gain knowledge of himself too. Human organism and its
potentialities cannot be understood when man is studied in
isolation. To understand him, we have to study him in the context of
his physical environment. It is in the intimate interaction with the
world of nature and society that human self reveals itself in all its
glory. The potentialities latent in man can be actualised only by
struggling with and overcoming the forces of nature. The so-called
"spiritual" development which is divorced from physical and mental
development – and which is the aim of all religions has no meaning.
Man is an organism and one side of organism cannot be developed
at the expense of other sides. He must develop as a whole. He pays a
heavy price if his development is lop-sided. He must make progress
on all fronts – physical, mental and moral – and this is how his
personality will develop. He can open the way to progress only by
making the world a better place to live in and by creating a social
organisation which gives full scope for freedom and development.
This is where the mystics failed. They had only a narrow vision.
Preoccupied with purely "spiritual" matters of their own
imagination, which do not exist in reality, they failed to apprehend a
dynamic relationship with their environment. They ought to have
aimed at the knowledge of man in the universe and in relationship
to the universe. Man in isolation is hardly human. Only when he is in
contact with his physical environment and with his fellow beings
that he rises to his full stature.
II. The Qur’an on Man and NatureThe Qur'an puts man in a meaningful relationship with nature.
To grasp the significance of the Qur'anic view, we should compare it
with two other views which are stoutly defended by some modern
thinkers. According to one of these, nature is definitely hostile to
man and takes a fiendish delight in bringing to naught his noblest
enterprises. Hardy and Schopenhauer took a gloomy view of life
and felt that men could enjoy peace, the peace of insensibility, only
when they ceased to exist. The other view is apparently more
compatible with the findings of modern thought. According to it,
nature is completely indifferent to man and his ideals. It simply does
not care whether man succeeds or fails. Human history may well
Man and his Environment^284