Engaging Spirituality for Sustainable Ethical Practice

M.O.A.MUSTAFA PhD FCA

Department of Accounting
University of Abuja

Abstract
Recent high profile scandals suggest that the fight against unethical practices in both
developed and developing economies is far from being won. The aim of this paper is,
therefore, to explore possible Islamic alternative for promotion of ethical practices and
treatment of people with unethical traits. To achieve this, the study rely on review of relevant
literature key findings from the study include the use of mortification and mentorship for
acquisition of ethical traits as well as use of spiritual guide exposure of knowledge of
consequences and use of opposite action as remedy for people with unethical traits. Findings
should be of significant use in personnel management.
Key words: unethical practice, spiritual guide, personnel management, mortification

1. INTRODUCTION
The fight against unethical practices is far from being won in both developed and developing
countries. At the end of a widely sponsored study business schools in the United States were
advised to give prominence to the teaching of ethics to enable them produce generalists as
against specialists (Watkins, 1984). About four decades after this declaration the world is still
grabbling with high profile unethical practices.
For instance in United Kingdom the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) issued a record
£46.5m in fines various audit related offences. KPMG was fined £14.4m for misleading the
watchdog during the sport checks of its audit of collapsed construction firm Carillion and
outsourcing company Regernesis. Deloite was also fined £2m for its audit of Mitie Group
while Grant Thornton was fined £2.3m over its audit of Patisserie Valerie. In October 2022,
Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the USA charged Cronos Group for accounting
misconduct.
In Nigeria, the suspended Accountant General of the Federation, was accused to have
compromised the Treasury Single Account (TSA), Government Integrated Financial
Management Information System (GIFMIS), Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information
System, IPPIS to defraud government of billions of Naira. In the same office the acting
Accountant General has come under fire over alleged unremitted charges deducted from
Remittal payment platform into Federation account in the last 10 years.

Attempts to use theory to explain factors responsible for behavioural changes

(Braungart, Braungart, & Gramet, 2019). Each change theory or model focuses on different
factors in explaining how the behaviuor changes. The behaviourist point of view, for
instance, contends that imitation and reinforcement influence the process of change. In
contrast, the social cognitive theory posits that behavioral change is affected by the
individual’s thoughts and characteristics that elicit specific responses from the social
environment and vice versa. Reasoned action argues that an individual considers the
consequences of his/her behavior before enacting it. Of the list of 80 and more possible
mechanisms for behavior change (Mitchell, Murray, Wilson, Hutch, & Meredith, 2010)
spirituality or spiritual transformation taken from the religious or secular perspective was not
mentioned. Similarly, currently ethical issues in organizations have received reasonable
attention of ethics researchers nonetheless, there has not been any systematic attempt to
understand of how spirituality may influence ethical behaviour.
Based on previous research, this conceptual paper explores possible Islamic
alternative for promotion of ethical practices and treatment for people with unethical traits
postulated by a renowned Islamic spiritual scholar of all time called Al Ghazali. To achieve
this, the remainder of the paper is structure as follow: the next section focuses on meaning of
spirituality while section three addresses the nature of Soul from perspective of Al Ghazali.
Section four explains character from perspective of Al Ghazali and section five discusses
ethics. Section six explains Islamic alternative for promotion of ethical practices and
treatment for unethical practices as proposed by Al Ghazali. Section seven discusses the
propositions while section eight concludes the paper.

2. MEANING OF SPIRITUALITY
People have varying views of spirituality and different ways of discovering their spirituality.
Some seek through a higher power, nature or art. According to Dr. Christina Puchalsci of
George Washington institute, spirituality is the aspect of humanity that refers to the way
individuals seek and express meaning and purpose. One needs only to enter a major
bookstore to discover a plethora of books devoted to spirituality. Despite the volume, there is
no general agreement as to definition of spirituality. For the Anglican the view of spirituality
has to do with becoming a person in the full sense while the Protestants describe spirituality
as those attitudes, beliefs and practices which animate people’s lives and help them to reach
out towards super-sensible realities.

For Catholic Church the views of Apostle Paul is adopted. According to Paul
spirituality means living in the Holy Spirit and attending to the spirits influence in one’s life.
A fundamental goal of an authentic Christian spirituality consist of entering into a
progressively deeper intimacy with Jesus Christ. He further said that the fruit of the spirit is
Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness and self-control.
As for Muslims concept of spirituality is defined as the presence of a relationship with Allah
that affects the individual’s self-worth, sense of meaning, and connectedness with others and
nature (Nasr, 1997).

