Are human beings selfish by nature?

No. Human beings carry selfish impulses, but equally a sense of right and wrong and the freedom to choose. Blaming greed and wrongdoing on our genes is far too easy.

Some people say today that even our genes are selfish, and therefore human beings are only out for their own advantage. But the word is only a metaphor. Genes have no mind and no will. They do not know what they are doing. They follow fixed laws from which they never deviate.

Who made these laws? Genes did not create themselves. Their precise order points to a Creator. What is called selfishness is in truth obedience to the rules He placed in them. And these rules ultimately serve a purpose that goes beyond self-interest.

With human beings something special is added. A lion cannot decide to eat plants instead of meat. A human being, however, can choose. It is precisely our nature that gives us the freedom to act well or badly. The first two verses above say that God has given us a sense of right and wrong and shown us both paths. That is why we are responsible for what we do.

So it is wrong to blame theft, greed or violence on our genes. If they commanded nothing but selfishness, there would be no unselfish people. Yet they are found everywhere. Impulses pull in both directions within us. One urges us to take whatever we want. The other warns that boundless greed will destroy everything in the end. From this second impulse grow discipline, laws and community, and the balance between the two shapes a society.

When economics and politics seem ruthless today, that is not a force of nature but a choice. Islam calls on people to restrain their own greed and to wish for others the good they wish for themselves. The Holy Qur’an calls those who do so successful.