The Sufi understanding of humanity in the context of the Qur'an: The example of the first three centuries of the Hijri

Throughout human history, various academic disciplines have advanced different theories and perspectives on human nature. Every school of thought, religion, belief, and worldview has approached the human being from multiple dimensions and has offered evaluations in accordance with its own understanding. From the Islamic perspective, however, God did not leave humanity unattended after creation; instead, God revealed fundamental principles of life that guide human beings toward living in a truly "human" manner. The primary aim of the Qur'an is to show human beings a path through which they may live in accordance with divine will. Ontologically, human nature (fitrah) is pure and untainted. Indeed, God created human beings in the most excellent form and endowed them with the potential to attain the highest position within the hierarchy of existence. Nevertheless, because of the reality of divine testing, human beings also possess particular negative inclinations that may emerge when they deviate from the divinely ordained path. The Qur'an explicitly addresses these negative attributes through numerous verses. According to the Qur'an, the principal negative characteristics inherent in human nature include weakness, halū' (greed and selfishness), hastiness, miserliness, ingratitude, despair, ignorance, disputatiousness/opposition, and injustice. In this study, these characteristics are first analyzed lexically and morphologically as individual terms. Their frequency of occurrence and structural usage within the Qur'an are then examined. Furthermore, from the perspective of early Sufis, these human traits are interpreted within a mystical framework. In addition, the concept of "human being" is discussed as a philosophical notion, and the general views of philosophy, which examine humanity from ontological and epistemological perspectives, are presented.