Islam's Response to Contemporary Issues — Page 81
Social Peace 81 it bears. The Islamic social order stands for the uprooting of the evil tree and the planting of a healthier one instead. According to the Holy Quran, when Adam as was forbidden to eat the fruit of the tree, this is precisely what was meant: Dost thou not see how Allah sets forth the similitude of a good word? It is like a good tree, whose root is firm and whose branches reach into heaven. It brings forth its fruit at all times by the command of its Lord. And Allah sets forth similitudes for men that they may reflect. 17 Here, the tree is just a symbol. The Quran clearly speaks of an unhealthy philosophy as against a healthy one in the same symbolic language. The evil tree and the condition of the disbeliever are described in the next two verses: And the case of an evil word is like that of an evil tree, which is uprooted from above the earth and has no stability. Allah strengthens the believers with the word that is firmly established, both in the present life and in the Hereafter, and Allah lets the wrongdoers go astray. And Allah does what He wills. 18