This is an interesting and unique question and that question is, do we have the power to control and guide our lives? Do we have the rationality, the capacity, the power to do this? Is it possible for us to decide a process in which we can govern our lives with order, peace, harmony and good will? Are we able to control our desires whatsoever by our own human physical, emotional and intellectual capacities? The answer to all of these questions is, no, we cannot.
Allah swt created man and jinns for no other purpose but to worship Him alone. When he created Adam (a.s.) Allah swt. said to the angels (as mentioned in the Qur’an) to bow down to Adam a.s. He endowed man with the power of will as well as virtues, making him a vicegerent on earth. The ability to be vicegerent on earth means that he gave him a limited amount of control and power to guide his life. He equipped him with rationality and the ability to decide a process to govern his life with order, and good attributes such as justice, mercy, compassion and the like. He gave him the ability to control his passions and desires using physical, intellectual and emotional capacities, however, the shaitan became devious and excessively jealous and wanted to mislead mankind, attempting to mislead all of mankind.
In the first section, we will explore and grow a broad understanding of what exactly it means to be a vicegerent and how much control a human being is capable of practicing. In the second section, we will look at the shaitan’s role in leading mankind astray through different means, why he was motivated to do so, as well as what was used to guide mankind again and again back to the straight path. We will observe closely why he fell into grief on four major occasions. In the Third Section, we will reflect and analyze what is meant by “Then We reduce him to the lowliest of lows” in surah Tin. and if in fact, mankind is capable of capable of defeating the shaitan, or prevent from falling astray from the path of guidance or if we are in fact capable of living our role as vicegerents of God’s perfect wll on earth with or without the help of Allah swt.
Section 1
“Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: “I will create a vicegerent on earth.” They said : “wilt Thou place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood? Whilst we do celebrate Thy praises And glorify Thy holy name?” He said: “I know what ye know not. And He taught Adam the names of all things; then He placed them before the angels and said “Tell Me the names of these if ye are right”. They said “Glory to Thee: of knowledge We have none, save what Thou Hast taught us: in truth it is Thou who art perfect in knowledge and wisdom. “ He said: “o Adam! tell them Their names.” When he had told them, Allah said “Did I not ttell you that I know the secrets of heaven and earth and I know what ye reveal and what ye conceal?” (Al Baqarah, 30-32)
This reveals to us that human beings have a degree of control over nature and the natural world around them, as much control as Allah swt has given to them especially because he made man the His vicegerent on earth.
Abdullah Yusuf Ali states about these ayah in his commentary (n. 47):
It would seem that the angels, though holy and pure, are endued with power from Allah, yet represent only one side of Creation. We may imagine them without passion or emotion of which the highest flower is love. If man was to be endued with emotions, those emotions could lead him to the highest and drag him to the lowest. The power of will or choosing would have to go with them, in order that man might steer his own bark. This power of will when used aright gave him to some extent a mastery over his own fortunes. and over nature, thus bringing him nearer to the God like nature which has supreme mastery and will. We may suppose the angels had no independent will of their own: their perfection in other ways reflected Allah’s perfection but could not raise them to the dignity of vicegerency. The perfect vicegerent is he who has the power of initiative himself but whose independent action always reflects perfectly the will of his Principal. …..
The names of things, according to commentators means the inner nature and qualities of things and things here would include feelings. The particular qualities or feelings which were outside the nature of angels were put by Allah into the nature of man. Man was thus able to love and understand love, and thus plan and initiate, as becomes the office of vicegerent. The angels acknowledged this. These things they could only know from the outside, but they had faith or belief in the unseen. And they knew that Allah saw all what others see, what others do not see, what others may even wish to conceal. Man has many qualities which are latent or which he may wish to suppress or conceal to his own detriment.
We can now begin to understand the purpose of creation with the eye of goodness and purest standards. This means that the person is able to govern his life according to the principles outlined to him in the Qur’an. That he governs his passions and life and the natural world around him in accordance with those standards. When he understand the nature of things, he treats them according to what is best for them rather than without that good will and he understand the nature of things. He knows how to deal with different personalities, he knows how to practice his limits, he understand where his love, hopes, fears and trust belong. He understand the order of things and he places everything in its right place.
