Details

Published: 16 January 2026

Hits: 0

• Criterion
• Being Human

The Criterion for Being Human

Humans and animals have many things in common, yet there is a series of basic distinctions which distinguish humans from animals. The commonalities between humans and animals and the things that distinguish humans from animals have caused man to live a life with two aspects: an animal life and a human life, or in other words, a material life and a cultural and spiritual life. Humans, also like other animals, has a set of wants and desires and, in the light of his own knowledge and under landings. exerts efforts to satisfy those wants and desires.

He differs from animals in the scope and breadth of his knowledge and understanding, as well as in the sublime level of his wants and desires. This is what has given humans an advantage and excellence, and separates him from animals.

The knowledge that animals have of the world is only obtained through the outward senses; it is for this reason that it is superficial and individual and does not have generality and universality. The knowledge of the animal, in contrast to humans, is regional, meaning it is limited to the animal’s environment and cannot go beyond this. Also, the animal’s knowledge is current, meaning it is confined to the present time and cut off from the past and future; an animal has neither knowledge of its own history nor the history of the world and it does not think about, or exert any efforts based on, the future. The animal, in terms of knowledge, never goes beyond the framework of exteriority, individuality and particularity, its environment and the present time. It is imprisoned with these four limitations and if occasionally it goes outside of them, it is not conscientiously and by choice; rather it is forcibly directed by nature – its actions are instinctive and unconscious.

Not only is the knowledge of the animal limited to this framework, the level of its wants and desires are also limited. Firstly, they are restricted to the material: its wants and desires do not go beyond eating, drinking, sleeping, playing, nesting and making use of its opposite sex. Secondly, they are individual, meaning they are connected to itself, at the most to its mate and offspring. Thirdly, they are regional, meaning they are connected to its environment. Fourthly, they are current and are related to the present time.

However, the realm of the human, whether in its knowledge and insight, or whether in its wants and desires, is much more extensive and sublime than that of the animal. Human knowledge and understanding goes beyond the appearances of things and penetrates into their essence and reality and their relationships with other phenomena. It is a knowledge that is not confined to place or time; it is able to encompass places other than the individual's own environment and reaches to the past and future. It discovers human history as well as the world’s history, meaning the history of the planet, its mountains, seas, plants and other animals and considers the distant future. More than this, human thought heads towards infinity and eternity and can gain some understanding of them. A human goes beyond individuality and particularity and discovers general rules and general facts about the universe, thus enabling him to gain dominance over nature. From the aspect of his wants and desires, a human can be at a high level, he is a being that pursues values, ideals and perfection. The ideals he reaches to are non-material and are of no benefit to him; they are ideals that are not specific to himself or even to his spouse and children, they are general and inclusive of all of humanity and are not confined to a specific place or time. Now the question is, how can a human, and aided by what means, raise his knowledge and desires to this level of excellence? The answer is the “intellect”. In fact, it is because of the intellectual power he possesses that the human is able to understand the nature of things and gain knowledge beyond the limitations of time, space and individuality. The benefit that man gains from the power of the intellect is not found in any other animal or plant and it is with the help of this power that he can understand general facts and rules and become aware of the good and evil of matters. He can, for example, between a choice of something that is good and something that is better, choose that which is better and between a choice of bad and worse, choose that which is bad; in summary, he can conceptualise a noble purpose for his life and move towards it. Of course, there is another means within the human which causes him to have sublime tendencies and desires, and that is called his “nature”.

Details

Published: 16 January 2026

Hits: 0

• Who am I?
• Personal identification
• Human recognition

Who am I?

The majority of people will ask themselves the question “Who am I”, within their lifetime. This query has been one of the fundamental questions posed by humanity and intellectuals have spent ages pondering and researching to find an answer.

Understanding the identity of a human being can take two forms: 1) Personal identification, which means to refer to a person’s names their date and place of birth and the activities that the person has engaged in throughout their life and 2) Human recognition, whereby the attributes and features of a person are identified, basically these trails which are believed to constitute human nature. Here we will refer to some important human qualities, which play key roles in defining his humanity. An individual inherently posseses reason, nature and dignity and seeks to achieve maximum perfection in areas such as knowledge, morality and beauty.

The recognition of these attributes can help man find answers to another one of his important questions, which is regarding the perfect human. When the most prominent human characteristics are studied, the conclusion is that the immaculate human being is the one who has developed within himself/herself all the values and talents to the maximum, in such a manner that they are in complete harmony with each other. It is interesting to note that none of these features in and of themselves is an accurate measure to assess humanity, all of them contribute to humanity. What is certain is that we are not looking at only one dimension of the human and measuring him by that. The features that we are considering differ from those recognized within the sciences such as biology, medicine, physics and other sciences which only study man from a materialistic view.

