We are all created by Allah SWT. When All SWT created the first human being (Adam) he commanded the Angels to prostrate before Adam (Q2:34). A few verses before that Allah SWT calls human beings His vicegerent. It is early enough in the Quran that a reader would sit up and notice these honors heaped on human beings even before they are created. When angels asked the same question Allah SWT pointed to the ability He gave humans to name things (language skills) and gain knowledge for themselves. Thus equipped, human beings were entrusted with the Amana (trust) in the form of limited freewill (Q33:72). How can Allah’s vicegerents not have any freedom to choose? And along with that came the accountability of how human beings deploy this limited freewill. Do they benefit themselves and others with it or hurt each other in this world? That may determine their station in the hereafter.
However, Allah SWT being the Most Merciful and the Most Beneficent gave another very important gift in Quran. The gift of guidance (Q2:2) so human beings had at hand a manual from their Creator to maximize their chances of success in this world. This guidance comes to the human beings in the from of stories and anecdotes from recent history that many of them may already have known about and all of the can easily identify with and relate to the characters.
The ultimate test of the knowledge and freewill given to the human being is their ability or inability to distinguish between good and bad or right and wrong. We live in an age when this distinction is eroded and we don’t even blink as a humanity in face of unspeakable tyranny and oppression. Humanity depends of Good human beings preventing the bad ones from perpetrating evil. If evil is practiced with impunity it challenges the very survival of everyone on this planet. Allah SWT calls Quran the “Furqan” which is the criteria which we can apply in our lives to achieve moral clarity which could wake us all up before it is too late.
Allah SWT knows the Achilles heel of human beings is their arrogance. Hence Quran is filled with warnings that shows the limitations of human beings lest they loose sight of the fact that vicegerency that Allah SWT bestowed upon them is not an unchallengeable authority nor unquestionable wisdom. Quran appeals for humility in several verses such as Q25:63, Q17:37 and Q31:18. The gifts of limited freewill and knowledge can only be wielded with wisdom to be humble.
In the era of nationalism, racism and religious oppression it is refreshing to note that Quran emphasized equality and justice regardless of our relation to the perpetrator. Q4:135 commands human beings to stand firm for justice even if it is against yourself, your parents or close relatives and regardless of their status in the society. Reading that verse one is compelled to wonder whether these verses were revealed specifically for the time we live in. Justice including the judges in the highest courts are bought and sold in the open market of life long political appointments. The faith or the race of the plaintiff determines whether it is taken seriously, or the plaintiff is further victimized with bulldozer destroying his home or getting shot in broad daylight.
Muslims as the receivers of the message of Quran bear a heavy burden of not only understanding the message of Quran but to lead their lives in accordance with it. Only then can we show the rest of the humanity the true worth of this great book and how it can show them the way out of this morass of human denigration and decay.