The Basis of Morality (1/2)

It often happens that motives or circumstances can bring about a profound change in the significance of an act, which may outwardly seem to resemble one another. For instance, the death occasioned at the hands of a brigand, of a hunter mistaking his victim for game, of a fool, or a minor, in self-defence, by a headsman executing the capital punishment ordered by a tribunal, a soldier defending his country against an aggressive invasion, etc. - in all these cases, the killing is sometimes punished more or less severely, sometimes pardoned, sometimes considered a normal duty which entails neither praise nor condemnation, and sometimes obtains high praise and honour. Almost all, human life is composed of acts whose good and evil natures are relative. This is why the Prophet Muhammad has often declared: "Acts will be (judged) only according to intention."

Islam is based on the belief that Divine revelation was sent to men through prophets as intermediaries. Its law and morality, like its faith, are therefore based on Divine commandments. It is possible that in the majority of cases, human reason should also arrive at the same conclusion. But essentially it is the Divine aspect which has the decisive significance in Islam and not the reasoning of a philosopher, a jurist or a moralist, the more so because the reasoning of different individuals may differ and lead to completely opposite conclusions. Sometimes the motive of discipline is found underlying an obligation and practice, which is apparently superfluous.

First of all, one may divide human actions into good and evil (represented by orders and prohibitions). Acts from which one must abstain are also divided into two inclusive categories:

(i) Those against which there is temporal sanction or material punishment in addition to condemnation on the day of the Final Judgement, and

(ii) Those which are condemned by Islam without providing a sanction other than that of the Hereafter.

In a saying attributed to the Prophet (and reported by Qadi 'Iyad, in his Shifa, ch. 2) we see the conception of life envisaged by Islam, "'Ali asked the Prophet one day about the principles governing his general behaviour, and he replied,

"knowledge is my capital, reason is the basis of my religion, love is my foundation, desire is my mount for riding, remembrance of God is my comrade, confidence is my treasure, anxiety is my companion, science is my arm, patience is my mantle, contentment is my booty, modesty is my pride, renunciation of pleasure is my profession, certitude is my food, truth is my intercessor, obedience is my sufficiency, struggle is my habitude and the delight of my heart is in the service of worship."

On another occasion, the Prophet Muhammad said, "The sum-total of wisdom is the fear of God." Islamic morality begins with the renunciation of all adoration outside God, be it adoration of the self (egoism), or adoration of our own handicrafts (idols, superstitions) etc. and the renunciation of all that degrades humanity (atheism, injustice, etc.).

Abolishing the ineluctable inequalities (based on race, colour of skin, language, place of birth) Islam has proclaimed (and realized more than any other system) the superiority of the individual based solely on morality, which is a thing that is accessible and open to everybody - without exception. This is what the Qur'an (Surah Al-Hujuraat, 49:13) has said:

"O mankind, lo! We have created you of a male and a female, and have made you nations and tribes that ye may know one another; verily the noblest of you in the sight of God is the one who is the most pious; lo! God is Knower, Aware."

(Continued)