Section Two
However, the shaitan is always waiting to lead him astray all of the time. We will analyze the ayahs that deal with what caused the shaitan so much enmity with mankind in the first place and his reaction when Adam a.s. was created. Then we will take a look at his weakened attempts in which he shrieked on four occasions; when Allah swt cursed him, when he was expelled from jannah, when the Prophet s.a.w.s. was born and when Surah al Fatiha was revealed. We will understand why it was that each of these was such a powerful blow against him. Finally, we will return to the question that without the help of Allah swt, would mankind really be able to resist the shaitan?
The first thing we have to understand is why does the shaitan have so much enmity against mankind. When Allah swt created Adam (a.s). he refused to bow down to Adam (a.s.) although this was against the will of Allah swt. Allah swt states in the Qur’an:
“And behold, We said to the angels: i”Bow down to Adam:” and they bowed down: Not so Iblis; he refused and was haughty: He was of those who reject Faith. We said: “O Adam! dwell thou And thy wife in the Garden; And eat of the bountiful things therein as where and when ye will; but approach not this tree or ye run into harm and transgression. Then did Satan make them slip from the garden and get them out of the state of felicity in which they had been. We said “Get ye down, all ye people with enmity between yourselves. On earth will be your dwelling place and your means of livelihood for a time
These ayah and several other ayahs in the Qur’an explain how the shaitan does his best to lead mankind astray in every single situation. His pride and arrogance kept him from obeying the command of Allah swt. Furthermore, his envy against mankind leads him to rebel and find every opportunity to go against mankind. His motivation is to disgrace, lead astray and prove his own worth and his enmity is ever-fueled. He refused to even obey the command of Allah swt due to his pride and arrogance.
His hopes of leading mankind astray ocurred on four occasions. But the last two occasions also shows that his hopes in leading mankind astray and how extremely relevant they are to the power they had in saving mankind as a whole. Those two were the mercy to mankind when such a beloved prophet named Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) came, his teachings, his mercy, his endurance and his commitment to worshipping Allah swt was so beautiful and magnificent. The last being the beauty of surah fatiha. Two beautiful shields that we now have is the Qur’an and its representation through the teachings and actions of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.s. If we hold on to these two things firmly, the shaytan will not have the power to lead mankind astray. But this is in the case that we firmly grasp on to the Qur’an and the sunnah. We ourselves are not powerful enough to withstand the powerful blows of shaitan alone. We need the help of our creator and we seek his power. We learn to guard ourselves and create barriers and divine guidance against even coming close to haram actions by strictly holding on to our deen and having a shield against each and every one of the traps that the shaitan could possibly attempt to dig for us.
Section Three
Finally, we move into our third discussion of is man capable of controling his own self? Allah swt tells us in the Qur’an that mankind was created so nobly and with such a good purpose. He was raised to the level of vicegerncy. But when he (mankind) did not fulfill his purpose which was to believe and do the righteous deeds, and instead used his faculties for other purposes except worshipping Allah swt, he was reduced and abased to the lowest of the lows. This shows that when we do not fulfill our noble purpose for which we were created, we are than reduced and fallen.
Conclusion
This concludes our discussion of whether mankind is in fact capable of controlling himself. The answer is alone, withotu divine guidance, he has no power and it is only unless he grasps, seeks the help of his creator and follows the teachigns that he can resist and live the noble life. In short, it is like the absence of goodness that causes one to fall to the lowliest of lows. The Question being, why does evil exist or what causes it to exist? The truth being, it doesnt exist. It is a condition that can only exist in the absence of goodness. Just as darkness is the absence of light, ignorance is the absence of knowldge, coldness is the absence of head, similarly, evil can only exist inthe absence of goodness. When one plants iman and works righteous deeds, it is the only way to eliminate evil and withstand falling into wrongdoing and the depths of darkness.
And Allah swt knows best.
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