The question of making sense of one’s existence is deeply intertwined with the concept of consciousness. Consciousness involves not only awareness of the external world through our senses but also self-awareness and introspection. This self-awareness allows us to ponder our existence, purpose, and identity.
Most people live their lives using their senses without much thought. However, by linking the body and the soul in explaining consciousness from Islamic viewpoints, consciousness becomes the awareness of oneself driven by one’s commitment and conviction as a worshipper of God, in total submission to the Creator. In Islamic contexts, consciousness indeed relates to faith and God-consciousness.
I often spoke to Muslim friends with different educational backgrounds, genders, and ages to see their reactions to the subject. I found that most of them take consciousness for granted. They never thought about it. They enjoy being aware of who they are as individuals, relating to their environment with cognitive thoughts through their five senses. Being aware of things happening around them and having an identity is considered by most people simply part of being alive.
Yet, for me, being always aware of who I am and using my intellect to try to make sense of my existence, I always needed to find answers to three basic questions related to my own existence and whether this existence will continue beyond my life on earth. The three basic questions are: Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where do I go from here? The issue that I struggled with the most was what would happen to my consciousness after I died.
My acute awareness of my identity as a thinking person, and my knowledge about my environment and the universe, all make the question of what happens to my consciousness after death a critical one. Then I encountered answers given to me through the Qur’an by Allah, the Creator of this universe and its programmer.
The Qur’an’s narrative as the direct words of Allah, concerning the story of Adam’s creation, is very telling. We will examine in this article nine verses of the second chapter from verses 30 to 39. It starts with a conversation between God and the angels. The story starts this way:
“When your Lord told the angels, ‘I will place a steward on earth,’ they said, ‘Will you put someone there who will corrupt it and shed blood while we glorify praise, and sanctify You?’ He said, ‘I know things you do not know.’” (2:30)
I had to stop here and wonder, why is God telling the angels what He wants to do? He certainly does not need their permission. Then I thought, why is He calling this creature He intends to create a steward (Khalifa in Arabic), a person in charge of the planet? A successor, why? How important will this guy be? Why didn’t He simply say, I will create a human being and I will call him Adam? Was this Adam a special human being?
Stranger than that was the angels’ reply: They said, “Will you put someone there who will corrupt it and shed blood while we glorify, praise, and sanctify You?” He said, “I know what you don’t know.”
They apparently had knowledge that Earth already had some kind of humanoids who were corrupting the Earth and were engaged in killing each other as well as other living beings. So, is God telling me that He had other humanoids on earth before the creation of Adam, but Adam is going to be an enhanced version? This is apparently the intent of this verse.
But even if this is true, why would God emphasize the creation of Adam and gather the angels to tell them about His decision, as if He is announcing an event that will change the future of the earth from that moment on?
I was hoping that God’s reply would clarify this matter, but to my disappointment, He simply told the angels, “I know what you don’t know.” So, I looked further, hoping to find the answer.
What is it that He knows about Adam that the angels had no way to know on their own? The next verse may give us the answer.
“God, (the verse said), taught Adam the names of all things and then showed them to the angels. He said, ‘Tell me the names of these if you are so sure of yourselves.’” (2:31)
God is telling us that He taught Adam the names of all things and He then showed these things to the angels and asked them to name them, but they failed. Their reply, as the Qur’an tells us, was:
“May You be exalted in your glory! We know nothing except what You have taught us. You are the All-Knowing, the Wise.” (2:32)
Their excuse for not knowing was that they only knew what they were taught. They are intellectually limited to what they are taught.
Was Adam different from them? Yes. The Qur’an explains this in the following verse:
(God) said, “Adam, tell them the names.” When he told them the names (meaning the names he learned from God), (God) said to the angels, “Did I not tell you that I know the hidden reality of the heavens and the earth, and I know what you show and what you hide.” (2:33)
Adam apparently was teachable. He was able to receive information, store it, remember it, and communicate it. He apparently had perception, and already learned to speak a language.
At this point, I realized why God framed the story with a comparison between the angels and Adam. He was trying to tell all of us that this new human being is unlike the angels; he had unique aspects that they did not have. He has consciousness and an intellect, combined to make this human being a distinctive and special creation, with advanced cognitive abilities.
