In the merging of the secular(Duniya) and the sacred (Din) ethics, Muslims adhere to the Qur’anic ethics as not only primary models but also a foundation for everyday human life that is prominent by their grounding in the histories, rights and rituals, practices and texts. The live examples from the life of the Prophet himself by which he encouraged and exemplified the community.
For instance, the Qur’anic ethics are dominated by the spirit of hilm. Hilm can be perfectly demonstrated through a quote of Hazrat Ali: “No honour is like knowledge. No belief is like modesty and patience. No attainment is like humility. No power is like forbearance. And no support is more reliable than consultation.”
There is also constant exhortation to kindness (ihsan) in human relations, and helping less fortunate which is why zakat becomes a fundamental pillar of Islam. Ijtihad- the use of analytical reasoning, the forbidding of wrongful violence (zulm), emphasis laid on justice (‘adl), the bidding of abstinence and control of passions, the criticism of groundless pride and arrogance, the notion of taqwa – are all concrete manifestations of this spirit of hilm.
The Qur’an repeatedly invokes taqwa, the intuitive sense of right and wrong, which every Muslim is obliged to nurture. The Qur’an states that our surrounded worlds “are signs for those who reflect” (16:12-14) and therefore, requires interpretive, rationalization, not passive reading. The notion of jihad-struggle- which most of the Muslim world misunderstood due to luck of the synergy of qualities even if the hadiths suggested. “The greatest jihad is that against the nafs-base instincts.” The notion of pluralism as it emphasizes in the Qur’an. “O mankind !Be careful of your duty to your Lord who created you from a single soul and from It created its mate and from them twain has spread abroad a multitude of man and women.” It also states, “Perhaps you may exert your mind!”; “They might perchance reflect!”; “Would you not exercise your intellect?”; “What! Would you not reason out?”
Whether it is the notion of taqwa or jihad, the spirit of inclusiveness or zakat, the emphasis is on using the intellect to reason and to achieve the obligation of vicegerency of human on the earth, given a complete way of life that addresses both the aspects of the human existence, and to implement this philosophy by having a choice in both Din and Duniya to make a destiny of self.
497 Words
Comfort of Reason in Islamic Ethics
MHI Brown University Address 1996
Comfort of Reason in Islamic Ethics