The Human Being
What is a human? And who is a human?
The human being is an animal elevated to the status of dignity through intellect. The human being is still in the process of formation, and this development will never cease. Humans perpetually progress through the stages of perfection in an infinite journey. Animals also evolve, but the extent of their progress is limited to reaching the lowest ranks of humanity. Thus, the difference between animals and humans is one of degree, not of kind.
Monotheism (tawhid) requires us to view all creations, especially living beings, as part of a single, continuous chain, with links of varying sizes along its length. From this perspective, there is nothing in all of created existence except the human being. Everything we see and cannot see in this existence represents the human being at different and successive stages of development. This comprehensive view is referenced in Allah's words: “Has there come upon man a period of time when he was not a thing [even] mentioned?” (76:1)
Here, the term “Has” (Hal) is used to mean “Indeed” (Qad). This "period of time" refers to an extended, timeless epoch.
The human being’s long journey of creation spans four interconnected stages, with each stage separated by links in the chain that are larger than the preceding ones, representing leaps in the process of evolution. These leaps are the culmination of organic virtues accumulated during the preceding stage. For simplicity, this journey is divided into four stages; however, each stage contains countless sub-stages that defy enumeration. The stages are discussed briefly as follows:
