The Good Or The Moral Element (1)

In addition to his need to know and to believe, a human being needs a practical rule proper for steering his activity whether in his personal behaviour or in his relationship with others and with God. The last Revelation satisfies this need in the largest and most precise manner. It traces for every branch of human activity a determined and a clear way to follow.

The practical side in the Qur’an is so important that it is repeated frequently and in an explicit manner as a necessary condition for the final salvation and eternal happiness. We shall simply point out certain sides by which the Qur’anic teaching has that control on the souls by its content and by its style of presentation.

First, the method...

Inside every one of us, there is an innate moralist. We recognize, we love, and we admire the virtue in itself as well as in others, even if we do not have the courage to elevate ourselves to its level. The spectacle of an indignant attitude is repugnant to us. We hate in ourselves our own faults and we always seek to justify ourselves. This is because we never accept to be stigmatized by any vice whatsoever.

It is this more or less universal feeling of justice and injustice, of good and evil, that the Qur’an relies most frequently on its prediction. It is also to that feeling that it refers in determining its practical doctrine. The Prophet, it is said, commands,

“Them for Al-Ma’ruf and forbids them from Al-Munkar; he allows them as lawful Al-Tayyibat and prohibits them as unlawful, Al-khabaith” (literally and figuratively) (VII, 157).