While mired in cohabiting with the deficiencies of matter, the soul accepts only the prospect of conquering and controlling matter. It pines for a reunion with its corresponding realm of purity, virtue and impeccability. It yearns for freedom and independence, and for its heavenly source and origins. It feels imprisoned and trapped, hence restless. The soul does not feel comfortable coexisting with matter. However, the same does not hold true as regards to the spiritual kingdom. Since it belongs to a lower grade of existence, matter feels comfortable with spirit, and the body with the soul, even if they fail to admit and appreciate it. Matter is just the carrier of the spiritual domain, deriving its meaning and purpose from it. All the obstacles that stand in the way should be eliminated at all costs. The aim is the spiritual realm and the successes associated with it. This physical world with man’s physical dimension in it was meant to be a launching pad for man’s most genuine and most valuable personal and collective undertakings. The extraordinary, especially spiritual and intellectual capacities given to man, are expected to propel him to fulfill his high destiny. Rather than being goals desired for their own sakes, the earthly man and his existential context were meant to be but means for attaining something else. However, man was not a finished product, in the sense that his terrestrial self and status connoted an end in themselves. Each person should start with his personal volume. It follows that man’s multi-tiered existence is an ontological book that ought to be studied first and foremost by everyone. The signs are manifested as much in the smallest as in the grandest aspects and features of man’s being and life. They generously testify to the existence, greatness, and munificence of the Creator. Hence, man has been invested with countless signs ( ayat). He was honored and favored far above most of Allah’s creation ( al-Isra’, 70). Having fashioned him in due proportion, He also breathed into him of His Spirit ( al-Sajdah, 9).īy means of Allah’s creative will and power, man was thus transformed from frail and inconsequential clay to a being with a superior dignity, standing, and purpose. He created him with His Own Hands ( Sa'ad, 75) and in His Own Image (Sahih Muslim). Man is the crown of Almighty Allah’s divine creativity act. In it, the macrocosm or universe, and the entire idea, as well as phenomenon of existence are reflected. The former represents the physical, and the latter the metaphysical level of existence.
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