Summary

Human beings have two aspects. One is the common physical creation of
mankind in its potential condition --something that is more or less the
same in all human beings. This is called our khalq. However, in addition
to this we are also endowed with khulq (moral character), which refers to
our spiritual status, and something that is shaped by us.
Khalq, the root of the term akhlaq, means to create or creation. It is also
the root for the verb Kha-la-qa. Allahs names, Al-Khliq, meaning the
creator, and Al- Khallq, meaning the creative or the one who creates a
lot, are from the same root.
There can be no possible form of creation for mankind other than the
one we already have which would better serve the purpose of our
creation. The purpose of our creation is to achieve nearness of Allah
(s.w.t.), which is unattainable by any other form of creation.
In addition to khalq (creation), we also have khulq (moral traits of
character). Khulq is what we are able to acquire. It refers to those aspects
of a human being, good or bad qualities, virtues or vices, which are
shaped and formed over time as a result of our actions. The ability to
elevate or degrade us spiritually is related to our khulq.
Khulq is the singular form of akhlaq.
Khulq consists of good or bad qualities that we possess or obtain over
time.
As human beings, we have been given very similar physical features and
so these are not the factors that make us either good or bad human being.
There is also a moral side to our creation wherein lies the real difference
between people.
The subject of the science of akhlaq (ethics) is khulq, which is our moral
character and refers to those qualities, which are not physical. The
science of akhlaq also deals with good and bad actions.
In this world only the physical appearance of people is seen and their
moral qualities are hidden.
On the Day of Judgement, the qualities of the soul become obvious and
people will be judged based on them.

In the Islamic approach to ethics more focus and emphasis is put on

qualities of the soul rather than on actions, although actions are not
ignored.
Morality can be used to refer to different things, such as the moral
character of a person, a group, a society or a community or to a science
which deals with moral character traits or moral actions in which case it
is very close to the Islamic science of akhlaq.
Ethics can mean morality as a science or it can mean moral philosophy as
a science, which deals with the science of akhlaq as a subject. In other
words, it tries to investigate the pre-suppositions, concepts, epistemology
and even the anthology of the science of akhlaq.
As we are concerned with the Islamic science of akhlaq it does not make
much difference for us whether we use the term Islamic morality or the
term Islamic ethics.
The Islamic science of akhlaq is responsible for studying moral virtues
and how to achieve them. It also studies moral vices and how to remove
them as well as good actions and bad actions.
Only voluntary actions are studied in akhlaq because there should always
be a role for human freedom and control.
Jex says that: Morality is to investigate human behaviour as it ought to
be
Folksier says: The science of morality is giving us a set of laws and
regulations which relate to behaviour, acting upon which can help us in
achieving our goals
Mulla Sadra, as a pioneer Muslim scholar in the field, believes that the
science of akhlaq is the science, which deals with character traits and the
actions that originate from them.
According to Ayatullah Mutahhari: The science of akhlaq teaches us how
to behave and how to be.
In the opinion of Allamah Tabatabai: The science of ethics is the science
that deals with human character traits. In the science of akhlaq only the
qualities that may be acquired or removed are discussed because the aim
of this science is to help us differentiate between virtues and vices and try

to acquire virtues or strengthen those we already possess and remove

vices.
Actions originate from one's entire personality; however, this does not
necessarily mean that they come from a directly related quality.
Peoples diverse understandings of virtues and vices have nothing to do
with the definition of ethics, which is to study good and bad qualities, and
good and bad actions.
The aim of the science of ethics or the aim of one who studies it is to
promote good actions and virtues amongst human beings.
Amongst ethicists there are three major views regarding how something
becomes defined as good or bad: deontology, teleology and virtue ethics.
Deontologists believe in the necessity of performing moral
responsibilities with good intentions regardless of the resulting
consequences.
Teleology says that the goodness or badness of an action is decided
according to the results brought about by that action. A good action is one
that leads to good consequences. A bad action is one that leads to bad
consequences.
Depending on whose interest should be considered in the outcomes of the
actions, teleologists are divided into three groups: egoists, altruists and
Universalists.
Egoism is the view that says a good action is the one that has good results
for the agent, the one who is doing the action.
The agent can be a person or a group but the concern is still about the
agent.
Altruism states that morality is the result of ignoring our own needs and
being concerned only about the interests of others.
Universalism states that all human beings are equally important and,
therefore, we should be interested in finding ways to help everyone and to
serve everyones interests, be it the agent or anyone else.

