It wouldn’t be hyperbole if one contended that nothing defined the modern era in more profound terms and carved its generally pessimistic tone into the concrete of human memory than the publishing of Charles Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species on November 24, 1859. The book, as it became an embodiment of, not only Darwin’s scientific perspective, but his philosophical thesis, separated the dialectic of human history into pre and post-Darwinisim, and ushered in a new era of faith in progress, that unfortunately came at the expense of faith in God. Darwin, albeit unsuspectingly, weaved an alternative narrative for the creation and evolution of life. Classical Darwinism hinged upon two basic premises. First, all species share a common ancestry. Second, changes do take place to species over millennia through the process of natural selection, leading to the alteration of that species and the creation of new ones (speciation). Later in the 20th century, biologists added genetic mutations as another dynamic by which change occurs in species over millennia. All these biological processes that are now taken for granted as established science posited a completely different perspective about life, one that speaks to a mechanical, naturalistic process explaining how everything came about, in direct contrast with the traditional religious perspective that the universe has a god that deliberately created everything. Darwinism progressively eroded the concept of God over the decades and continues to stand today as one of God’s most menacing competitors.
But the impact of Darwinism was far-reaching, and it went beyond the attempt to make sense of a world without God. The biological underpinnings of Darwinism literally “evolved” into an attempt to extrapolate phenomena beyond living organisms. Herbert Spencer is often credited for taking Darwinism beyond biology. In his influential work A System of Synthetic Philosophy, Spencer is unapologetic about this Darwinian ideation and expands the premises of the process of evolution well beyond its intended biological boundaries. As a Darwin devotee, Spencer believed, almost religiously, that the world is evolving towards progress, and that this evolution applies to social, economic, and political matters as much as it applies to biology. In fact, it was Spencer that coined the phrase “survival of the fittest” not Darwin. This dialectical process implied conflict, upheavals, and strife that eventually lead to the production of better ideas, better systems of thought, better governments, and of course better species. Human cataclysms are not only acceptable but necessary for the process of social evolution. Stronger governments are destined to take over weaker ones. Stronger human races should not hesitate to defeat weaker ones. It's only destiny.
With this in mind, it might be of intellectual utility to stop and conceive of the world of ideas at the turn of the 20th century for a moment, to appreciate the drastic changes that were taking place in culture, society, and the human mind. Darwinism just proved that God is not a necessary being any longer. Spencer contended that evolution is manifested in competitions, not only in the biological world but also in social and economic institutions. Universal morality used to be directly derived from God. But in His absence, all that’s left is the proper anticipation of inevitable mechanistic processes that fleetingly determine what’s right and what’s wrong and who stays on top and who’s pushed to the bottom. In that ethos, values like altruism, kindness, and charity are not only unnecessary, they might put the person through the shredder of natural selection. Rather, what is needed the most, to avoid being selected out and eliminated, is power. Sheer, relentless, and unrestrained power. That’s the only way survival becomes possible, whether of individuals or nations, in a world that is progressively evolving toward a more refined manifestation of itself. It is within this ideation that the thought process of Nietzsche's philosophy started to take shape. As someone who was physically frail and disabled, aspiring to the superhuman was natural. But in a world where God is dead, it's necessary.
