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We conclude that environment, heredity, education, and
man's personal conditions have an influence on forming manners, directing
talents and psychological readiness, and their root degree in the deep side of
man.
2. The Moral Values: They are
abstract measures used to know the human qualities such as justice, mercy,
trust, truthfulness, sincerity, oppression, cowardice, cruelty, etc.
The Islamic mission has brought the supreme values.
Besides, it has limited the nature and the practical situations of such values.
3. The Moral Subjects: They are the
subjects where these values are embodied or they are the actions or the
practical behavior which the individual practices or they are the practical
manners which the devoted person displays according to the moral qualities and
values he possesses. For example, the subject of justice, meaning to put a
thing in its place. To put things in their place and give each person his right
will make an action called justice. Another example is truthfulness, meaning
the agreement with reality in every word or action. So, whenever the action or
the word is in accord with the objective reality, we call it truthfulness.
Consequently, when man acts and speaks in accord with
reality, he makes the subject of truthfulness. In this manner, man may make a
moral subject with every moral attitude, whether this attitude is good or evil.
Man does that through his moral readiness and in the light of the moral
concepts and values he chooses and believes in.
The
Practical Aims of the Moral Formation
what is in themselves..."
Holy Qur'an (13: 11)
Islam has taken a lot of care in forming the internal
self of man. It has made every effort to purify and educate man's conscience
and habituate his psychological powers and talents. Islam does all these things
to create internal personal power, to make agreement between the direction and
the human behavioral movement and make a sound human character. Islam wants
such a character to live the life of balanced emotion and behave according to a
moral account. Such an account must balance between the two terms of the human
behavioral equation, namely, between the individual and the society.
Hence, moral education and formation have practical
aims and important behavioral purposes. They may be summarized as follows:
1. Educating the
human gifts and developing the righteous, good trends in them (virtues).
2. Controlling
the ill, evil trends and incentives (vices), uprooting them from the human deep
self, and protecting them from the bad behavioral phenomena such as hypocrisy,
oppression, cheating, treason, greed,...etc.
3. Ensuring
psychological happiness and social peace depending on balance and the internal
self-stability of man.
Accordingly, when man is liable to the vices and evil
incentives and trends, he does not get the mental tranquillity and happy life.
In the meantime, he cannot ensure the human relations based on stability and
peace.
4. Moral
formation and education make man behave politely without suffering or mental
conflict. Moreover, they enable him to have the internal readiness to conform
to the Islamic mission.
So, the Islamic laws and their concepts in economics,
politics, social laws, worship, and personal behavior become practical after
the moral education and the righteous, psychological formation.
5. To build man's
talents morally, to save him from schizophrenia and the emotional tension
affecting the mean persons, these diseases, and the like, affect such persons
because they suffer from an intense, psychological conflict. This conflict
takes place between the internal content and the internal direction of man. On
the other hand, it takes place between the practical, external behavior the man
practices in his society and his society looking at his behavior with disgust.
But there is another person. This person has moral talents.
These talents help him to choose the good attitudes and actions without any
difficulty or mental conflict. This person is sound mentally, empty of
complexes and of the internal conflict. He is far away from the contradiction
between his ideas and attitudes. He feels pleasure and happiness, for his
intention and incentives are in accordance with the mental attitude towards the
action he takes. Moreover, he does not feel disobedience and deviation from
what is right.
6. Uprooting
social hypocrisy: This disease strikes the ill-mannered persons. These people
become a danger, threatening life and society on the grounds that these persons
have no sound, psychological base for behavior. They do not depend on any
unified, moral attitude. Furthermore, they cannot protect themselves from
falling into the den of hypocrisy. These persons show hypocrisy in their
everyday dealings. In other words, they show hypocrisy in politics,
propagation, jobs, religion, etc.
These corrupt persons live in a state of division. They
are divided between the personal reality representing them and the fear of
social pressure. For this reason, they resort to hypocrisy. In other words,
they affect good manners, righteous behavior, and agreeable ideas. They do all
these things to please others and get rid of their anger and scorn.
To protect the human being from falling into this deep
abyss, Islam has made every effort to create a moral immunization, to build a
good moral talent and ensure the psychological base for good behavior. Islam
has done all these things to uproot social hypocrisy and get rid of its
destructive marks.
7. Sound moral
formation protects the social entity and civilization from destroying itself
and collapsing.
Islam educates the person morally to make him fit his
social environment and conditions. Through this education, Islam is able to
build a constructive, stable unity in the society. Such a unity will play an
important role in developing righteous, good human abilities, uplifting
civilization and social welfare. Besides, the human behavioral incentives do
several things. For example, they urge man to obey the law and keep the
regulations for life and human social interests. For this reason, the Muslim
state will be able to fulfill its tasks without resorting to force against the
individual and the society except in rare conditions. This is because the moral
society is disciplined. Under it, man's character develops his will and freedom
anew. Meanwhile, his feeling towards his humanity increases because his personal
feeling towards his responsibility increases. He depends on himself. He
discovers his value. Moreover, he will find himself to be able to choose the
right actions and attitudes optionally. He feels that he is in no need of a
power to force him to do any action or leave one behind. So, the practical
result of this education is that the Muslim turns into a pioneering good power
in this world. He loves and practices such a good feeling voluntarily. Thus,
good increases in the society. Righteous human behavioral aspects develop, and
society reaps good fruit.
