It is you who follow your carnal desires.

It is you who follow your carnal desires." Then, ‘Ali added: "The world is the trade market of saints, and the mosque of God's friends." The idea that the world is a prison, or, a cage, is based on a psychological view that has been prevalent in India, and in pre-Islamic Greece, but, it is unacceptable to Islam. It says that human spirit has been created in a perfect form in another world, and introduced, in a cage, to this world, in which case he has no alternative but to break the cage.

But, the Holy Qur’an says: "And certainly We created man of an extract of clay; then We made him a small life-germ in a firm resting place; then We made the life-germ a clot, then We made the clot a lump of flesh, then We made (in) the lump of flesh bones, then We clothed the bones with flesh, then We caused it to grow into another creation" (Sura al-Mu'minun,23:12-14). The last sentence shows that man was made into something else, which is the spirit, and this spirit is produced from matter.

Therefore, it has not been perfected elsewhere in order to be put in a cage here. Man lives in nature, like his mother's lap, and it is here that he undergoes evolution, and perfection. Islam says; if you do not rise higher from this natural position, you will remain here in the lowest of the low, and in the hell hereafter. The Holy Qur’an says: "What is the terrible calamity! And what will make you comprehend what the terrible calamity is?

The day on which men shall be as scattered moths, and the mountains shall be as loosened wool, then as for him whose measure of good deeds is heavy, he shall live a pleasant life. And as for him whose measure of good deeds is light, his abode shall be the abyss. And what will make you know what it is? A burning fire!' (Sura al-Qari’ah, 101:1-11).

Therefore, in the anthropology on Islam, and in the knowledge of the world, man has not been a ready-made bird which has flown in a holy space, and put in a cage, to make it necessary for him to break the cage. If you admit that the world of spirit has priority over the world of matter, and it is a beam illuminating this world from another world, you cannot believe that spirit has been elsewhere in a perfect form, and brought here to be imprisoned.

Such an idea is historically Indian, and Platonic. Plato of Greece believed that the spirit was created in another world, and was brought here for some reason, and put into confinement, to be released later, and return. But, Islam does not have such a belief.