Chapter 10SURVIVAL: INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE
I. Man’s Passion for LifeTHE longing for immortality is deep-rooted in man. He clings to life
passionately and recoils with horror from the prospect of
extinction. He values life above all things and for its preservation
and prolongation is willing to pay the highest price even in terms of
pain and misery. For centuries, he has been tirelessly seeking the
elixir of life which might enable him to prolong his life indefinitely.
Frustration only spurred him on to put forth greater efforts. Man's
passion for life knows no bounds. He wants to live, no matter what
the cost may be. At last man realised, and the realisation was
extremely painful to him, that death is inevitable and that his earthly
career must, sooner or later, come to an end. He realised the futility
of his efforts to evade death, and yet the desire for life burned in
him as fiercely as it did in the breast of his remote progenitor. Satan,
we are told, exploited Adam's intense longing for immortality and
educed him from the path of virtue. He assured Adam that the
moment he tasted the forbidden fruit he would become immortal.
Adam could not resist the temptation. In the Qur'an, the story is
recounted allegorically in a picturesque style:
But Shaitaan whispered to him, saying: "O Adam! Shall I show thee tree
of immortality and power that wasteth not away?" And (Adam and his
wife) ate thereof, so that their "shame" became apparent to them and
they began to hide by heaping on themselves some of the leaves of the
garden. And Adam disobeyed Rabb and went astray (20:120-21).
Adam typifies Man in general, Shaitan (Satan) typifies the forces
of debasement and destruction. Tempted by these, man has often
sought shortcuts to immortality and has forsaken the path which,
though long and wearisome, can alone lead him to the desired end.
Men reacted to the knowledge that death is inevitable in two
different ways. A few hard-headed and empirically oriented men,
centred all their hopes on this brief earthly life and resolutely
refused to look beyond death. Their aim was to make the most of
life, to enjoy every moment of it fully, untroubled by the thought of