But, when the moral conscience is absent, the person
becomes like a wild animal. He is afraid of the government and its laws. He
waits for an opportunity to attack the regulations of life and the good achievements
of civilization. Therefore, the person becomes a corrupt, evil element on the
earth. When he breaks the laws, he misuses the aspects of good and peace.
Now, we may conclude that man is not real and perfect
without good manners. The society cannot live in harmony and peace. It cannot
be far away from crime, corruption and aggression except under the power and
law. Rather, it needs good manners. Therefore, good manners must take first
place in ensuring the behavioral discipline and finding the practical motives
for constructive human action in all fields of life, such as science, politics,
economics, individual treatment, etc.
In view of the fact that the mere lawful power is not
able to do its basic functions, namely organizing and improving society, simply
with the formal application and forcible implementation, therefore the lawful
power must take into account human incentives and purpose hidden behind a
response. In view of this, there are three important elements for social life
to be completely stable. The elements are:
The Islamic mission has brought the best law and the
best behavioral form for mankind. It has also considered the subject of
political power, establishing the state, and the ruler's and leaders'
qualities, all of these contributing to the basic principles for building
society and achieving man's happiness.
The
Islamic Explanation of the Moral Concept
Philosophers, moralists, psychologists, and
sociologists have devoted much of their attention to the subject of morals.
Many schools and theories have been discussed on this subject. They have
explained the moral values, individual and social morals, incentive and
purpose, and moral relations.
The Muslim moralists have also studied this field.
They have written extensively about morals. That is because morals play a vital
role in making the Muslim law, forming the Muslim character, and limiting the
Muslim behavioral pattern.
When we shed light on the most important axis that
explains morals, and limit the Islamic viewpoint regarding morals, we conclude
these ideas from general Islamic concepts which depend on the following two
points:
studies which Muslim moralists have made in this field.
Since the beginning of the moral schools, many studies
have been made. Some of these schools have followed extreme material methods.
They have abstracted man from morals. They have accepted, forwarded and
supported instinctive behavior. They have regarded morals as shackles
depressing man's will and preventing him from expressing himself. For this
reason, all these schools, like existentialism, Freudism, pragmatism, Marxism
and Darwinism have stressed that there are no inclusive, stable human values
that can be applied to all men in all conditions. Rather, these schools believe
that morals are partial, relative matters produced by individual human experience
or certain social and economic conditions. They ask men to cancel moral
behavior and follow instinct that does not adopt moral values nor conform to
their laws.
For example, Marxism thinks that morals are a group of
shackles made by the ruling class to paralyze the anti-class domination,
increasing mass movement.
Marxism thinks that morals are a bourgeois trick. Such
a trick has been created to mislead the toiling, poor masses and divert them
from the struggle against class domination through some concepts such as truth,
justice, mercy, duty, patience, etc.
These extreme material schools have existed to rob man
of his humanity. They have subjected mankind to various kinds of exploitation,
greed, social corruption, and behavioral psychological deviation. They have
also lost their scientific efforts and achievements after losing their human
aims and their spiritual values in life.
When these material schools chose the method of
adaptability and went too far in responding to the instinctive, material
incentives, they produced material, capitalistic, Marxist, Nazi, fascist and
other similar civilizations. Because of these civilizations, man has faced
various kinds of oppression, persecution and torture. He has been yoked with
worry, fear, hunger and terrorism.
To this material school, denying all human morals and
values, we find an opposite school. This school is also extreme. It disdains
the material side of man. Some priests and monks created this school in Europe.
In our Islamic world, the Sufis also founded an extreme, moral school. However,
the pure Islamic moral theory is different from all of the above. It depends on
the following bases:
1. Islam believes
that the human moral feeling is natural and that morals represent the human
side heading for social and personal perfection. Man's natural feelings grow
and become perfect under continuous practice, guidance, and education. This
feeling expresses the accurate formation of man. Meanwhile, it also expresses
the arrangement of natural incentives to organize his life and adjust the
balance of behavioral motives and incentives.
The existence of the basic processes of moral feeling
in all mankind attests to this fact. So, the moral conscience, guilt, sympathy,
striving for self-perfection and ridding oneself of defects are all common
natural facts.
These common natural facts scientifically and
objectively prove the Islamic viewpoint that moral feeling is a natural one
hidden in the deep human self.
2. Islam believes
that the moral values are common rules and principles. They are applied to all
mankind in all individual and social conditions. This is so because they are
