Morality in Islam


In Islam, morality in the sense of "non practical guidelines" or "specific norms or codes of behavior" for good doing are primarily based on the Quran and the Hadith – the central religious texts of Islam – and also mostly "commonly known moral virtues" whose major points "most religions largely agree on".
They include kindness, charity, forgiveness, honesty, patience, justice, respecting parents and elders, keeping promises, and controlling one's anger, love of God and those God loves, love of his messenger and of believers.
The "basic aim" of Islamic morality and ethics is "to achieve" Raza-e Ilahi " or to make God's pleasure "the objective of man’s life"; and the importance of moral behavior in this is reflected in the five Quranic verses calling on Muslims to 'enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong', and hadith that quote Muhammad as saying 'I was sent to perfect the ethical conduct'.

Terminology

Terms associated with right-doing in Islam include:
  • Akhlaq is the practice of virtue, morality and manners in Islamic theology and falsafah. The science of ethics teaches that through practice and conscious effort man can surpass their natural dispositions and natural state to become more ethical and well mannered. In the social sciences Akhlaq is a kind of normative ethical systems known as "virtue ethics", which is based on "virtues, or moral character", rather than "conceptions of the right or the good ".
  • Al-Adāb, has been defined as "decency, morals".
  • Iḥsān, is an Arabic term meaning "beautification", "perfection" or "excellence", but in Islam it is also defined as ethics/morality "literally virtue, including right living," and is a matter of taking one's inner faith and showing it in both deed and action.

    Difference between ''Akhlaq'' and morality in Islam

According to Juan E. Campo, editor of Encyclopedia of Islam,
Ethics means philosophical reflection upon moral conduct, while morality pertains to specific norms or codes of behavior. Questions of ethics, therefore, involve such subjects as human nature and the capacity to do good, the nature of good and evil, motivations for moral action, the underlying principles governing moral and immoral acts, deciding who is obliged to adhere to the moral code and who is exempted from it, and the implications of either adhering to the moral code or violating it. Morality encompasses the values and rules that govern human conduct …

Similarly, Malcolm Clark says, "... some Western ethicists make a distinction between ethics and morals ..."

Scriptural sources

According to Nikhat Sattar, "Islamic ethics differ from the Western concept" in being based on divine revelation.

Quran

The Quran, which Muslims believe is God's revelation to humanity, declares "righteousness" to include, the spending of "your substance,... for your kin, for orphans, for the needy, for the wayfarer, for those who ask, and for the freeing of captives;... practice regular charity; to fulfill the contracts which you made; and to be firm and patient in pain and adversity and throughout all periods of panic" ;
to be "active in deeds of charity; who abstain from sex except with their wives, or whom their right hands possess.... faithfully observe their trusts and covenants...." 
According to a reading of the Surah 17, "Al-Israa", verses, by academic S. A. Nigosian, a set of moral stipulations that can be reasonably categorised as ten in number, and written to resemble the Ten Commandments in the Bible. Nigosian alleges this "represents the fullest statement of the code of behavior every Muslim must follow", although Islamic scholars have not set apart these verses from any other moral stipulations in the Qur'an, nor are they regarded as a substitute, replacement, or abrogation of some other set of commandments as found in the previous revelations.
  1. "Worship only God," ;
  2. "Be kind, honourable and humble to one's parents," ;
  3. "Be neither miserly nor wasteful," ;
  4. "Do not engage in 'mercy killings' for fear of starvation," God will provide. ;
  5. "Do not commit adultery," ;
  6. "Do not kill unjustly," ;
  7. "Care for orphaned children,";
  8. "Keep one's promises:" ;
  9. "Be honest and fair in one's interactions," ;
  10. "Do not be arrogant in one's claims or beliefs,".
Many Muslim theologians see the "Golden Rule" implicit in some verses of the Qur'an and in the Hadith. The Golden Rule was agreed 1993 also by Muslims as a central unconditional ethical norm in the Declaration Toward a Global Ethic.

Hadith

, "the other major source of Islamic moral wisdom," is based on reports of the teachings, deeds and sayings, of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It is the basis of the Sunnah, which Muslims consider "to be a body of norms that should be followed in worship and in everyday life", and whose collections have
"chapters about the virtues that he embodied. There included respect for parents and elders, maintaining strong family ties, being good to neighbors, caring for children, avoiding abuse of servants and slaves... being well-mannered, offering hospitality to guests, visiting sick, showing mercy to animals, being patient and sincere, greeting people correctly, asking permission before entering a house, dressing modestly, and avoiding lying and rude speech."

