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The Creator of the universe said: "I am about to appoint my
vicegerent in the earth."
The angels humbly offered their opinion before Allah the Exalted
saying, "This earthly servant will become a symbol of violence and
bloodshed upon earth."
Listening to the angels, God did not negate
their objection proclaiming, 'Man will not cause disorder in the Earth.'
Instead He replied, "I know what you know not!" He then taught Adam
the knowledge of His attributes and, presenting this masterpiece of His to the
Angels, He said, "Now show how much knowledge you posses compared to
him."
Trembling in the awe of God's grandeur and
majesty, the angels exclaimed, "We only know what Thou hast taught us.
Indeed Thou art All Knowing, the Wise!"
[The Holy Quran, ch2: v30-32]
According to the angels, human beings cause
chaos and disorder. But possessing the knowledge of God's attributes, they
become God's vicegerent [or viceroy]. In other words, if man is not the viceroy of Cod, he is evil
incarnate — creator of disorder. The natural consequent ice of causing evil and
disorder is the distance that one creates between oneself and Allah, and this
distance from Allah throws one in the clutches of fear and despair. A fearful
person always tries to prove himself as more aware, more intelligent, and more
powerful than the others. Over the lengthy span of 2000 years, this perception
of fear has grown into such a mountain that its expanse has taken over the
vastness of the entire Earth. To rid themselves of fear, nations have invented
weapons capable of destroying their own kind and make the Earth shudder, and
giving this horridness the name of "progress," they have placed the
entire human population on edge. To prove his superiority, man has invented
weapons that can destroy the world in the blink of an eye. These intellectuals
of mankind, who indeed are not Allah's viceroys, have brought disgrace upon
themselves by inventing and reinventing deadly weapons. According h1• reports
of the conscientious individuals of developed nation*, we learn that 40,000
atom bombs exist in the world today, It is impossible to even estimate the
number of traditional weapons. Why is such progress taking place? Against whom
are these weapons being made? Who will be destroyed by the use of these weapons?
Is this not tantamount to burning down one's own house?
The earth belongs to Allah; the earth is
the center of the welfare and prosperity of the people; the earth is our place
of birth; the earth's womb bears natural resources for us; and it is the earth
whose fields and gardens have been made a bountiful spread for us by Allah's
blessing. How unfortunate that, in the name of progress, we are bent upon
destroying the very womb in which we have grown to maturity. What kind of
progress, is this that will turn the colourful beauty that surrounds us into
ashes—the flowers and the trees, the mountains and the valleys, the gardens and
the deserts? This is not progress. This is decline, misfortune, and fear—the
fear that, 'we will be destroyed by our own brethren,' and thus resorting to amassing such power so that no other group
from our kind can destroy us. But there exists an unavoidable law that, 'as a
thing comes into being, its use becomes inevitable.' These 40,000 atom bombs
and who knows how many other kinds of bombs that have been created will
inevitably explode one day and, when the world is released from this glittering
illusion of progress, no tree or pebble would remain; nor would any evidence of
progress of a fearful humanity remain.
Come out of this life of fear! Then there will
be no need to amass these means of destruction and the earth will not be
brought to ruin—the earth whose every particle gives us life.
KHWAJA SHAMS-UD-DEEN AZEEMI
Science has made immense progress, yet many believe that, even with all of the modern tools at our disposal, human beings function at no more than 10% of their mental capacity. This leads to the question of what exactly it is that comprises the remaining 90%. Yet another question that arises is this: If it has taken man four and a half billion years to be able to apply only 10% of his ability, how long will it take for him to make use of the remaining 90%?