In his enigmatic book Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche consecrates physical strength and posits the Übermensch, or the superhuman, as a goal for humanity to set for itself moving forward. This is the only worthy aspiration. The Christian God is dead, and therefore all the values that He advocated are dead with him. The world only knows sheer physical power, and evolution only respects strength. That’s the only quality one should crave. It doesn’t take much connecting the dots in order to demonstrate how Nietzsche’s Übermensch philosophy eventually gave way to the cultural and intellectual framework in which fascism would eventually originate, thrive, and devastate the world. But blaming Nietzsche for the harrowing ordeals of Nazism is only reasonable if the Darwinist origins of his mental framework share the blame. In fact, German officers at the Nuremberg Tribunals made repeated references to how their actions that precipitated the Holocaust would not be seen as immoral if understood in the wider framework of Darwinism and Nietzscheism. The 20th century was the great theater on which this Darwinian competition had its most spectacular performance, peeking its head every step of the way. World wars, expanding colonialism, racism, classism, and American exceptionalism, and the list goes on. Darwin, Spencer, and Nietzsche were right that human beings, society, and ideas do change, but they perhaps didn’t anticipate how monstrous that change was going to become. And the result? If our trio of great philosophers were to glance at the world today that was precipitated by their ideas, they will only see less happiness, less fulfillment, less satisfaction, and a pervasive mental health crisis that has no precedence in human history. So much for progress.
But the Übermensch did not always produce such malevolent expressions. In America, it inspired cultural practices from football, athletic worship, superhero movies, and the obsession with celebrities, to cult personalities, cosmetic surgeries, and the makeup industry. The collective social lust for that “edge” that makes us better than others, therefore more worthy of survival, rages on, albeit subconsciously. Everyone wants to become a superhero, an Übermensch. And if you can’t become one, then cheer for one. More viscerally, the modern-day explosion of expression on social media may not necessarily be a far cry from the same philosophical vestiges of the Darwinian-Nietzschean worldview. Social media provided most people with a historically unique opportunity to fight the gladiatorial battles away from the arena and far from its bloody parades and gave them a real shot at victory, hence proverbial survival. Everyone is looking for the edge: a better dress, a more beautiful photo, a happier moment, a more ripped body, or a larger influence. Many in the modern age, including men and women of faith among us, even many religious leaders, have become inadvertent Nietzscheans, to the shock and dismay of historical sensibilities. Contrary to public perception, Philosophy does matter, because it shapes the essential ideas that eventually trickle down into public imagination.
It is imperative to state here, however, that this penchant for aspiring to become the Übermensch was not entirely engendered by the Darwinian-Nietzschean worldview. It was only accentuated by it and therefore granted it a philosophical bedrock that legitimized its adoption and application. The human craving for greatness definitely predates modern times. But what could possibly be done about this unfortunate, but pervasive predilection? Two primary steps can be recommended here. First, we ought to understand what it means to have faith in God. Accepting a deity lends itself to the adoption of morals and values that are transcendental, thus overcoming the allure of expediency and the constant threat from competition that justifies the Nietzschean viewpoint. This essay is not intended, however, to prove the concept of God, or show whether it's compatible with Darwinism, and therefore takes for granted that belief in God dilutes the tension that leads to aspirations of greatness. Second, we ought to de-emphasize the primacy of heroism and emphasize the need for day-to-day acts of gallantry. One doesn’t need to be great to achieve great things.
Now that we’ve arrived at this particular station in our investigative journey, it's important to take a thorough look at the Islamic historical narrative and the Quranic didactic injunctions and how they treated the Übermensch. The Islamic tradition surrenders to God as the creator, maintainer, and sustainer of the universe and human affairs. The world does have a manager, and that manager is Allah. In this world, God creates human beings and commissions them to their tasks, each one and their own. Endowed with everyone are innate resources, such as intellect, inner compass, and the capacity for good, in addition to acquired resources such as wealth, mentorship, and scriptures. Collectively called Rizq, or one’s share of the world, the resources come in varying measures, reflecting the tasks that each one of us is mandated to perform. Those tasks mirror our propensities and God’s wisdom for us. We are not in competition with one another. Rather, we are to complement each other’s work and become stepping stones for other humans to ascend. In a godly world, greatness is coincidental. Pleasing God, contentment, and spreading good are the goals. If such goals come with greatness or ultimately lead to it, then be it. Otherwise, it's not an end to be necessarily aspired for. Great things in life are not achieved by superheroes or the Übermensch among us. Rather, they are achieved by ordinary day-to-day people who work hard and derive strength from their sense of mission and inner tenacity, as well as divine guidance. One certainly doesn’t need global success, unprecedented wealth, or a million followers on Instagram to make a difference in a world that thirsts for meaningful intervention. One doesn’t need to be great to act greatly. It's excellence, not greatness, that one should strive for.
