Obedience and Consciousness of Creatures in the Qur’an: A Cognitive Approach

Consciousness of all living and non-living things has been expressed in various forms in religions and philosophies; in Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism, and in philosophies such pantheism and panpsychism. To address the idea of consciousness of all creatures in Islam and through a cognitive approach to consciousness, the present study attempts to cite a number of Qur’anic verses which indicate that according to the Qur’an all creatures whether animate or inanimate have cognition and praise Allah. Moreover, as the selected verses indicate, all creatures except for those people who are polytheists or infidels are obedient to Allah. When these verses refer to man, they generally mean those human beings who refute Allah and are disobedient. The selected verses also reveal the understanding of all creatures and their consciousness. The paradox is that man who has the greatest consciousness or cognition among all creatures is the one who disobeys although he has accepted the gift of Allah or al-amānah which all other creatures refused to bear or receive. The verses may imply that the cognition of all creatures have been higher than man because they all understood the heavy responsibility of Allah’ al-amānah.