Agency, Rationality, and Morality: A Qur’anic View of Man (original) (raw)
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The purpose of this study is to examine the meaning of humankind in relation to the rest of creation, while drawing from a variety of perspectives. There are a myriad of differing theories about the place and purpose of human beings, however there are two major approaches which are at the forefront of this discussion. The first is that the human being is merely created in this world, subjugated to the laws of the universe, and is open to development but they are mortal and limited with a determined life span. The alternative approach is that, as well as being a physical being, humans are spiritual beings with a unique capacity to connect them with the Divine-Eternal Being – a unique quality beyond the scope of nature, life, and intellect. The premise of this paper concludes that humanity’s ability to attain an exalted status over the entirety of creation is not merely a result of their physical capacity, but their metaphysical faculties has given them the potential to connect with the Divine-Eternal Being.
an An ethical framewok for the study of society according to the Quran
Religion plays a significant role in satisfying our physical as well as spiritual needs: Islam teaches us a code of behavior and gives us a meaning for our existence. Islam has unique morality of its own. It puts great deal of emphasis, for example, on equality and justice and emphasizes dignity of all human beings. We will deal with these issues in the course of this paper and its impact on social life of the human being. The main factor of the decline of Muslims and Muslim society in particular is the ignorance/illiteracy towards religion (including all affairs political, social etc). The people (ignorant) who cannot differentiate in-between what is right and wrong are always ready to accept every kind of absurdity and when not in a position of having the solution to the queries always become the target of rivals deception and seduction. The other factor is the decline or demise of the morals/ethics. We have put aside the saying in the Quran regarding good morals which our ancestors had followed thus touched the great heights. This fact is not hidden that as compared to other things, morals and ethics play a greater role in the rise and decline in the Nations. Its presence in every Nation is very important. Key words: Quran, ethics, society, Islam, morality, Muslim, women.
An ethical framework for the study of society according to the Quran
Religion plays a significant role in satisfying our physical as well as spiritual needs: Islam teaches us a code of behavior and gives us a meaning for our existence. Islam has unique morality of its own. It puts great deal of emphasis, for example, on equality and justice and emphasizes dignity of all human beings. We will deal with these issues in the course of this paper and its impact on social life of the human being. The main factor of the decline of Muslims and Muslim society in particular is the ignorance/illiteracy towards religion (including all affairs political, social etc). The people (ignorant) who cannot differentiate in-between what is right and wrong are always ready to accept every kind of absurdity and when not in a position of having the solution to the queries always become the target of rivals deception and seduction. The other factor is the decline or demise of the morals/ethics. We have put aside the saying in the Quran regarding good morals which our ancestors had followed thus touched the great heights. This fact is not hidden that as compared to other things, morals and ethics play a greater role in the rise and decline in the Nations. Its presence in every Nation is very important. Key words: Quran, ethics, society, Islam, morality, Muslim, women.
Human Nature: An Islamic Perspective
Journal of Islam in Asia (E-ISSN: 2289-8077)
Human nature is a widely and popularly discussed topic not only in the East but also in the West. This topic has drawn people from diverse backgrounds of knowledge to explore and investigate who or what man is in relation to his Creator and other creations that exist in the universe. The research on man and the attempts to answer many of the intricate questions related to his creation and existence which started in the ancient past is still on-going. The fact that the latest findings on man have added information to the existing body of knowledge makes the study on human nature a dynamic and perennial one. Within the scope of this paper, the researcher has made an attempt to discuss the topic on human nature from the Islamic perspective. In discussing the nature of man, the researcher has ventured into the physical and metaphysical realms of his existence as described in the Qur’an. Besides that, the researcher has also entertained some discussions on how man has been perceived in t...