The Qur’an states: “And do not be like those who forget Allah, so He makes them forget their own souls. It is they who are the transgressors”.(59:19)

The Messenger of God (s) stated: “Whoever knows himself, knows his Lord.” ( 'Awalial-Layali. Vol. 2, p. 102)

Details

Published: 16 January 2026

Hits: 0

• Darwin
• Common Ancestors
• The Descent of Man
• Disorder in Creation
• Abrahamic Religions
• Gradual Creation

Darwin and the Theory of the Common Ancestors

Darwin believed that all creatures (such as humans and animals) have had common ancestors and through a complicated and long process, they have evolved and thus, different types of creatures such as humans and other types of animals have emerged. In The Descent of Man, Darwin has broadly discussed this issue. In this book, he rejects all essential differences between humans and animals and considers all physical and psychological attributes of human being as an evolved state comparing them with other animals’. He said that the human brain is at a more perfected stage than monkey’s brain and that primitive man was the intermediary between advanced monkeys and humans. The existence of hair on the body of humans is an attribute common between humans and animals and all the differences in humans such as standing on two feet, the shape of face, movement of the hands and such mental traits as imagination and illusion in humans are partially observable in monkeys as well. He even brought about characteristics such as sacrifice, affection and altruism through “natural selection” and concluded that there is no reason to exempt human beings from all other animals. Thus man, who up to that time, was considered sacred and divine was lowered to the realm of natural laws and was evaluated within the same categories that other animals were evaluated. Thus, the English biologist and Darwin supporter, Thomas Huxley (1825 - 1895) declared that there are fewer differences between humans and the highest monkeys than there are between the highest and lowest monkeys.

Darwinism and Disorder in Creation

As noted in the discussion on the argument of design for the existence of God. creation, with all its wonders.
has a special design Since it was demonstrated that the Creator of this design is wise and all His actions are performed with wisdom, therefore all creation came into being for a specific purpose. Although. Darwinism accepts the existence of design in creation, at the same time it says that evolution is a law of nature which plays a random and unbounded role in the development of species. In other words, changes are essentially random and nothing but environmental pressures and the struggle for survival, direct the evolutionary process.

Short Answer

That which Darwin stated in regards to the theory of evolution differed from that said by some proponents of the theory who had their own aims. Darwin himself believed in God and was religious and never wanted his theories to be used to reach the conclusion that there is no God. As Darwin had said, the world is highly regulated and we are witnesses to gradual evolution within creatures, but what some supporters of Darwin have said, which is more controversial, is that there is no need for a regulator. What the supporters of Darwin have used to dismiss the proof of design for the existence of God, can, in the words of Mortezā Motahharī, be used to affirm this proof for the existence of God. The followers of Darwin assumed that if the evolution of various creatures and the governing of this process by the laws of nature are proved, then there is no longer a need for the existence of a regulator. This is while the existence of natural laws which cause change and evolution within creatures is not only compatible with the existence of a wise regulator, it even affirms the necessity for the existence of a wise regulator. When Darwin says nature selects the finest, this selection is a cause for an organism to move towards improvement and perfection. This matter shows us that there is a rational design behind this selection which guides organisms towards perfection and that these choices are not incidental. The order we observe in the world is the result of this selection and guidance, which emanates from a wise and supernatural power.

The reality is that the evolution of different organisms is a scientific principle and has been proven; however with the meaning that the possibility of genetic change within organisms is possible. Depending on differences in weather and geography and due to the passing of time, changes within species do occur. However to say that all organisms or animals have a common ancestor is a theory that has not been scientifically proven and also has many opponents.

Abrahamic Religions and Gradual Creation

In the Bible as well as in the Qur’an, it states that man was created in his current form and with complete intelligence and wisdom, not in the form of an animal such as a monkey, which lacks human sagacity and reason. Between this aspect of Darwin’s theory (that humans are the outcome of an evolutionary process) and holy religious texts, no compatibility exists.

‘Allamah Ṭabāṭabāʾī writes in Tafsir Al-Mizan:

“The verses of the Qur’an imply that modern man descended from a specific man and woman and in the Qur’an that man has been called Adam. That man and woman were not born from a mother and father; rather they emerged from soil, clay or baked clay, or earth.”

The disagreement of ‘Allamah Ṭabāṭabāʾī with Darwin’s theory had not only been due to its incompatibility with the apparent meaning of the Qur’an’s verses; in his view, this theory had not reached the border of certainly and was still a hypothesis which had been proposed to explain some matters.

