Man's Weakness
\r\n Al-Ahzab (The Confederates) - Chapter 33: Verse 72
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\"We offered the trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to bear it and were afraid to receive it. Yet man took it up. He has always been prone to be wicked, foolish."
The heavens, the earth and the mountains, great and magnificent beings as they are, follow their Lord's law by their very nature and the system applicable to them, without need for an intermediary, reflection or choice. They run their respective courses without fail, fulfilling their tasks by virtue of their nature and constitution. What is this trust which they all dreaded to receive? It is the trust of responsibility, will power, personal knowledge and choice.
\r\nMan took it up because he is able to know God through his faculties and feelings. He can recognize God’s law by reflection and consideration, and apply this law by his endeavour, obeying God willingly and by choice, resisting desires that lead to deviation and disobedience. In every step along this way man is acting by his own will, using his own knowledge, choosing his way fully aware of the end to which it leads.
\r\nIt is a huge burden that this small creature, with little power and a short life, and with pressurizing desires and inclinations, has undertaken. In so doing, he runs great risks. Hence, man is ‘prone to be wicked,’ putting himself in the wrong, and ‘foolish,’ not knowing his ability. This is true in relation to the great responsibility he has shouldered. However, when he fulfils this trust, acquires the knowledge leading him o his Lord, knows His law and obeys Him fully, he becomes equipped with the knowledge, the guidance and the obedience which bring him to the level of ease and perfection enjoyed by creatures like the heavens, earth and mountains, which obey God and follow His law naturally and directly. When man attains this level, while aware, conscious and exercising free choice, he attains a noble standard and is given a unique position among God’s creation.
\r\nThe acquisition of knowledge, the ability to choose and the willingness to be accountable constitute the quality that distinguishes man among God’s creatures. This is the quality that earns man his position of honour, declared by God to those on high as He ordered the angels to prostrate themselves before Adam. It behoves man to know why he has been honoured and to live up to the trust he has accepted, while stronger creatures refused it and dread the responsibility.
\r\nCompiled From:
\r\n \"In The Shade Of The Quran\" - Sayyid Qutb, Volume 14, pp. 120-122