This acute proclivity to aspire for greatness was likely not lost on the early generation of the believers in Mecca, who were destined to migrate to Medina and build a new civilization. Traveling to a new city, leaving everything behind, carrying with them the responsibility of Islam on their shoulders, and realizing that their task was to completely change the world and alter the course of history. Who would not be intimated by this barrage of intimidating thoughts? Who would not cave under the pressure of this expectation? It's more than likely that the migrants, al-Muhajireen in the Islamic tradition, must have experienced all kinds of feelings of worthlessness and inadequacy. They must have asked themselves, time and time again: am I cut out for this? Am I worthy of this responsibility? Am I great enough to represent Islam and change the world with its teachings? Shouldn't I become a hero first? Am I a hero? Can I be a hero? Can I become an Übermensch? The companions were mostly the simplest people. They were predominantly nomads, who tended goats and sheep and spent most of their days looking for water springs and grazing land. The sophisticated among them were average tradesmen who traveled the routes of north and south in search of spices, textiles, and other exotic items to sell in Arabia and make money. The Arabs were great poets, but they lacked in almost every other front. The shadow of these realities did not even spare the Prophet Muhammad himself, who was the simplest, most unassuming of men. The reality of their affairs must have haunted them and caused them to worry about their ability to make a difference and achieve great things in the world.
Yet, it was precisely this band of simple believers that was given the task of transforming the world, and transforming the world they did. In less than 30 years, Islam spread to all three continents of the ancient world and built a global empire like the world had not seen before. The simple, average nomads of Arabia became the generals, conquerors, governors, magistrates, and civil administrators that breathed the spirit of Islam into lands previously unfamiliar with such excellence. How is it that Muslims managed to conquer the known world in the absence of the Übermensch? How did they acquire the territories, open hearts, and minds, and liberated the masses without greatness and heroism? Perhaps that is the whole point. Real change in the world happens, the story instructs, through the incremental efforts of ordinary people, who are sincere, resilient, and committed to their tasks. Real change is achieved when disciplined ordinary people, who are not necessarily great by any human standard, band together and set themselves out to their goals, and end up achieving success that is difficult to contain in words.
This should not imply a wholesale condemnation of uniqueness or greatness. It's okay to become great, but only as a result of your hard work, as long as it is not pursued as an end in and of itself. People who accidentally achieve that greatness will likely be even more equipped to carry out their tasks and rein in more meaningful success. And the reason greatness should be treated as something accidental or coincidental is that making it the focus changes the hearts and alters the intentions. Many who would pass as great according to modern definitions do significantly more harm than good. What good could an Instagram influencer that does swimsuit modeling possibly bring, even if he or she has millions of followers? What positive impact does a social media-obsessed religious leader have on his followers, when he’s engaged in hollow polemics every day? Athletes, celebrities, and famous people who do not use their platforms for good use them for harm. Even someone like Khaled b. al-Walid, if it wasn’t for God’s mercy, he would have continued to use his “greatness” to deal more blows to the burgeoning message of Islam!