Another scientific reason for ‘Allamah Ṭabāṭabāʾī rejection of Darwin’s view of evolution is that the generational continuity of humans and monkeys is notable to be observed; so far we have not seen that one type of being has changed into another type of being. Hence, it has never been witnessed that a monkey has changed into a human. Some academics in the West have also raised similar objections.

“Although many people try to show conflict between this hypothesis [evolution] and theology, and they might be right from one aspect since ... it brought a great war between the heads of the church and advocates of this hypothesis... but today, it is clear for us that the two have no conflict with each other; i.e. whether we accept this hypothesis or not, we can remain a believer in God...even with verses of the Qur’an do not directly approve or reject evolution or approving the constancy of species, but they better agree with independent creation (of human being), while still they are not very explicit in this regards. The appearance of the verses about creation of Adam focus more on independent creation, however the Qur'an is silent about creation of other creatures.”

Theory of evolution, if true, has no contradiction with monotheism and the need of the world for a wise creator and what have been suggested as a question about the argument from design is just a simple illusion.

Regarding the creation of human being, theory of evolution disagrees with the story of creation in divine books including the Qur’an.

From a scientific viewpoint, the principle of evolution as the possibility of some genetic changes and occurrence of changes due to climate and environmental conditions is acceptable, but there is no definite argument for the claim that all animals or living creatures have common ancestors and their return would be to one species about which, there are critics in biology.

Although this new theory was influential in the fields of biology, geology and medicine and after his death, led to the discovery of genes, chromosomes and ultimately DNA, by other scientists, it became a model for ethical theorists and brought about the emergence of, ‘Darwinist morality’. The greatest influence of Darwin’s theory can be seen in other academic fields, such as the social sciences, philosophy, ethics and theology and the empirical sciences of that time.

Darwinist Morality

It is said that, because the struggle for survival and selection of the fittest is the law of nature, people in society should also be like this. In accordance with this law, the strong are entitled to eliminate the weak; this system was considered to be of value. Any opposition against the evolutionary survival of the fittest was considered to be negative. According to this principle, war and violence in human societies, as with other animals, is inevitable. Due to the effects of reproduction over many generations, the human species like other organisms, will be subject to a shortage of food, followed by conflict with the aim of survival. If this is so. Then what role do humanitarian and ethical principles have?

As a result, such acts as helping the poor, the vulnerable and the sick are all considered evils. Words such as love and affection, intimacy and a sense of brotherhood and helping your fellow man have lost their real meaning. It is obvious that such a moral system is completely incompatible with a religious moral system that urges the helping of the poor.

The capitalist class, seeing themselves as being in social competition, and based on this principle, regard themselves to be the most successful. Becoming more worthy is achieved through the accumulation of wealth and social power.
Humanity has witnessed two world wars, in which the most heinous crimes and killings took place to achieve wealth and power.

Details

Published: 15 January 2026

Hits: 3

• Dream
• Human being
• Neil Carlson
• bible

The Mysterious Complexity of the Human Being

Why are humans an unexplained creature?
Some actions emanating from individuals cannot be rationalized by empirical sciences. Therefore, the question comes to mind, from where do these hidden powers originate within the human being? The following are sonic examples of the mysterious actions of  humans:

The mystery of dreams

In one of Pharaoh’s dreams, he saw seven thin cows eating seven fat cows, then seven cars of com being replaced with shriveled ones. Pharaoh summoned all of the dream interpreters to decipher his night vision, but they failed to provide any concrete explanation. Thereafter he called for Joseph and asked him to interpret his dream. Joseph said that its meaning is there will be seven wet years followed by seven years of drought and therefore in the first seven years a part of the produce should be stored so at the time of drought the people will not suffer from starvation.

This story appears in Genesis in the Bible and also in the chapter of Yusuf of the Holy Qur’an. Have you wondered what a dream actually is? Is it possible that humans can unconsciously be aware of the future? What truth lies behind these historical events?

In dreams, we go on journeys, deal with people, make friends and enemies, and gain or lose things. More or less, people witness these scenes in their dreams.
Some of our dreams are an interpretation of the future and what we have seen in our dreams takes place in the real world. Who causes future events to be shown in our dreams and informs us of happenings that we would never have imagined?

Discovering the reality of dreams can help us in understanding the human and present a new dimension to the life and existence of the human. The human has always experienced dreams and because it was found by experience that dreams cannot be unrelated to his life, he has always sought to discover their meaning.
Dreams seem to be an inseparable part of our existence.

The studies of academics have reached a conclusion that all people, even those who deny it, experience dreams. The existence of dreams is as obvious as the existence of breathing.

Neil Carlson, a famous psychologist, writes:
“Some people insist they do not experience dreams; these people are mistaken.
Everyone sees dreams but the majority of dreams are forgotten. If a person does not wake up during a dream, or immediately afterwards, the dream will not be remembered. When most people who imagine they have not experienced a dream for years are awoken in a laboratory whilst experiencing a dream, they are momentarily shocked at the vividness of their dream.”

