Living The Quran
From Issue: 693 [Read full issue]
Fairest Stature
Al-Tin (The Fig) - Chapter 95: Verse 4
"Very truly, We created man in the fairest stature."
God has created the human being in a fine and sublime form, his very anatomy - upright and symmetrical - a metaphor in motion for his high station among creation and the graceful nature of his inner being.
Such is the original state of man, and none among creation may undo this. Yet the human being itself holds the power to reverse its own condition, repeal its eminent position, deface its appearance, and demean its special distinction. In the blind and frenzied pursuit of the disparate passions craved by man's worldly being, his soul is pulled apart and disintegrates, until the fabric of sacred truth - that connects him and all creation - frays against the jagged edges of his fragmented intellect, ravaged by the onslaught of the lower world, until all that is beautiful and many-splendored in life is left ragged, disenchanted, utterly bereft of higher meaning. This, then, is when man can no longer believe in anything, least of all in the "vertical" purpose of his own being. Thus does he fall into the abyss of faithlessness.
Compiled From:
"The Gracious Quran" - Ahmad Zaki Hammad, pp. 279, 280