The Creation and the Dignity of Man in Islam

Abstract

It is fallacious to discuss the position of man in Islam. Islam, as a way of life, has developed in the course of history and in interaction with major historical events in a vast geographic expanse. Many primordial associations and different existing patterns of social control, at times, have gained the sanctity of religion, while others have become irrelevant, as the objective bases on which they once rested gave way. In this continuous flux, in which Islam is continuously in the state of becoming, and where different Muslims uphold different ideas, it is of necessity inappropriate to make pronouncements on what Islam is. Islam, like other global and historical belief systems, is what Muslims consider it to be and at that time alone.