Absolute Justice, Kindness and Kinship — Page 130
The Role of the Three Creative Principles in the Shaping of Religion 129 that that general area had become a well-developed trade centre, which attracted caravans from far and wide. Favourable weather conditions allowed the peoples of Mesopotamia to pass from being a rootless hunter-gatherer culture, to a culture based on agriculture and permanent settlements. Irrigation techniques, metal production, pottery and other crafts and building methods were developed to a high degree. The description in the Quran speaks of an affluent society similar to the one that existed in Pompeii, before the great earthquake and volcano eruption wiped it out of existence. This advanced human society naturally required a more advanced Divine teaching in view of the changed circumstances and growing needs of society. But we find in the Holy Quran that the people of Noah as were guilty of all kinds of aggression against, and digression from, the right path, and are dubbed therein as a thoroughly sinful society. From this it can be safely inferred that the concept of sin had been made clear, because without a law the concept of sin cannot be entertained. It is the violation of Divine law which in religious terminology is referred to as sin. The same is the case of other people addressed by various Prophets as of their time in different parts of the world. Their teachings, however, are only mentioned in the Quran in general terms, a detailed account being unnecessary. Abraham as , Isaac as , Ishmael as , Jacob as and also Joseph as are mentioned as