After God made His first point, He started to make another point. He told the angels, “Bow down to Adam,” and they all bowed down as a sign of respect to Adam’s unique intellect, except for Iblis, the Qur’an tells us, who refused out of arrogance and became among the ungrateful. (2:34)
In this verse, God chose to introduce to us another one of His creations, Iblis, known also as Satan, the devil. In the Qur’an, however, he is another conscious creature made out of the fire flame, meaning he is oxygen-based while Adam is carbon-based. Iblis consciously refused to bow down to Adam. His excuse was Adam was created from the dirt of the earth, while he was made from fire. So, he considered himself better than him (7:12). This led him to disobey God out of arrogance.
The Qur’an was setting the stage to tell us about a drama that was emerging for Adam and will continue to evolve as long as he and his descendants exist.
Now, the drama was about to start unfolding when, in the following verse, God decided to make Adam aware that an important part of his human nature, or the program given to him, is “free will”. This free will would enable him to choose freely but also make him responsible for his choices. To make Adam aware of his freedom to choose, God put him through an exercise that would bring to his attention that he is free to choose. This would be the first time that Adam had to make a choice.
Here is how the Qur’an explains that part of the story. God said, “Adam, live with your spouse in the Heavenly Garden and eat whatever you want, but do not come near this tree, or you will be unjust.” (2:35) “But Satan made them slip and caused them to be expelled from where they were.” (2:36)
The Qur’an states that Satan caused them to slip! People may interpret this in various ways, but I understand it as an exercise designed to ensure that the program for the freedom to choose is working. If Adam had been strict in obeying God and always desired to obey Him, he would be like the angels, who are programmed to always obey. This will be fine in Heaven, but once Adam is on Earth as God had planned for him to be, Adam has to be aware of his freedom and exercise it. He needed to demonstrate while in the Heavenly Garden that he was aware of his freedom to choose, showing that he could either obey or disobey. Only through disobedience could we confirm that the program was functional. By choosing to eat from the tree, Adam proved his awareness of his ability to choose as he exercised that freedom. This was the final step to prepare Adam to descend to earth and begin a new life, where he’ll be making his choices and be responsible for them.
Another aspect of this program became apparent to Adam immediately after eating from the tree: he realized that he made the wrong choice when he disobeyed God. Out of God’s mercy, a subprogram informs each one of us when we make a wrong choice. Adam did the right thing by asking God to teach him what to do when he makes a wrong choice, and God taught him to repent and He forgave him.
The Qur’an summarizes this event this way: “Then Adam received words from his Lord, and God accepted his repentance. He alone is the Accepter of Repentance, the Mercy Giver.” (2:37)
God then said, “All of you go down from the Garden. When my guidance comes to you, whoever follows my guidance will not have fear or grieve.” (2:38)
This is the Qur’anic narrative about the creation of Adam, the various stages God used to prepare him to live on earth for a short while for Adam and his descendants to exercise their freedom to choose. We all, consequently, have two choices while here on earth.
We can summarize all the millions of choices we make during our life on earth into two choices: Am I choosing to accept God and worship Him/ or am I choosing to reject him? The other question will be am I doing whatever I am doing to please God, or is it to please myself, my selfishness, my ego? These are the two choices, and there is no other choice. These choices can be made because Adam had consciousness and an intellect that enabled him to make choices.
The Qur’an, as you have noticed, focused on the person of Adam. He is considered the first full human being with consciousness.
God tells us that Adam was teachable, meaning he had consciousness and intelligence. Additionally, he was given the ability to learn. Teaching is an activity done by God, but learning must have been done by Adam. For Adam to learn, he must have been given a subprogram that enabled him to use more than just thinking; it involved his whole personality—senses, feelings, intuition, beliefs, values, and will. It is now recognized that learning is a continuous process that begins at birth and continues until death; it is the process through which we use our experiences to deal with new situations make choices, and develop relationships.
Islam teaches that humans are a unique life form specially created by Allah, with unique gifts and abilities unlike any other: a soul and conscience, knowledge, and free will. Even though we are centuries apart now from Adam, numerous takeaways from the story mentioned in the Qur’an across various chapters will always be beneficial to us.
As we reflect on Adam’s story and the birth of our consciousness, we are reminded of the profound responsibility and potential that comes with our ability to choose. How will we use this gift in our journey toward understanding and fulfilling our purpose on earth? This is the question that will guide our life here and may lead to an eternity with God.