Divine Laws and Human Laws in a Plan to Save the Universe – Mohammad Kourani — 2026.09.12 – When humanity faces a global catastrophe, a comprehensive war, an economic collapse, an environmental crisis, social disintegration, or the widespread spread of poverty, hunger, and disease, the real question should not be merely: What law can we establish to address this problem? Rather, we should first ask: Where do we derive the law that will guide the process of rescue? And what conception of the human being, the universe, and life do we build this law upon?
Here the fundamental difference between divine law and human law becomes apparent. Human law is produced by human reason, experience, and political and social institutions. It therefore remains bound by the limits of human knowledge, historical circumstances, and the interests of groups that possess the ability to formulate and enforce it. Divine law, by contrast, proceeds from God’s knowledge of the human being and the universe, of humanity’s visible and hidden needs, and of the profound relationships between the individual, society, nature, matter, and spirit. Therefore, it does not view a catastrophe merely as an isolated event requiring an urgent administrative measure, but may regard it as the consequence of a disturbance within a broader system of laws, values, and relationships.
This does not mean that every human law is invalid, nor that human institutions have no value. Human beings need legislation, organization, administration, judiciary, and scientific expertise. The problem begins when human law is transformed from an instrument for organizing life into an absolute reference for determining good and evil and the ultimate purpose of existence.
Human Law Addresses the Phenomenon, While Divine Law Examines the Root of the Disorder
Human beings may establish one law to prevent pollution, another to regulate markets, a third to protect the poor, a fourth to prevent wars, and a fifth to regulate the use of technology. All of these are necessary.
But the deeper question is: Why did humanity reach a stage in which it became necessary to create all these laws simply to prevent itself from destroying its own life?
Human law often begins with the visible problem and establishes a rule to address it. The divine system, however, begins with the human being himself: with his desires, greed, heedlessness, injustice, relationship with wealth and power, and relationship with God, other people, and nature.
If an economy is built upon greed, it will not be enough to create a law to address poverty after it has occurred. If society is based on excessive consumption, it will not be enough to issue an environmental law after resources have been depleted. And if human beings have made power the criterion of truth, international agreements alone will not be sufficient to prevent wars.
This is where the significance of the Qur’anic verse becomes clear:
«“Corruption has appeared on land and sea because of what people’s hands have earned, so that He may make them taste some of what they have done, so that perhaps they may return.”
(Qur’an 30:41)»
The verse opens before Islamic humanities an entirely different perspective: external corruption may be connected to human behavior itself. Therefore, saving the world does not consist merely of reforming external institutions; it also requires reforming the human being who manages those institutions.
The Human Being Is Not the Center of the Universe
Broad sectors of modern humanities are based upon human-centeredness. But the problem is not the honoring of the human being; Islam itself honors the human being. The problem arises when the human being is transformed from an honored and responsible creature into an absolute authority, independent of God, rationality, and divine guidance.
In the Islamic worldview, the human being is not a small god capable of determining, by himself, the meaning of good and evil and the purpose of life. He is a creature of limited knowledge and limited ability, in need of guidance, and responsible for his choices.
Here the difference between the two systems becomes profound.
If the human being is the ultimate reference, law becomes subject to redefining good and evil according to changing power structures, culture, interests, and social trends. But if God is the highest source of legislation, then human beings do not invent good and evil from nothing; rather, they seek to discover their proper place within a greater cosmic and moral order.
That is why the Qur’an says:
«“Unquestionably, His is the creation and the command.”
(Qur’an 7:54)»
The One who created the human being knows best what is beneficial for him, and the One who created the universe knows best the laws that preserve its balance.
God’s Laws Are Not Merely Individual Commands
One common mistake is to reduce divine laws exclusively to individual religious rulings, such as prayer, fasting, and what is lawful or unlawful in food. These rulings are part of the system, but they do not constitute the entire system.
The Qur’an also speaks about social, historical, and cosmic laws.
God says:
«“Indeed, Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change what is within themselves.”
(Qur’an 13:11)»
And He says:
«“Had the people of the towns believed and been mindful of Allah, We would have opened for them blessings from the heavens and the earth.”
(Qur’an 7:96)»
And He says:
«“Had they upheld the Torah, the Gospel, and what was revealed to them from their Lord, they would have received provision from above them and from beneath their feet.”
(Qur’an 5:66)»
These verses present a conception of the human being and society that connects values and actions with consequences. Thus, economics is not completely detached from ethics, politics from justice, power from responsibility, or humanity’s relationship with nature from moral conduct.
This is the dimension that Islamic humanities should recover.
Why Do Some Rescue Plans Fail Despite the Abundance of Laws?
A state may possess thousands of laws, hundreds of institutions, extensive regulatory bodies, and broad systems of oversight, yet corruption, monopolization, injustice, and poverty may continue to spread.
The reason is that law alone does not create a righteous human being.
Law may prevent theft when the police officer is present, but it cannot always prevent a person from thinking about theft when the observer is absent. Faith, conscience, and God-consciousness, however, create an internal form of accountability that makes a person feel responsible before God even when no human being is watching.
