Libertines aspire after the type of freedom which thrives on the absence of laws, including God’s or moral laws.
In reality, lawless liberty is at best an animal or brutish freedom.
As Jean Jacques Rousseau (d. 1778) points out, casual good-pleasure and self-indulgence have no difference from the kind of freedom the beasts of the jungle enjoy while giving vent to their desires.
While licentious freedom is appropriate to animal life, it is not so to human life and dignity.
It is the role of religion and sound reason to awaken man to his real nature. This awakening leads to the higher type of human freedom which liberates him from being so absorbed in selfish, narrow and material concerns.
It is upon such realization of his real nature the whole destiny of man and of God’s purpose for his creation depends, both as individual and in society, both in the worldly life and its final consequences.
The inner perception of man must be made conscious of his own situation, his potentialities, his risks and his destiny.
Man is neither merely something physical, nor only a further development of the animal species, an animal different from other animals only in degree and not in kind.
Commenting on the pertinent Qur’anic verse (al-A‘raf, 7:179), Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas explained thus: “Man is not simply an animal that eats and drinks and sleeps and disports after sensual pleasure”.
As such, the purpose of the creation of man is not to freely doing what he likes with his property without regard to others especially the poor. Nor is he at liberty to use his political power as he wish, even as he is neglecting the welfare of their subordinates. Nor does he have moral freedom to sexual indulgence.
“Recall when your Lord said to the angels: ‘See, I am creating a man of a clay of mud moulded. When I have shaped him, and breathed into him of My spirit, fall down before him in prostration!'” (al-Hijr, 15:28-29).
According to Ibn al-‘Arabi (d. 1240), this verse calls man’s attention to the fact that it is God Himself Who bestows dignity to human being, which makes him unique even when compared to the angels. God is saying, ‘You are so divinely dignified in origin, so act only in accordance with your dignified origin-do not perform the acts of the wicked (al-arazil).’
God’s creative act of bestowing dignity to man is related to His instilling natural, religious disposition in human nature.
The ability to perceive the existence and oneness of the Supreme Power is inborn in human nature (fitrah). This instinctive cognition makes every sane human being bear witness about himself before God.
With it come man’s intuitive ability to discern between right and wrong, true and false, justice and injustice.
That is to say, provided man does not corrupt his inborn religious ability by self-indulgence and selfish desires in the names of freedom.
Nor should man confuse his instinctive moral cognition with adverse social influences whether in terms of bad customs, superstitions, or false teachings.
When man knows his true self, whose origin is of honourable and glorious Spirit, he remains responsible before God, thinking thoughts and doing deeds that would be consequential as in God’s sight, not as in his subjective whim and fancy.
Indeed, personal responsibility is the key-note of Islam.
Being responsible implies faith and right conduct. Faith begins with true knowledge and act of will, which must be sincere, so much so that it affects the whole personality, and leads to right conduct.
Humanity has special spiritual obligations which we must faithfully discharge.
Discharging obligation means man must be fully conscious and squarely anchored within the ethico-legal limits set by God. That he is not to transgress those well-defined limits or violate its balance, and heeds the “end” of life (al-akhirah) which refers to ultimate values of human acts.
Indeed, the essence of hereafter consists in the long-range results of man’s endeavours on earth in terms of protecting religion, life, property and dignity.