Human beings have a very complex nature , yet the design is very simple and predictable.Infact its described to us clearly, as a believer if one searches for the answers, for instance in The holy book of Quran, Allah says in the chapter Al Ma’arij, “Indeed, humankind was created impatient,distressed when touched with evil,And niggardly when good touches him”.In Arabic the word for a human being is إنسان (Insan) ,although there is difference of opinion amongst the lexicographers, most of them emphasise that there is no feminine for this ,because it includes the male and the female.It is probably related to the word انس, which means intimacy.Once Again about that there’s a difference of opinion,but the human being in that verse really means all human beings ,and one must remember that there comes a time upon every human when he or she is not something remembered.
And “Insan” in the Arabic language also interestingly enough means ,the pupil of the eye , because the human being was created for the vision of God, and so the word known as “Boboo” also mean, a pupil of the eye. Another interesting side note here , Ibn Al Jawziya wrote a book ,the english translation of the title is something like “Removing the darkness on the virtues of the blacks “,he picked that colour because at that time in his country Iraq ,he noticed the black people were degraded and disrespected, so he wanted to write a book about the virtues of blacks and one of the things he said is that ,the most extraordinary part of the human being is the pupil of the eye, because vision is the greatest blessings and God made it pitch black.Thats how Ibn Jawziya showed the virtue of the color black.
Now if we go back to Verse mentioned above ,Allah said that he created human beings in a state of anxiousness and continued to define it in the next two verses. So in essence, if we explain it in english language, we would say that human being was created anxious ,and then have a colon, when evil afflicts him he panics,and feels distraught and abruptly loses it, he loses his center ,his equilibrium. On the other hand when good befalls him , he withholds, he becomes stingy.It is recorded from Abu Huraira , a companion of the Prophet, through a long chain of narrators that the Prophet PBUH said,
شَرُّ مَا فِي رَجُلٍ: شُحٌّ هَالِعٌ وَجُبْنٌ خَالِع
“The worst thing that can be in a man is greedy impatience and unrestrained cowardice.”
Among other weaknesses in human beings is their desire for wealth and greed ,that cause anxiousness and distress to them ,when they want nothing but to acquire material wealth and then refuse to share it with the needy, or they refrain themselves from giving a part of it away for the sake of their creator.Humans are a mixture of anxiety and miserliness.What follows in the verse is an explanation of both,describing the layers of human beings, and shares that only those who believes in prayers comes out of this state, as the Quran says,”except for those who pray” . Those are the ones who exempt themselves from this state of despair and agitation.
When you look at the beginning of life of a human being , the moment we come into this world, The very first response or act that the human being does as baby is just screaming.The wailing of a newborn soul, it is indeed a state of complete anxiousness.Fascinatingly, what literally settles the baby down is the “حلمة” (halama ) , the word for breast or nipples in Arabic, when you give it to the child, it becomes حليم ” (halim),means calm ,the child instantly calms down. Arabic is a deep and vast language, and among many words in Arabic for intellect ,one of the word is “احلام ” (ahlam) means intellect.The intellect only functions, when you’re in a state of equilibrium and when you lose it ,when you panic, you go into a state of fight or flight or freeze ,and that’s when you lose it. But the people of Prayer are the people that do not panic, in other words they are always reasonable as their intellect is with them, and they have vision and عقل (akal) , which means the sense or intellect,which refers to “those who are constant in their prayer “, according to some scholars it means the ones who are in constant state of prayer, their heart is connected to their creator, and others believe that it refers to those that offers the five prayers everyday and they do them on time, fulfilling their obligations .One thing is clear , to find the connection and equilibrium, one must keep the center strong and that’s only by keeping the soul connected to the creator.
WEDA Coalition 