Islam - Its Meaning for Modern Man — Page 129
129 beneficent and that which was harmful. The Quran says that it is of the essence of man’s nature with which God has endowed him that it prompts him toward good, and seeks to restrain him from evil (30:31; 91:8 ⎯ 11). The Prophet has said that every child is born with that nature. Outside influences tend to confirm him in it or to divert him from it. Before man’s capacities were perfected, the promptings of his inherent nature, if attended to and not interfered with by external influences, were sufficient to furnish him with the simple guidance he needed. Man’s insistent spiritual need is a living faith in, and realisation of, God’s existence. God has made provision for the fulfilment of that need through revelation. The Quran says that it is for God to provide guidance (92:13). As soon as the human mind became capable of perceiving the need of, and experiencing direct communion with, God, in other words, as soon as man’s capacities were perfected and he began to deserve the name of man, spiritual guidance began to be vouchsafed to him through revelation, and the angels were commanded to aid and succor him in the carrying forward of his good and righteous purposes and designs (15:30; 38:73). God proclaimed for all time that guidance would be provided for mankind at each stage, and that whoso shall follow God’s guidance “on them shall come no fear, nor shall they grieve” (2:39).