Abstract:
A man is still searching for his identity. He remains a complete riddle to himself – the riddle that needs to be solved. Anthropology, or the study of mankind is interdisciplinary. The questions such as: „who is a man?” and „what is his relation to God ?” belong to the basic questions and problems of any religion. The underlying aim of this article is to outline theological anthropology of islam, above all on the basis of the Koran. The Koran is fundamental in the theology of islam. Its individual chapters contain descriptions of history of salvation. It’s not a theological treatise – but it provides the basis for the formulation of theological anthropology of islam. Analysing different texts, we can point to the main theses about the theology of islam: 1) A man has his origin in God as he has been created by God and at the same time called to the obedience to His will; 2) The initial harmony with God has been broken off by the original sin – a man has lost his place in the Garden of Eden; 3) God decides „to facilitate” and to make it easier for a man to stay on earth and go to paradise after death. So He makes a covenant with a man. It means that thanks to the obedience to His will, a man is strengthened by God’s mercy and favour. 4) Anticipation of the Last Judgement points to the fact that a man is responsible for his deeds. 5) The nature of theological anthropology of islam is eschatological. To sum up, we can state that theological anthropology of islam contains a lot of biblical references. For this reason, it can become – though to a slight extent – „a place” of an inter-religious dialogue.