Two words are predominately used in the Quran to denote the human. The first word is bashar ( بَشَر) and the other is insan ( إِنسَـٰن). In the Quran, the word bashar occurs 38 times, and insan occurs 91 times in their various forms.
Summary of Context for Bashar
Here is a summary of all the different contexts that the word bashar is used in the Quran:
Summary of Context for insan
Here is a summary of all the different contexts that the word insan is used in the Quran:
Some general distinctions between these two words are summarized below:
Distinction between Bashar & Insan
From my analysis, it appears that the distinction between the two uses of this word is that bashar deals with the more neutral physicality of a human, while insan deals with the spiritual dilemma of a human. The insan is the part of the human that has the potential for both good and evil. This causes the insan to have a weakness where it can be exploited. Because of this, the insan must actively work to refrain from such slips and redeem itself when it does.
Origins
When we read the verses regarding God presenting a human being to the angels and Satan refusing to prostrate before Adam, it always uses the word bashar.
38:71 Your Lord said to the angels, “ I am creating a human being (bashar) from clay.
15:29 “Once I perfect him, and blow into him from My spirit, you shall fall prostrate before him.”
15:30 The angels fell prostrate; all of them,
15:31 except Iblis (Satan). He refused to be with the prostrators.
15:32 He said, “O Iblis (Satan), why are you not with the prostrators?”
Interestingly, the immediate next verse describes the creation of the jinns from blazing fire and indicates this happened before the creation of the insan.
15:27 As for the jinns, we created them, before that, from blazing fire.
We see this same pattern occur another time in the Quran, where it discusses the insan being made from aged clay, followed by the discussion of the jinns being created from fire.
55:14 He created the human (insan) from aged clay, like the potter’s clay.
From the verses of the Quran, we can infer that Iblees was an angel when God gave the commandment for all the angels to fall prostrate before Adam. When he refused and disobeyed, he became the first jinn. Therefore, all jinns are descendants of Satan, just like all humans are descendants of Adam. This idea is captured in the following verse.
18:50 We said to the angels, “Fall prostrate before Adam.” They fell prostrate, except Satan. He became a jinn, for he disobeyed the order of His Lord. Will you choose him and his descendants as lords instead of Me, even though they are your enemies? What a miserable substitute!
I believe that humans in their neutral form are bashar, and once we accepted the responsibility of the freedom of choice, we all also gained the status of insan.
33:72 We have offered the responsibility (freedom of choice) to the heavens and the earth, and the mountains, but they refused to bear it, and were afraid of it. But the human being (insan) accepted it; he was transgressing, ignorant.
Notice that it calls the insan, transgressing and ignorant for accepting this responsibility, which are typical traits of insan, but not bashar.
I believe the human’s acceptance of the freedom of choice happened after Satan’s exposure but before the human was duped by Satan in Paradise. I believe that once we accepted this responsibility, God had us bear witness to Him, which became the fitra (natural instinct) for strict monotheism that the insan has.
7:172 Recall that your Lord summoned all the descendants of Adam, and had them bear witness for themselves: “Am I not your Lord?” They all said, “Yes. We bear witness.” Thus, you cannot say on the Day of Resurrection, “We were not aware of this.”
I came to this idea due to the interesting language used in 7:172, where it states, “your Lord brought forth from the loins of the children of Adam, their descendants and had them bear witness…”
This reference to the loins of their descendants indicates to me that this bearing witness to the oneness of God is ingrained in our genetics, making it a natural instinct for us, similar to what is stated in the verse where we are informed of our fitra (natural instinct) to strict monotheism.
30:30 Therefore, you shall devote yourself to the religion of strict monotheism. Such is the natural instinct (fitra) placed into the people (l-nās) by GOD. Such creation of GOD will never change. This is the perfect religion, but most people (l-nās) do not know.
This is why I believe the Quran informs us that God created the insan in the best design. As stated in a previous article, this is not the physical design but our potential for goodness. But this same feature which is our best feature, is also our greatest weakness when exploited. Therefore, it turned us afterward into the lowliest of the lowly.
95:4 We created man (insan) in the best design.
95:5 Then turned him into the lowliest of the lowly.
I believe our turn to lowliness occurred after we selected the freedom of choice and it was exploited by Satan.
7:27 O children of Adam, do not let the devil dupe you as he did when he caused the eviction of your parents from Paradise, and the removal of their garments to expose their bodies. He and his tribe see you, while you do not see them. We appoint the devils as companions of those who do not believe.
Bashar constitutes the physical and original form of a human
God created a bashar for the angels to fall prostrate to (15:28)
Iblees, who was an angel, disobeyed God and became a jinn (18:50).
The human is offered the responsibility of freedom of choice and accepts it gains the additional status of insan, which makes him responsible and thus vulnerable to sin (33:72).