Human Agency in Islamic Moral Reasoning
Konsep "human agency" pada umumnya dikaitkan kemampuan otonom manusia untuk menentukan pilihan dan tindakannya sendiri, kemampuan manusia untuk memberikan perlawanan terhadap kemapanan, atau ketertundukan diri manusia terhadap suatu otoritas atau aturan tertentu. Dalam konteks tradisi pemikiran hukum Islam, human agency ternyata tidak hanya terdapat dalam bentuk ketertundukan diri terhadap otoritas teks al-Qur'an dan hadis tapi juga ada bentuk-bentuk yang lainnya. Tulisan saya ini berusaha untuk menunjukkan bahwa dalam tradisi uṣūl fiqh terdapat kaidah-kaidah hukum yang memberikan ruang bagi berkembangnya teori human agency tidak hanya berorientasi pada keniscayaan manusia untuk tunduk terhadap otoritas teks keagamaan, tapi juga, konsep human agency yang berbasis pada otonomi dan semangat anti-kamapanan dalam diri manusia . Dengan mengupas konsep-konsep dalam usul fiqih seperti qiyās, istiḥsān, istiṣlāḥ, dan istiṣḥāb, kita akan mengetahui bahwa tindakan etik seseorang dalam Islam tidak semata bersumber dari teks keagamaan tetapi juga berdasarkan pemikiran otonom manusia yang pada ujungnya melahirkan konsep-konsep human agency yang lebih kontekstual, bukan tekstual.
The Role of Qur’an in the Transformation of Human Society
Revelation and Science, 2014
There is no denying the fact that at one time in human history Muslims were the leaders in human values. They were the torchbearers of knowledge when other civilizations lived in darkness. They developed the physical aspect of human civilization by establishing libraries, hospitals and centres of higher learning. Today, however, Muslims are in a state of moral and intellectual decline. This paper argues that the primary cause behind the advancement of the early Islamic society and the subsequent decline of later Muslims are primarily due to the way the Qur'an has been dealt with. While the early Muslims read the Qur'an, understood it and acted upon its injunctions; today the majority of the Muslims read the Qur'an ritually, gaining no insight or knowledge from it. The paper addresses two questions: Why the Qur'an quickly transformed and improved the early Islamic community and not the present one? Why Muslims have lost their supremacy in knowledge and morality?
2022
The text of the Quran is considered to be a source of authenticity which can be utilized to enhance moral theory and, specifically, Quranic concepts related to ethics. This research utilized systematic analysis and explanation to reach new interpretations that derive their originality from the philosophical school of interpretation, and special interpretations of Quranic concepts are presented herein. The said concepts are intrinsically unique and form the original contextual basis through which the majority of the legislative foundations of educational values are built. The Quranic teachings also relate to the first nucleus in society, which is "the individual and his soul”. An individual's reliance on interpretations of concepts and their practical functions is the basis for creating and establishing ethics that lead to the reform of the individual, society, and the nation as a whole. Therefore, the conceptual perception process gradually starts to emerge from three environments: the territory of the soul as a component of the individual's essence, the family environment as an element of society, and the governmental institution domain as a constituent of the state. The current research investigates and examines how the old Islamic institution of governance is represented by Shari’a and how the companions of the Prophet Muhammad adopted moral and reform values in society and enriched their inner selves through concepts which are introduced in the Quranic text. The changes that occurred to concepts in history (such as the Prophet’s companions as the concept of social reformists, fraternity as a humane concept, and moral legislation in religion) were explored. Moreover, other concepts that are considered the essence and essential pillar of reform, like goodness, are also examined. Therefore, this research considers the connection between such concepts and both ethics and reformative philosophy. Starting with the establishment of a conceptual apparatus for the Quranic text, this study provides a theoretical vision for new moral concepts with the aim of addressing the misunderstanding that has emerged due to the distorted religious and cultural analysis of current and previous social relations, specifically, the relationships among the companions of the Prophet Muhammad, especially after the incident of Saqifah Bani Sa'idah whereby a successor was to be chosen to rule after the prophet’s death. The importance of refuting some religious, ethical, and psychological concepts is evident, based on the importance of their relationship with reform, through a combination of what is theoretical and practical in this vision, considering that reform has a rational and epistemological aspect called “its esoteric philosophy”. Its phenomenon is behavioral and practical in nature and is referred to as “its applied philosophy". This epistemic effort attempts to formulate a systematic