How did the companions do it then? How did they overcome their initial consternation about their average skills and questionable competence? How did they accept their non-greatness? How did they overcome the lust for the Übermensch? One particular surah bears all the answers. Months before the Hijra, and in order to prepare the believers for the epic journey they were about to embark upon, and in order to train their hearts for the monumental tasks they are about to be asked, God revealed surat al-Mu’menoon, literally The Believers! The incredible chapter of the Quran revolves around detailing the qualities of the believers that will make Allah, not society, happy; that will be their path towards worldly and otherworldly success; that will enable them to overcome their personal weaknesses and limited acumen and lead them to achieve great things despite the lack of greatness! The qualities highlighted by the surah are fundamental, yet very basic and easily achievable by most. Quranic greatness, it is being made very unequivocal in the surah, is not about the capacity to overcome insurmountable barriers. It has nothing to do with having royal blood, becoming a millionaire, receiving three PHDs, being world-famous, or even praying all night and memorizing the entire Quran. The qualities that empower believers to achieve great things are steadiness in their affairs with God, with people, and with the self, plain and simple. This is what the Arabs needed to hear, as they’re being tasked by the divine to open up the world to God’s words. They needed to learn that one needs not to aspire to become Übermensch to achieve greatness, but to be steady and constant in the small, mundane, daily tasks.
And with such simplicity and ease, the Quranic philosophy of success is hypothesized. Surat al-Mu’menoon weaves the foundations of this philosophy over four themes. First, at the onset, the surah illustrates the character traits of the believers who can accomplish success, achieve great things, and even act heroically, without necessarily expecting to be superheroes first! Second, combating the claims of superhumaness and debunking the Übermensch ideology by showcasing the universal nature of man and delineating our common origins, in one of the most fascinating and widely cited biological discussions in the Quran. Third, the stories of the prophets selected for the surah all address how those prophets were rejected by their people over accusations of banality. Prophets are all ordinary human beings, detractors complained, in what they thought to be a denunciation of their claims to prophethood. Little did they know that it was all by design! Fourth, the surah ends by highlighting the destiny of those who fail to acknowledge such basic truths about human beings and get swept away following an illusion that can never be materialized.
In the first section, God says:
قَدْ أَفْلَحَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ (١) الَّذِينَ هُمْ فِي صَلَاتِهِمْ خَاشِعُونَ (٢) وَالَّذِينَ هُم ْعَنِ اللَّغْوِ مُعْرِضُونَ (٣) وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ لِلزَّكَاةِ فَاعِلُونَ (٤) وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ لِفُروجِهِمْ حَافِظُونَ (٥) إِلَّا عَلَى أَزْوَاجِهِمْ أوْ مَا مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَانُهُمْ فَإِنَّهُمْ غَيْرُ مَلُومِينَ (٦) فَمَنِ ابْتَغَى وَرَاء ذَلِكَ فَأُوْلَئِكَ هُمُ الْعَادُون َ(٧) وَالَّذِينَ همْ لِأَمَانَاتِهِمْ وَعَهْدِهِمْ رَاعُونَ (٨) وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ عَلَى صَلَوَاتِهِمْ يُحَافِظُونَ (٩) أُوْلَئِكَ هُمُ الْوَارِثُونَ (١٠) الَّذِينَ يَرِثُونَ الْفِرْدَوْسَ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالدُونَ (١١)
"(1) TRULY, to a happy state shall attain the believers. (2) Those who humble themselves in their prayer, (3) and who turn away from all that is frivolous, (4) and who are intent on inner purity, (5) and who are mindful of their chastity, (6) not giving way to their desires with any but their spouses and those whom they rightfully possess, for then, behold, they are free of all blame, (7) whereas such as seek to go beyond that limit are truly transgressors; (8) and who are faithful to their trusts and to their pledges, (9) and who guard their prayers, (10) It is they who shall be the inheritors (11) that will inherit Paradise; and therein shall they abide.”
It is clear without much scrutiny that the verse at the beginning of surat al-Mu’menoon details the qualities of the believers that enable them to act heroically without actually being heroes: consistency in prayer, avoidance of frivolities and vain talk, acting charitably, guarding chastity, honoring trusts and promises, and, again, ensuring the protection of their morals through constant prayers. That’s the recipe. Nothing more, nothing less. Acts that are accessible to the average person. Deeds that anyone can literally perform. Requirements for success that rich and poor, man and woman, young and old, black and white can engage follow. Believers that adhere to this set of moral obligations eventually become, as the surah describes them, the heirs! Those who inherit the kingdoms, of Dunya and Akhira!
