Moral Principles as the Basis of Islamic Culture — Page 4
The Quran furnishes detailed pdance with regard to divine attri- butes, their respective spheres, co-ordination and m-ethod of operation. It thus becomes easy for. a Muslim to equip himself with this knowl- edge and to mould and order his life accordingly so as to IDUe ~ himself a ~estation of divine attributes in his own sphere to the fullest extent of his cap!lcities. This is what Islam requires and expects of him. blam draws attention to the obv•ous fact that on the one hand, the universe manifests itself through the operation of the laws of nature; that is to say, the divine attribute of Creation brings into being oceans, islands, mountains, rivers, minerals, vegetables, trees, grasses, herbs and grains, etc. through the direct O?,!ration of a set of laws which are know. n as the laws of nature. On the other hand, God determined that there should be created a being who sho~d exetcise dominion over and bring into his service and use all these things in accordanee with divine attributes and thus fulfil the ultimate object of all creation. In this manner each end, as it were, of creation would become a manifestation of divine attributes. In illustration of this object the Quran says: "Got/ is He Who has created for yo11r 11se anJ servit. e all thal lhere is i11 th~ e1mh"; (Ch. 11, v. 29) and again, "He has s11borJi11111eJ to 1"" 111111 s11bjuted f(J yollr servin- struction. In the same manner we quarry stone and cut it and fashion i1 for various purposes Similarly, from different kinds of ores we