Islam The Voice of Human Nature
1. THE TRIAL OF MAN
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before ‘Adam,’ to pay him his due, whether it
entails verbal recognition, or material transactions.
We cannot ‘hear’ God’s command as if, physically,
it were an auditory experience. But that is all the
more reason to open our hearts to it. That is the way
to achieve moral success in life. Those who respond
to God’s command by saying, ‘I am better than he
is,’ are little better than moral failures. If one
responds to God’s command as the Angels did, the
reward of Angels will fall to one’s lot, but if one
follows Satan, one’s fate cannot be other than
hellfire and damnation.
If what is actually required of a man is that he
should bow before God, how is it possible to tell
whether he has truly submitted to God or not? The
test of his submission is his willingness to bow
before whichever ‘Adam’ confronts him in life, for
the “truly devout servant is one who obeys God’s
commandments by giving other human beings their
rightful due. A man who prostrates himself before
God, but fails to acknowledge the rights of others,
treating them with arrogance and injustice, is only
going through a meaningless ritual. When God
