The Qur'an and the Secular Mind; A Philosophy of Islam (2008) - Shabbir Akhtar

24 Quranic Islam and the secular mind
a heavenly hierarchy in a way similar to Zeus (among the Greek gods) and
Jupiter (among the Romans). The Quran did not preach monolatry (or henotheism)
where worshippers devote their attention to one deity while recognizing that
other gods genuinely exist. 21 It preached monotheism as a complete ideology on
psychological, existential, religious and political levels.
God is the primal originator (baḍī‘) of the heavens and the earth (Q:2:117;
6:101). He creates humankind and all things ex nihilo (Q:19:9): ‘When he decrees
some thing, he merely says to it, “Be!” And it is’ (kun fa-yakūn(u); Q:3:47). 22 This
succinct maxim, too gnomic and sententious by analytical philosophical standards,
is distributed into the entire Quran (Q:2:117; 3:47; 16:40; 40:68, etc.) This style of
creation is supplemented by a creatio continua (Q:35:41) as God sustains existing
creation and also continues to create novelties beyond human knowledge and
competence (Q:55:29). He ‘originates creation and then reproduces it’ continually
(Q:29:19, 20).
From dust, God created the first man, Adam, and his consort (Q:30:20; 35:11);
from this pair originates the monogenetic human species (Q:4:1; 6:98; 49:13).
Allah is the god of all peoples, not an Arab deity in a pagan pantheon. Independent
of his human subjects’ response to him, he is in himself all-powerful and
self-sufficient. Intolerant of partners in his divinity and sovereignty, he has great
expectations of his human subjects. While all creation – natural, supernatural,
corporeal, incorporeal, animate, lifeless – proclaims the praise of God (Q:13:15;
16:48–50), often in ways we cannot recognize (Q:17:44), it does so through its
very nature; only human beings and elemental beings known as the jinn, both
considered rational creatures endowed with free will, voluntarily choose worship
and show faith through righteous action that pleases God (Q:22:18).
God’s intentions are known to us only insofar as he reveals them, hence the
resignation in the devout aphorism: ‘God alone knows his own intentions’. While
his nature and intentions are inaccessible, he has clarified his will for us by choosing
a series of inspired prophets, men of probity and patience. This divine initiative to
teach humankind is virtually always rejected: every community plotted against its
divinely commissioned warner (Q:23:44; 40:5). ‘How many were the messengers
we sent among the ancients. And whenever a prophet came to warn them, they
mocked him’ (Q:43:6–7).
The consequences of disbelief extend into eternity, a loss in and of both worlds
(Q:22:11). No one can disobey God with impunity, prosper materially, or achieve
purity without God’s guiding grace ( faḍl Allāh; Q:24:10, 14, 20). The active repudiation
of God’s will is the root cause of the colourful variety of vices that plague
human societies: greed and niggardliness shown in the inordinate love of wealth
(Q:100:8), the callous and hypocritical denial of the rights of slaves and widows,
the refusal to feed ‘the orphan kinsman on a day of great privation’ (Q:90:14–5)
and the rejection of even ‘a small act of neighbourly kindness’ (Q:107:7).
A supreme evil being called Iblīs (Satan) 23 encourages human beings to act
treacherously towards their higher nature which was created to be submissive
to God. Too proud to bow to Adam, he is a racist or ‘speciesist’ who argued
that he was made of fire, a substance superior to the clay used to create Adam