Has it ever happened dial one of your friends has called you at the precise moment that you were thinking of them?
There are people who have testified to being; able to transmit and receive messages or images from remote locations without making use of the five senses. Although the transfer of thoughts or images is possible between normal individuals, this phenomenon occurs mainly between two people who have a strong emotional bond, such as a mother and child, or between very close friends.

Scientists have done a great deal of research on the subject of telepathy, or the sixth sense, particularly between twins. This research has shown that twins can be in communication with each other, even though there is a great distance between them.

The reality, that a human can understand things that is not possible through material means and the five senses, is confirmed by many eminent scientists of the world who interpret it as being inspiration and illumination.

Intellectual Proof for the Existence of the Soul

Many proofs have been offered by scholars to prove the existence of the soul, which include intellectual empirical proofs, such as from psychology. Philosophers have given more than ten intellectual proofs for the existence of the soul, only one of which we will mention here:

Argument: The Stability of Personality 

• Studying of the human body teaches us that many of the limbs and organs of the body, under the influence of two critical processes, i.e absorption of materials from the outside and transforming them into energy, renew and replace fully in some years and a constant change in molecules and particles of body organs is always undergoing. Old cells are destroyed and become replaced by other newly-made ones out of nutrition and make up for the loss of the old cells. From the particles and soft cells of the brain to hard parts of bones, this change is always undergoing, and during a life span, almost all particles and cells of the body are destroyed and replaced by new ones several times.
• Despite these changes happening in our material body, we are the same person we were in the past, and during our life, we can always say that. “I exist.” What we refer to as “I”, is the personality unchanging in us, even if we live for hundreds of years.
• Of the two premises, it can naturally be concluded that aside from changing materials in us, there is another consistent reality which never changes. This attribute of human being cannot be related with our body, because the material. body always changes, thus, it must be originated from a non-material source. constant and away from any material change. This immaterial source is what we refer to as “soul”.

  The name of this argument is the Argument of Consistency of the Personality: because it shows that during his/her life, a human being passes through different stages in childhood, youth, middle-age and old age and in each phase of life, his/her body undergoes many changes including natural changes in their cells or acquired changes such as illnesses; however, despite all these transformations, his/her personality remains the same.

  Some scholars believe that there are cells in the body which stay alive during the life of a person and no new cell replaces them and the knowledge the person has about himself is preserved in them. Therefore, consistency of personality is due to consistency of these cells and cannot be a reason for an immaterial aspect of human beings. They say so, ignorant about the fact that even if such cells as mentioned above are in (he brain for example, the argument of the consistency of personality could not be rejected, since it is based on two factors: 1. Change in matters, and 2. Consistency of personality.
  The point is that even with some cells (if proved by empirical sciences) remain alive during the life of a person, they change from inside themselves. They are fed. they grow and even might reproduce; while, the personality of the person
  and what he call it as “I” always remains the same, and is ascribed by all tendencies, perfection and whatever human belongs to. We say expressions such as, “I feel”, “my life”. “I am grown up” and “my body cells”. Therefore, if we assume that even one body cell does not die during his life, still the above argument cannot be rejected, because, the point to be noted is that changes do not occur in his personality.

Some say that the human being does not have a soul and his being is confined to this body, and justify their argument by saying that, biologists and physicians have proven that the body’s cells and organs are always changing and that a person at any hour is different from the hour before. Thus, at any moment, he is a different person and what you refer to as Consistency of Personality is nothing but an illusion, because at any moment, all of the cells in one’s body are growing and changing and no physical cell remains unchanged. Therefore, the existence of the human being at any moment is different from his existence in the next moment.

What would be the problem if the human being did not have a soul? One of the problems, which could happen, is an increase in injustice emerging in court decisions. For example, if a person commits a crime at the age of 20 and police arrest him at the age of 40, no court would be able to punish him, because during these 20 years, all his body cells have changed and at this age, according to them, he would be a different person who has not committed any crime and cannot be punished in the place of someone else. That human being has a unique personality and identity referred to as “I” is an evident issue all people understand. What people using justifications as above try to prove is in contradiction with the plainest human understandings.

According to the Qur’an, there is no doubt regarding the existence of the human soul. God, in honouring this creation, has attributed it to Himself. 

The Qur’an in regards to creation of the soul states:

So when I have proportioned him and breathed into him of My spirit, then fall down in prostration before him. (15:29)

In another place it also states:

Allah takes the souls at the time of their death (39: 42)

We understand from this verse that the death and destruction of the body does not harm the survival of the human soul and the soul can exist independently of the body.