Page 38 - Communication and Argument in the Qur'an

36 COMMUNICATION AND ARGUMENT IN THE QUR’AN

These verses reveal that when Allah created human
beings, He inspired each soul evil as well as how to avoid
from it, that is good. Salvation from evil depends upon
one’s choice to avoid evil. Otherwise he faces destruction.
If a person does not accept the existence of evil in his
lower self, he lacks the conscience to avoid from evil. In
the words of the Qur’an, he “covers” that evil and nurtures
it. Eventually that evil consumes him.
Acknowledgement of the existence of evil in the lower
self and avoidance from it brings a person salvation.
Freedom is precisely this salvation.
The main power that puts a person under pressure is
the evil in his lower self. This pressure predominates any
other known power. It smothers people in selfishness,
makes them jealous, insecure, and worried about the
future. But worst of all, this power overwhelms them with
endless desires and passions and drives them to amass
more possessions, more money and greater social status.
However these desires are insatiable. The passion to
become rich is strong; but, when it is satisfied, other pas-
sions follow, entrapping that person in a vicious cycle.
Salvation lies in being released from this cycle. Allah
relates in the Qur’an:
...It is the people who are safe-guarded from the ava-
rice of their own souls who are successful. (Surat al-
Hashr: 9)
People who are no longer enslaved to these passions
become free. At this point, their purpose in life is no longer
to satisfy these endless passions; rather, it is to please only