Art and literature have been interested in realizing both of...

Art and literature have been interested in realizing both of them on a different plane. The quest of science and technology has been always directed toward attaining material freedom. All human activity is a quest for freedom, and all human evolution represents a course of gradual realization of various freedoms. Human evolution is creative, in the sense that at its every stage, a higher form of freedom emerges because of man’s creativity.

Human evolution is different from biological evolution, for the latter is mechanical and deterministic as compared to the former in which man’s aspiration for freedom plays a vital and decisive role. In the course of man’s creative evolution, Islam emerged as an embodiment of all kinds of freedom at a stage when humanity was in need of a balanced synthesis of material and spiritual freedoms.

At a stage when man’s material advancement was still embryonic, Islam anticipated rapid future developments in the material sphere, which required Divine guidance in pursuing the right path for future development of human society and polity. It is in this sense also that Islam ensures eternal guidance, for it took in its stride all past freedoms attained by man and laid down a plan for future evolution.

At that stage, the human mind was incapable of embracing the infinite future possibilities of human creativity, because it had not yet developed the intellectual and empirical tools of the unseen future. The Qur’an, the last of Divine revelations, contained the guiding principles of scientific induction as well as a moral code that could suffice for man’s socio-political and economic advancement, ensuring maximum freedom of human action in all the spheres of man’s multi-pronged quest for freedom.

The Qur’an’s declaration that God has completed the religion (as the totality of Divine guidance) and has conferred upon man the best of His rewards, points to the fact that through Islam, man attained the utmost potential to realize his freedom.

In order to have a comprehensive view of freedom granted to man by Islam, one has to understand the Islamic conception of freedom along with all its implications and practical consequences bearing upon human society, state, and economic activity, at both individual and collective levels. Freedom can be understood in two ways: theoretically from the ontological point of view, and practically from the social angle.