subject for a reformist philosophy from the inspiration of the sciences of the Quran, specifically, “the Quranic concepts". The essence of concepts in the Quranic text is beneficial material for human discourse. This religious book contains broad discussions on moral values pertaining to the family unit, society, state and nation that need to be actualized, considering that the subject of reform and its philosophy include the conditions and the establishment of all these entities. Interpretation of religious concepts raises issues related to the essence of good and evil, virtue and vice, from an ethical normative point of view when studying and investigating concepts in the Quranic text. Every moral concept is a man-made concept, and every concept has a different function and various ultimate goals according to theoretic conceptual engineering and methodological understanding. The aim of justice, for instance, focuses on the importance of giving rights, and its ultimate goal is fairness. As one of its most important functions, it becomes effective through giving and its ultimate goal is contentment and satisfaction through the purification of one’s soul and mind. One of the most important functions of science is to provide moral and epistemological education, and its ultimate goal is to establish peace. Among the spiritual functions of science and knowledge is to present reality as it is; as for what the Quran represents, reality is the absolute truth that is materialized in the divine text. One of the most important functions of the senses is to bring about feeling, the center of which is the soul, and its ultimate goal is the existence that is embodied in one’s identity. The existence of a person is inherently a moral issue. All the objects around a person, including inanimate objects, constitute functional states in his service; one can consider the function of the stone as a malleable tool in a person's hand for use in shaping and building so as to reach the ultimate goal of protection. Here, protection is something of value that helps one maintain moral stability. A person devoid of morals will lose his psychological harmony, social presence, the ability to coexist, and thus, his chances for perfection within existence as part of his identity in life. Likewise, the identity of a human being is primarily a psychological individual issue, whose boundaries are drawn through interactions and harmony with one’s immediate social environment, which is "the family", and the distant one, which is "society". In some stages, social interactions turn into a matter of will. Thus, it can be concluded that the loss of psychological identity is the result of a lack of will as a matter of existence to prove the self, and that the lack of will is, in itself, an abandonment of one's strength and effectiveness in the state of being. Transformation in the dynamics of human thought deals with all types of concepts in a way that serves the academic contexts of each topic separately. However, thought does not deal with concepts as an epistemological and methodological theory whose specificity could bring about a transformation in human thought, intellectual approaches, or scientific research activities. More specifically, it clicks in the human mind that "reform" as a concept expresses a moral state. Studying the concept of reform as a vital model that serves legislation, according to our epistemological theory, will aid (by means of absolute intellectual diligence and specific methodical studies such as "conceptual engineering") the search for the reason for the effectiveness of the concept within the psychosocial individual and society as well as the legal institutional activities when confronted with the reality of life and mortality. Producing a theory, which can be called the reformist moral philosophy of concepts, will transfer the human intellect from the specific esoteric to the general known and from theory to practical philosophy. In addition, the epistemological and methodological interactions with the particularity of each concept are considered essential for achieving an intellectual engineering of the concepts. The conclusions reached after forming a reformist philosophical thought for concepts will help in addressing individual and social problems from an ethical standpoint as well as in performing epistemological functions motivated by perception under the pretext of mental practical arguments. It is noteworthy that the knowledge produced by reconsidering concepts systematically, with the aim of establishing a reformist philosophy, will not contradict all attempts and pillars of special and public religious and social reform. The process of engaging in the analysis and exegesis of religious concepts does not establish boundaries or set conditions for the intellect, whether it be the scientific or the philosophical mind or any other sphere of knowledge. The only exception to this is the moral limit to which the "reformist philosophy" in general and the philosophy of the concept of "reform" in particular are established, and neither conflicts with any mind nor collides with any fundamentalism, because reform