body which is the main subject of research scholars (scientists). But he has some hidden portion of him (meta-physical) which are invisible (soul, nafas, aqal, qalb, aura, consciousness and many other). Without them his physical body means nothing (no purpose). This metaphysical area is the subject of religious scholars. Research scholars are also trying to know the reality about these meta-physical aspects of ‘insan’.
Research and religious scholars (both) help us in knowing a lot about ‘insan’ which according to the Prophet pbuh of Islam’s teaching, “will lead towards our knowledge about Allah”.
Allah transferred the knowledge to ‘insan’ by names which was the complete knowledge of each of His creations. In this article we shall restrict ourselves to knowing only these three names: – Allah, – Knowledge and – ‘Insan’
Allah
Allah introduced himself in Quran saying, “Allah is the Creator of all things, and He is the Wakil (trustee, Disposer of all affairs, Guardian) over all things.” Az-Zumar (V. 62)
In this surah He mentioned some names of his creations: * Heavens and the earth * Night and day * Sun and the moon. * Cattle * Water (rain) from the sky, and water-springs, *Crops of different colours, and their life cycle. *Souls (taken away at the time of death), . *Sleep (souls are sent back) *’Insan’
Knowledge
Knowledge/wisdom (the information, skills and understanding) can be gained through learning, striving, seeking, constant practice and failing, etc. Knowledge overcomes ignorance and comes at a cost (time, pride, etc).
Allah provided ‘insan’ with three tools of acquiring knowledge (hearing, sight and wisdom). Allah says, “Allah has brought you out from the wombs of your mother while you knew nothing. And he gave you hearing, sight and hearts that you might give thanks (to Allah)”.
In our belief Holy Quran is the ultimate source of knowledge of every type.
Messenger of Allah pbuh said, “Indeed, the first thing that Allah created was the pen, and He commanded it to write everything.” (Musnad Abi,Ya’la, vol. 4, p. 217, H. 2329)۔۔
Allah says, “Recite in the name of your Lord who created all. He created man from blood. Your Lord is Most Merciful. Who taught with a pen. Taught man what he did not know.”
Allah said, “there is nothing in the world which I have not stated/discussed in this great book” Surah Al-‘An’am, Verse 101 – 102
Imam Al-Darmi, Lalkai, and Ajari etc. have narrated with a valid chain of transmission from Ibn e Umar, may Allah be pleased with them, “Allah created four things with His hand: the throne, the pen, Paradise of Eden, and Adam, this After saying “Kun” to all the creatures, they came into being.”
The first message, delivered to Hazrat Mohammad saws, which indicates the prime importance of reading and writing and which is the key to knowledge.
Allah instruct every Muslim not to speak without knowledge. He says: . “And O man, follow not (say not, do not and witness not) that of which you have no knowledge. Verily, the hearing, the sight and the heart of each of those ones will be questioned by Allah”. (Qur’an, 17:36)
Allah calls upon ‘insan’ (knowingly not as blind belief) to bear witness to His Oneness. Allah says, “Allah bears witness that none has the right to be worshipped but He. And the angels, and those having knowledge also give this witness that He always maintains His creation in justice, none has the right to be worshipped but He, the Almighty, the All-Wise.” (Qur’an, 3:18)
Allah Says, “It is only those who have knowledge among His slaves that fhout any previous substance, or design and plan. Allah created everything, and He is All-Knowing of all things?”
‘Insan’
The meaning of ‘Insan’ is “a body with sight”. This body can see everything with its eye but cannot see itself,
Allah created ‘insan’ as a compendium of all existence that has come into being since the beginning and will continue to come into being till eternity. For this reason, ‘insan’ is also called “Jahan e sagheer” (the small universe). After Allah ‘insan’ is the most profound and mysterious and hence can not be defined in a simple way.
Qur’an is of the opinion that ‘insan’ has enough power to control the entire world and put the angels to his own service, but he himself often falls to the lowest ebb. ‘Insan’ is the only creature who takes decisions about himself and determines his final destiny. He has the highest capacity to acquire knowledge.
‘Insan’ was created both in Alam e Amr (hidden/ghaib part e.g. soul, consciousness) and Alam e Khalq (visible/zahir part e.g. body parts). He is the only such creation. All other creations are either of Alam e Amr or Alam e Khalq.
Allah Almighty created all the other creatures with the word “Kun”. But He created ‘insan’ both with ‘kun’ and with His own hands. Allah says, “O Iblis! Who has prevented you from worshiping this (person) whom I myself have made with my own hands.”
Holy Prophet pbuh said Allah has created man in His own image.: “When one of you strikes his brother, he should avoid his face, because Allah created Adam (A.S.) in His own image.” Sahih Muslim,
Allah said in the Holy Qur’an, “Indeed We created man in a good form”.
Here we shall take a pause. Our next part will be an effort to know about ‘insan’ as much as possible.
(Will continue …………)
