A HISTORY OF INTELLECTUAL PERVERSION
A Curb on Freedom of Choice
ACCORDING to the Quran, God has created the universe with a certain purpose. All its parts which are strictly under His control are carrying out His divine scheme without the slightest deviation. Similarly, man too has been created with a certain purpose. Yet man, on the contrary, is totally free in his choices. He can do what he wants by his own decision. However, in spite of this freedom he is being watched constantly by God, for He does not allow any such deviation in human history over a long period as would nullify His very creation plan.
A Custom-made Universe
The universe made by God is so vast that, despite the enormous progress made by human beings in their attempts to fathom the universe, many of its secrets still remain unknown. The planet Earth, made by God as part of the cosmos, was and still is unique in the entire universe, in that it has been endowed with an atmosphere and all the other factors which are essential to make it habitable for man.
After bringing into existence a favourable world in the form of Earth, God created the first man Adam, and his feminine counterpart Eve. Although the precise date of this event is unknown, Adam and Eve were the first pair of human beings to set foot on Earth.
Adam was the first man as well as the first Prophet. The way of God is to select a man as His messenger from amongst human beings themselves in order to send His revelations to humankind. Therefore, God revealed to Adam through an angel the purpose of man’s inhabiting the Earth. According to this plan, God created a special creature in the form of man, upon whom He bestowed freedom. Amongst the entire universe that functions compulsorily under the will of God, man is the only creature that has been granted free will. The rest of the universe has no choice but to submit to the will of God, it is desirable for man also to opt for this divine plan of his own free will.
This plan of divine will is based on two basic principles—monotheism and being a well-wisher of humanity. Monotheism holds man to worshipping one God alone, and not associating anyone or anything in this worship. Being a well-wisher holds man to adhering completely to ethical principles in dealing with other human beings and refraining from all kinds of injustice and oppression.
Along with this, God informed man that, although he appeared to be free, he was fully accountable to Him. God has a complete record of man’s actions. In the eternal life after death God would judge everyone according to this record. One who exercised his freedom wrongly would be thrown into eternal hellfire.
Adam prepared tablets of clay on which he engraved the basic divine teachings, then heated them in a fire, thus preserving this divine guidance for the coming generations. It is believed that these divine teachings were written by Adam in the Syriac language.
Adam died at a ripe old age. For a long time after his demise, his people continued to adhere faithfully to the divine guidance. But later, rot took root in the people. They took to worshipping nature and other human beings like themselves. People began to adopt the ways of injustice and oppression instead of justice and rectitude. After about one thousand years the perversion became so all-pervading that they were completely distanced from the path of monotheism as shown by Adam.
God has a complete record of man’s actions. In the eternal life after death God would judge everyone according to this record. One who exercised his freedom wrongly would be thrown into eternal hellfire.
Deviation from the True Path
God subsequently sent Noah as His messenger. He was granted an exceptionally long life of nine hundred and fifty years. During this extended period, he continued to show people the right path, generation after generation. Only a few people heeded his words. The rest persisted in their sinful ways. Then, in accordance with the ways of God, a huge flood engulfed them by way of punishment. Noah and his small band of followers were saved in an ark, while all the rest were drowned.
At that time, human population was probably concentrated only in the region of Asia known as Mesopotamia. The men and women saved in the wake of this flood settled afterwards in other parts of the world. Their race multiplied until it spread over the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe.
After the death of Noah, his people continued for a considerable time to adhere to the divine path shown by him. But again degeneration set in amongst later generations and they deviated from the path of monotheism and justice. God’s messengers—the Quran has mentioned twenty-six by name—continued to come for several thousand years. The corpus of Hadith informs us that about one hundred thousand messengers came to the world. In this way a long period elapsed between Adam and Jesus, when God’s messengers continued to come to the world in almost every generation. But each time only a few individuals believed in them. The majority continued to reject these prophets in every age.
The Reasons for Perversion
What were the reasons for this continued transgression? There were two main reasons; one, political absolutism; another, ignorance about the world of nature.
In ancient times, the system of monarchy prevailed. The kings of those days had adopted an easy strategy for the consolidation of their empire, and that was to apply a complete curb on intellectual freedom. As a result, science could not make any progress in the days of old.
The same was the case with religion. The policy adopted by these kings was not to allow their subjects to follow any religion other than that approved of by the king. Superstitious religion served their purpose only too well. Therefore, not only did they themselves embrace superstitious religion, but they also compelled their subjects to adhere to it. People were denied the right to think freely and opt for any religion other than the official one. This policy of the kings produced the evil of religious persecution. History shows that religious persecution has continued from time immemorial in one form or another.
The other main factor in this connection was ignorance. In ancient times, man knew too little about the world and its phenomena. Political absolutism had placed an almost total ban on scientific research. Therefore, all kinds of superstitions regarding natural phenomena made inroads unchecked. It was generally held that the sun, the moon and the stars, etc. possessed supernatural powers. Similarly it was believed that the sea, the mountains and other such natural phenomena were endowed with some extraordinary, mysterious power and exercised decisive control over human destiny.
The end of religious persecution and flourishing of scientific temper was the direct result of Islamic revolution. Islam paved the way for scientific investigation, and allowed individuals to choose an ideology for their lives and practice accordingly out of free will.
