The Common Origin of Humanity
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“O mankind! Be conscious of your Lord, who has created you from
one soul (Adam), and out of it created its mate (Eve), and out of the two
spread many men and women. And remain conscious of God, in whose name you
demand [your rights] from one another, and of these ties of kinship. Verily,
God is ever watchful over you!” (Quran 4:1)
God addresses entire humanity and asks them to be
conscious of Him, to be aware of His presence. God reminds people of a
forgotten reality: their earthly origins. All human beings have One God, their
Creator, one father – Adam – and one mother, Eve. The plight of modernity
could begin to heal if human beings remember their origins.
Human beings did not appear on this earth by their own
will. Rather, someone else willed that human beings inhabit earth. Someone
else willed their existence and prepared the earth and sun in perfect balance
to make life possible. If people were to recall this simple fact, they would proceed
in the right direction. The One who willed human existence has perfect
knowledge of humanity and their strengths and their weaknesses. If humans
recognized this, they would obey the One they owe their existence to.
Just like human beings have come into existence by the
will of the One, human beings also trace back to the same parents. If people
were to realize this, racism, ethnic superiority, and exploitation would end. Siblings
would stop fighting and taking each other’s life. Siblings would realize their
common Creator and be conscious of Him, and give their “kin” their due rights.
Human beings would not divide themselves into casts and classes. Human beings
would not let race, skin color, or national origin determine superiority.
If human beings were to realize that another soul was
created from the original single soul to be its mate and to spread both men and
women throughout the world, they would respect women more. Women would not
have to go through centuries of oppression, and their humanity would not have
been denied for centuries. Unfortunately, when human beings tried to correct
one wrong, they fell into another one. They forgot that a soul was created for
a soul, that a woman makes a man complete. Men and women are not engaged in an
eternal battle of genders; rather, they have been created to complement and
complete each other.
God lays out the social fabric of human society, which lies
in the family. God could have created multiple families instead of Adam and
Eve in the beginning, but He chose to create Adam and Eve, and spread humanity
from their seed. Islamic ethics considers the family to be the natural basis
and cornerstone of a moral society. A family consists of a human couple and
their (legal) children where both the man and woman have each essential roles
to play in keeping the family happy and intact.
In the latter portion of the verse is a reminder to be
conscious of God, to do what is right and to stay away from wrongdoing in whose
Name people take oaths, swear allegiances, and ask favors.
Lastly, the verse ends with a reminder that God is ever
watchful over everything, big or small; nothing escapes His knowledge and sight.
The knowledge that God is watching helps one be conscious of Him
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