and its philosophy, from an ethical perspective, do not engage in quarrels and conflicts, but rather encourage dialogue and assertions. Moreover, the reformist personality does not distinguish between worldly things and those pertaining to the hereafter. Rather it seeks, within the parameters of reform, as a moral act and behavior, to gather and reconcile them. Based on the analysis of reviews regarding reform, it is clear that the majority of reform projects can be traced back to specific discourses from distinct reformers, for example, correcting certain religious cultural errors, rectifying the Arabic language and Islamic discourse, adjusting the curricula of postcolonial education, reforming religious institutions and the administration of legal matters pertaining to women and the economy as well as reforms related to legislation and the judiciary. The idea of reform, however, was not presented as a religious philosophy by establishing the conceptual apparatus in the religious text. Based on that and a review of the background of old oral reform projects, marginal titles, and weak scientific content that does not rise to the level of thought in the issue of the relation between concepts and ethics and their role in reform, the importance of working intellectually on this issue, which concerns all moral concepts as a methodological subject that raises the issue of reform as a religious philosophy, is clear. Accordingly, within this theory, some specific social and religious terms will be redefined and developed based on the conceptual moral approach that will be established. The subject of reform also deals with a central issue in religious practice related to associating knowledge with action and assertion with soundness of behavior, as stated in the Quran, based on the realization that the worship of God is what is physically required of a ...
A Controversy Over Moral Virtue: The Problematic Interplay between Religion and Ethics in Islamic Tradition Ph.D., 2022
This Ph. D. dissertation investigates the problematic interplay between religion and ethics in Islam. Here, I argue that an ethical humanism emerged that distinguished between the ethical and the religious despite the Divine Command Theory's dominance in Islamic ethics. This humanism adhered to two unconventional principles: moral autonomy, which allows the agent to self-legislate via his rational capacity and therefore completely actualize his rational nature; and moral universalism, which makes moral values real and universal and hence transcends confessional bounds and boundaries. Ethical humanism, thus, opposed both moral heteronomy and moral relativism/particularism. To support this fundamental claim, the dissertation follows a tripartite form like a novel plot, with an introduction, a climax, and a resolution. The argument is first introduced by tracing the development of Muslim moral conscience from the early moral response to the Prophet Muhammad's call (sādiq amīn) to the later dominance of legalism, which subsumes the ethical under the religious while denying the first any autonomy. We also identified a number of ways explored by Muslim thinkers to circumvent the prevalent ethico-religious value of taqwā by appealing to some religiously neural moral values such a Murūwwa and adab. Second, we reach the climax of the uneasy interplay between religion and ethics as it builds up inside the minds of three Muslim thinkers: Ibn Muqaffaa, the litterateur and political counselor, Ibn Abi Addunyā, the tradionnist and hadith compiler, and al-Gazālī the Sufi philosopher and jurisconsult. Finally comes the resolution where the boundaries between religion and ethics were unambiguously drawn both in kalam and falsafa. The Mu’tazili mutakallimūn and the philosopher Ibn Zakaria al-Razī, albeit on different grounds, advocated for ethical humanism. As far as the episteme of the era would allow, the two held that moral values are truly universal and religiously neutral, and that the moral agent is genuinely autonomous in the sense that he needs no external commander since he is only abiding by moral principles that reflect his rational nature and which he may acknowledge as his own.
“Muslim Ethics: Sources, Interpretations, and Challenges,” The Muslim World 69:3 (July 1979) 163-77
Islam's potential as a positive moral force in the twentieth century has not infrequently been called into question by Western observers, casual and professional alike. When such doubts are expressed, they appear to arise largely from two sources: first, the belief that the generality of Muslims, under the burden of centuries of ethical determinism, live a life of uninspired acquiescence in the dispensations of Fate; second, the suspicion that Islam has only served to tighten the grip of traditionalism on numerous third world nations, thus rendering them incapable of responding to either the demands or the benefits of technology. In response, some Muslim modernists have gone to the other extreme to demonstrate that, in fact, Islam has virtually invented the qualities of initiative and adaptability. Somewhere in between lies a point at which mutual understanding may begin to grow.