The term “another creation” is specially significant. It implies
that at this stage man is born anew and emerges as a responsible and
fully self-determining individual. Through this new birth man is
elevated to a plane above the animal world. He is now endowed with
a “self” and faces the world as an autonomous being. This happens
when the Creator has “breathed into him His Ruh” (32:9). Then the
malaa’ikah – the forces of nature – are commanded to submit to him
and prostrate themselves before him. Man’s dominion over nature is
set forth in the symbolical language of the Qur’an:
When Allah said to the malaa’ikha, Lo! I am about to create a man out
of mire. And when I have fashioned him and have breathed into him
My Ruh, then fall down before him, prostrate (38:71-72)
It is this Ruh of Divine Energy which confers on man the power
to choose and act freely. He has now received the inestimable gift of
real freedom. In this connection, a passage from Simpson’s The
Meaning of Evolution, may aptly be quoted:
To say that man is nothing but an animal is to deny, by implication, that
he has essential attributes other than those of all animals.... It is
important to realise that the essence of his unique nature lies precisely
in those characteristics that are not shared with any other animal. His
place in nature and its supreme significance to man are not defined by
his animality but his humanity. Man has certain basic diagnostic
features which set him off most sharply from any other animal and
which have involved other developments not only increasing this
sharp distinction but also making it an absolute difference in kind and
not only a relative difference of degree.(17)
What, then, is Ruh? The answer is that it is neither intellect, nor
psyche, nor spirit, nor soul. It is the human self or personality, an
entity unique in the world. The point, being important, must be
elucidated further.
Let us take intellect first. Intellect is a faculty of the mind, termed
qalb or fu’ad in the Qur’an. We know it through its manifestations –
fikr (thought), shu’ur (consciousness), tadabbur (deliberation), and
ta’aqqul (intellection). To some extent, animals too possess it. The
animal is conscious but man is self-conscious. Self-awareness
distinguishes man from other living beings. Besides, human
intelligence is far superior to the animal intelligence in its range and
capacity. Intellect is the chief instrument for acquiring knowledge.
In the Qur’an man is, again and again, exhorted to use his intellect to
The Self of Man and Its Destiny 82