The Moral Concept in Islam [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

The Moral Concept in Islam

PRESENTED
BY:

AL-BALAGH FOUNDATION

The
Foundation's Word

All praise be to Allah. Blessings and peace be upon
the last of His prophets, Muhammad, and upon his purified household and the
righteous among his companions.

Positive schools of thought have become numerous.
Their solutions to man's complicated problems have branched out, but the crisis
remains. Contemporary man is still suffering and paying a high price in our
world. These days our world lies in ruins for none other than a moral crisis.

The moral crisis has deepened because man has
mistreated his environment, nature, universe and himself. These things find
basis in the fact that man has violated the order of the Almighty Creator.

The deviated solutions are two: The first has lost the
truth and mistaken its diagnosis of reality. It has deviated from the aim. The
second has succeeded in diagnosing the matter and limiting the problem. Still,
it has become lost in researching the solutions. Thus, it has wavered to the
right and left without reaching any practical results.

Islam, being Allah's upright religion and His tolerant
law, is the only true solution because it has been issued by the Lord of
people, Who knows what He has created, and Who plans what avails, and leads
everything toward rightness and perfection. Islam is the regulation that fits
man's nature and the needs of his life.

When Muhammad (s.a.w.) was appointed a Prophet, he
raised the banner of reform and said:

"Verily,
I have been sent to complete good manners."

For this reason, Islam has principles and orders. They
are a high edifice of sublime values. They are an immortal school of high moral
standards. Human life becomes happy and righteous with them.

In this booklet, we discuss this important subject and
its various aspects. Meanwhile, we compare Islam with the material schools. May
Allah make Muslims avail themselves of it. Our prayer is that we praise Allah,
the Lord of the Worlds.

Ideas
Explaining Human Behaviour

To study manners and limit their truth and value and
explain their existence with individuals and communities is basically connected
with ideology and the general philosophy of life. The philosophers and ethics
scholars studied the moral and behavioral aspects of individuals and
communities. They composed ideas and theories to explain man's moral nature and
decide the ethical situation of individuals and communities.

When psychology developed and separated from
philosophy, it began studying subjects the philosophers had studied before. It
studied human behavior and the factors that formed it. Civilization and
material mental schools then adopted the ideas of the psychological schools
which suited their philosophy and attitude. They adopted such ideas to explain
human behavior and justify their mental attitudes and behavioral philosophy. It
is useful to mention the research procedures the scientists followed,
especially the studies based on experimental, statistical and observational
methods, to distinguish the Islamic theory from materialism.

The school of psychology followed two kinds of study
and two stages of experiments to form a theory to explain human behavior and
know the psychological motive (the moral talent) during the reactions with
external motive or the internal incentive of need and expression.

The First Stage: This stage was followed to describe
and observe external behavior and collect specimens.

The Second Stage: This stage was used to analyze,
explain and formulate a theory about these observations.

It is important for us to mention that the method,
based on Islamic rules, also follows an inductive and statistical research for
the behavioral phenomena of individuals and uses such research to understand
human behavior by explaining and analyzing these phenomenon. This school then
uses a completely different set of causes and motives connected to these
phenomenon. In this way it is similar to the analytical schools. Nevertheless,
there are two basic differences between the Islamic school and the others. They
are:

1. The Islamic
school admits that the personal formation of man and his behavioral pattern is
affected by many factors such as environment, heredity, the influence of the
glands and hormone secretions, physiological activities, and so on. Still, man
has the will and ability to change his behavior and reject the evil disposition
and overcome it; otherwise he will incline towards it. This may be achieved by
finding an environment empty of corrupt motives, spreading righteous manners,
habituating the personality and rebuilding it.

2. The difference
between the Islamic school and others lies in explaining behavior and its
general philosophy. According to the Islamic school, not only personal motives
are a group of reactions to the external motives and the internal incentives,