Teach Yourself Islamic Ideology
Lesson 3: Humanology (Anthropology) Part 2
These three types of attitudes are common between human beings and other animals. It is the fourth type of insight which is special to human beings alone.
Intellectual Insight
Intellectual insight means the comprehension of generalities and their type, perceptions und differences and includes the gradual development of human beings towards completion in an extensive and unlimited sense.
For example, that which is expressed in the various kinds of knowledge or science as laws, the comprehension of all of them falls into the category of intellectual insight. This is particular to human beings.
Paying attention to what we have said so far, it becomes clear that it is true that animals like ourselves are aware of their environment and in order to continue their life, they consciously act by choosing that which is advantageous to them. They evade that which is harmful but this consciousness is essentially external, material, particular, regional, unconscious, instinctive and limited.
On the other hand, human perceptions penetrate the external and internal. 'They go beyond the limits of materiality. They contain generalities. They are not limited to a particular region or area. They are not particular to any special time but rather include an extensive history and they reflect upon the future and in this way, they are conscious. It is not only instinctive but acquired also, unlimited and progresses rapidly.
Differences in Tendencies
All animals whether human or otherwise are equipped with a series of special tendencies and inclinations which guarantee the continuation of its life and gradual development like sexual inclinations which assures the continuation of the generations of that species.
But in this, area as well, human beings have many differences with other animals. The capacity which exists in animals is usually limited, generally personal and at the most family related. In addition to this, from the point of time, also, limited, instinctive and unconscious. The support behind these tendencies is also to draw special interests.
On the other hand, human inclinations and tendencies can move forward to infinity, break the moulds of materiality, move beyond self-interests or the interests of the family, tribe, etc., free itself from the bonds of time, penetrate the past and tile future, receive strong support from consciousness and insight and replace individual interests with the highest values of humanity and the divinity, and lofty human and ethical ideals.
The human being moves forward until the point where he or she is freed from all limitations and bonds of materiality and nature and the chains of lowly animal whims and desires. It is then that he or she conquers the high peaks of love and faith (the tendency towards meta-ideals), and sacrifices everything before its Beloved.
The Differences in the Dimension of Action
The human being in the offering of acts is also without rival in the world of nature. It is true that animals also effect the environment they live in. But animals, in this dimension as in other dimensions, are imprisoned in the prison nature built for them and their behavior is generally instinctive as well as limited in area and to a particular time. They never move beyond the limits of materiality, and only move because of the pull of individual, or, at the most, family interests. In addition to these, they obey a pre-determined state, whereas the arena of the human being's actions are more extensive.
A human being can in the same way that he or she has material activity, also be active in the dimension of spirituality and meta-materiality. The human being struggles against nature and tames the natural forces upon the way of determining his or her way. They combat other human beings and are often victorious and often defeated. The most wonderous of all is that it can struggle against the self (the greater jihad) and dominate over his or her own inner self.
The human being has social capacities and inclinations, the acts of a human being accept no geographical boundaries, boundaries are broken and the world attained. He or she effects the past and sometimes takes on the color of 'immortality'.
More important than any of this is the behavior of a conscious individual who has strong and firm support of intellectual forces and rich sources of knowledge, awareness and thoughts.
The human being establishes his or her acts upon a series of universal criteria which his or her system of thought builds. In addition to all of this, the human being is free to act and he or she does not follow the determinations of nature, rather, he or she can, with free will, choose his or her own way.
The human being has, with the blessings of his or her intellect, a sense of insight which is multiple and gradually developed. This very quality is directly effective in his or her method of action. Animals have comparable acts and throughout the duration, they are uniform, and lacking in development. Whereas the acts of human beings have both a vertical change as well as a horizontal one.
Vertical change is an evolutionary change or one which gradually develops. For example, the act of building a house is a realized affair in the human being; to begin with, how to build and what to build whereas from among the multiple examples of the methods of animals, it is best to look at the honey bee. We see that with the honey bee, there is no change of gradual development nor was there ever any in building a house.
One can carefully look in the same way at the acts such as swimming, self-defense, gathering food, etc. in animals and in human beings in order to conceptualize and understand the method of vertical change in the area of human acts. Horizontal change refers to the change of external appearance and other than gradual development.
Let us look again at the building of a house. A human being does not build a house in one form, but builds, rather through the form of multiple shapes whereas animals are not like this. The complete acts like that of the honey bee can be carefully studied as an example. The other acts which were mentioned in vertical change can be studied from the point of horizontal change as well, and in an unlimited way. This change can be discovered in an unlimited way within the human being, in contrast to animals in whose act these changes are normally not found or if they exist they are very limited.
The compilation of these particularities of human beings build a multi-dimensional human being who is both material and spiritual and from among the animals of the same species in all dimensions: Consciousness and insight (knowledge), inclinations and tendencies (faith) and behavior and acts take separate ways and join the perfection of his or her unlimitedness with eternity and moves towards the Divine attributes upon the way of self-construction in nature's arena and becomes worthy of the station of 'vice-gerent' of God.
Summary of the Lesson
The human being shares many things in common with other animals.
The difference of a human being with other animals is in the three-dimension in the following way: insight or awareness of animals is external, material, particular, regional, present, unconscious, instinctive and limited.
The insight and awareness of the human being is external and internal, material and spiritual, particular and universal, present, past and future, conscious, capable of increase and gradual development, sensation, imagination, fantasy and intellectual.
The tendencies and capacity of animals: material and non-material, social, unlimited, conscious, ethical.
The acts and behavior of animals: Determined, limited, material, instinctive, unconscious, regional, present with a motive based on personal interests or family interests.
The acts of human beings: free and made by choice, material and spiritual, conscious, unlimited, universal and social, ethical and ideal, intellectual and changing both from the point of view of gradual development and from the point of external shape.
Questions to ask yourself
Describe the human being in 10 lines and explain its particularities.