The “Natural Law of Morality” Has Come From Religion

By Naseer Ahmed, New Age Islam 9 March 2023 ----------------------------------------------------- The Favour Of Allah On Adam And His Progeny Was Undeniable. There Is Absolutely No Doubt About The Exceptionalism Of Adam And His Progeny In Their Unique Intellectual And Cognitive Capabilities That Enable Them To Understand At The Micro Level The Nature And Attributes Of Everything, As Well As The Design, The Order, And The Rationality Built Into The Natural World At The Macro Level. ----------------------------------------------------- The simple moral rules that all subscribe to irrespective of their religion or no religion such as do not lie, cheat, steal, kill, be fair and just and keep your promises, have come to be known as the natural law because these appear to be self-evident and even instinctive. We have however seen in the article “Al-Insan or The Man” that man is born without any of these virtues but only with the instinct for self-preservation which makes him naturally greedy, niggardly, impatient, ungrateful, contentious, acquisitive, envious, jealous, fearful, and suspicious. Man needs to learn every virtue and control his negative tendencies. So, what’s going on here? Evolutionary Forces Ensured the Adoption of Religion and Its Moral Rules Right at the Beginning Human beings came into existence about 2.5 million years ago. They were not different from other animals in their intellectual capacity and had neither the capacity nor the need for religion. Then about 0.07 million years ago, Adam was created with intellectual capacity and cognitive abilities not bestowed on any other creation. By putting 2.43 million years between the creation of the first humans and Adam, Allah made apparent the tremendous favour that He had bestowed on Adam and his progeny vis-a-vis every other creation including the humans that preceded Adam. These other humans co-existed with Adam and his progeny for about sixty thousand years when the last of them were driven to extinction from a perpetual war for survival with the progeny of Adam. The fact that the other human beings had a head start of 2.43 million years made them a formidable enemy in terms of their very large numerical superiority. To protect themselves from such a formidable enemy required Adam and his progeny to work together in close cooperation trusting each other and sacrificing for the greater good of their kind. It is here that Allah’s religion or the moral principles revealed by Allah proved their worth without which they would have become extinct. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Also Read: Atheists Lack Logical Reasoning When Demanding Scientific Proof of the Existence of God Almighty ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The favour of Allah on Adam and his progeny was undeniable. There is absolutely no doubt about the exceptionalism of Adam and his progeny in their unique intellectual and cognitive capabilities that enable them to understand at the micro level the nature and attributes of everything, as well as the design, the order, and the rationality built into the natural world at the macro level. It was a combination of gratitude and sheer need for survival that ensured easy acceptance and following Allah’s guidance. For the first sixty thousand years of the existence of Adam’s progeny, there was the example of the other humans to remind them of the favours of Allah, feel grateful and follow His religion. Shared values from religion helped build trust and cooperation among one another which was essential to fight and win the war for survival. The practice of the moral rules from religion for sixty thousand years and the evidence of their efficacy in ensuring their survival against heavy odds ensured that the rules got firmly imprinted in their psyche. It is unsurprising that the moral rules that ensured their survival as a species came to appear self-evident and even instinctive after such a long period of unquestioned acceptance and practice. These have remained acceptable to this day without anyone questioning the rules even though not many people practice them if they can get away with it. It has come to be known as the natural law and is expectedly common to all the progeny of Adam irrespective of their religion or no religion. (15:85) We created not the heavens, the earth, and all between them, but for just ends. And the Hour is surely coming (when this will be manifest). So overlook (any human faults) with gracious forgiveness. If we look at the evolutionary nature of Allah’s creation, we discover the purpose and how it has led towards the “just ends” of imprinting the moral rules in the human psyche. Without such conditions being created, Religion had no chance of taking hold and without Religion, we wouldn’t have survived, and if we had managed to survive, we would not have taken a single step on the path of civilisation and remained savage barbarians. -------------------------------------------------------- Also Read: The Contribution of Atheists to Moral Philosophy and the Practice of Morality -------------------------------------------------------- The confirmation that mankind was united as one nation by the religion of Allah for a very long time is to be found in the following verse: (10:19) Mankind was but one nation but differed (later). How long was this period? Tafsir 10.19 Jalal - Al-Jalalayn Mankind was but one community, following one religion that is submission [to the One God], from the time of Adam to the time of Noah; then they differed. Tafsir Maarif ul Quran Maulana Mufti Mohammad Shafi "The statement: (And people were but one community) in verse 10:19 means that the progeny of Sayyidna Ädam was essentially a single community in the earlier stages of man's presence in the world. Then came up differences that divided human beings into different nations and groups of people. How long did this period of a single community of believers last? Original sources of Islamic Tradition tell us that this situation prevailed up to the time of Sayyidna Nuh (Noah). Then, it is also obvious that there is a long period of time between Sayyidna Ädam and Sayyidna Nuh, may peace be on them both." We learn from other verses, that people break up into different sects through envy of each other. This happens when there is peace and no external threat that requires the people to remain united. There are other verses that indicate that this condition of mankind remaining one nation lasted for a long time until it became necessary to send Noah. (3:33) Allah did choose Adam and Noah, the family of Abraham, and the family of ´Imran above all people,-(34) Offspring, one of the other: And Allah heareth and knoweth all things. After Adam, the name of Noah is mentioned. If there were other messengers in between, their role was minor in maintaining the religion which is why they don’t find a mention. We know that Noah had a major task to perform and then Abraham. Jesus is from the family of Imran. Once the common enemy was driven to extinction, there was no longer a strong motivation for remaining united and the people broke up into sects from envy of each other. We see the same happen to this day. The base instincts of man then begin to dominate his behaviour. To this day, although no one disagrees with the “natural law” almost everybody lies, and corruption is rampant. The supreme achievement of religion has been to get the “natural law” universally accepted which still guides our behaviour and has been codified into the laws of every nation. These rules are learnt as easily and as informally as a child learns her mother tongue and is accomplished before she is three years old. The process of learning her mother tongue and the moral rules is simultaneous and in the same manner - that is through human interaction and informally. What is learned before 3 years is unfiltered and after 3 years of age every new input is filtered through what is already learnt. Since nobody questions the “natural law” it remains the undisputed standard. Piaget, who is a world authority on child development, said "between the ages of 5-9 years old, children develop moral realism; that is, they believe that morality is conducted by authority figures and breaking rules will lead to punishment." This helps reinforce what they have already learnt and now they learn that breaking the rules has real consequences. Without enforcing the rules with rewards and punishments, a child discovers that it is rewarding to yield to temptations and break the rules and no unpleasant consequences. It is therefore important to enforce the rules. Without loving care to ensure willing compliance, a child learns to break the rules and the tricks to escape detection. A judicious mix of love and strictness is needed. -------------------------------------------------- Also Read: On The Issue of Morality: A Final Rejoinder -------------------------------------------------- The fact remains that man is born without virtue and has to learn every virtue and can easily be taught to hate, despise and kill as virtues. This happens with criminal tribes whose religion is to rob and kill. We saw this happen in Germany to good people and we see it happen all around us. Religion itself is easily hijacked for evil ends by unscrupulous leaders. Keeping ourselves and our religion free from evil influences and from evil men is therefore a constant struggle. Acknowledgement: Unknown sb has greatly contributed through his comments in the thread The Enigmatic Verses of the Quran. This article is an offshoot of those discussions. ----- A frequent contributor to NewAgeIslam.com, Naseer Ahmed is an Engineering graduate from IIT Kanpur and is an independent IT consultant after having served in both the Public and Private sector in responsible positions for over three decades. He has spent years studying Quran in-depth and made seminal contributions to its interpretation. 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