Teleologists are divided into further groups when it comes to defining

good and bad results and consequences. To gain tranquility, salvation or
closeness to God are some instances of the good results mentioned by
different groups of teleologists.
According to virtue ethics, in order to decide whether an action is good or
not first the relevant virtue should be defined and then it should be
decided whether the action is in compliance with that virtue or not.
Before virtue ethics found its place in the West, the two most popular
views were the deontological view, which is a form of Kantian approach,
and utilitarianism, which is a form of universalism, which wants to
achieve maximum pleasure and happiness and minimum pain for the
maximum number of people.
From an Islamic perspective, actions on their own are not valuable and it
is only after being accompanied by good intentions that they become
valuable.
In Islam both husn-i fili (goodness of action) and husn-i faili (goodness
of agent) are necessary.
If the agent is to receive credit for his actions, he must be in a conscious
state whilst doing them and have good intentions.
A righteous deed is the one, which is good by itself as an action and is
also performed with a good intention by the agent.
Human beings have self-love and a desire for doing what serves their
own interests. Although, some scholars believe that this is not only the
dominant but also indeed the sole desire in human beings, it seems much
closer to the truth that, at the same time, we human beings have genuine
desire for doing what serves the interests of other people as well.
When we want to serve Allah (s.w.t.) we are asked to serve Him (s.w.t.)
through serving His creation, such as other human beings, animals, plants
and indeed any other creation in this world since Allah (s.w.t.) Himself is
free from any need.
Prior to studying any subject, first we have to know what the aim of that
subject is.
There is a slight difference between the aim of akhlaq and the aim of the
science of akhlaq.

In the science of akhlaq we learn everything we need to know about

qualities and actions so that we can benefit from them in order to become
better human beings.
The aim of akhlaq and in a wider sense, spirituality, is not merely to
know in theory but rather to actually achieve all those virtues and
perform those good actions so that we can become a perfect person who
resembles Allah (s.w.t.) in the best way possible.
By taking akhlaq as a priority in our life, our aim is to be as good, perfect
and close to Allah (s.w.t.) as is possible and this can only be done through
trying to resemble Him in His qualities as much as is possible for us as
ordinary human beings.
Out of billions of human beings, 124000 are chosen as prophets and out
of these, five in particular are singled out. Then Allah (s.w.t.) says these
are the people who were patient. They are not described as people of
knowledge although they possessed knowledge or people of bravery or
anything similar to this; instead Allah (s.w.t.) places most emphasis on
their determination, which is a moral quality.
Morality should be the focal point in our struggle for being a better
person and for being as close to Allah (s.w.t.) as possible. Faith and
disbelief are voluntary actions, which require certain moral qualities.
For someone to believe means that they must accept admit and
acknowledge what they know and believing entails more than merely
knowing. The reason why some people believe in what they know to be
true and yet some do not is rooted in their moral qualities.
There is a very well known hadith from Prophet Muhammad (s) where he
(s) says: The only reason for which Allah (s.w.t.) has appointed me, as a
prophet is to accomplish noble character traits.
The Prophet (s) did not merely teach noble character traits; rather he (s)
first adorned himself with these before preaching them to others because,
as he himself said: "I have never asked you to do anything unless I have
preceded you in doing it".
Makrim al-akhlaq (noble character traits) is different from mahsin alakhlaq (good character traits). Good character traits can be very general
whereas noble ones are at the highest levels of goodness.

According to the Quran, the Prophet (s) himself had achieved noble
character traits but he had to establish these amongst his followers. The
world will not come to end unless these are established and it is then that
the mission of Prophet Muhammad (s) and all other prophets will have
been accomplished.
At the end of time, Imam Mahdi (atf) will re-appear and establish justice
and equality amongst all people. However, this is not the end of Prophet's
(s) mission because when justice and social equality are established, then
it will be time for people to aspire to achieve noble character traits.
There are three types of moral studies: descriptive ethics, normative
ethics and meta-ethics (analytical ethics).
In descriptive ethics the aim is to describe the morality of a person, a
group, a tribe or a nation or even a religion. In the descriptive approach
the idea is not to evaluate or judge but rather to describe. It is very
important when undertaking research on the ethics of a particular religion
that all sources and all information available on that religion should be
referred to rather than just studying the practices of the followers of that
religion.
In normative ethics we are arguing either for or against a moral view or
moral theory. In normative ethics we have to use reasoning and not
merely quote scriptures no matter how reliable they may be.
Meta-ethics goes deeper and investigates the pre-suppositions for ethics,
which are the ontological, epistemological and logical questions that are
necessary for being involved in ethics itself.
Applied ethics is related to normative ethics. Thus, it is neither
descriptive, nor meta-ethics. However, one can have applied ethics in a
descriptive way and this is when there is no argumentation.
Applied ethics is the study of the application of an ethical theory to a
specific area of human life.
An ethical theory must help you to understand the morality of every
action and quality. There are two ways of doing this: One is to adhere to
a theory and the different issues that arise, are analyzed in the light of that
theory. Another way is to put those problems that are somehow
connected in a category and address them together. Thus, we will have
different categories instead of having thousands of scattered questions.

