shape only in a balanced and concordant society. The human mind
is the arena of conflicting desires. Society too carries the seed of
discord as it is composed of individuals with different and often
opposed tastes, interests and aims. In society the resulting conflicts
should not be resolved by suppressing one party and giving free rein
to the other. The true solution lies in mutual adjustment, in
reconciling one to the other and in discovering an activity or a way
of life which affords reasonable satisfaction to rivals. Balance and
proportion should characterise personality as well as society. How
can human personality acquire proportion? The answer is that it
can do so only by taking as its model the Divine Attributes,
Asmaa-ul-Husnaa (Beautiful Names).
The Divine Attributes, severally, represent the highest degree of
each intrinsically valuable quality and they collectively reflect
proportion of the highest order. If we bear in mind that proportion
is an essential condition of beauty, and some might go so far as to
say that proportion itself is beauty, it will be clear to us why the term
Husnaa is applied to these attributes. These are beautiful because
each bears the right proportion to others, so as to form a well-
balanced whole. Husn, however, must be taken in a wider sense. It
denotes not only physical beauty but moral beauty as well.
Proportion is the only antidote to the poison of discord and conflict
in the self as well as in society.
There is at least one marked distinction in the way of
development of the self from that of the body. The body grows by
taking and assimilating nutrient substances from the environment.
The more nourishment it gets, the better is its growth. Paradoxically,
the self grows not by receiving but by giving. Generosity promotes its
growth and meanness checks it. The more the self gives of its
riches, the richer it grows. If this basic truth is clearly perceived, men
will rush to the help of those in need. Pride in possession will give
place to joy in munificence. They will think more of what they can
give than of what they can keep for themselves. The acquisitive
instinct will be weakened and the impulse to give will gain strength.
The Qur'an extols men who put the interests of others above their
own:
They prefer others before themselves, although there be indigence
among them; and whosoever is preserved from the covetousness of
The Development of Human Personality 179