In the second section, God says:
وَلَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الْإِنسَانَ مِن سُلَالَةٍ مِّن طِينٍ (١٢) ثُمَّ جَعَلْنَاهُ نُطْفَةً فِي قَرَارٍ مَّكِينٍ (١٣) ثُمَّ خَلَقْنَا النُّطْفَةَ عَلَقَةً فَخَلَقْنَا الْعَلَقَةَ مُضْغَةً فَخَلَقْنَا الْمُضْغَةَ عِظَامًا فَكَسَوْنَا الْعِظَامَ لَحْمًا ثُمَّ أَنشَأْنَاهُ خَلْقًا آخَرَ ۚ فَتَبَارَكَ اللَّهُ أَحْسَنُ الْخَالِقِينَ (١٤) ثُمَّ إِنَّكُم بَعْدَ ذَٰلِكَ لَمَيِّتُونَ (١٥) ثُمَّ إِنَّكُمْ يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَـٰمَةِ تُبْعَثُونَ (١٦)
“(12) Now, indeed, We create man out of the essence of clay, (13) and then We cause him to remain as a drop of sperm in the womb's firm keeping, (14) and then We create out of the drop of sperm a germ-cell, and then We create out of the germ-cell an embryonic lump, and then We create within the embryonic lump bones, and then We clothe the bones with flesh - and then We bring all this into being as a new creation: hallowed, therefore, is God, the best of artisans! (15) And then, behold! After all this, you are destined to die; (16) and then, behold! You shall be raised from the dead on Resurrection Day. (17)
After Allah (SWT) states unequivocally the qualities that the believer needs to acquire in order to achieve success in this life without carrying the burden of living up to some proverbial expectation of greatness, He comforts the hearts of any psychologically defeated man or woman who may think they're incapable of greatness by showing that ultimately we’re all the same. While the circumstances of life may put some of us ahead of others, we start the marathon at the same start line, endowed with the same genetics, carrying similar traits, and bearing the same weaknesses. As the Prophet Muhammad said clearly:
الناسُ كلُّهُمْ بَنُو آدمَ وآدَمُ خُلِقَ من تُرَابٍ
"All people are sons and daughters of Adam, and Adam was made of the dirt of the earth!” We’re all essentially the same. No one was created superior or greater or more heroic. It's not what we’re made of that defines our greatness, but rather, what we do with the resources that God endowed us with. It might be true that we’re not all born with equal amounts of resources, but equal access to at least some, setting us out not to compete with one another, but to achieve our purposes, make our world better and please God. The Islamic psychology of contentment retrains the human mind and erases centuries of wrong ideas and harmful attitudes.
Third, one prophetic story after the other cited in the surah, the main objection that the target audience of God’s messengers leveled against their prophets is that they were ordinary humans! Indeed, they were not and were never meant to be Übermensch. God says in the story of Noah:
فَقَالَ ٱلْمَلَؤُا۟ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ مِن قَوْمِهِۦ مَا هَـذَآ إِلَّا بَشَرٌۭ مِّثْلُكُمْ يُرِيدُ أَن يَتَفَضَّلَ عَلَيْكُمْ وَلَوْ شَآءَ ٱللَّهُ لَأَنزَلَ مَلَـٰٓئِكَةًۭ مَّا سَمِعْنَا بِهَـٰذَا فِىٓ ءَابَآئِنَا ٱلْأَوَّلِينَ (٢٤)
"(24) But the leaders among his people, who refused to acknowledge the truth, replied: ‘This man is nothing but a mortal like yourselves who wants to make himself superior to you! For, if God had willed it, He would surely have sent down angels; moreover, we have never heard anything like this from our forebears of old!” They are requesting superhero prophets with such audacity and insolence! And once again, those who are bent on rejecting the truth from the people of other prophets double down on such absurd demands:
