Global Journal of Human-Social Science, A: Arts and Humanities, Volume 23 Issue 5

© 2023 Global Journals Volume XXIII Issue V Version I 6 Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2023 ( ) A A Quranic Concept with Universal Appeal: The Innate Monotheistic Disposition ( Fitra ) 79): "I direct my face towards him who created the heavens and the earth in hanîf , and I am not among the polytheists". To be hanîf is, therefore, according to the Qur’an, as Lactantius indicates in his definition of anthropos , the upright man, to t urn away from earthly idols and to refuse, as an extension of this attitude, the divinization of celestial bodies, an error that this author himself explicitly attributed to the philosophers, as he reminds us by evoking Anaxagoras (a pre-Socratic who died in 428 BC). 27 The transmutation of bashar into insân according to the Qur’an According to the Qur'an, hanîfiyya , like fitra , is one of the specific capacities conferred on each human being when they come into the world. Insofar as these are what determine his ipsity, it seems logical that the mode of creation that characterizes them is that which gave existence to the first man, represented by Adam. To explain this creative process, the Qur’an uses two technical terms: bashar and insân . The former represents in all its occurrences a "being in human form" endowed with all the apparent characteristics of man: physical appearance, intellectual capacities, and psychological sensitivity. This is evidenced by the fact that, when the Qur'an refers to a man by the mere fact that he eats, drinks, reproduces, thinks and speaks, or that he is mortal, it gives him the name bashar 28 . All that he lacks are the traits corresponding to fitra , namely "the perfection of form accomplished by the very hand of God, ( ahsan al-taqwîm ), whose etymology recalls the straightening of his stature, and the infusion of spirit. A verse also states that, when God wanted to create Adam, he took a " bashar of c lay", a fine dust particularly suited to being molded, and that by a command: "kun" (« be » !) he was a man. 29 God then taught him all the names directly ( wa-'allama Âdama-l- asmâ'a kullahâ ) (Q 2, 31), so that he could turn to what was right and away from what was wrong, knowing that, according to the Qur'anic theory of divine language, there is no gap between the name and the object named, the appellation being directly rel ate d to the essence of the being it designates. 30 One passage bears witness to the subtelty that characterized this transformation of the bashar so that it may have remained invisible to some. It is the episode in 27 "God fashioned us and endowed us with life not to look at the sky and the sun, as Anaxagoras thought, but to worship him, the creator of the sun and the sky, with a pure and blameless conscience". Divine Institutes, VI, pp. 117-119. The editor of volume IV of the Divine Institutions , Institutions divines, Sources Chrétiennes n o . 377, Le Cerf, Paris, 1992, Pierre Monat, refers for a study of this theme in Lactantius to the work of A. Wlosock, Laktanz und die philosophische Gnosis, Untersuchungen zu Geschichte und terminologie des gnostischen Erlösungsvorstellung , Heidelberg, Winter, 1960, p. 259. 28 As Mary says: (C 3, 47) "I am going to have a child when no bashar (being with the apparent characteristics of a human being) has touched me". 29 (Q 3, 59) : "The likeness of Jesus in Allah’s sight is that of Adam: He created him from dust, then said to him, “Be,” and he was". 30 This language corresponds to the one of the Qur’an, an Arabic language perfected or "made clear" ( lisân 'arabî mubîn ) through which God transmits his message to humankind. which God orders the angels to prostrate themselves before Adam. Iblîs, the only one to refuse, is questioned by God about the reasons for his behavior. (Q 38, 71- 76) "When your Lord said to the angels: Behold, I create a bashar of clay ( tîn ). When I have fashioned it harmoniously ( sawwaytuhu ) and breathed into it of my spirit ( nafakhtu fîhi min rûhî ), begin to prostrate yourselves before it. The angels prostrated themselves, except for Iblîs, who became proud and was among those who covered up truth (with lies) ( wa-kâna min al- kâfirîn ). The first answer he gave when God asked him about the causes of his attitude is comparable to the one shown in the apocryphal text entitled: The Questions of Bartholomew. 31 31 It is a text whose original language is Greek and which has also been preserved in Latin and Old Slavonic. It most certainly predates the Council of Ephesus (431), and some scholars even believe that it dates back to the second century. See : Apocryphes chrétiens I, Pléiade edition, edited by François Bovon and Pierre Geoltrain, Gallimard, 1997, pp. 263-295. The passage quoted here is on page 290.