Book Review: Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas: On Justice and the Nature of Man 

This slim book of about 60 tightly argued pages by Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas makes a clear case for the new and special creation of man (both as spiritual insān and physical bashar) on the basis of what has been revealed in the Holy Qurʾan (especially verses 4:58 and 23:12-14) pertaining to the nature of man and his primal ethico-moral, axio-teleological vocation or overriding calling as Allah’s vicegerent (khalifa) on earth. In doing so, al-Attas says that he is responding to, “the greatest challenge to our true identity as man, i.e. as insan, posed by the evolutionist and positivist theory of man, i.e. as Homo sapiens, set within the framework of anthropology and the worldview of naturalism-a theory taught as if it were a fact in the schools and universities of the world.” (p v).

He refutes the claim of evolutionists that man is merely a physical being by nature belonging to the animal kingdom and thus not a special creation but simply a new biological species that is genetically and genealogically continuous with earlier anthropoids, emerging from some vague, ill-defined common ancestor through a process of natural selection and random mutation. In contrast, he argues for man as “a new and special creation” and that, “man is created as a merging of the physical and the spiritual natures into a single being at once as bashar and insan...that man’s true and real nature is spiritual, an articulate soul, to which state of being he will be returned on the Day of Judgement after his determined term of probation on earth.” (p v). 

​Journal of Islamic Sciences, Vol. 16 (Summer 2023) No. 1

Adi Setia

Adi Setia is the founding director of IGE Advisory, which is dedicated to consulting, teaching and researching in the Islamic Gift Economy framework. He is also the co-founder of the Program for Ethical, Appropriate & Regenerative Livelihoods (PEARL).