"When the children of Adam were still in the loins of their fathers...

"When the children of Adam were still in the loins of their fathers, Allah creatively made them testify His existence." (Surah al-A'raf, 7:172) "So set your face resolutely for religion. That is the nature framed by Allah in which He has created all men." (Surah ar-Rum, 30:30) (iv) Besides the material elements existing in the inorganic matter, plants and animals, there in the nature of man exists a Divine and angelic element also.

Man is a mixture of what is natural and what is extra-natural, of what is material and what is not material, of body and soul: "Who made all things good. And He began the creation of man from clay. Then He made his seed from a draught of despised fluid. Then He fashioned him and breathed into him of His spirit." (Surah as-Sajdah, 32:7 - 9) (v) The creation of man is well-calculated and not accidental.

Man is a chosen being: "Then his Lord chose Adam, relented towards him and guided him." (Surah Ta Ha 20:122) Man has an independent and free personality. He is a trustee appointed by Allah and has a mission and a responsibility. He is required to rehabilitate the earth with his effort and initiative, and to choose between prosperity and misery: "We offered the trust to the heavens, the earth and the hills, but they shrank from bearing it and were afraid of it. On the other hand man assumed it.

Surely he has proved a tyrant and a fool." (Surah al-Ahzab, 33:72) "We created man from a drop of thickened fluid to test him. Therefore We made him hearing, knowing. Surely We have shown him the way to be either grateful or disbelieving. (He is free to go either the straight way that We have shown him, and prosper, or be ungrateful and deviate from it)." (Surah ad-Dahr, 76:2 - 3) (vii) Man enjoys a dignity and a nobility. Allah has made him superior to many of His creations.

Man feels his real self only when he realizes his dignity and nobility and regards himself above every kind of meanness, bondage and lewdness: "Surely We have honoured the children of Adam. We have put the land and the sea under their control, given them sustenance and have exalted them above many of those whom We have created" (Surah Bani Israil, 17:70) (viii) Man has been endowed with a sense of moral insight.