According to the literature, spirituality can transform lives. For instance, James (1982) asserts
that religious transformation known as conversions can lead to transcendence and redirection
of life. These transformations are referred to as both religious and spiritual experiences
(Dueck & Johnson, 2016). Although, there are many variations of definitions of spiritual
transformation; notion of personal change is common to them (Williamson & Hood, 2012).
Irrespective of whether it is sudden or gradual change, it results from a sacred encounter and
entails a change in vertical and/or horizontal relationships. Vertical refers to a relationship
with God, while horizontal refers to a relationship with others (Cayetano-Penman, 2012;
Williamson & Hood, 2012). The framing of experiences in relation to God is known as
transcendence ( Hood, Hill, & Spilka.2009), which is understood as extending beyond the
limits of ordinary experience.
Sandra (1989) argues that every spirituality has six analyzable components. The first
is an understanding of human nature and the human condition from a theological perspective.
The second component is an ultimate horizon which to Christian is God. The third is a path to
the ultimate horizon. That is, a way of life or series of stages that helps aspirants attain the
ultimate horizon. The fourth is typical experience that represent advancement on the path.
The fifth is integration of the person or community of persons that represents increasingly
broad flourishing along the path. The final component is the specific value that are core and
necessary to uphold and pursue. On the road to spirituality, individuals tend to become better
versions of themselves. Therefore, they become more honest, content, peaceful and fair.
 3. SOUL FROM PERSPECTIVE OF AL GHAZALI.
Al Ghazali believes that man was created by God as a being composed of a soul and a body.
According to him, the soul is the core of man, is a divine spiritual entity of great subtlety.
And each individual soul is connected with the embryonic body created by God, at the
moment when the human seed enters the womb. Each soul has an everlasting existence once
created. At death it only loses the body where it resides. Every individual soul descends to
this world in order to acquire fitness for Paradise or provision for the hereafter.

As indicated above, the soul is the core of man and uses the body as its vehicle. It is
united with the body through the physical heart. The heart is the first channel of the soul’s
free use of the body. Al-Ghazali maintains that every act produces its effect on the soul,
provided it is performed deliberately and this effect forms the quality of the soul. When an
act has been performed repeatedly for some time, its effect on the soul becomes established.
However, an act performed without conscious deliberation cannot create any effect on the
soul. This is the reason why involuntary action has no relevance to ethics. (If a quality is
established in the soul, relevant bodily action necessarily proceeds from it.

4 CHARACTER FROM PERSPECTIVE OF AL GHAZALI.

Character means an establish state of the soul from which actions proceed easily without any
need for reflection and deliberation. If the state is such that good actions, that is, those which
are praiseworthy by reason and Shariah, proceed from it, it is called good character. If the
actions which proceed from the state are evil, the state from which they are derived is called
bad character. The state of the soul which is called character must fulfil two condition. The
first is stability while the second is easy and spontaneous proceed of actions from the state of
the soul. The character of generosity will be attributed to a man whose soul willingly give out
of his wealth and without any deliberation. These two features of character are also the
features whose presence or absence constitutes a character trait or virtue or vice.

4.1. Methods of change in character

Al-Ghazali establishes his view that it is possible to change character through effort and
appropriate moral training. He premised this on his belief that the main function of religion is
to guide men in the refinement of their character based on Quran and sayings of the prophet.
As part of his insight into character of man, Al-Ghazali categorized men into four levels. The
first group consists of negligent people who do not distinguish truth from falsehood or good
from evil. Any person in this group requires short time to correct him or her. The second
group are those who know well enough of the badness of what is bad but do not shun it
because they find their bad deed enjoyable. To correct the disposition of this group will take
longer time than the first group. The third group are those who believe their evil dispositions
to be right and good and so pursue evils ways wholeheartedly. It is almost impossible to cure
this group of their vices. The fourth group are those who, in addition to their incorrect beliefs
and practices, they see excellence in their very excess of evil. They consider the amount of
evil achievement as source of gaining fame. Men in this group are ignorant astray, wicked
and vicious.

5. ETHICS
Ethics is the study of what is right or wrong; good or bad in human conduct. It is a branch of
philosophy which studies moral principles. Hence ethics is also known as moral philosophy.
Ethics is all about reasoning about how one should act in a given circumstance. The essence
of ethics is to understand those principles which guide us in determining what is right or
wrong. Sources of ethical standards are many. However, most common sources include
religion, law, and society, individual and time. To be ethical and unethical has consequences
or results. Being ethical is a source of societal stability and it makes the person feel good or
peaceful. Being ethical promotes credibility of a person while unethical person loses trust of
people. Unethical character is a vice that may lead or promote corruption or other forms or
crime.

5.1 Ethics from perspective of Al Ghazali

Al-Ghazali views ethics as a study of certain religious beliefs, of rightness and wrongness of
action for the purpose of practice and not for the sake of mere knowledge. As a science, he
views ethics as the science of the path of the hereafter. The action that the study of ethics
should generate are actions directed towards God, actions directed towards one’s fellow man
in the family and in society and action toward purification of the soul from vices and its
beautification with virtues.
5.2 Methods of acquiring good character

Based on his knowledge of the book of Allah and the saying of the prophet, Al-Ghazali,
strongly believed that bad character can be changed. He suggested three methods including
nature, mortification and association. Nature is the divine generosity bestow on people at the
time of birth. People in this category are so created that all the faculties of their souls are in
equilibrium and their faculties of desires and anger obey the activities of reason and the
Shariah. Example of this group is Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and Prophet Isa PBUH)
(Called Jesus Christ).

