BHM 4053

-ETHICS IN ISLAM-

CHAPTER 3:
SOURCES AND NATURE OF
ISLAMIC ETHICS

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 -DEFINITION OF ISLAMIC ETHICS (IE)-

v IE is being defined as akhlaq (plural of khuluq) which means

character, nature, and disposition.
v Khuluq (akhlaq) or character has been referred as the state of the
soul that determines human actions.
v Such character could be acquired through training and practice.
v To differentiate between the words character and action, character
is the internal and hidden state of the soul, while action is its outward
manifestation.
v A good character hence begets good action whereas a bad
character yields bad actions.

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 -CONT…-

Ø Al-Farabi defined IE or akhlaq as ‘a science that studies

the state of human soul’.
Ø Ibn Miskawayh defined akhlaq as ‘a state of the soul
which causes it to perform its actions without thought or
deliberation’.
Ø Al-Ghazali, Fakhruddin al-Razi, al-Tusi, al-Dawani, and
others defined ethics or ilm al-akhlaq as ‘the science of
the human soul which defines the characteristics and
qualities of the soul as well as the methods of how to
control and moderate them’.

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 -CONT…-

q Al-Ghazali defined IE or ilm al-akhlaq as:

a) the way to acquire the well being of the soul and to guard it against
the vices.
b) is a study of certain religious beliefs and of rightness or wrongness of
actions for the purpose of practice, and not for the sake of mere
knowledge.
c) the study of right actions towards God, family members, & society.

q Ibn Taymiyyah defined IE or ilm al-akhlaq is:

a) a science that seeks to know which actions should be done and
which should be avoided. It is a practical science meant to be
applied.
b) a science which deals with the ways to maintain virtues at their
optimum level, i.e, to avoid wrongdoing and to do what is right and
desirable.

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 -THE SCOPE OF ISLAMIC ETHICS-

v The scope of Islamic ethics is numerous, far reaching

and comprehensive because Islamic ethics deals with
the relationship between man and God, man and his
fellow men, men and other creatures of the universe,
and man with his innermost self.
v IE is founded on the worldview that man is trustee and
holds responsibility of being vicegerent (khalif). In this
understanding man existed as a result of the divine-
plan of Allah (s.w.t), based on which man is delegated
to manage and improve live on earth (ta’mir)
according to the divine laws (wahy) of Allah (s.w.t).

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-THE PRIMARY SOURCES OF ISLAMIC ETHICS-

(i) Al-Quran
(ii) As-Sunnah
Ø Al-Qur’an is the most significant source given by God
for the human being as a reference to pertaining of
human conduct besides the Sunnah of the Prophet
Muhammad (s.a.w) as the role model to be
imitated.

Ø Both Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet

Muhammad (s.a.w) are called the scriptural
morality.

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 -THE PRIMARY SOURCES OF ISLAMIC ETHICS-
AL-QURAN (cont…)-
Ø There are some elements in the Qur’an which can be considered
as fundamental problems of ethics, such as:
1) the nature of right and wrong;
the Qur’an uses a whole cluster of terms to denote the concept
of moral or religious goodness, such as, righteousness, equity,
justice, truth and right, known and approved, and piety.
2) divine justice and power;
verses that enjoin justice, disapprove of the unjust, and love the
equitable and pious in which to show that God is not an unjust
dealer with His servants.
3) freedom and responsibility.
it is used in passive voice in a morally neutral sense that would be
referred as the meaning of ‘liable to question’ such as
responsible or answerable for doing or believing that which is
clearly reprehensible.

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-THE OTHER SOURCES OF ISLAMIC ETHICS-

(i) Islamic Theology

Ø Theologians discussed the source of ethical knowledge, the
basis of moral obligation and the meaning of ethical terms.
Ø They also discussed the questions of human freedom and
responsibility, and divine justice (God must reward the
righteous and punish the wicked acts).
Ø They claimed that reason does reveal things that are good,
bad, right, or wrong in the ethical sense; but there is a limit to it
in which there are things that are known to be good or bad
only through revelation.

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-THE OTHER SOURCES OF ISLAMIC ETHICS-
(cont…)
(ii) Islamic Philosophy
Ø The Muslim philosophers, such as, Abu Nasr Farabi, Abu Ali Miskawayh,
Nar al- Din Tusi, and Jalal al-Din Dawwani concerned with the problem of
goodness.
Ø They only discuss the issue of good and leave out the issue of right.
Ø The comprehensive idea of good such as knowledge, moral virtue and
individual good.
Ø These philosophers dealt with an investigation into the ultimate good or
good in itself, which is happiness or saadah.
Ø They analyzed moral perfection in terms of virtues of the faculties of the
soul; the rational, and the appetitive (desire).
Ø The virtue of the rational was wisdom, the virtue of the irascive (angry)
was courage, the virtue of the appetitive was temperance, and the
virtue of the entire soul was justice.
Ø Religious virtues such as faith, worship, love and trust could not be
accommodated.