One hadith reports Muhammad saying, "'I was sent to perfect the ethical conduct'." They state that the one with the best or most complete faith “is the one who is the best in conduct, and the most kind to his family".
Muhammad reportedly said, "The best among you are those who have the best manners and character".
In the well known "Hadith of jibril", the angel Jibril questions Muhammad about "what is faith?" "what is Islam?" and "what is Ihsan?" Muhammad then describes Ihsan as
  • "To worship Allah as if you see Him, and if you cannot achieve this state of devotion then you must consider that He is looking at you."

    Other literature

Besides the Quran and hadith, there are a number of other sources, :
  • the works of Islamic scholars and philosophers;
  • Arabic virtues that predate Islam, ;
  • the moral examples set by important Islamic personalities ;
  • works on Adab ;
  • "philosophical reflection" by the school of Islam known as the Mu`tazilites and others;
  • "works of Greek ethicists", ;
  • the 99 names of God, which among other qualities/attributes include names based on virtues -- "the gentle, the grateful, the just, the giver, the equitable, the loving", etc.;
  • ethical values from Sufism "including humility and poverty".

    General principles

While the "Hadith of jibril", includes virtue along with faith and religious practice — the three are sometimes called the "three dimensions" or "three levels" of Islam — there is not a concise set of points for virtue/morality, as there is for religious practice, or faith.
In addition, sections analyzing morality/ethics in works of Islamic philosophy are usually quite "slim" according to Oliver Leaman.
However, Quran is clear about the importance of Muslims taking action to "enjoin what is good and forbid what is wrong". Quranic verses 3:104, 3:110, 9:71, 9:112, 5:105, 31:17 all contain some variation of that phrase.
A famous hadith quotes the Islamic prophet Muhammad as saying:
  • "Whoever amongst you sees an evil, he must change it with his hand. If he is not able to do so, then with his tongue. And if he is not able to do so, then with his heart, and that is the weakest form of faith".
In regards to the basis of Islamic morality/ethics, etc., at least a couple of sources have proclaimed it to be "God’s pleasure" or the "worship God".
Islamic secondary sources and later Islamic scholarly works have made detailed discussions and laid down detailed instructions on moral issues. However, in popular works on Islam some general principles of morality have been offered. Often, teachings calling for leniency, universality and courtesy are emphasized. The Religion of Islam website states that whatever is good and beneficial for mankind is morally good, and vice versa. According to Islamic sharia, a Muslim is expected to display good manners as bad manners earn vices. Muhammad is reported as saying "It is not possible that you indulge in rebuking and reviling and remain righteous at the same time".
Some principles/conditions of Islamic ethics/morality offered by writers on the subject are
  • Muslims should call on everyone to do what is good and should forbid what is evil ;
  • Moral actions are defined as those that result in justice, following God's law ;
  • Both faith and good works are needed to go to heaven , Faith is incomplete without a sense of morality, Salat prayers offered that do not prevent wrongdoings are worthless;
  • Insincere good deeds are not enough. Intentions must be good, ;
  • Good character, strong moral values must be cultivated, ;
  • Extremes should be avoided, balance sought after.
The pursuit of moral qualities is not a religious obligation in Islam, but supererogatory or voluntary ; and seen as the key to attaining the nearness of God.

Emphasis on good character

—the assemblage of qualities that distinguish one individual from another—may be good or bad, innate or acquired. The canonical texts of Islam promote the idea of good character. The Quran describes Muhammad as 'an excellent example', and also as having 'exalted quality of character'. Thus his high quality character is an example to be imitated and cultivated by Muslims.
There are may other sayings of Muhammad that highlight the importance of character that possesses good moral qualities, including:
  • I have been sent for the perfection of character.
  • The one with good morals and character already owns the best of this world and the Hereafter.
  • A person reaches the best and most honored levels in the Hereafter as a result of good character.... And bad character condemns a person to the lowest depths of Hell.
  • One can repent for any sin but bad character – because with bad character, before a person can attempt to ask forgiveness for one sin, he commits a worse.
Early Islamic moralists concluded that with conscious practice character could be changed to a certain degree. Medieval Islamic scholar Al-Isfahani believed that purification of soul meant the control, not the elimination, of desires.
Muhammad Birgivi, a 16th-century Muslim scholar and moralist, wrote that 'To cure yourself of a bad feature of character is an obligation'; and believed that continuous practice of moral virtues and a conscious effort to internalize those qualities can lead to the formation of a morally good character. He taught that changing of character depends on such things as 'a person's wish' and 'the strength of one's understanding'; and that the preservation of good character required avoiding of the company of those who indulge in indecent activities, such as drunkenness and meaningless gossip.