ARROGANCE AS A GENERATOR OF HUMAN (SELF)DESTRUCTION – THE QUR’ANIC PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The specific characteristic of the mental constitution of humans and jinns, in comparison to other creatures of Allah, is the freedom of will. The principle of human free will is displayed through their constructive or destructive behavior toward themselves and/or their overall environment. Taking into consideration the origin of will, it might be claimed that the quality of the human behavior is proportional to the quality of their spiritual life. Hence, the potential of human destructive behavior is determined, in addition to the effect of environmental stimuli, also by the corresponding mental constitution, in the shaping of which, according to the Qur'anic text, the phenomenon of tugjan plays an extremely negative role. Due to the devastating nature of this phenomenon, the aim of our paper was, from the perspective of the Qur’an, to clarify tugjan and the triad of tugian, istighna and rudžu'un present in the surah El-'Alek. We accomplished this task by analyzing each component individually, as well as their correlation in the aforementioned triad. In this regard, the holy Qur'an emphasizes tugjan as the supreme form of destructive behavior, which spiritually originates as istighna (the imagination that one is free and independent). Emerging on the matrix of distorted selfperception, istghna initiates the acting beyond the limits of humanity (tugjan). In order to turn humans back into a normal state, Allah the Exalted calibrates their spiritual lenses supplying them with information about the human transient being (rudžu’un), which, as such, has the capacity to cease the functionality of the bond between istighna and tugjan. For the purpose of interpreting the Qur'anic text in this paper, a methodological approach based on the combination of traditional and rational tafsir (Halilović, 2015) and a method of content analysis (Vujević, 2002) were used.