Surah al-A`raf (The Elevated Places) 7 : 10

Overview (Verse 10)

This is the starting point of the great journey of human life. It begins by giving the human race power so that it can settle on earth. Here the reference is to an absolute fact that precedes the creation of mankind.

“We have established you firmly on earth and We have provided you there with means of livelihood. How seldom are you grateful.” (Verse 10) The Creator of both the earth and man is the One who has made it possible for the human race to establish itself on earth. It is He who has given the earth its qualities and characteristics and made all these balances which allow human life to prosper and provide people with sustenance and other means of livelihood.

Praise be to God for His guidance! We, for our part, do not feel any sense of fear when we look at this great universe. We certainly have a sense of awe when we consider the creation of this universe and we feel the greatness of its Creator, and the beauty of His creation. We feel safe and secure with this friendly universe in which God has placed us and with which He made our existence harmonious. We are overawed by its greatness and its elaborate systems, but we fear nothing. Nor do we experience any sense of loss or forthcoming destruction. The Lord of the universe is God, our Lord. With the universe we deal with ease, friendship and confidence. We expect to find in it provisions to sustain our life and comforts to make it more enjoyable. We hope to remain always grateful to God: “We have established you firmly on earth and We have provided you there with means of livelihood. How seldom are you grateful.” (Verse 10)

It is indeed He who has made the earth suitable for sustaining human life, by giving it its atmosphere, its particular size, shape and make-up, its appropriate distance from the sun and the moon. It is He who has set it in its orbit in order to enable it to move round the sun, and given it its particular speed and determined the angle it makes with its axis. All these balances are as important as giving the earth the potential to produce sustenance and sources of energy to enable human life to continue and prosper. It is also God who has made man the master of all creation on earth, giving him the ability to utilize the earth’s potential and resources by his ability to identify and use the laws of nature.

Had it not been for the fact that God has established man on earth and given him all these qualities, man, a weak creation as he certainly is, would not have been able to make his `conquest of nature’, as people in jāhiliyyah communities, past and present, say. He would not have been able to stand up to the enormous, overwhelming forces that operate in the universe.

It is unfortunate that ancient Greek and Roman concepts continue to impart their colour to present-day jāhiliyyah. It is these concepts that portray the universe as hostile to man, and universal forces as opposed to man’s existence and action. They try to show man engaged in a fight against natural forces, with every discovery of natural law man makes portrayed as a triumph of man against nature.

All these concepts are both absurd and evil. Had it been true that the natural laws of the universe are hostile to man and that they work in opposition to what man does, and had it been true that these forces operate without any control by a wise will, man would have never come into existence in the first place. How could he have existed? How could he survive in a hostile universe and environment when these are subject to no external will or power whatsoever? How could he have sustained his life, when all these great forces are opposed to him? The question becomes even more forceful if we are to accept the claim that these forces are subject to no control other than their own.

Only the Islamic concept of life provides a coherent concept that relates all these details to their original and consistent line. It is God who has created both man and the universe. His will and wisdom has determined the nature of this universe making it possible for human life to maintain itself and prosper. He has also endowed man with the ability that makes it possible for him to identify certain natural laws and utilize them for his own needs. This perfect coherence and harmony is the one worthy of God’s creation, because God’s work is characterized by its perfection in every aspect. He does not place His creation on a war footing so that they are always hostile to one another.

Under this concept, man lives in a friendly universe, enjoying the care of a wise, supreme power. He is at peace with himself, reassured, able to move steadily in order to fulfil his task as vicegerent on earth. He feels that he can rely on unfailing help and he deals with the universe in an attitude of mutual friendship. He praises God every time he is able to discover a new secret or a new law of the universe which enables him to fulfil his task and makes it possible for him to make progress and increase his comfort.

This concept does not discourage man from working to discover the secrets of the universe and identify its laws. On the contrary, it encourages him to do so with confidence and reassurance. He is not in confrontation with a hostile universe that guards its secrets from him and withholds its help. He is not in conflict with an enemy who tries to forestall his efforts, his hopes and ambitions.

The great tragedy of the philosophical creed known as existentialism is this ill- conceived principle which describes the universe, and indeed, the collective existence of humanity, as naturally hostile to the existence of the human individual, trying with all its might to crush it. It is a sick concept that is bound to lead to an inward- looking approach giving little value to one’s existence, or to a careless, rebellious and self-centred attitude to life as a whole. Both situations cause much worry and misery, both physical and mental. They leave man in total loss, although the sense of loss may differ a little in each situation.

But the tragedy is not that of a single European intellectual creed; it is indeed the tragedy of all European intellectual thought, with all its creeds and doctrines. Furthermore, it is also the tragedy of jāhiliyyah as a whole, in all times and environments. Islam stops this tragedy altogether by its comprehensive faith that lays the foundation of a correct concept of this universe and the wise power that controls it.

Man is the son of this earth and this universe. God has created him out of this earth and established him on it, and He has provided him with the means of sustenance and livelihood. Moreover, He has enabled him to acquire knowledge and discover the secrets of the universe. He has made the laws of nature move in harmony with human existence, so that man is able to make use of these laws in order to set his life on the road to progress. What he needs for this is to try to identify these laws with an open mind.

But human beings are seldom grateful, because when they are in the depths of ignorance, they do not know what blessings God has given them. Even those who know are unable to thank God in full for the grace He has bestowed on them. How can they ever thank Him enough? It is an aspect of God’s grace that He accepts from them what they can do. In both situations, the Qur’ānic statement is true: “How seldom are you grateful.”