Needs of human beings - A means of seeking perfection?

Just look at food, which is needed all the time.  How hard it is to gain it.  Unless and until he does farming on his own, he cannot get it, quite contrary to grass, etc., which the animals graze over every year, but still without any animal sowing the seeds and bearing the hardship of farming, grows by itself every year.  Now look at farming, how many things are needed in it.  First of all, a harrow is needed, which cannot be made without iron and wood.  Then acquiring iron and wood itself is not easy and these also require implements, then those implements cannot be gotten without especially making them and getting them is again dependent on implements/tools.  Thus, to cut a long story short, only the issue of implements will keep him troubled for a long time.  Then even if somehow the implements are made and the grain is gotten, then it cannot be eaten without cooking it, because the requisite heat has not been placed in the stomach that like animals it can digest uncooked grain all the time.  Instead to digest uncooked grain, some external help is also required.  Many things have to be ground and vessels, etc. are needed for it.  Then again for the same vessels the same difficulties have to be faced.  Similarly, the difficulties faced to construct a house, etc. do not need to be detailed.  Thus, human beings have so many needs that listing them is extremely difficult.  If you look at the largest cities, large parts of them are filled with things, which fulfill his needs.

 

After looking at these needs in detail, it is not at all possible that a single human being can fulfill of them with his individual efforts.  Then, there are many needs that until and unless they are fulfilled, individual existence and existence as a species is well nigh impossible.  Every time a lot of needs need to be fulfilled.  A need is such a thing, that unless it is fulfilled, it persists like a disease without a cure.  One's thoughts are always engaged in it, which does not permit even other thoughts let alone any other engagements.  Just consider this, when a human being is hungry, wherever he goes he worries about getting food only.  In fact, this need will not allow him to go to any other place except where he can get food.  If his feet are put in shackles, then it is very possible that he will somehow break them and run away.  One can understand other needs with the example of the shackles on the feet that he can't go anywhere with them.  These needs have dominated human beings to such an extent as if each one of them is beseeching the others to save him.  Otherwise, he will die. 

 

The effect of these mutual needs is that each one of them was persuaded to sympathize with others and every one of them agreed that one space should be reserved for farming and so on.  They made settlements/villages as per their need.  Thus, because of this sympathy, the foundations of civilization were laid.  Separate groups took up separate responsibilities.  One group took of extraction of iron, another took up the responsibility of making implements, yet another took up farming.  Someone else took up the responsibility of making clothes.  As per their own inclination and the need of the hour, each one took up a separate responsibility and supplied the necessary things to everyone. 

 

Although this seems to be a picture of the beginnings of civilization, but when you reflect on modern civilization, it will essentially present the same picture.  Just consider, the lowliest profession is said to be of the sweepers.  If all of them agree and abandon their duties, the whole city will be shaken and the maxim that you realize the importance of a thing after you lose it will be effectively proved.

 

You have seen that human beings have so many needs that he has been forced to limit himself in cities, villages, etc. and he cannot be free of this as long as he is alive.  Even after this, if somebody claims "freedom," why this claim should be accepted.  However, animals lead a relatively free life, as their needs are few; but this freedom has deprived them of the civilization and has led them to lead such a destitute life that even if you kill them nobody will mind.

 

Abundance of needs is certainly a flaw and in turn leads to other drawbacks, but by putting it in the nature of humans, Almighty Allah has made this flaw itself a means of achieving perfection.