When we categories the different issues which are somehow interconnected under one over-arching theme and then try to understand the
moral values with respect to each in the light of the general theory that
we adhere to this is called applied ethics.
This approach saves a lot of time and energy and it is also likely to
produce more accurate results.
It is better that after mastering the ethical theory; we focus on one
particular field.
In this course, we will focus on Islamic teachings in morality in a
descriptive way.
Before we actually start explaining moral teachings of Islam we have to
study the history of the development of the science of akhlaq in Islam.
Morality is very important in Islam. It occupies the central position in the
Quran, the traditions of the Prophet (s) and Ahl Al-Bayt (as). Therefore,
Muslims have written many essays and books about akhlaq.
To understand the history of the science of akhlaq in Islam, we have to
start with the Quran and the Prophet (s).
We believe that even a person who is not religious should be able to
understand basic moral values like the goodness of justice.
We also have Nahj Al-Balagha, which is a collection of the sermons, the
letters and sayings of Imam Ali (as); and Al-Sahifah Al-Sajjadiyyah,
which is a very deep ocean of moral teachings.
In some religious traditions, maybe it is taken as a sign of weakness if
you ask questions. But in Islam it is quite the opposite.
Not only the Muslims belonging to the Shia sect, but also the Sufis
believe that their genealogy goes back to the Imams of the Ahl Al-Bayt
(as) and finally to Imam Ali (as) and through Imam Ali (as) they are
connected to the Prophet (s).
Nahj Al-Balaghah and many other books written like Ghurar ul Hikam,
Mustadhrik Al-Nahj Al-Balaghah contain many moral sayings of Imam
Ali (as).

The letter of Imam Ali (as), to his son Imam Hasan (as) is an example of
his moral sayings.
We have Nahj Al-Fasahah, which has been compiled later in the 14th
century. It is a collection of the sayings of the Prophet (s). But if one
wants hadith of the Prophet (s) he does not need to wait until the 14th
century; one can find the hadith of the Prophet (s) in the traditions of
Imam Ali (as) and other members of the Ahl Al-Bayt (as).
The teachings of the Prophet (s) and Ahl Al-Bayt (as) are not something
that emerged at the time of compiling major collections of hadith. They
were there right from the beginning. Today, we can trace back all of them
and we are able to find out all the people who have occurred in the chain
of the narration.
Al-Sahifah Al-Sajjadiyyah, which contains some of the supplications of
Imam Sajjad (as), is full of moral teachings.
In other collections of hadith, e.g., Usul Al-Kafi, we have many chapters
on morality.
Apart from these collections of hadith, we also have essays and books
dedicated to akhlaq. For example the book titled Sifat Al-Mominun wa
Al-Fajir written by Ismail ibn Mihran this book is about the
characteristics of believers and the sinners.
In the 3rd century, we have a book called Al-Maniat min Dukhul AlJannah (The Obstacles to Entering Heaven) or the book Tohaf Al-Uqul.
In the 4th century, we have a book called Makarim Al-Akhlaq or the
book, As- Saadah Wa Al- Isad this is about happiness and the way to
reach happiness.
In the 5th century, we have Tahzib Al-Akhlaq wa Tathir Al-Araq. This
also is about morality.
In the 6th century, we have a major book, Ihya Ulum Al-Din, which is
by Al- Ghazali. He also has another book called Kimiya Al-Saadah.
There is another important book at this time, Tanbih Al-Khatir wa Nuzhat
Al-Nazir which is about moral teachings.
In the 7th century we have Akhlaq Al-Nasirin and also Awsaf Al-Ashraf

(Characteristics of the Noble) by Khawaja Nasir Al-Din Al-Tusi.

