The Quran on Man and Nature

 

The Quran puts man in a meaningful relationship with nature. To grasp the significance of the Quranic view, we should compare it with two other views which are stoutly defended by some modern thinkers. According to one of these, nature is definitely hostile to man and takes a fiendish delight in bringing to naught his noblest enterprises. Hardy and Schopenhauer took a gloomy view of life and felt that men could enjoy peace, the peace of insensibility, only when they ceased to exist. The other view is apparently more compatible with the findings of modern thought. According to it, nature is completely indifferent to man and his ideals. It simply does not care whether man succeeds or fails. Human history may well prove to be a brief episode in cosmic evolution. The earth may go on rolling round the sun for ages after man has disappeared from its surface. Opposing both these views the Quran presents nature as friendly to man, responsive to his intellect and sympathetic to his moral endeavour. Both nature and man have been created by a wise and benevolent God and fundamentally there is no conflict between them. Man can develop only with the help of nature. This help he can obtain provided he acquires knowledge of nature and utilises it for the achievement of his moral ends in the light of Divine Guidance. The knowledge referred to is scientific knowledge. The only method by which he can study nature profitably is the scientific method. Equipped with scientific knowledge he can bend nature to his service. Natural forces can be made to serve man. This truth the Quran has expressed in the metaphorical language that the "Malaika (cosmic forces) prostrated themselves before Adam (man)" (2': 34). Man, as the verses quoted below show, occupies a privileged position in the physical world and it is his destiny to become master of it :
God has pressed into the service of man the sun and the moon, to perform their courses, and He has pressed the night and the day into his service (14 : 33).
Again:
And He hath of service unto you whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth ; it is all from Him. Lo ! herein verily are portents for people who reflect (45 : 13).
If we reflect on the physical world we find that it is governed by unalterable laws, and by discovering these laws we can subjugate everything in it and make it serve our purposes. The destiny of man lies not in turning away from nature but in making it obey his will.
The physical world, the Quran asserts, is not a shadow or maya. It is real and not merely an appearance. "And We created not the heaven and the earth and all that is between them in vain" (38 : 27). They are in error who refuse to ascribe reality to the seen world. "That is the opinion of those who do not believe (in the truth)" (38 : 27). It is these people who consider the world to be an illusion. If it is an illusion, it means that it has no meaning. Islam rejects this view as utterly false and Kufr. The Quran says that the universe was created bil Haqq, which means that it is true and has a purpose. "Allah created the heavens and the earth with Haqq" (29 : 44). It is the duty of the faithful, Mu’mins, therefore, to observe the truth spread out before their eyes. "Therein is indeed a portent for believers" (29 : 44). We are left in no doubt as regards the reality of the universe. It is not (as believed by Hindus) Rama's Leela, a toy with which God amuses Himself for a moment, nor is it Brahma's dream. In either case it would have had no serious purpose and would have vanished as God woke up or turned to some serious work. The Quran rejects these views as false:


And We created not the heavens and the earth and all that is between them in play. We created them not save with Haqq (44 : 38-39).