Man or God?

Secular humanism holds that people can and must create their own values and meaning without God. Islam holds that God is at the centre of reality and is the source of truth and morality. The paper notes that these are not just ideas in books: they shape law, education, debates about human rights, and personal ethics. It sets the two side by side to show where they part ways and where they meet.

The comparison covers five questions: what is ultimately real, how we know things, what grounds morality, what life is for, and what happens after death. For the Islamic view the authors draw on the Qur'an: humans as khalifa, or stewards, on earth (2:30), and the verse “I did not create jinn and mankind except to worship Me” (51:56). Revelation (wahy) is the primary source of knowledge; reason and observation are valued but may not override it, as al-Ghazali warned. Morality rests on God's command, and life is a test that leads to resurrection, judgement, and Paradise or Hell. The paper also notes Muslim thinkers such as Seyyed Hossein Nasr, who argue that making humanity the final measure leads to spiritual impoverishment.

For the humanist view, the paper traces a line from Protagoras's “Man is the measure of all things” through the Renaissance and Kant's “Dare to know” to the Humanist Manifestos. The first, in 1933, called the universe self-existing and not created; the second, in 1973, declared “No deity will save us; we must save ourselves.” Corliss Lamont describes humanism as rejecting the supernatural in favour of reason, science, democracy and compassion. On this view morality comes from human needs and empathy, meaning comes from developing one's potential, and death ends consciousness, so legacy and memory take the place of eternal reward.

The authors conclude that the two worldviews differ at the root: one theocentric (God-centred), the other anthropocentric (human-centred). That difference explains many clashes over law, rights and education. Yet both value justice, compassion, charity and the pursuit of knowledge, which the authors see as room for shared humanitarian work and respectful dialogue in plural societies.