Man’s honor In spite of what is propounded in today’s world...

Man’s honor In spite of what is propounded in today’s world culture and which is also claimed by the humanists that each man, due to his being a human, has a natural value and in other words has honor, even though he might commit many murders and crimes Islam considers two kinds of honor for man. The first kind is general honor, meaning that each man, due to his being a man (irrespective of his conducts and attitudes) enjoys that honor.

This is a creational honor and a God-given value which the AlmightyAllah has bestowed upon man and which He has not bestowed upon the other creatures and perhaps the axis of these God-given blessings is man’s intellect.

In some of the ayat of the Holy Qur’an, too, this creational honor has been pointed out: وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِي آدَمَ وَحَمَلْنَاهُمْ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ وَرَزَقْنَاهُمْ مِنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ وَفَضَّلْنَاهُمْ عَلَىٰ كَثِيرٍ مِمَّنْ خَلَقْنَا تَفْضِيلًا “And surely We have honored the children of Adam, and We carry them in the land and the sea, and We have given them of the good things, and We have made them to excel by an appropriate excellence over most of those whom We have created (17:70).” In the above ayah of the Holy Qur’an, it has been stipulated that Allah has bestowed an honor to the children of Adam (AS) and excelled them to many of His creatures.

This honoring includes all men, namely, both man and woman, little and mature possess the human creational specifications. Allah has given them eyes, ears and the other limbs and parts (of the body), a beautiful and erect body, and has also bestowed upon them mind, intellect, intelligence, talents and the other spiritual and physical characteristics which every man enjoys.

But when we meditate, we will see that this honor and value in reality belong to Allah and that it is He Who has bestowed these blessings on men freely and that men have themselves no role in attaining this honor The other kind of honor is that which man himself with free -will and the power of free choice and free selection which the Almighty Allah has granted him achieves and attains.

In this kind of honor, not all men are equal and it is enjoyed just by the virtuous and if some men act un-virtuously, they will not only have any share of this honor, but rather they will get anti-value and fall so down that they will become lower than any animal.

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