Here the importance of combining external law with internal morality becomes evident.
A civilization that relies solely on law continually needs more police officers, courts, surveillance, cameras, and punishments. A civilization that combines law with moral and spiritual education, however, seeks to build a human being who carries part of that supervision within himself.
This does not abolish the state and the law; rather, it makes them more effective.
The Divine Plan for Rescue Begins Before the Catastrophe Occurs
One of the most important differences between the two approaches is that human law may act after a crisis has emerged, whereas divine laws provide humanity with principles that prevent the crisis from being created in the first place.
If injustice is prohibited, the purpose is not merely to punish the oppressor after injustice has occurred, but to build a society in which the causes of injustice are reduced.
If usury, monopoly, and consuming people’s wealth unjustly are prohibited, the purpose is not merely to address economic consequences, but to protect society from allowing wealth to become a means of enslaving human beings.
If human beings are commanded to practice benevolence, charity, and feeding others, the purpose is not merely to provide relief to the poor after they have fallen into hardship, but to establish a social network that prevents people from being left alone in the face of poverty and hunger.
If extravagance and wastefulness are prohibited, the purpose is not merely to regulate individual consumption, but to preserve the balance of life and resources.
In this sense, divine legislation may be viewed as a preventive system before it is a remedial one.
From Saving Humanity to Saving the Universe
Saving humanity does not mean saving the human being in isolation from the rest of existence. Human beings live within an enormous network of relationships: with their families, societies, animals, plants, water, land, resources, and future generations.
Therefore, a bright civilization cannot be built if its scientific progress destroys the very conditions necessary for life.
The Qur’an says:
«“And do not spread corruption on the earth after it has been set right.”
(Qur’an 7:56)»
And it says:
«“And do not squander wastefully. Indeed, the squanderers are brothers of the devils.”
(Qur’an 17:26–27)»
These are not merely isolated moral exhortations disconnected from a civilizational project. They can also be understood as principles for managing resources and consumption and for shaping humanity’s relationship with the environment and society.
Here Islamic humanities can open a new field: the study of the human being as a vicegerent and responsible being within a cosmic order, rather than as an autonomous consumer who possesses the world without limits.
There Is No Conflict Between Divine Law, Science, and Human Experience
Returning to divine law does not mean abolishing the natural sciences, economics, medicine, administration, or positive law. On the contrary, human beings need science to understand how things happen, and they need revelation to understand why and how they ought to act.
Science can tell us how epidemics spread, how pollution can be treated, how food can be produced, and how resources can be managed. But questions concerning the just distribution of food, the responsibility of the wealthy toward the poor, the limits of profit, the meaning of sufficiency, and the ultimate purpose of civilization go beyond what the laboratory alone can determine.
Therefore, the coming civilization we seek should not be a conflict between “religion” and “science,” but rather an integration between science, which uncovers the laws and patterns of creation, and revelation, which guides humanity in how to use them.
The Coming Bright Civilization: From Managing Catastrophes to Preventing Their Causes
A civilization that constantly needs emergency plans to save itself from hunger, wars, economic collapse, moral disintegration, and environmental destruction has not yet reached the roots of the problem.
As for the coming bright civilization, its aim is to learn how to prevent catastrophe before it occurs; to make the economy serve the human being rather than make the human being serve the economy; to make science a means of building and cultivating the world rather than a tool of domination; and to make politics a means of achieving justice rather than a means of monopolizing power.
Here lies the significance of sound, uncorrupted divine laws: they do not merely provide humanity with a collection of punishments and procedures. Rather, they offer an integrated vision of the righteous human being, the just society, the balanced economy, responsible authority, and a compassionate relationship with creation.
According to this vision, saving the universe and humanity does not begin at the summit of the political hierarchy, nor at a global economic conference, nor with a new law enacted by parliament alone.
It begins with redefining the perfect human being.
The human being who sees himself as the absolute owner of the universe will use his power according to his own desires. But the human being who sees himself as a servant of God and responsible for the trust placed in him will deal with power, knowledge, wealth, nature, and authority as a trust.
As for the Perfect Human Being (al-insān al-kāmil), he is a manifestation of God’s will in the universe.
From here, Islamic humanities can serve as a prelude to the coming bright global civilization, because they do not merely ask how humanity should manage crises. They reopen the deeper question:
What kind of human being do we want to build, and what kind of world do we want to leave for future generations?
When the answer to this question changes, the laws of economics, politics, education, media, and society necessarily change as well. The project of saving humanity then shifts from merely attempting to repair the consequences of catastrophes to attempting to reform the human being and the system that produces those catastrophes.
And it is precisely here that the transition begins: from a civilization of crisis management to a civilization of crisis prevention; from a civilization of the human being independent of his Creator to a civilization of the honored and responsible human being; and from a law that pursues destruction after it has occurred to a divine system that guides humanity toward cultivation and constructive development before destruction occurs.
And all of this is through what is known as authentic Muhammadan Islam (al-Islam al-Muhammadi al-Asil).
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