Mysterious Tendencies
Humans and animals have common tendencies which are called instincts. Instincts are innate qualities that are not acquired and enable animals and humans to fulfill their needs, such as obtaining food, self-defence and generally guide both creatures in the continuation of its life.
Are human tendencies limited to instinctive desires? Are the sentiments of humans similar to animals? Do attributes such as the seeking of justice and truth, the tendency to praise and worship, the giving of help and respect to fellow human beings, forgiveness and sacrifice, exist within animals? Have you ever seen a lion go hunting and then divide up its kill between weaker animals? Have you ever seen a strong animal, for the sake of justice, go to help a weak animal against a stronger animal? There is no doubt, within the human, tendencies and sentiments exist which do not exist in other creatures. So, where do these sentiments come from?
If these sentiments result from human intelligence, then whoever is more intelligent will be more kind, more just and more self-sacrificing. In fact, it is not like this: sometimes people who are more intelligent have worse morals and arc more unjust. Therefore, these sentiments do not result from human intelligence.
Human nature has a set of tendencies which leads man towards perfection and goodness. we learned that the human characteristic that results in these tendencies is having the knowledge of God, also interpreted as divine nature.
The View of Divine Religions towards Human Tendencies
In the Holy Qur’an. we read:
(“So set your heart on the religion as a people of pure faith, the origination of Allah according to which He originated mankind.” (30:30))
Just as a power has been deposited within animals which guides them in the manner of eating, of defending themselves and of reproducing, humans, in addition to this power, have another power which the Holy Qur’an has termed ‘nature’ (fitrah). This Divine nature guides the human towards perfection in his life: a life in which material and spiritual aspects have been mixed together. This nature was placed within the human by his creator and is unchangeable, and it is for this reason that humans share common permanent characteristics. The tendency towards beauty and love and the tendency to dislike falsehood, oppression, injustice, etc. arc all common tendencies among humans which collectively are called his ‘nature’.
These tendencies do not lie within the body of a human; rather they lie within his soul and consciously or unconsciously lead him towards perfection. The nature of the human is within his essence and will not be separated from him. However, because the human has the tendency towards beauty and perfection, he sometimes tends towards limited and transitory beauties and perfections and remains ignorant of higher beauties and perfections. Sometimes realities lead him to a place where absolute truth will not be found but in his mind he imagines himself to be heading in the direction of truth.
The Divine Prophets and heavenly religions have the aim of freeing man from the prison of mental delusions and lead him towards the highest perfection, though because he does not correctly realise his own capacities, he has claimed that beauty and perfection lie in another place. Sometimes he turns to his divine conscience and his nature but attachment to the beauties and perfections of this world act as an obstacle to him reaching greater and everlasting beauties.
Religion, as a way of life has been established according to human creation, desires humans to enjoy material and spiritual beauties in a just manner; however, humans with a way of life that has been established based on experience and benefit, want to counter religion and live in an incorrect manner. Accordingly, material benefit has been placed as the means to achieve worldly perfections such as beauty, prosperity and pleasure and man has reasoned that spiritual beauties do not exist. This is despite him praising spiritual beauties within himself such as self-sacrifice, justice, love and thanksgiving to the Creator. In this struggle between the conscience and attachment to material beauties, it is possible that many people will ignore spiritual beauties and pursue a prosperous material life, desiring more enjoyment and comfort, even sacrificing justice and moral principles in the process.