Islamic Civilization. Sayyid Abul A'la Mawdudi
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and there shall be a curse upon you till the Day of Recompense.’
[al-Ḥijr 15: 28-35]
The same subject is addressed by the Qur’ān at numerous places in different ways. The gist of this discourse is that God has made human beings his Vicegerents – in modern parlance, a representative plenipotentiary – and granted them greater knowledge than the angels. It is because of that status that God has given human beings preference over the angels in spite of their constant remembrance of and practice of paying homage to Him. Indeed, God ordered the angels to prostrate themselves before this Divine representative. Having so carried out the Divine command, the angelic assembly accepted man’s newly designated status – all except Satan1 who thus raised the flag of rebellion and refused to bow before the human race.
Indeed, man was nothing but a lump of clay into which a Divine spirit had been blown. It was rather man’s higher state of knowledge that had made him fit for Divine representation on earth. Satan, however, who did not follow all the other angels in submitting to Divine command, and who thereby earned eternal damnation, nonetheless sought and received Divine permission to lead human beings astray from the Divine path [by way of a rhetorical challenge]. Carrying out his evil promise, Satan deceived the first couple and this led to the human expulsion from Paradise. From that day onwards, there has been an unceasing and eternal struggle between human beings and Satan. God has clearly communicated to human beings that they will be saved and led to Paradise if they follow Divine guidance. Yet if they listen to God’s sworn enemy, Satan, their destination will surely be Hell.
From the above discussion we further understand that the human race (both jointly and severally) has been granted the status of God’s caliph. A caliph is the term used for an assistant or ‘a second in command’. Naturally, it goes without saying that it is the responsibility of the immediate subordinate – in modern legal parlance ‘an agent’ – to carry out the commands of the superior or ‘principal’. The representative can neither follow the dictates of someone other than his principal or superior, for that would be insubordination – if not outright rebellion – nor is he authorized to act independently as by way of considering the subjects, servants and slaves of the lord as his own servants and slaves. In the latter situation he would also be considered a rebel and in either case would be liable to punishment.
In this position as the Lord’s representatives, human beings are free to use the Principal’s properties and possessions, rule over His subjects, acquire beneficial servitude from them, and generally manage or organize them, but not in a way that the action is deemed as that of the Principal. Moreover, no human being may act in a manner that can be construed as if he is acting as the agent of someone other than his true Master. Man’s only appropriate manner of action is that of a Divine representative, one who is a custodian of the Lord’s temporal possessions. Accordingly, a human being can be a true, well-liked, and praiseworthy representative only if s/he does not betray any of the trusts placed in herself or himself, follows the given guidelines and does not go beyond any explicit orders. Moreover, the representative should adhere to the set of rules that the Master has laid down in terms of the utilization of His properties and the governance of His subjects. If a representative or agent does not act in a manner that is envisaged in the Principal-Agent relationship, s/he shall cease to be a representative and instead become a rebel, one who far from being appreciated and deemed worthy of reward shall actually be subject to punishment and damnation:
Whoever will follow My guidance need have no fear, nor shall they grieve. But those who refuse to accept this (guidance) and reject Our Signs as false are destined for the Fire where they shall abide forever.
[al-Baqarah 2: 38-39]
Agents or a trustees are neither free to act according to their free will in terms of the principal’s material and human resources, nor are they free of accountability for their actions. In fact, an agent is fully answerable before his principal who may not only seek an explanation from him about any and every one of his actions regarding the utilization of physical assets and treatment of human resources, but may also hold him responsible for any credits or debits in the matters entrusted to him and then reward or punish him accordingly.
The first duty of the subordinate representative is to fully accept the complete sovereignty and superiority of the principal whom s/he represents. If s/he fails to do so, then it is apparent that s/he has not understood the basis of her/his status as a subordinate, nor has s/he been able to internalize the correct conceptual framework of being a trustee, cognizant of the responsibility and accountability that s/he owes to the Trust-giver. Thus, finally s/he would simply render her/himself incapable of carrying out her/his duties in the appropriate way.
First and foremost, it is simply not possible for any human being to adopt an attitude compliant with the mission of upholding a trust without then fully developing and achieving the necessary state of mind required for becoming a trustee. Even if, for argument’s sake, a person claims to have upheld his trusteeship while having declined to accept the master’s dominion, the very fact of refusal is enough to denigrate the value of his actions. If the person has carried out ethically superior actions, whether by following an internal sense of uprightness or through the guidance of any other power source, the reward for the same can only be sought from the force or authority whose orders he has carried out. Such actions cannot earn any reward from a principal who has not been a party to his actions.
As regards his origin, man is a lowly creature. The approbation that he has acquired is merely on account of his having been the recipient of the Divine Spirit blown unto him and his having been granted the status of God’s vicegerency. The preservation of that status is contingent upon his refusal to accept Satan’s guidance for that can only corrupt his spirit and degrade him from the high status of a Divine trustee to one of a renegade who shall once again be reduced to his original lowly state.
While the angelic forces have accepted man’s status as God’s temporal representative, it is the Satanic forces that question this relationship and openly avow to challenge it by making man one of their own: a supporter and an associate. If man were to carry out his duties as God’s representative faithfully and follow Divine guidelines well, the angelic forces would support him. Indeed, he would not find the angels at odds with himself and would be able to defeat Satanic forces with the help of what one may – in the absence of a better term – call the ‘angelic troops’. However, were man to fail in his duties as God’s representative on earth and not follow the given guidelines, he would find himself deprived of the angelic force’s support – simply because by that time he himself would have abandoned his mission. And when man finds himself without the help and support of such other Divine forces, he will be relegated back to the mere lump of clay that he essentially is. In this state he would easily be overcome by Satanic forces. Thereupon, only Satan and his supporters would be his allies and he would be forced to follow them.
By virtue of being God’s vicegerent, man’s status is superior to and above everything else in the universe. Everything in the material world has been made subordinate to him and exists so that he may put these to use according to the manner that his Master has taught. Man submitting to such subordinate entities is, therefore, a matter of disgrace. If he does so, this amounts to subjecting himself to injustice (ẓulm). Moreover, by so doing he voluntarily abdicates from the high status of God’s trusteeship.
There is but one Being whose commands human beings must obey. It is only before this Supreme Being that they may supplicate. Prostrating before this Being and this Being alone is an honour for humankind. Who is this Being? Naturally, the Lord Who is man’s Creator and Master.
No one particular person or group can exclusively claim to be God’s representative. Rather, this honour has been bestowed upon humanity as a whole. By virtue of being God’s trustee, every human being is equal to all others. Thus, it is not becoming of any human being to bow before another, nor is it rightful for any human to demand that another human prostrate in submission before him. The only thing that one human being may demand from another of his kind is the obligation to follows