وَقَالَ ٱلْمَلَأُ مِن قَوْمِهِ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَكَذَّبُوا بِلِقَآءِ ٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ وَأَتْرَفْنَـٰهُمْ فِى ٱلْحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا مَا هَـذَآ إِلَّا بَشَرٌ مِّثْلُكُمْ يَأْكُلُ مِمَّا تَأْكُلُونَ مِنْهُ وَيَشْرَبُ مِمَّا تَشْرَبُونَ (٣٣)
"(33) And every time the leaders among his people, who refused to acknowledge the truth and gave the lie to the announcement of a life to come - simply because We had granted them ease and plenty in their worldly life, and they had become corrupted by it - every time they would say: ‘This man is nothing but a mortal like yourselves, eating of what you eat, and drinking of what you drink.” Same argument, and same predictability! Moreover, in the story of Moussa and Pharaoh, God cites the reason why it was very difficult for the followers of Pharaoh to accept the prophecy of Moussa and Harun:
فَقَالُوٓا أَنُؤْمِنُ لِبَشَرَيْنِ مِثْلِنَا وَقَوْمُهُمَا لَنَا عَـبِدُونَ (٤٧)
“(47) And so they said: ‘Shall we believe them two mortals like ourselves, although their people are our slaves?" Rejecting God’s prophets on the same grounds: they are mortal beings like us! They’re not angelic, or divine! They’re not Übermensch!
Last, but not least, surat al-Mu’menoon highlights at the end the qualities and destines of those who fail to acknowledge the aforementioned basic truths about the world. They live miserably and transition to a miserable abode. Particularly interesting are the verses in which God says:
فَإِذَا نُفِخَ فِى ٱلصُّورِ فَلَآ أَنسَابَ بَيْنَهُمْ يَوْمَئِذٍ وَلَا يَتَسَآءَلُونَ (١٠١) فَمَن ثَقُلَتْ مَوَٰزِينُهُۥ فَأُولَـئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْمُفْلِحُونَ (١٠٢) وَمَنْ خَفَّتْ مَوَٰزِينُهُۥ فَأُو۟لَـئِكَ ٱلَّذِينَ خَسِرُوٓا أَنفُسَهُمْ فِى جَهَنَّمَ خَـلِدُونَ (١٠٣)
“(101) Then, when the trumpet [of resurrection] is blown, no ties of kinship will on that Day prevail among them, and neither will they ask about one another. (102) And they whose weight [of righteousness] is heavy in the balance - it is they who will have attained to a happy state; (103) whereas they whose weight is light in the balance - it is they who will have squandered their own selves, and will abide in hell.” Ties of kinship are but one factor that may lead to a differentiation between people. Those who hail from rich, powerful, and wealthy families, or perhaps belong to dominant races, or, in a wider sense, come from countries or communities that have achieved military and economic success, may assume that this puts them at an advantage; that it makes them superior, or Übermensch! But God’s words are clear: all the ingredients of worldly prosperity will have no weight on the scales of otherworldly success. What will count, however, is one’s actual efforts that can weigh down the scales and contribute to one’s bliss in the hereafter. But the flip side of the coin is that those whose only record worth mentioning is some worldly criterion of greatness that suggests a lame indication of success, will have “squandered their own selves” and their scales will be light, and therefore unconducive to salvation. Good scales as a parable for true success, the Quran makes it perfectly clear, are cultivated with consistent, ordinary acts of good towards God and his creation, every day. The popular idiom says, “Not all heroes wear capes”. Perhaps they should not entertain heroism in the first place.
Footnotes
Qu'ran 9:32
Tariq Ramadan, In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad, Oxford University Press
Sunan an-Nasa’i
Quran 7:85, 26:181
Tafsir Qurtubi الجامع لأحكام القرآن، محمد بن أحمد الأنصاري القرطبي، دار الفكر
Quran 3:110
Quran 83:1