Mortification- This involves taking pains to perform those actions which proceed from good
character until they become habitual and pleasant. Thus to acquire the character trait of
generosity, a man needs to take pains to engage in generous actions and persevering in this
generosity until it becomes his nature and habit. This is an example of what behaviourist
regard as reinforcement.

Association -Good character may also be achieved by observing good people and associating
with them. This is a form of imitation or mentorship If a man associates with the virtuous
man or men for some time, he will unconsciously imitate such good habit, where observation
and association are difficult or impossible, because of absence or shortage of virtuous men,
stories of virtuous men can serve as alternative stories of companions of prophet and those
after them are good materials for study.

6. PROPOSED METHOD OF TREATING PEOPLE WITH BAD CHARACTER

6.1 Awareness of the evil
A man who has formed evil habits and also mixed with vicious has the worst of character.
The first step in correcting evil character consists in one’s awareness of the evil traits present
in oneself. Al-Ghazali suggests four methods which might be helpful. The first is to keep
company with a spiritual guide. Since the intention is for him to be aware of the evil trait, the
guide will closely observe him and tell him the observed defect. This may be similar to use of
personnel psychologists in organisations.
 The second is to keep company of trustworthy and virtuous friends and request the
friend to inform him of any bad habit noticed by them. The second Khalif Umar adopted this
method on himself despite his impeccable character. The formation of religious groups,
particularly Christian groups, in organisations may be similar to this
The third is to gain knowledge of personal defects from known enemies. The wisdom is that
enemy of a person often looks for the bad side of the person and speak about it
unhesitatingly. This is not as easy to apply as proposed. The fourth method is to mix with
people. Any observed defect in them should be suspected to be in oneself. One should
investigate such observed defects in himself and work on it.

6.2 Removal of unethical trait

Seeking help of guide
When a man becomes aware of the evil traits which are present in him, he should hasten to
remove them. He should seek help of spiritual guide the same way he seek medical attention
whenever he is ill. A true guide is the one who is gnostic, intelligent, a seer of the soul’s
diseases, kind-hearted and eager to assist others in their efforts for purification. When a guide
is found, he should be clinged on the way a blind man on the sea-shore clings to his guide.

Expose to Knowledge of Consequences

He suggested that the cure of every disease of the soul should be by cutting off its substance
and removing its cause. This can be achieved through comprehensive knowledge of the
nature of a vice, its causes, it harm in this life or in the next life or both. Knowledge of harm
will help the sufferer to build strong faith to combat the temptation.
Removal by action
The second is removal by action. This is regarded as practical remedy. The action should be
contrary to the actions which proceed from the vice. So to remove the trait of miserliness
from the soul, the act of giving away needs to be repeated for a long time. Perseverance in the
opposite quality which is a virtue will be established.
Exercise of Patience
This is the last dosage of the remedy. Since opposite action is contrary to the desired of the
sufferer, it demands a high degree of patience.

7. DISCUSSION
The propositions of Imam Al-Ghazali will undoubtedly improve the ethical environment in
organizations and give rise to proper nurturing of ethical managers. Classification of man into
four group is very relevant to good personal management. When ethical standards are set in
addition to the staff handbook, staff can be categorized into groups based on ethical
compliance. Those that are found to be ethically sound can be identified for further ethical
training and be considered as future successors.
His belief on ethic goes beyond acquisition of knowledge for knowledge sake. He
recommends practical approach to ethics. He proposes training along religious belief. Retreat
can be organized for staff on annual basis to educate them on these beliefs. His two
recommendation on promotion of ethical conducts, mortification and association are also
relevant to modern organisations. Mortification can be encouraged by introduction of various
incentives targeted at ethical behaviour of interest. Such incentives will serve as
reinforcement. Mentorship can be through recommendation of future successor to clubs of
respected retired and serving executives. Organisations should pay annual subscriptions for
selected successor to encourage participation in activities of the desired association. CEO’s of
organisations may seek information from these selected successors on the gains from visiting
the recommended clubs.

Suggestions for treatment of unethical behaviour. His suggestion of awareness of the ethical
issues is in agreement with the first component in Rest (1985) model. According to him,
spiritual guide can help in identifying unethical trait. Organisations can engage personnel
psychologist as guide for staff. The suggestion of faithful friends is also good and can be
applied. Organisations may encourage religious group to gather for sharing of ethical or
religious ideas. Use of enemy appears strange but mixing with others is also practicable.
Recommendation for removal of unethical traits through seeking help of guide is similar to
the use of personnel psychologist in standard organisations of today. Exposure to knowledge
of consequences of action is also good. The exposure should start from home through school
to work place. The training at home will lay foundations for conscience. Use of opposite
action to confront bad trait is also good and practicable. The suggestion of patience is in line
with all ethical training.

8. CONCLUSION
This paper discusses engagement of spirituality for sustainable ethical practices. It
aim is to explore the extent to which contributions of Imam Al-Ghazali address the promotion
of ethical behaviour and treatment of people with unethical behaviour. The study is based on
review of literature on ethics and spirituality. Various views on spirituality are covered and
recommendations of Imam Ghazali on promotion of ethical behaviour and remedy for people
with unethical traits are also discussed. Practical relevance of the recommendations is also
discussed.

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