There are millions forms of life on our planet. Living creatures are all around us; from trees, plants and weeds to animals, insects and birds, from tiny unicellular organisms to complex molecules, we find ‘life’ all around us. Yet in this diverse and complex mesh of life the life of a human being stands something far unique and far special.
Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) has blessed humans with the consciousness of ‘ana’, that is ‘I’. This feeling of ‘I’ or ‘ana’ is not present in any other form of life around us. A human being recognizes himself, his very being, his attributes, specialities
, weaknesses and capacities. He floats in the horizons of intellect and reasons with nature, reflects at the world outside him and seeks to understand it. All of these attributes makes him the best of all creation and his life the best of all lives.
Yet there are times when a human becomes the lowest of low, this is the point when he lowers himself down to the extent that even cattle are regarded ‘better’ than him. He shuns all the qualities which made him special, qualities that gave him a special status in all of the creation and essentially accepts the animalistic way of life and hence his activities are confined to that of drawing pleasure through eating, drinking, sleeping and copulating!
Today we live in an age which mercilessly promotes this animalistic way of life. We are forced to look into everything through the prism of matter and power. As such the lives of all such people who have more ‘matter’ in terms of bank balance, property and sophisticated vehicles and the lives of all such people who have great ‘power’ in terms of running their writ in general matters and undisputed authority are regarded as ideal lives. And the lives of all such people who don’t possess much ‘matter’ and much ‘power’ are considered as poor and unsound way of life. This concept effectively places morality, knowledge, reasoning, God consciousness and piety out of the equation and thus is pretty dangerous for a civilization which had attained the status of being the best creation on the very basis of its ability to contemplate, reason, reflect, seeking knowledge and promoting a way of life that is filled with morality, piety and God consciousness.
Our being has four different instincts in it. One is the animalistic instinct and is referred to as ‘baheemi nafs’ or cattle-like soul. Other is the ‘Sabuie nafs’ or the predatory soul, the third one is ‘shaitani nafs’ or satanic soul and the last one is ‘malaike nafs’ or the angelic soul. Every human has all these instincts present in him and his final character and way of life is determined by the one instinct which dominates. As such there are people who may look like humans with two ears, two eyes and a nose but shall be essentially like cattle and humans who shall be like predators while others may be just like devils. Yet there will be some who will retain their natural or ‘fitri’ ability and won’t be affected by the animalistic God-less environment around them; these people are in real sense the best of creation, people who in effect attain the rank of angels and even surpass them.
Our Lord declared in the last testament that “And surely, We have created many of the jinns and mankind for Hell. They have hearts wherewith they understand not, they have eyes wherewith they see not, and they have ears wherewith they hear not (the truth). They are like cattle, nay even more astray; those! They are the heedless ones.” (Al Qura’an 7:179)
Those people who had the instinct of distinguishing themselves from the animalistic way of life and yet didn’t do so are more astray than cattle and a direct corollary from this is that those people who chose the angelic life even when they had the instinct to live a pure animalistic life assume a status more superior than angels themselves.
In this dimension of 21st century we are by default creating a vacuum for more cattle, those who sole purpose in this life is to seek high social status, they want their society to know them, praise them and honour their presence. Something which our secular- God-less books call as ‘self actualization’. More and more people who are just smart enough to run the normal chores of life are manufactured just like robots are manufactured in factories, people who won’t dare to ask, people who won’t question and people who won’t reason. The worst part is that we are all happy to become one such ‘robot’ in this God-less civilization because here robots are valued higher than humans!
Knowledge, which was our guiding light, remover of evil in the society, destroyer of falsehood and the tool of establishing the truth was secularised. And thus there is no good in becoming an engineer unless your society brags your engineering. Knowledge is sought to seek some place in some company. It is no longer a holy business and no longer a pious platform, secularism, the notion of God-lessnes poisoned it.
All this was inevitable and we should had forecasted it much before, from the day God-lessnes thundered our rows, from the day we began to think that we are here in this world for ever, from the day we abandoned Allah (azza wa jal) and challenged His might. We forsake death and began to think that we shall abide in this world of nobody forever. As such we chose for ourselves what was in best interest of our current gain, that is the animalistic life and forsake what might had deprived us of our animalistic pleasures, that is the angelic life. And thus we chose for ourselves a cattle-like life seeking the materialistic pleasures and abandoned to strive for a life worth living.
This life which we seek to live and are essentially living is in far contrast with the life which our pious predecessors lived. Their motive in this world was to seek the pleasure of their lord, they had made an explicit declaration that their prayer, their sacrifice, their life and their death is for the Lord of the universe. They viewed this world as a temporary entity and worked for the life ahead. One such example do we find in Prophet Ibraheem (alihi salam). When Allah (subhanahu wa ta’la) ordered him to leave his wife and 2 year old child in the desert of Arabia, he didn’t hesitate, for all he wanted in this life was to please his Lord, all he wanted was to work for hereafter and all he wanted was to live a life worth living. He left them in the barren dry desert with no one around. This man is a father of a 2 year old child, he has supplicated for over 80 years and then Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) has bestowed him this child, this man is the husband of a pious and righteous wife who was his companions, someone in whom he found peace and calm. And now he is leaving them behind in a dry desert only for the sake of Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) thereby setting up an example of an angelic life. Ibraheem (alihi salam) turned away and when he reached the place called Saneeh, his love for his child and wife erupted, in this state he said what no other person would had said if placed in his situation. “"O our Lord! I have made some of my offspring to dwell in an uncultivable valley by Your Sacred House (the Ka'bah at Makkah) in order, O our Lord, that they may perform As-Salât (the prayers). So fill some hearts among men with love towards them, and (O Allâh) provide them with fruits so that they may give thanks.” (Noble Qura’an 14:37)
Ibraheem (alihi salam) turned the Maslow’s Need hierarchy theory upside down and didn’t ask for food or fruits first nor for social acceptance or ‘self actualization’ but what he said was the manifestation of the angelic soul inside him, “...that they may perform As-Salat...”. This was Ibraheem (alihi salam) who was tested more than once, and at one time was even commanded to literary sacrifice his beloved son, he didn’t even hesitate at that time and thus did he pass every test by virtue of his malaikee nafs and then he was honoured with the title ‘the Imam of mankind’.
People like Ibraheem (alihi salam) lived by what their Lord wanted them to live and thus did they found paradise here on earth in their very lifetime. They were always at peace glorifying Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala), contemplating on His signs and seeking His mercy, His grace and His pleasure. People who didn’t run after matter or power, rather it was in front of their greatness did matter and power prostrate. Wealth and fame ran after such people because they made themselves superior to both of them. These people essentially lived a life worth living.
How often do we hear statements like “how will you make a living” or “who will marry you” in response to a person who either wishes to pursue a course or a way of life which would safe guard him from the Godless civilization or in response to those who wish to study the Deen of Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala). How often do we see the essentially ‘Robert’-society pressing on them to give up their ‘madness’ and how often do we see such stars who wish to live a life worth living being abandoned and even harassed by their colleagues. Some of them give up in face of the tremendous pressure and yet others continue the legacy of Ibraheem (alihi salam) and don’t hesitate to render huge sacrifices. These people continue to invite others to live a life worth living after they discover the ultimate peace and serenity in it, they call upon their brethren saying, “Shaitân (Satan) threatens you with poverty and orders you to commit Fahshâ (evil deeds, illegal sexual intercourse, sins); whereas Allâh promises you forgiveness from Himself and bounty, and Allâh is All-Sufficient for His creatures' needs, All-Knower.” (Noble Qura’an 2:268)