There is increasing awareness in modern technological societies that humanity has taken on a new meaning, and is in some ways changing. But if the meaning of humanity has changed, then it may also be possible to say that this has altered the relevance of ideas, practices, ideologies and even religions that depend on a certain understanding of what it means to be human. How can that be? Is it possible to not be human? A good place to start gaining an understanding of this issue is with the work of sociologists and social theorists, as well as historians, who have traced the way that modern bureaucratic and institutional societies have somehow altered the meaning of what it means to be human. 

An essential ingredient of being human is having a connection with nature and with the rest of the creation. In the past, human beings lived very close to nature and it was unthinkable to be separate from animals, weather patterns, and other phenomena that are rarely part of "human" life today. Modern humankind has enveloped itself in cities and buildings, living in so many concrete boxes, controlling every feature of temperature and light, in an artificial man-made environment. Most people no longer have a sense of where their food comes from. If people do have any contact with animals, they are for the most part domesticated animals, living in the same concrete spaces, not in the wild. It is possible to say, from a certain metaphysical perspective, that the Quran presumed a kind of human existence that was somehow closer to nature than most people have today. Look at all the many verses that ask human beings to ponder nature, to observe the wonders and signs of creation. Is it still possible to do that today, while living in an air-conditioned house, driving a car, working in an office? Other than using science to "see" nature, which is only seeing it in a limited, quantitative way, many people have lost the ability to see and experience nature for themselves. This is not to say that the Quran is irrelevant, or that Islam is somehow arcane. But it is possible to say that many people have in a sense become somehow dehumanized, with respect to their connections to the rest of Allah's creation, and that without recognizing this possibility, believers may unknowingly alter their understanding of Islam, or any other tradition, to fit this dehumanized condition. 

In light of this proposition, one can reflect on where humanity is now, and how things got to be that way. The next logical step would be to ask, where is humanity headed? It seems necessary to clarify something, before proceeding. This discussion is about "humanity," which is a relatively new and unusual term in human history. It is part of the increasingly global outlook that many people have been adopting in recent decades. In the past, what one can see as humanity today was most often divided, as in, for example, the Muslim categories of darul islam/darul harb, muslim/kaffir/mushrik, ahlul kitab, ahlul sunnah/ahlul shi'ah, not to mention the myriad social realities based on ethnicities and nationalities. But the meta-idea of "humanity" supersedes all these divisions, and is perhaps most closely captured when the Quran speaks, in many instances, of "insaan" or "naas," (which, by the way, is related to the Arabic word "forgetful," itself a clue to the Quranic perspective about human nature). In any case, the concept of humanity today implies a common sense of existence and fellowship, or shared identity and shared habitation on a single planet, which is fairly new in human history. This is not to say that the various historical, ideological or social divisions are wrong or useless - each is relevant in some way and all are needed for understanding - but it is important to recognize that the idea of a common humanity is in many ways a revolutionary idea, and that this idea transcends the usual divisions based on ideology, religion or ethnic identity. 

Given this definition of humanity, one can set aside for the moment the various sorts of predictions or prophesies, found in many religions and ideological systems, that say that only a particular group will be elevated to heaven, or wherever that belief system sees as the ideal and eventual goal. In some sense, to talk of humanity and where it is heading means one needs to consider the totality. It is a different discussion than asking where the Muslims are going, or what the future of the ummah is. Humanity is bigger and more complex, but of course Muslims are part of that humanity and are living within its precepts in one way or another. In fact, the idea of humanity is almost so big that it becomes difficult to get one's mind around it, and even more difficult to predict where it is going. 

So let's look at this in a different way. The future is not there to predict, and only Allah knows the future for certain. For mere humans, the most constructive way to look at this issue is to ask the question: what kind of world do you want to live in and what can you do to bring that about? This question needs to be asked in ever-widening circles, culminating in humanity as noted above, to avoid heading in the wrong direction, since what happens in one part of humanity does have an impact on other parts. Muslims did not build the cities or develop the technologies with which they live today, but certainly those forms of living and working are having a great impact on what it means to be a Muslim - and a human being - today. This is a way of addressing the question of humanity that is different from that of the usual global slogans, such as "information age," or those various ways of undermining humanity that are at bottom cruel or exclusive. 

Ads by Google: Advertisements not controlled by IslamiCity

Muslims often see Islam as the true way of humanity, and think that the crisis of humanity in the modern world is simply a matter of "being far from Islam." This sentiment can be expressed from a variety of sectarian perspectives, both within Islam and within other religions. Everyone believes that the problems of humanity are caused by straying from their own presumed ideal. Christians can say the same as Muslims, that the problems of humanity are caused by not living the "true" Christianity. All these positions can lead only to interminable debates and circular arguments. While such debates are not useless, it can be instructive to put aside these differences for the moment, and reflect on what it means to be human, and how the human identity has changed as a result of living the modern technological lifestyle. This is not to advocate going back to living in caves or the desert, a silly and specious argument even if its inevitable result today were not that most people would die of starvation and exposure. In any event, before thinking about solutions, it is important to really understand the nature of the problem. The problem, from a certain perspective, is that the life many people live today is a dehumanizing life. This has been most forcefully argued by some of those most deeply embedded in the modern bureaucratic mega-technic society; but that sort of society is spreading globally, like a virus, so it is only a matter of time before everyone is in a similar situation. So the question of humanity is paramount. 

The discussion of what makes us human is found in many different areas. The American secular humanist Harold Bloom, in Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (1998), argues that the concept of humanity was not really fully developed until the advent of Shakespeare's writings. Although it is an oft-cited and respected work in some Western intellectual circles, Bloom is Eurocentric and even somehow pompous in his definition of humanity, and his work is generally dismissive of the social construction of such broad concepts. But that is the point: all peoples like to think that their particular tradition is the one that best defines humanity. So, rather than muster one or another proof or opinion, it is important to suspend that impulse for a moment, and reflect on the idea of common humanity as it stands today. Only when that is understood, can one go back to the great classics of any tradition and realize that they may have had a very different understanding of being human. It is not that those traditions are irrelevant, but without understanding where people are coming from or where they are now, the risk is run of altering those traditions to suit the present dehumanized state. For example, technological futurists are taking the idea of human "progress" to an absurd conclusion, opining in fantasies of the Star Trek sort that people will one day be able to transcend death or the earth, or be able to upload themselves into orbs and transverse the universe. In a way, these sorts of fantasies are the strongest indication that some people have already become severely dehumanized. 

Muslims living in the West sometimes wonder whether they have a chance of developing a truly Islamic humanistic mindset, given the complexities of living and growing up in modern technological societies. Imam Khomeini once said that becoming Adam - in the sense of being born human - is easy, but becoming a full human being is difficult. Like many religions, Islam is profoundly humanistic, not in the sense of secular humanism, but in the sense of learning to live the way humans lived for thousands of years, before the modern period. That way of life supposed close contact with nature and time to contemplate one's existence. Many people have neither today. They have jobs, cars, TVs, computers, more books than they know what to do with, but do they really know who they are? If that question can be answered, then it may be possible to see traditions in an entirely different light. Without pondering this question of what it means to be human, there is a danger of somehow normalizing a state of dis-humanity or pre-humanity, which means altering the way religions and traditions are understood, whatever they may be, to fit the peculiar conventions of the present age.