Human beings in Islam have both material and spiritual characteristics. Islam does not accept the theory of evolution that human beings were created as apes. Human beings have two dimensions in Islam; one dimension is the highest one, the soul of God, and the other is the lowest, mud. Human beings were created free with the ability to decide and act in such a way to stay anywhere within their dimension, between the highest and lowest levels.

Human beings are not all equal but they are brothers and sisters. They are the only creatures of God who can carry the mission of God in this world and have knowledge. Men and women are completely equal in Islam. Human beings have the highest rank of all creatures of God.

Keywords: men, women, Islam, human, Qur-an, nature, religion

Introduction

This paper investigates the creation and equality of human beings in Islam. As we will see in this paper, men and women are equal in Islam in the sense that it suits the nature of each. But many people confuse culture with religion and claim that the Islamic Law (Shari’a) treats women as the wards of men, see, e.g.,¹ The areas we will focus on include:

1. What is the role of human beings in this world?
2. What is the nature of human beings?
3. Does Islam perceive human beings as very weak or with willpower and above all other creatures?
4. Were men and women created equally, and finally
5. What is the appropriate religion for human beings? The next section is devoted to answering the first question and is followed by a section on the dualistic nature of human beings to answer the second question. Section IV provides additional answers to question (iii) by analyzing human beings’ nobility and rank. Section V discusses qualities and responsibilities of men and women in Islam to answer question (iv) and is followed by a section on how Islam is the right religion for human beings. Finally, the last section provides concluding remarks.