Reading the therapeutic contract in the Quran

Day # 7

The story of creation symbolises a pivotal point in man’s psychic development.

It has so many layers and encompasses many psychoanalytic theories that I hope to be able to break down and lay out in an understandable way.

2:30  [Prophet], when your Lord told the angels, ‘I am putting a successor on earth,’ they said, ‘How can You put someone there who will cause damage and bloodshed, when we celebrate Your praise and proclaim Your holiness?’ but He said, ‘I know things you do not.’

2:31  He taught Adam all the names [of things], then He showed them to the angels and said, ‘Tell me the names of these if you truly [think you can].

2:32  They said, ‘May You be glorified! We have knowledge only of what You have taught us. You are the All Knowing and All Wise.’

2:33  Then He said, ‘Adam, tell them the names of these.’ When he told them their names, God said, ‘Did I not tell you that I know what is hidden in the heavens and the earth, and that I know what you reveal and what you conceal?’

First God tells the angels He is putting successors on earth. They contest and point to man’s destructive propensities. But God says that He knows what they do not know and teaches Adam the names of all things.

There are two perspectives being developed in these verses. One on an individual level and the other on an organisational level.

On an individual level the angels point out the death drive while God reassures them knowing the overriding capacity of the life drive.

Freud suggested in his theory of mind that we are governed by drives that create a sense of need in us. This needs pressures the ego into action to reduce this pressure and meet the need, like eating to reduce the sensation of hunger. He suggested that the life drive is opposed to the self-destructive death instincts or death drives.

In the verses above, both drives are acknowledged. Man’s capacity for love and hate. But the verses also shows a reassurance, that God knows which side will prevail and why.

It also indicates that the life drive goes hand in hand with responsibility, relatedness to God “He taught Adam” and knowledge “He taught Adam all the names of things”

TBC…

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