Page 113 - The Debased Culture of Superficiality

Harun Yahya - Adnan Oktar 111

self. As with all of the above, the passions and desires of the
lower self also lie at the root of greed. The lower self is like an
enemy placed inside a person. In the Qur’an, Allah tells us
the following:
[Yusuf said:] “I do not say my self was free from blame.
The self indeed commands to evil acts—except for those
my Lord has mercy on . . .” (Surah Yusuf: 53)
A person must use his intelligence and conscience against
his lower self, because, if he puts aside his fine human values
and yields to it, he will be greatly deceived by going after
worldly gain. Allah shows us the superficial tendencies of
those who follow their lower selves and distance themselves
from the Qur’an:
If We had wanted to, We would have raised him up by
them. But he gravitated towards the earth and pursued
his whims and base desires . . . (Surat al-A‘raf: 176)
In another verse, He says that behavior that falls outside
the practice of religious morality is degrading:
. . . Some of them are righteous and some are other than
that . . . (Surat al-A‘raf: 168)
If they used their consciences, they would live respectable
and honorable lives, but they show this tendency toward
degrading behavior. So, greed is one of the aspects that
reflect this superficial and degraded morality.
Greed is a concept that weakens and degrades a person,
and can cause great harm. Because of ambition, a person with
this kind of morality can abandon valuable things he owns to
pursue things of no value. Although he can desire and work
toward gaining Allah’s favor and mercy and attaining the