The Call of the Quran
4. Moral Concept of Islam
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continue to exist, man must continually breathe in
air, retaining the air’s oxygen and exhaling its
carbon dioxide. If the tree were to imitate this
progress, the world would become unlivable,
because the air would become polluted with
poisonous gases. But God has so ordained things
that the tree will do the opposite of man, i.e. it will
breathe in carbon dioxide, thus cleansing the
atmosphere, and will breathe out oxygen, thus
supplying human beings and animals with the basic
fuel of life.
The model for the behaviour demanded of man by
the Qur’an is to be found in the reciprocal bond
between man and tree. But where the tree plays its
part automatically in the natural course of things,
man in the social sphere must deliberately, and of
his own free will, choose to return love for hatred,
comfort for pain, forgiveness for anger, and
gentleness for provocation. In short, a negative
attitude should be responded to by positive
behaviour. Such conduct having no room for ‘tit-
for-tat’ logic, you should never hesitate to give
oxygen to one who gives you carbon dioxide.
