Man and Responsibility

Responsibility is one of the distinguished characteristics of humankind; it is intrinsic in the very nature of man before any external intervention. Each human being has a kind of that sense of responsibility. The purer the nature of a person is the deeper and stronger that sense of responsibility is. The presumption that we have a sense of responsibility is always existent in all human beings. No human being can get rid of this sense in the conscious life, even if the dynamic effect of that sense varies from an individual to another. It is true that the sense of responsibility is firmly connected with conscience. When we discuss the issue of conscience, we mean the latent feeling in our depths whose effect on orienting human behavior to the right is deeply significant. Here, we come to understand the prophetic wisdom: “Consult your heart!”

Responsibility takes conscious freedom as a foundation in the sense that each act a person does without conscious freedom does not result in any ethical or religious effect. Responsibility accompanies its bearer before and during actions as well as after them. In other words, a responsible person is free and autonomous; s/he can do or leave; accept or refuse; and can carry out her/his intentions. In this due sense, responsibility is a sign of human honor, since it is identical with human freedom, autonomy, dignity and power. Another special feature of responsibility in Islam is that it is personal; no one is responsible for the errors of anther: “Every self will be pledged for whatever it has earned.” (Qur’an, 74:38). Indeed, there are various levels of responsibility as expressed in the honorable prophetic tradition:

All of you are guardians and are responsible for your wards. The ruler is a guardian and is responsible for his subjects; the man is a guardian and is responsible for his family; the woman is a guardian and is responsible for her husband’s household and children; and the servant is a guardian and is responsible for the property of his master. As such, all of you are guardians and are responsible for your wards.”[1]

Besides these kinds of environmental responsibilities that follow the circumstances of each one’s life and social position, there is also a special personal responsibility, which forms the center of other overlapping cycles of responsibility. It is possible to say that responsibility conveys two meanings: first, one’s personal responsibility for mind, knowledge, body, wealth and times. In respect of this responsibility, the Prophet r said,

“No one will move her/his feet on the Day of Judgment until s/he is asked about life and what s/he had done with it; knowledge and what s/he had done with it; wealth—how s/he earned it and where s/he spent it; and about body and for what s/he had worn it out.”[2]

As to the second meaning, it refers to man’s responsibility for others and for the world in which s/he lives. It is well known that man is a social being, who is in dire need of the human community to develop her/his own personality. Besides, s/he has moral duties towards this human community. In fact, such duties are inseparable from the human existence itself; each human being with sound mind feels it is her/his duty to be responsible for others if s/he wishes them to feel responsible for her/him. If I fail to act justly towards others, I should not expect their justice. Some persons endeavor to justify their wrongdoings in reliance on predestination; they are preordained against their will and, thus, they had but to carry out their predestined plans.

For example, a thief was brought to ‘Umar Ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, who inquired: Why did you steal? In response, the thief said, “God has ordained it on me and I had but to do it.” ‘Umar then commanded his hand to be amputated and flogged him thirty lashes. When the Prophet’s Companions [Ṣaḥabah] critically questioned the decision of ‘Umar, he said:

“I sentenced him to flogging, because he has told a lie against God; how did he claim to know that God has preordained theft on him?”

No one can take resort to predestination in pursuit of justification of crimes; the liability is extant and effective. Predestination is accurately an eternal record of all human acts that would appear in the future in line with complete freewill without the least compulsion. That is why man is fully responsible for all of his actions, be they minor or major: “Whoever does an atom’s weight of charity will see it. And whoever does an atom’s weight of evil will see it too.” (Qur’an, 99: 7-8)