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-THE OTHER SOURCES OF ISLAMIC ETHICS-
(cont…)
(iii) Islamic Jurisprudence
Ø The objective of the shariah is to secure the balanced well-
being of man as well as to fulfil man’s comprehensive needs
as a human being.
Ø Muslim jurists discussed about the levels of obligation, and the
factors that may upgrade or downgrade the obligation of
individual acts.
Ø There was also a discussion on motive and its affect on
judgments regarding actions and the recompense thereupon,
here or hereafter.

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-THE OTHER SOURCES OF ISLAMIC ETHICS-
(cont…)
(iv) Islamic Mysticism
Ø There are three categories of the Islamic mysticism writings;
(i) writings extols the ecstatic experience of union with God as
the highest goal of human endeavour, and urges that the
whole life be geared to that end.
(ii) writings asserts that it is not ecstatic union but rather, the
realization in knowledge that reality is one is the highest goal.
(iii) writings says that the ecstatic experience of union with God
is only a stage in the spiritual pursuit (suluk) of the mystic.
Ø It has to be transcended, and the unbridgeable difference
between God and man has been realized.

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-THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ISLAMIC ETHICS-

Ø Islam gives very much emphasis on the importance of ethics and

its significance for the development of individual and society.
Good individual will produce a good society at large.
Ø Ethics can be considered as the basic pillar for a healthy and firm
nation. A society or nation which is devoid of ethical values
would always be having problems.
Ø Therefore, all scholars and philosophers agreed on the
importance of ethics in every individual and society, and
considered ethics as the foundation of every society.
Ø According to most scholars, the first step in promoting an ideal
human society is to advocate refined morality. Indeed, each
prophet brought the same message to urge people to uphold a
good morality.
Ø Ethics must be counter part of other sciences, such as, law,
politics, science, economics, and others for such sciences
become soulless or insignificant if detached from ethics.

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-THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ISLAMIC ETHICS-
(cont….)
Ø As such, basic ethical principles like justice, freedom, equality,
and rights should be exist and applied in all disciplines.
Ø Otherwise, they would have been so many problems
occurred. So, ethics should exist in each and every field of
discipline. For example, there must be certain ethical manners
that need to be observed in economics or business in order to
ensure that there will be no practices of corruption,
oppression, and any other unethical acts.
Ø In modern term business ethics can be defined as written and
unwritten codes of principles and values that govern decisions
and actions within a company. It is also an ethics between
employers, employees, businessman and consumers. . It
applies to all businessman and consumers as well as to all
aspects of business conduct.

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-THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ISLAMIC ETHICS-
(cont….)
Ø In the field of politics, ethics is also important in order to ensure
that there will be no practice of cronyism, money politics
especially during the election, and hegemony of power.
Ø Some politicians trying to gain reputation by invalid means, such
as, creating false accusation towards other candidates and this
would lead to other implications like tension, unstable, unhealthy
relationship, disunity, and so on.
Ø In reality, politicians can be considered as rulers in which they
have big responsibilities to be carried out to ensure the welfare of
the people under them. If they are all observing the Islamic
ethics, they would be no cases of corruption and negligence of
the inferior people.
Ø Political ethics, thus, refers to a code of conducts which regulates
and guides the behaviour of the ruler and the ruled as well as
between the government and citizens.
Ø Therefore, justice is one of the most important ethical principles in
politics.
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-THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ISLAMIC ETHICS-
(cont….)
v Islamic ethics should be incorporated in many other fields too
such as in science and technology. Nowadays, the
advancement of technology makes abundant of new
inventions that somehow contradict to the human nature.
v For instance, the issue of cloning is one of the perennially
arguable issues among people. The practice of cloning,
though there might be some benefits, still there are many
harmful consequences too.
v Therefore, Islamic ethics rejects cloning as it opposes to
human nature; at the same time Islamic ethics cares to
prevent harms due to this practice.

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-THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ISLAMIC ETHICS-
(cont….)
v Islamic ethics is also applied to medicine. It refers to codes of
conduct which regulates and guides the behaviour of doctors
in dealing with each other and the patients.
v Ethics and medics are related to each other as a doctor
should observe his or her own ethics in dealing with patients or
in the case of surgery.

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 -CONCLUSION-

v In order to ensure the happiness and goodness of life, man

needs to refer to the code of ethics to monitor his relationship
with God, with his family, with other fellow men in society, with
other creatures of the universe, and even with his inner most
self.
v For example, ethics provide some manners in performing ritual
obligations, such as, performing five daily prayers within
stipulated time and also the manners in reciting the Qur’an in
which ablution is necessary and the like.
v It shows the beauty of Islam that everything should be done in
proper ways.
v Therefore, man cannot ignore the code of ethics because
negligence of it would lead to the deviation and going astray
from the straight path of Islam.

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THANK YOU

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