In the 8th century, we have Akhlaq Al-Ashraf.
In the 10th century, we have Akhlaq Al-Shamsi and Akhlaq Al-Kashafi.
In the 11th century AH, we have Al-Muhajjat Al-Baydha fi Tahdhib AlIhya by Mullah Muhsin Fayd Kashani.
In the 12th century, we have Jami Al-Saadah, by Mullah Mahdi Naraki
(ra) and after that there is Miraj Al-Saadah written by Mullah Ahmad
Naraki.
In the 14th century there are many great books on akhlaq.
The Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute is working on an
encyclopedia of applied ethics.
The Research Institute for Islamic Culture and Thought is working on an
encyclopedia on the Prophetic (s) teachings and practice of morality.
The Office for the Islamic Propagation of the Seminaries of Qum also has
many projects on ethics and moral philosophy.
A book has been published which is a detailed bibliography of texts on
Islamic ethics. Thus, it has a review of every book written on Islamic
ethics, its methodology, and the books advantages and disadvantages.
This is a very helpful source. It is called: "Kitab Shanakhti-yi Akhlaq-i
Islami".
The late Imam Khomeini (ra) has several books on ethics; two very
famous ones are "Chihil Hadith" and "The Armies of Intellect and
Ignorance Hadith-i Junud-i Aql wa Jahl".
The late Allama Tabatabai (ra) in his Al-Mizan fi Tafsir Al-Quran has
many good discussions on ethics. He has also some books related to
ethics or spirituality.
The late Ayatollah Mutahhari (ra) also has some books and some
lectures, which are published on morality. He also has a series of lectures
published separately on the philosophy of morality.
Ayatollah Makarim Shirazi has two volumes on Akhlaq dar Quran

(Morality in the Quran). He also in his Tafsir-i Nimunah and other books
discusses akhlaq.
Ayatollah Jafar Subhani, in his thematic interpretation of the Quran has
discussions on akhlaq. He has also written a Tafsir of Surat Al-Hujarat
a chapter, which speaks on akhlaq.
Ayatollah Jawadi Amuli, also has many books on akhlaq. In particular, I
want to refer to two books: one is Mabadi-yi Akhlaq dar Quran; the other
is Marahil Akhlaq dar Quran. One is about the principles and foundations
of morality according to the Quran and the second is about the stages of
morality according to the Quran.
Ayatollah Misbah Yazdi also has many books on akhlaq. Particularly,
Akhlaq dar Quran in which he studies major issues in Islamic morality.
He also has two books on philosophical ethics. One is Falsafah-i Akhlaq
which is mostly about meta-ethics, the other is Makatib Akhlaqi (Moral
Schools of Thought) which is mostly about normative ethics.
Different methods for the classification of ethical discussions are used:
A. Influenced by the Aristotelian approach to ethics, people like Naraki
(ra) in Miraj Al-Saadah. They say that human beings have three
faculties.
The faculty for thinking, anger and appetite. Moreover, maintaining a
balanced position with respect to these faculties is virtue.
B. Some divide ethics into two major areas: social ethics and personal
ethics.
C. Another way is to divide ethical teachings into the relation with
yourself, the relation with the people other than yourself and the
relationship with the environment.
D. The fourth way is to divide ethical teachings according to: our
relationship with God; our relationship with ourselves; our relationship
with other people; and our relationship with the rest of the world.
We are going to study morality here according to the last classification.
To classify Islamic moral teachings we shall follow a four-fold
classification of moral virtues approach. The first group of virtues are
those, which relate to our relationship with God.
Sometimes remembrance (dhikr) of Allah (swt) is something that has
been achieved by a person and is part of his very being one of his
attributes and sometime it is an action. We had earlier discussed that in

Islamic ethics, the qualities are much more important than actions in most
of the cases because they are part of what we are.
This topic is abundantly mentioned in the Quran and also in the Bible in
both the Old Testament and the New Testament.
There are limitations mentioned for almost all acts of worship in Islam
but, when it comes to the remembrance of God, in general, according to
the Quran there is no limit.
Everything in this world, including Allah (swt) Himself, does tasbih of
Allah (swt). Tasbih is a very important way of remembering Allah (swt)
and is something that the people of the Heaven, the angels, are engrossed
in.
The concept of tasbih also includes hamd (praise of God).
The Quran says: Glorify (your Lord every) morning and evening. (Ali Imran: 41)
It does not mean that remembrance of Allah should be limited to the
mornings and evenings. It means that these two particular times of the
day must receive more attention. When you want to start your active day
and at the end of your active day.
According to the Quran when one remembers the names of Allah (swt),
one should devote himself to God with exclusive devotion. He should try
to detach himself from anything other than God.
Tranquility of hearts or peace is one outcome of the remembrance of
God.
Allah (swt) says: Whoever disregards my remembrance, his shall be a
wretched life. (Taha: 124). They will not enjoy their life; maybe
superficially they might enjoy but deep in their hearts they have big
concerns and their life is not meaningful. Moreover, Allah (swt) says that
these people on the Day of Judgement shall be resurrected as blind and
they will be forgotten. This means that they are not remembered with
Allahs (swt) care, love and mercy.
The other outcome of the remembrance of Allah (swt) is illumination of
the hearts.